Ear Training

One aspect of being a musician that is extremely important, but too often overlooked by teachers and students, is learning and practicing to hear music in your head. This aural skill can be acquired through practice and is referred to as ear training. Ear training is where musicians learn to identify all the basic elements of music, such as intervals, chords, and rhythms intuitively without reading it from the sheet music. This is a good skill to begin developing as soon as possible. Ludwig van Beethoven began to lose his hearing in his twenties and ultimately became completely deaf, but he had developed the ability to hear the music he created in his head to a great extent. This skill will not only help with your sight reading abilities, but also your improvisational creativity and of course, any composing work you ultimately pursue. While the use of a keyboard will aid in this endeavor, practicing this with your voice is very helpful too. Singing out what it is you’d like to play on your horns first is something I always recommend anyway. To begin this process there are several good resources you can purchase and I recommend you do so. I have added many of these to my superstore and have placed a good one for you to start with here. Start practicing!