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Ear Training Tools

Friday, 22 August 2008 04:44

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 Question:

I play the piano fairly well and really enjoy sight-reading and it is something I seem to be fairly good at, however try as I might I cannot memorise a piece (and it seems most people I know can- who play that is). I have only learnt half of one piece in all the 11 years I have played - oh dear!

I was wondering what makes people so good at sight reading yet terrible at memorizing pieces of music? After all my hands seem to instinctively move to the keys on the piano when I see the note on the score - isn't memory used in this sort of playing too then?

 Answer:

I find that understanding the music in terms of the key helps a lot.  We instinctively memorize the melodies to songs as we listen to the radio.  It's rare that someone forgets a melody.  The trick is to find a way to intellectualize that process, and make it something you can translate to the piano. 

Since the middle ages, people have used solfeggio for just that purpose.  Solfeggio is the "do, re, mi, fa, sol, la, ti" syllables.  I have found that I can memorize tunes much easier than before I knew solfeggio.  If every time you learn a song, you learn it with solfeggio, it will help you understand the movement between the notes in a visual space instead of an auditory space.  This will help translate it to the keyboard.  Stop sight reading and start practicing solfeggio.

NEW!  Test yourself on half-steps and whole-steps.  Created October 8, 2008.  

 Random Solfeggio Melody (difficult)-- play along with a series of randomly generated melodies.  10 minutes a day for a month will improve your ear significantly.

 Random Solfeggio Melody (easy) -- a different version, that's slightly easier because it only uses one of seven notes.

Here's a cool ear training application written in flash. It teaches intervals, and allows you to practice on famous songs!  Very cool!

Videos:

 I made some videos with the solfeggio generators above:

Here's a video I made of the solfeggio for Miles Davis' "Freddy Freeloader"