In Your Ear

Some musicians have a strong natural ear, but most people need to work at it. There are many ways to develop your ears, and the more diversified your approach, the better your results. In fact, a strictly academic program may not equip you to meet the demands of on-the-fly ear playing. When you get right down to it, what counts is your ability to hear the music and find your note instantly.

Here are some fun, non-theoretical ear-training activities you can incorporate into your daily life:

1. Total recall. Carry a pitch pipe, harmonica, or tuning fork with you to reinforce your pitch recall. Pick one note (most commonly an A) and play it throughout the day. Before playing the pitch, try to sing or hum the note, then see how close you were.

2. Claim that tune. Identify the key or starting note of a favorite song. At different times of the day, recall the tune and check how accurate your pitch is.

3. Armchair analyst. Listen to the radio and try to figure out the key, the chord progression, the melody notes, or any specific pitch-related information for whichever songs come on.

4. FM bandstand. Play along with the radio. You never know what song is next—just like subbing. Switch stations to try different styles.

5. Singing Simon. Have a friend sing or play a phrase and repeat it back. The quicker and more accurate you can be, the better.

6. Blind man’s bluff. Sing a pitch and then play it on your bass. For extra fun, do it with your eyes closed.

7. Leaps of faith. Play a note on your bass, and then choose another note in your head and play it.

On the more academic side of things, you will benefit greatly from serious ear-training study. As a bare minimum, you’ll need to recognize the intervals diatonic to the major scale. Ex. 1 shows the C major scale with its corresponding numbers and syllables; Ex. 2 shows the scale’s intervals. For both examples, play them first, and then sing them. It’s the best way to get them in your soul.

You’ll need to be able to recognize chords, too: the major, minor, diminished, and augmented triads, as well as major 7, minor 7, dominant 7, minor 7b5, diminished 7, augmented 7, and augmented major 7. Ex. 3 shows each of these chord structures written out with C as the root. Go to a piano and play these chords until you get familiar with their unique sounds. Sing their arpeggios, too. Ask a piano player to switch randomly from one to the next, or use software to drill you on chord types. This is only the beginning of what a well-trained ear must handle, but the sooner you get started, the better!

I’m often called upon to back up jazz artists that come through town—people I’ve never met, and often without rehearsal. You put together a piano, bass, and drum trio of players with big ears and repertoire skills, add water, and bang!—instant jazz show. At a show with jazz clarinetist Kenny Davern, we were onstage winging it with no set list, and he called a song I didn’t know, but the pianist did. Rather than gum up the works in front of 500 people, I gave him the nod and plowed ahead. I was told the key was Bb, and that there would be a “pedal on the V” intro, which means you play the 5th of the key—in this case F—usually on beats two and four, for four or eight bars until the melody starts. This is usually a good sign that the first chord of the tune is going to be a Bb, as the V most often resolves to the I. However, in this case the first chord was the II chord, Cm7. At the end of the intro, the pianist played Dm7 and G7, letting me know it was a II–V–I resolution to Cm7. That made all the difference, because if you hit the first chord right, you’re off to a good start. Ex. 4 shows how this “pedal on the V” intro worked. A typical I–VI–II–V progression went over the F pedal, but on beat three of the intro’s last bar, the pianist moved up to the Dm7, giving me two beat’s notice that we were going to hit the II chord at the top.

Getting through the rest of the tune wasn’t so hard, as harmonic movement in the standard jazz repertoire is fairly predictable, at least in pre-1960s material. How do I do it? Besides having nerves of steel, it comes down to the ear. If I hear something, I find a note that works with it quickly.

Practicing ear training is the first step. Start working with the suggestions in this article, and get yourself into an ear-training regimen, either with software, an online or traditional school, or with a teacher. Your ears are your most valuable assets, not your chops. So why spend time learning to play faster than you can hear?