Has anyone here learned to identify specific intervals by ear? If so, would you mind sharing how you did it and how difficult it was? Is it a skill that comes easily to some and not at all to others? Is it a skill that one can hope to obtain with practice?

Thank you in advance!

Sight singing using solfeggio is the best way.

Also, associate songs with particular intervals. Daffodil gave a great list here: http://www.pianoworld.com/forum/ubbthreads.php/topics/1315711/2.html

although I don't know some of those songs. Generally, find one that works for you for each interval.

I guess what I would really like to know is whether anyone on this forum has significantly improved his or her own ability to identify intervals by ear. Can it be done?

And, thank you for pointing me in the direction of solfege. I'll check it out!

Oh, yes, it can be done. Takes consistent practice, some every day. That's what works for me, anyway. I'm still working on it but I've seen huge improvement.
My recommendation would be to just start with two or three intervals, then when you're comfortable with those, add another one or two, and so on.
What Morodiene said is right on the money.

Absolutely! I didn't learn to identify intervals until the age of 30 but now I know them all. Some as easier than others, of course. But be patient - it took me about a year to get very comfortable with ALL the intervals.

They teach ear training classes at college, which is exactly this, so yes, it can be taught.

There is also a long list of interval song examples here:

www.earmaster.com/intervalsongs/

It includes link to Youtube videos for each song.

Best regards,
Jakobsen

I checked the above, and some other ones too, which is ok for listing a bunch of songs that "somewhere" in the them you can find the stated interval. I don't think that helps a lot. I have seen good results for me using the Functional Ear Trainer -Advanced, which I don't remember from where I got, but it is the best one for sure. Look it up, it's free, and you'll have to download it to your machine. It's easy to use.

Music ion Me, the key is to find a song that has that interval right at the beginning. I agree, if it's somewhere in there, unless you really know where, it won't help. For example, for a minor 7th, I think "Somewhere" from West Side Story. It's right at the beginning. Or for a major 7th, I think Bali Hai from South Pacific, again it's right at the beginning (up an octave, down a half step and there's your 7th :)). These can be very helpful, but that's not the only way to hear them. You must sing them, which is where solfeggio comes in.

Yes, there are several free ear training programs available online that will help you learn recognize intervals. Google "free ear training" and you'll get four or five or so in the first page of results. You can also find ear training materials at your local music store. Many come with a workbook and a CD so you can listen to examples and work through the exercises.

I took ear training in college, and learned to recognize intervals there. In the beginning (and later for "warm ups") we'd do exercises like this to get singing practice rolling:

1 2 3 4 5 6 7 8 7 6 5 4 3 2 1
1 2 1 3 1 4 1 5 1 6 1 7 1 8 1
8 7 8 6 8 5 8 4 8 3 8 2 8 1 8

Each number represents a scale degree (in the key of C, 1 = C, 2 = D, etc.). You can substitute solfege (do-re-mi) but we started off like this for simplicity. Sing the notes and play along on the piano to get them in your head, then try to sing the notes by themselves, using the piano as necessary to check yourself. You can make up your own exercises to reinforce intervals you have trouble with.

To translate this to sight-singing a piece of music, you just need to know what key you're in so you know which note is "1", then try it the same way.

E.g., "Jingle Bells": 3 3 3 3 3 3 3 5 1 2 3

Solfege is good, because it gives you nice open-mouth words to sing and reasonable stuff for the accidentals. "Di" and "ri" flow much nicer than "one-and-a-half" and "two-and-a-half".

Good luck!

http://www.iwasdoingallright.com

lists an ear training tool, and also explains how ear training has worked for him in the past 5 years.

I'm still ear training, so I dunno how much it has helped me yet. You are going to have to put a lot of practice into it, months if not years, so don't get discouraged.

The Earmaster 5.0 downloadable training prog helped me with intervals. It falls short on four note chord inversions (only does triads), but you can set it for any interval within the 8va.
Memorizing song for each interval helps if you, like me, do not have perfect pitch. My piano teacher also helped with intervals and my other ear training that the earmaster doesn't do (eg. playing back lh of two voice piece).

Thank you all so much for your responses! I'll spend some time today or tomorrow looking at websites/programs for ear training.

Thanks so much for the information re: length of time it takes (always good to know) and the possibility of learning such a thing.

Will it do the melody playback LH of a two voice piece?

You can get that using a midi file.

You must be confusing EarMaster with another program. EarMaster does 4 note chord inversions too. You can also configure your own chord inversions.

How do I set it for 4 note chord inversions? I have the Earmaster Pro 5.0. When I contacted the company they said they couldn't do 4 note form, only triads.

The Earmaster Pro 5.0. downloadable training is good

This is so cool! Those intervals sounded familiar and then I knew why:


and remembered this:
It's in an old book. Die Intervalle has the same exercise of 1 2 1 3 1 4 ..., and it names the intervals.

Oh cool, what a neat find, keystring!

The Beethoven piece is fun too, it says "Please, please write down the C Major scale for me, laaaa laaaa laaaa" :P

Thank you, everyone, for your comments and for your help. I appreciate it! Right now I am just working on the ascending major and perfect intervals. I'll stick to that for a couple of weeks and then move on.

EarMaster has an exercise area called "Chord inversions", which includes 4 note chords.
If you use the standard tutor you will get 4 note chords from lesson 7.
You can also use the Customized exercise if you know exactly what chords and inversions you want to work with. Here you can add new chords and inversions.

Hello Jakobsen,
I just went to EarMaster and checked the "Chord inversion" exercise. I specifically checked lesson 7 and I only saw triads, not four notes as you said. Maybe I went to the wrong lesson again??? Please enlighten us. thank you.

I also have problem using its "Interval Singing" function. I sing to the microphone and it always does not pick up my singing and insert my answers. Do you mind teaching me how to use their microphone function? I have been having this discussion with EarMaster since last month and they are still guessing about what my problems could be and haven't come up with a solution for me yet. However, I love this sofeware so much and it really does help me with my ear training with its many brilliant exrcises so I am keeping it and working on it every day. Overall, I would give this software 2 thumbs up and 5 stars. A good product.

Thank you in advance for your answers.

In my EarMaster lesson 7 of Chord inversions is: "Inversions of the 7th chord - ascending"

(1) Thank you. Right now it is 1:41AM. I don't have EarMaster on my labtop. Will try Lesson 7 again tomorrow.

(2) How about the "Singing interval"? does EarMaster pick up your singing? Thanks.

Happy to know that you are also using EarMaster. A great product.

May I ask if you have problem with the "Singing interval" exercises?

Joyjane,

I am having the same problem. EarMaster seems to be looking for an analog microphone input; my microphone is USB. It might be possible to reconfigure so that the software defaults to USB, but the last time I tried something like that it took me days to straighten out the mess. (I have a lot of sound-related software, and each one is set up differently.) So I am going to order a cheap analog mike, assuming that will work with EarMaster. It may be a few weeks till I know the answer, because I'm going out of town, but I'll let you know how it works.

Ed