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Ear Training

Jimmy Stewart

Foreword

Ear Training

Students and fellow musicians have often asked me how I transcribed Wes Montgomery's solos from his recordings that appear in the Wes Montgomery Jazz Guitar Method, or how, when coming home from a live performance I remembered the main theme or motif of the works played and how, there at the concert, I could tell what the composer was doing in his composition with the material. Líve also been asked how I can orchestrate, compose, and arrange away from the piano or from any other instrument. Or how, conducting, I can pick out a misplayed note. The development of my musical perception in a systematic study is my answer! “BE A COMPLETE MUSICIAN.”

The primary prerequisite in this system is the identification of the tones from our major and minor tonal system. This identification does not originate from any instrument, but from my own head. I’ve developed the ability to recognize the tones in my memory, using my ear, listening to music, and using my eye when looking at music. In the sharing of any art form, it is necessary to experience at all levels the expressions of others. This can be done by listening to recordings, going to live performances, tuning in to what is going on at a recording session, and talking to other players about their instruments and their musical interests.

This current series of articles will familiarize you with the many aspects of ear-training. First of all will be the learning of the Solfeggio (Sol-Fa) system. Then we will develop the ability to sing and to recognize the ecclesiastical modes and the major and minor tonal system, to recognize intervals by hearing and singing them, to develop the ability to comprehend the sound of the overtone series and to develop tonal vision (a way of seeing the overtone series mentally), to transcribe solos from recordings, to read scores, to sing one pitch while mentally hearing another in your head, to hear harmonic movements, to recognize triads in their positions. We will also develop the ability to recognize any chord in our major and minor tonal system, to build the facility to recognize voicings, chord progressions, and transposition, to create the writing of an arrangement without using a score, to develop the ability to write for the separate instruments in their correct transpositions, to comprehend a full arrangement without having to provide a written score, and formulate a system of reading a system of reading rhythms and lessons in notation.

 

Ear Training Lesson:  Part 1- Introduction

    Solfeggio:  This is a system of associating each tone of our tonal system with a given syllable name and fixing that syllable and tone in the memory.  This will be a relative pitch concept using the movable “Do” system.  We are exploring using the key of C as an example.

    Relative Pitch:  Exercises based upon the diatonic major scale (Sol-Fa):  

    Pronounce “O” as in go; “E” as in day; “I” as in we; “A” as in father.  Note “Si” is the correct syllable for the seventh scale step.  This has been misunderstood as “Ti.”  “Ti” which will be taken up later, is the correct syllable for the raised fifth scale step used for the relative minor syllables.  Do not attempt, at this stage, to begin on a specific note but rather do the exercises to develop relative pitch.  Do not practice with the help of an instrument.

    Exercise;  Sing the tones of the diatonic major scale by syllable, associating each tone with its syllable name.  As an aid towards fixing these tones in memory, think of “Do” as the tone of repose, “Sol” as the strong tone, “La” as the melancholy tone, and “Mi” as the mild pleading tone.  Our objective now is to sing the tones of the scale in order of succession.

    In singing the interval “Do” to “Me,” check your intonation by first singing “Do Re Me,” repeating “Mi” several times, then try to skip “Do” to “Mi:”

This should be practiced fifteen minutes a day.  At this point it is not important to pay attention to rhythm, but try to gain a distinct mental impression of each tone in the scale so as to recognize it when played or sung.