Ear training

Ear training is what musicians do to improve their ability to identify, relatively, chordss, intervalss, rhythms, and other elements of music. Singing plays an important part in ear training, since one must be able hear music in one's head and match pitch before it is possible to sing it reliably. One does not need absolute pitch to succeed at ear training and the development of relative pitch is the goal of ear training.

Transcribing recorded music is one way to practice all of these things. Some music teachers teach their students relative pitch by having them associate each possible interval with the first two notes of a popular song. Here are some examples:

• Major second: Frere Jacques
• Major third: Have Yourself a Merry Little Christmas
• Perfect fourth: Auld Lang Syne ("Should All...")
• Perfect fifth: Also Sprach Zarathustra (Theme from 2001), or Hey There, Georgie Girl
• Minor sixth: My Bonny Lies Over The Ocean
• Octave: Somewhere Over the Rainbow

Other methods include solfege and sargam.

Further reading

• Essential Ear Training for the Contemporary Musician by Steve Prosser, ISBN 0634006401
• Ear Training for Twentieth-Century Music by Michael L. Friedmann, ISBN 0300045360