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Join the
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MY 5 EAR TRAINING TIPS
Give Your Music Education A Boost
And Learn How To Play Music From The "Inside"
CHORDS / HARMONY
The mastery and understanding of chords does not have to be a nail biting affair if you followed my tips 1, 2 and 3.
There is no better sensation than sitting in a band or orchestra and truly knowing what's going on around you. You just feel immersed inside (there is that word again) the music. You hear and understand the melody, chords make sense and you can name them, you even instinctively know what note relative to the whole sound you are playing.
Like your part has a whole note E and you immediately know that you are playing the third of the CMaj7 chord that is going on around you.
I don't have perfect pitch but I've been fortunate to be able to do that sitting in the trombone section of hundreds of bands including Frank Sinatra's in 1988.
So, if you are feeling on the outside musically every time you pick up your instrument because you don't hear the pitch well, or you don't understand the harmony or you're struggling with time and rhythm, you can choose to change that with regular ear training practice.
Chords are simply an extension of scales and intervals, only now we're dealing with more than one note at a time.
My Number 1 Tip here is this:
FOCUS ON THE SOUND EACH CHORD GROUP MAKES
Knowing each note and giving it the right name can be second.
Attached to each note of every major scale is also a chord. 7 notes, 7 chords. In the case of C major we discover:
- C Major 7th: C - E - G - B
- D Minor 7th: D - F - A - C
- E Minor 7th: E - G - B - D
- F Major 7th: F - A - C - E
- G Dominant 7th: G - B - D - F
- A Minor 7th: A - C - E - G
- B Minor 7th b5: B - D - F - A (also called half-diminished)
On the musical stave this looks as natural as a green leaf in the Amazon.
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All the main basic chord groups except the diminished & augmented are built into each major scale:
Major, Minor, Dominant and Half Diminished.
(I'm choosing to place Dimished & Half Diminished into separate groups, as they have quite individual uses harmonically)
Everything else you will find out on your chordal journey is cream on top.
I'm calling on your imagination again to find ways to utilize this knowledge for ear training purposes. Here are a few starting ideas:
- Begin with 3 notes (triads) only.
Pick a low note in your range and sing 1 - 3 - 5 - 3 - 1,
find & play the 3 notes as a chord on a keyboard if possible. repeat this till you can pitch it clearly.
- Play the chord - sing the tonic / play the chord - sing the third / play the chord - sing the fifth.
- Move to the chord starting on the second note of the scale and sing:
2 - 4 - 6 (D - F - A in the above example)
- Play the chord - sing the tonic / play the chord - sing the minor third / play the chord - sing the fifth
- Repeat, moving up the scale till you get to the 7th step. You should not run out of range if you started low enough.
- Now do it all again but include the fourth note in every chord. I can do this without getting into the screech register and I don't have a trained voice. That means you can do this too.
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Open your eyes and senses and realize how inter connected all this is:
The top 3 notes of the first chord are the same as the bottom 3 notes of the third chord, meaning they are linked in sound quality. Try this:
Play the C Major 7th chord (see above) and then play the E Minor 7th chord. Now play the E Minor 7th chord again but add a C in the bass below the E. Presto, you now have a five note chord called C Major 9.
Can you find more chords that have the same close relationship? - Now go crazy and weave in and out of these seven related harmonies like a slalom skier, for instance:
To get to know and practice the diminished & augmented chord groups, the only ones not included inside the major scale, we have to, for the first time, add some out of key notes.
For the diminished chord, the easiest way is to slightly alter either the Dominant 7th or Minor 7th b5 chords:
Dominant 7th (in the key of C) = G - B - D - F
G# or Ab diminished = Ab - B - D - F so:
sing G7 then sharpen the G to G#/AbMinor 7th b5 (in the key of C) = B - D - F - A
B diminished = B - D - F - Ab so:
sing Bm7b5 and flatten the A to Ab.
Here are some important points to realize about the diminished chord:
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The distance (interval) between each note is a minor 3rd: B - min 3rd - D - min 3rd - F - min 3rd - Ab. So it follows that:
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B dim, D dim, F dim & Ab dim are the same chord, each time with a different root note, therefore:
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They are completely interchangeable and have been used as smooth passing chords or a sound in it's own right in all styles of music. It also becomes clear that:
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There are only 3 groups of diminished chords because after B dim and C dim and C# dim we have D dim which is the same as B dim. Truly a smooth operator. This means that after you've learnt to sing B, C & C# dim you've got the whole 12 possible diminished chords covered. Remember to learn the ones that are comfortably pitched in your vocal range.
The augmented chord can appear as a variation of the Major, Minor & Dominant Chords. You simply sharpen the fifth of the chord by a half step:
C(#5) or CMaj7(#5) = C - E - G# or C - E - G# - B (the triad is quite common, the other is mostly a jazz chord)
Dm(#5) or Dm7(#5) = D - F - A# or D - F - A# - C (not so common, it sound like a Bb triad or Bb2 chord with a D-bass, but still very usable.
G7(#5) = G - B - D# - F (a very common version of the dominant 7th chord)
May I remind you again that the all important goal is to learn to recognize the SOUND each of the 6 groups makes.
With a bit of regular practice this becomes very obvious and provides you with another tool to find your way inside the music.
To go to TIP 5, click HERE
Go to the TOP of this page
Ear Training Tips
For Faster Learning:
If you need to slow down any of my audio examples, just download "Transcribe". You can get it free for 30 days: |
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