ej
47 posts
Jan 05, 2014
7:09 AM
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Has anyone found any Ear Training exercises, CDs, Youtubes, etc. that work for use on the harmonica? Just interested in becoming a better musician.
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The Iceman
1367 posts
Jan 05, 2014
10:54 AM
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Don't think of this as something for use on harmonica specifically.
Ear training makes you a better musician and is useful for any and all instruments, including your singing.
I recommend David L. Burge CD's,
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The Iceman
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ej
48 posts
Jan 05, 2014
11:27 AM
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Thanks I have looked at those CDs and was wondering if they were worth the price.
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bazzzzou
136 posts
Jan 06, 2014
8:33 AM
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http://www.musictheory.net/exercises
This site has alot of good free exercices!
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STME58
628 posts
Jan 06, 2014
8:45 AM
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I just ordered the Burge Perfect Pitch CD. My relative pitch is not too bad so I thought I would start with the absolute pitch training program.
The website looked a little hucksterish but I have gotten so much sound advice on this forum from @The Iceman that I went ahead and ordered it. I should have it in about a week and I will report back.
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The Iceman
1368 posts
Jan 06, 2014
10:48 AM
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STME
The perfect pitch course will take you about a year to complete. Do not rush it. Do not push yourself.
Do not be impatient. It is well worth it once you develop true "color" hearing.
You may think your relative pitch is OK, but you will find that the relative pitch course will deepen your understanding of what you hear from many levels.
It also takes about a year to complete the course.
Once you complete both, you will find that one will reinforce the other.
It is time well spent, but you do need dedication.
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The Iceman
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STME58
629 posts
Jan 22, 2014
2:47 PM
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I got the CD set and listened to the first 3 lessons, this is where you have to do the training before it makes sense to go on. Mr. Burge's teaching philosophy seems sound, don't move on to the next thing until you have mastered the preliminary stuff.
It is really hard for me right now to differentiate pitch color from timbre. On a harp, you can change the timbre a lot without changing the pitch.
This reminds me of trying to see a stereo-gram
Stereo-gram
You stare at these until you either see the image clearly as if it is really in front of you, or you give up and determine it is just a hoax and everyone who claims to see it is pulling your leg.
Once you see it once it is much easier to get it the second time. I expect that pitch color is like this but I have not even "seen" it once yet.
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ej
50 posts
Jan 22, 2014
2:56 PM
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Glad to hear you've been trying it. I just ordered it and expect it in a few days. In the meantime I've been using some internet resources, without much success. Looking forward to the CD lessons.
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The Iceman
1396 posts
Jan 22, 2014
8:46 PM
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I can offer some insight to make these programs more effective for both of you...
Do not relate the lessons directly to harmonica until much further along the path. If you do, you will most likely give it up and feel it doesn't work for you.
You have to approach it with music in mind...all instruments play music.
Basically, every note that we hear as music vibrates at its own unique cps (cycle per second). It can be proven in a laboratory setting looking at oscilloscopes or other lab equipment. This is simple fact.
To translate it to an aural perception is learning to listen as you've never been taught before.
Each note vibrating at its unique cps has to have an attachment to your mind in a quantitative way. Since we learn to see colors, this form of awareness is already ingrained. The task is to assign a personal "color" to each note that you can perceive in your mind as such.
I am sure there are other ways of attaching awareness to a pitch, but the color analogy is pretty universal (unless you are color blind) and somewhat intuitive as well.
If you've watched a child develop his sight and recognition of colors, he will start with the four primaries first, as they are pretty far apart and not easy to confuse.
To someone so young and in development mode, it may be difficult to determine blue from violet, orange from red at first. However, over time, the sensitivity to the differences between orange and red become more apparent.
No adult can remember clearly how strange and difficult it was to start to perceive more of the color spectrum at first. We pretty much take this aspect of our sight for granted.
If you can relate the visual experience to the new sonic one you've chosen to master, it isn't too difficult to understand how this will work.
Once the "color hearing" starts to develop, all music will unfold in a new way. You will perceive the pitch of all instruments almost equally and then you can fold harmonica into the mix. To focus only on harmonica at first will work against you.
I've always thought that if our society put as much importance on learning to hear as it does on how to see, "color hearing" can slowly be taught in pre-school, kindergarten, and the formative early grades, resulting in a whole generation of kids with the ability to have "perfect pitch" - that magic ability that most think one must be born with.
As STME sez, "It is really hard for me right now to differentiate pitch color from timbre". Well, that is to be expected. You've never been taught to be aware of sound in such a new fashion...and just how long have you been working with the CD set?
