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The Ears have It

When you go to college for music as I did many years ago
you have to take classes that are part of a 'core curriculum'.
This would include theory, music history, counterpoint,
and ear training.
As a student, I thought the least of ear training. The early semesters
of the class were spent on the Do Re Mi's and singing simple melodies.
This was a real drag. First because I thought it was childish for us
big time college students to be singing Do Re Mi and second because I
didn't like to sing.

As time went on and the class got pretty good at sight singing melodies,
we started to work on songs from the 'Real Book' which is the
jazz musician's bible.
Now the class was getting interesting. This was extremely difficult
but since we had a good solid foundation from the basic Do Re Mi's,
I found it a healthy challenge and got pretty good at sight singing.

At the time I was a french horn major (I still play the horn today)
and noticed that my intonation and ability to transpose using my
ears had improved tremendously. I was onto something.

Over the years I changed the program somewhat to fit my
own needs as well as those of my students and because of this
some of my students have gone on to become terrific
sight readers. It doesn't matter what instrument you play,
it is important to learn to read music somewhat. You don't
have to be able to read a Mahler symphony, just the simple
basics will do. Dobro players can find the absolute best Dobro
book anywhere that teaches you to read music here:

For pedal steel players, I lead you step by step down the
road to being able to read music in my best selling book
found here:

As it turns out, those ear training classes were perhaps the
most valuable classes I took in college. If there is a course
near you, take it . No matter how simplistic it might seem, this will
be excellent time spent.

Try this simple exercise: take a short 4 or 5 note lick and play it
in your favorite key. I'm betting that is C or G, maybe A.
Next, play the same lick a whole step lower and then keep going
down by a whole step. Run it through all 12 keys. At first you might
only be able to get through two or three before your head explodes
but that's OK. maybe tomorrow you can add another. This will
take time so be patient.