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Foundations Tuesday: Ear Training

This weekend, my daughter was in the living room watching a movie, and I heard a few bars of whatever the theme song was. Something in me recognized it--not the song, but the pattern.

"Cycle of Fifths!" I said aloud.

So, after a week of listening to Cycle of Fifths songs and working on such songs as Fly Me To the Moon, All the Things You Are, and Autumn Leaves, I'm getting a sense of what this progression sounds like. I've also had some fun just improvising and making things up using the chord patterns. I'd make a video of that, but it's early and my family is still asleep and probably wouldn't appreciate my waking them up. Losers.

More Foundations: Ear Training

Anyway, I was scrolling through the future "Level 4 Foundations" courses the other day and noticed one on ear training. For me, that would literally be ear (singular, not plural) training since my right ear is deaf. Ha ha. I decided to start watching/listening to it, partly so I could "take the course" while in the car, and partly because I know I need ear training.

It's taught by Jonny's brother-in-law, Yannick Lambrecht. He is wonderful!

He also mentioned one of my favorite music-related books, Musicophilia: Tales of Music and the Brain by Oliver Sacks! I read it years ago but have decided to re-read it because even though I enjoyed it, I don't remember a lot of it.

The Only Problem ...

Anyway, I really like this ear training course ... but I'm terrible at identifying different chord types! I can usually recognize a dominant seventh if you play it by itself ... but if you play it after another chord? My brain gets all scrambled.

Yannick keeps saying to listen for the top and bottom notes, but I literally can't hear either. I just hear sound. It's like looking at the color green and trying to identify the individual shades of blue and yellow that make up the green. I can't. It's just all green.

I have synaesthesia for numbers, but not for music, other than always having thought dominant sevenths are smug teachers' pets, major sevenths are the cool kids I could never aspire to be, and minor sevenths are ... I don't even know. The sad poetic kids who never call attention to themselves and end up having to miss second semester because they're in and out of the psych hospital.

(Diminished sevenths are the drama kids. Of course.)

Anyway, I'm doing ear training. I really want to get good at this, so I'm not just listening in the car. I'm making up exercises and recording different chords so I can quiz myself. I'm also going to see if these chord types are easier to identify when I'm not wearing my hearing aid. I'll keep you posted!

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