Saturday, July 30, 2005

GENERAL INFORMATION

This blog is designed to give you the basics which you will need in order to learn the art of playing music by ear. Many feel that people who play and improvise by ear are special. If they are special, it is because they have spent their time wisely learning the tools of the trade.
I feel it is good to establish a practice routine. Playing by ear and teaching choirs music by ear requires discipline and discipline is good for all of us. Spend your practice time wisely. Listen, listen, listen carefully to recorded music that you may be interested in learning. Be patient with yourself. Don't expect everything to come in one setting. Things come to us when we have developed enough to accept them.
Gradually train your ears to really HEAR music. Most of us don't use our full brain capacity. We let sound surround us as we casually listen to music, but we don't actually HEAR music. It is my goal to help you to develop the most neglected of the five senses. The ability to really HEAR music and understand it in its abstract form.
May your journey in music be as enjoyable as it has been for me.
Finally play the best instrument that you can afford and study with the finest teachers available.

5 comments:

Unknown said...

When a person tries to hear the sounds going on around him he is faced with several problems which aren't necessarily present when reading music from a printed page. You will have to learn how to identify everything that is being played or sang.

I realize that the average person today doesn't want to think about music. He just wants to enjoy it. However for the student or the professional performer he cannot afford the luxury of not thinking about the music he is hearing, as well as the music he must sing or play.

Today's future musician, as well as professional performer to play or sing back exactly what he has heard after he hears it. Furthermore he needs to be able to sing or play what he hears inside.

Being able to sing and identify intervals is a key part of ear training.

I will be explaining vocal exercises one can use to improve their ability to hear and reproduce what they are hearing from an outside source or from within themselves.

Unknown said...

Why isn't it ever easy? Just as I had figured out all the answers, someone came along and changed the questions.

I don't feel well today, but I am going to blog. Wed 10 Aug 05. Maybe I'll feel better after a little sleep.

Unknown said...

I need to post again. When you hear a melody you can assign parts to make harmonies for the parts. intervals of a third, fourth and fifth are good for making close harmony. The sixth is okay but usually too far apart from other voices. The sixth is as far a part as sounds good.

Unknown said...

For Whom the Bell Tolls by Ernest Hemingway tolls for thee for no man is an island. We are all interconnected. That's why I can't hurt you intentionally. If I do then I hurt myself. John Steinbeck's East of Eden helps me to recall that I spent my working lifetime helping people. I made a living loving my passion and sharing my love of music with others. I now have time to read all those classics which I could not take time out to read when I was working. I read adagio con frigging ma non troppo in order to retain my status of beneath the underdog. Don't think too much Felix. You are too deep, but can't help but wonder why did God favor Abel's sacrifice over Cains? It is never spelled out clearly as to why animal sacrifice is superior to plant sacrifice. Indeed I have spent a great deal of time feeling sorry for Cain. I also felt sorry for the guy who dug a hole and concealed his talent. Maybe that was the best he could do. The master judged him harshly. The servant played the cards he was given in life. Things didn't turn out for him. Anyone who has ever been dealt a bad hand knows that you have to work with what you have got and sometimes you draw from the deck and get nothing but more bad cards to add to a bad hand. You think too much Felix. You are too deep.

Unknown said...

I'm at my cousin Crystal's house in Merrillville visiting my mom. We are going to court to secure guardianship for my mom. Today is June 29, 2006.