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Making Time for Music in a Busy Season

The school year has kicked off, and life has turned into a whirlwind! I'm making the most of my piano time when I can get it, but it's been touch-and-go for the past week. To make up for the missed practices, I've begun exploring musical work away from the keyboard. Two activities have been key: mental practice (studying the written score away from the piano) and ear training. Both are great brain workouts, but I have to admit, ear training has been a lot more fun!

Ear Training Adventures

Over the past few weeks, I've tackled PWJ's beginner ear-training courses on intervals (ascending and descending) and triads. Even though I can play most tunes by ear, it's a challenge for me to identify intervals out of context away from the piano. I did better with triads, but there's still work to do. To practice, I've made recordings where I play triads in different inversions and try to identify the chord quality (major or minor) and inversion. It's wild to realize minor third + perfect fourth (for example: E-G-C) creates a bright major chord, while perfect fourth + minor third (example: G-C-Eb) turns it moody, melancholy, and minor. How have I never noticed this before? Probably because thinking in intervals doesn't come naturally to me (yet).

Listening with Intention

I'm still figuring out which songs fit into which category!
I've also been diving into intentional music listening--specifically, pop songs with clear, common chord progressions (think I-vi-IV-V, I-V-vi-IV, etc.). It's fun and simple since they're mostly familiar songs, like "Arthur's Theme," "Last Kiss," and "Goodbye Yellow Brick Road" (which hit me with serious nostalgia). It's also challenging because I'm listening closely for chord changes and paying attention to the "feel" of each shift. And knowing which chord is being played, I try to sense its major or minor quality. These songs are almost exclusively built on triads, so no sevenths, chord extensions, or alterations for now.

I've already made several playlists, and I think I've begun to get a good sense of how the different progressions (such as I-V vs ii-V, or vi-V vs vi-ii) feel. It's really helped to spend, say, an hour straight listening to songs with one type of progression and then switch to songs with another type. Of course, not all songs use a particular progression exclusively throughout the song, and my brain is now registering, "Oh, we're back to the progression!" or "Looks like we're doing something else now."

Join the Fun

If any of my three readers is interested in knowing what's on my playlists, please let me know--I'd love to share. Better yet, try listening to a favorite song and see if you can tell where the chords change, and if the song sounds different when you're focusing specifically on the changes!

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