What Should You Listen For in a Piece of Music? (Ear Training)
To train your ear, work through rhythm, melody and harmony from the big picture down to the detail: tempo, metre and time feel first; then scale, key and melodic curve; then chord degree, type and function. Write it down before you play, using theory to confirm what you hear.
Key points
- Ear training and music theory go hand in hand: the ear notices a sound, and theory names it.
- Relative pitch, like hearing swaras against Sa, matters more than perfect pitch.
- Work from macro to micro: tempo, metre and time feel; then scale, key and melodic curve; then chord degree, type and function.
- Hear, write, then play. Transcribe in a notebook before touching your instrument.
- Listen widely to dense music, list the instruments and articulations you hear, sing, and make music with others.
This lesson from Jason Zac at Nathaniel School of Music gives you a road map for ear training. It suits any musician who wants to work out songs by ear more efficiently, whether you are just starting or already learn songs by listening. The core idea is that ear training is really mind training. Your ear notices a sound, but music theory tells you what that sound is.
Clearing up the myths
Perfect pitch is not the goal. Naming a note such as Bb out of thin air is usually learned in early childhood. For adults, note names stick mainly through constant use with other musicians in studios, jam rooms and gigs. In Indian music everything is relative anyway. If the root is Eb, it is simply Sa, and the other swaras are heard in relation to it. Hearing a perfect fifth above Eb is ear work; knowing that note is Bb is theory.
Hear notes in clusters, not one by one. Instead of naming each note separately, listen for the group of notes and identify the scale they belong to. This is far easier on the brain.
Do not forget rhythm. Pulse, counting and moving with the song are the foundation of everything else.
The three pillars
- Melody: what you remember and sing. It might be a vocal line, a violin, the right hand of the piano, or even a bass riff.
- Rhythm: what makes people move.
- Harmony: the chords and progressions that create emotion.
Feel each element before you try to name it. Giving a sound a nickname is a good start. A minor-major seventh might become your James Bond chord, and a 7#9 your Jimi Hendrix chord.
Macro first, then micro
Rhythm
- Find the general tempo and move to the pulse.
- Identify the time signature, for example 3/4, 4/4 or 7/8.
- Find the time feel: are beats divided into two, three (triplets) or four? Is it swung or straight?
- Only then transcribe bar by bar, for example a crotchet, two quavers, a quaver rest and two semiquavers, or a dotted quaver and a semiquaver.
Melody
- Establish the scale (major or minor), the key or tonal centre, and if needed the mode or raga. Ragas can ascend (arohanam) and descend (avarohanam) through different notes.
- Sketch the melodic curve: is each note higher, lower or the same as the one before?
- Ask how far it moved, such as a third or a fifth, and then which kind of third, a major or a minor one.
- Use theory to name the notes. A melody on degrees 1 5 6 4 is C G A F in C, and Eb Bb C Ab in Eb. Knowing these degrees lets you transpose.
Harmony
- Chord degree: in a major key the minor chords are ii, iii and vi. In C major that means Dm, Em and Am. Boost the bass on an equaliser to hear the root and decide between them. Stem-separation software such as Moises can also isolate the bass, drums or vocals.
- Chord type: start with major, minor, diminished, augmented, sus2 and sus4. Then move on to major seventh, minor-major seventh, dominant seventh, minor seventh, half-diminished (m7b5) and diminished seventh.
- Chord function: is the chord at rest, or is it tense and pulling back home? This is functional harmony.
How to practise
- Hear, write, then play. Put your instrument away and write what you hear in a notebook, however roughly. Only then play it.
- Start by listing every instrument you hear, sorted by family: strings, woodwind, brass, tuned and untuned percussion, and miscellaneous such as piano, harp and guitar.
- Notice articulations such as staccato, legato, spiccato, pizzicato and tremolo, and mimic each part with your voice.
- Listen to your own instrument last.
- Choose high-density music from many genres, such as jazz, funk, gospel and Bach, even songs you do not enjoy.
- Jam, gig and record with other musicians.
- Sing as you play, and try sight singing.
Questions about this lesson
Do I need perfect pitch to learn songs by ear?
No. Relative pitch, which means hearing each note in relation to a root, is what most working musicians rely on. Note names become familiar through regular use with other musicians.
What should I figure out first when transcribing a song?
Start with the big picture: tempo, time signature and time feel for rhythm, then the scale and key for melody. Only after that move to bar-by-bar rhythms, intervals and exact chords.
How can I tell which minor chord I am hearing in a major key?
In a major key the minor chords are ii, iii and vi, so in C major they are Dm, Em and Am. Boost the bass on an equaliser and listen for the root note to decide which one it is.
Should I play along while I listen?
It is better to put the instrument away, write down what you hear, and only then play it from your notes. If you play an instrument, listen to that instrument's part last.
Practise it
- Melodic CurvesSketch a melodic contour, choose a scale and hear the line take shape.
- Prima VistaPractise singing from notation and review pitch feedback.
- All free music apps40 practice tools for harmony, rhythm, ear training and more.
Related lessons
- How Music Theory and Ear Training Are Really the Same ThingMusic theory and ear training are best learned together: ear training is your instinct for recognising what you hear, music theory is the prepared knowledge that explains it, and transcription is the practice that joins the two.
- The Ultimate Piano Workout to Speed Up Theory and Train Your EarThis piano workout has you transcribe a short melody by ear, decide its key, scale and mode, harmonise it with chords and cadences, then transpose it to new keys, scales and time signatures.
- Laufey's From the Start: An Intervallic Breakdown of Its Richer ChordsIn Laufey's From the Start (key of Db major), each melody note can be heard three ways: as a scale degree of the root Db, as an interval from neighbouring notes, and as a chord tone, so the same F is the 3rd of Db, the 9th of Ebm9 and the 13th of Ab13.
- How to Figure Out Any Song's Chords by Ear: 5 Ear Training StrategiesTo figure out a song's chords by ear, first mark where the chords change and find the song's scale, then narrow down each chord using the bass note, cadences, the melody's landing notes, the chord's quality, and its sense of tension or rest.