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Learning to internalize the sounds of scales is a vital skill. This means that you should
be able to hear what each scale degree of a scale sounds like clearly. If I asked you to
sing the sixth note of a particular major scale, could you do it without thinking? If the
answer is no, then the project in this section will really help!
Let’s get started…
In this project we’ll look at some ear training exercises for scales. The aim of the
exercises is to imprint the sound of each note of the scale into your brain. You’ll learn
to think of any note in a scale and then hear it in your Mind’s ear.
For this project we’ll apply the exercises to the A major scale. Although we focus on
this scale, the concepts you’ll learn can be applied to any scale.
Before we get to the exercises, I need to talk quickly about how to actually practice
them. Please read the following instructions at least five times. Yes it’s that
important!J
Ear Training For Scales Project
How To Do The Exercises In This Project
The ideal way to do each exercise is to follow these four steps.
1. Hear the note in your head.2. Sing the note.3. Play the note on your guitar to see if you were right.4. Correct any mistakes.
A mistake people often make is to sing each note as they play it on theirguitar. This leads them to follow what is being played on the guitar ratherthan truly hearing each note clearly in their head.
Here are a few important points:
Þ Sing the scale degree rather than the note name. This means thatthe exercise is transferable to every key. Note that I have written
the scale degrees underneath the TAB.Þ Repeat each exercise many times. Repetition is the mother of
memory and skill.
Þ Do the exercises very slowly. Take the time to really hear eachnote in your head before you sing it.
Þ Do about 10-15 minutes of ear training on a daily basis. If youdon’t do ear training every day, your progress will be slow.
Please spend a few minutes practicing it now. Once you’ve finished, please read on…
When I teach this exercise to my students there is a really common issue that often
crops up. Let’s take a look at it now…
Don’t panic! There are two possible reasons for this…
§ Vocal Range: The exercise is out of your vocal range. Please move the
exercise to a position that is more comfortable for your singing range.
§ Vocal Training: Your voice hasn’t had enough training to be able to match
ANY note yet. If this is the case, please have a look at the box below…
Common Issue: You can’t sing the exercise at all.
What To Do If You Can’t Sing A Note At All:
The first thing is…don’t feel bad. It’s actually really common. I’ve taught theseexercises to many people who couldn’t sing a single note to start with. ItWILL take some time and patience, but you WILL be able to do it. Here’show…
Step One:Choose a note on your guitar that you feel is within your singing/hummingrange. If you’re not sure, just choose any note on your Thick E-String.
Step Two:
Play the note on your guitar. Close your eyes and just listen to the sound of the note. Please listen in an effortless way. Just enjoy the sound of the note.Repeat this for a minute or so.
Step Three:Play the note again. This time try to hum the note. If you don’t get the samepitch, see if you can adjust your hum. Repeat this several times.
Step Four:Repeat Steps Two and Three daily. Each day choose a different note, until youfind one that you can hum. Once you find a note you can hum, practice StepsTwo and Three on it for 5 minutes every day. Once you get used to this you’reready for Exercise One. Keep in mind that you may need to practice it in a keydifferent to what it’s written in.
I would recommend spending a lot of time on these four exercises before moving
onto the next set of exercises. They really help you “lock in” the sound of the scale
into your brain!
At this point, my students often ask a question like…
“Is it best to master all exercises in one key before moving onto another,or is best to master one exercise in all keys before moving onto the next exercise?”
My answer to those questions is experiment —try both ways and see what works bestfor you. My personal preference is to stick to one key until I have mastered allexercises using that key. For example: If I decided to work on the key of C major I
would only move onto a new key when I mastered all four exercises in C major.
Here’s a question for you. How do you know when you have mastered an exercise?
Let’s take a look…
I highly recommend setting a time goal for each exercise. I usually set a time goal of
60 minutes. For example: Let’s say I was working on Exercise 1 for 10 minutes each
day. It would take me six practice sessions to master the exercise. Of course, if I still
found the exercise difficult after six sessions, I would continue practicing it daily untilit became easy.
Here is a table to help you keep track of your progress. Each time you practice an
exercise write down how many minutes you spend on it. For example: if you spent 10
minutes practicing Exercise 1 in the key of G, you would write “10” in the Exercise 1
column in the G major row.
Key Exercise 1 Exercise 2 Exercise 3 Exercise 4C major
G major
D Major
A major
E major
B/Cb major
F#/Gb major
C#/Db major
F major
Bb major
Eb major
Ab major
Now we’ll look at some more exercises to help you internalize the sound of the major scale. They are a little more advanced than the first four, so be patient. J
The next eight exercises are what I call pivot exercises. The reason why these
exercises are called pivot exercises is that you consistently are going back (i.e.
pivoting) to the same scale degree. They are great for learning the sound of a specific
scale degree. For example: If you really wanted to internalise the sound of the 3, you
would work on Pivot Exercise 3.
Here are the exercises. Do them in the same way as you did the first four exercises.
Make sure that you sing the scale degrees, not the actual note names.
IMPORTANT:
Please don’t move onto the next exercise until you have mastered allfour exercises in at least one key.
Let’s finish off this project, by giving you some melody drills. These will help you
test to see how well you have internalized the sound of the major scale. Let’s get
started…
Melody Drills:
Please sing the following melodies in a key that is comfortable for your singing range.After you sing each note, play it on your guitar to see if you were right. Correct any
mistakes that you might make.
To make it 100% clear here’s the four-step process to follow…
1. Imagine the sound of the note in your mind’s ear.
2. Sing the note.
3. Play the note on the guitar.
4. Correct any mistakes.
The melodies are written as scale degrees. For example: If you see a 5, sing the fifthnote of the major scale. The 1H means sing the 1 which is up the octave (H=high).
How did that go? Were there any scale degrees that you consistently got wrong?
If you are finding that you haven’t improved, then don’t panic! For some people the
progress can seem very slow—but they always get there in the end. Just keep on
doing at least 10 minutes every day and I guarantee the results will come.
I should point out now that people who don’t do some ear training on a daily basisoften have incredibly slow progress. If you aren’t currently doing daily ear training
then I strongly suggest starting. I know that it takes discipline, but the benefits thatyou’ll gain make it totally worthwhile!
If you are doing some ear training every day then CONGRATULATIONS! Keep up
the good work. Your discipline and commitment to improving your ears definitely
pay off!
Final Test:Sing the following melodies in a comfortable key. If you can sing them without
making a single mistake you have passed the test.
If you do make a mistake, keep on working on the ear training exercises every dayuntil you can pass this final test. Good luck!
Please don’t go any further on this project until you can sing all melodieseasily. We are about to take the “final test”, and I want you to be preparedfor it! J