As I mentioned before, it will take a lot of time. You may get stuck on one lesson for a LONG TIME before it sinks in. Don't give up and don't force your ear or strain your brain trying to speed the process. It will begin to unfold organically in its own time.
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The Iceman
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Jehosaphat
667 posts
Jan 22, 2014
10:07 PM
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Once again Iceman you sum it up..
Your long ago post to Harp-L re hitting the" floor'" when bending..well it worked for me in a musical sense and has probably saved me a few dollars in non blown out harp reeds.
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ej
51 posts
Jan 22, 2014
10:36 PM
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Iceman, thanks for that insight. I'm looking forward to the process.
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STME58
630 posts
Jan 22, 2014
11:17 PM
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Iceman, I appreciate you encouragement. I am working on all the instruments I can get my hands on. I think I came closest to hearing the color difference between the Eb and F# on an Eb alto trombone, and an F dizi. It is easy to deceive yourself when you are playing the instrument, because you can't do a really blind note identification test. The trombone is interesting because I can slide up and listen for differences other than pitch.
I was noticing the chime in my car seemed to end on a bright note when I left the headlights on. I wonder if someone at Ford is aware of pitch color and selected F# for the last note warning tone. I will take a tuner out to my car tomorrow and check this out.
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JInx
718 posts
Jan 22, 2014
11:28 PM
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a good start is with the old Hot cross buns intervals; 3rd, 2nd, root. that's where john lennon started.
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Sun, sun, sun
Burn, burn, burn
Soon, soon, soon
Moon, moon, moon
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The Iceman
1397 posts
Jan 23, 2014
6:26 AM
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STME...
Since you seem to be gravitating towards alto trombone, try listening to recordings of alto trombone...even classical ones...and see if you can start to perceive "color" in what you hear on the recording.
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The Iceman
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STME58
631 posts
Jan 23, 2014
12:02 PM
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Not surprisingly, I have a way to go.
My car chime turned out to end on C# not F#.
The chime is A E C#. I am looking forward to the day, probably in a few months, when I can tell that without using an external reference.
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The Iceman
1402 posts
Jan 23, 2014
12:26 PM
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STME..
Yes, give it time. Let it come to you.
btw, for me, C# and F# are both in the "bright" range. F# is the brightest, so I label it RED, in a manner of speaking. The next brightest one is C#, which to me is bright pink rose colored.
Remember, these are my reference points - not universal ones.
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The Iceman
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1847
1472 posts
Jan 23, 2014
1:10 PM
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i am so old there were only three primary colors when i was younq... kids now a days are so spoiled
whats next 30 letters in the alphabet?
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i get a lot of request when i play my harmonica
"but i play it anyway"
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Kaining
24 posts
Jan 23, 2014
5:37 PM
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Nice dolphins pics STME.
It's weird how that useless skill i picked up as a kid never got away... Funny how you get the feeling that you are seeing normaly once the stereo-gram appear since you do feel your eyesight "shifting" right before seing it.
As for ear training , i decided to start learning to sing not so long ago.
Still at the first note, an A.
Took that one as it is the most difficult note for me to get on a C harp (3'') overbend are easy compared to a perfect pitch low A ^_^;
I'll see if it will help me get a better ear but the only thing i noticed is that the more focussed i was in earing an A in my mind beofre singing it, the more on pitch it was.
Got a high A at the first try after practicing low and medium octave for a while. The sound was so clear in my mind beforehand that it was on pitch just like that.
It amazed me as i have never been able to sing a specific note right of the bat before.
Burge's method interested me but the cost is amazingly high for something that could be considered as a leap of faith, since there is no way to know if it works before experimenting it by yourself.
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The Iceman
1403 posts
Jan 24, 2014
6:28 AM
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yes, Burge's method is based on faith that it will work.
Like anything else in life, if you believe in it, the chances of it working for you are greatly increased.
btw, the one thing I forgot to mention regarding assigning "color" to each note is that you must also form a personal attachment through emotion to each "color" rather than just seeing the color in your mind's eye.
For instance, F# = red = agitated, nervous
C = white bread = somewhat ordinary/boring
You have to learn to "feel" the "color" as well.
However, the end result is like a born again appreciation for music. It unfolds in directions that you never felt.
You will begin to hear music and know exactly what is being played to create the effect.
Imagine hearing a chord as one entity as well as having the ability to listen inside it and hear each note individually.
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The Iceman
Last Edited by The Iceman on Jan 24, 2014 7:53 AM
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