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James, two great posts.

Well I am not finding the violin too bad so far, but, like I said earlier, if I learned to sing then I would actually have to sing. Here is a good example of what I would be like singing. . .



Do you really want to be responsible for unleashing that upon the world?

Thought I'd chime in. What a great thread!

I would say that playing the violin would definitely help, for two reasons: first, as has been mentioned, the emphasis on intonation (since there are no frets) would force you to more seriously come to terms with hearing and understanding notes. That is, even though you are not required to "tune" your notes on the piano, I would think that your having done so on the violin would make you that much more aware and sensitive to pitch.

Secondly- and I don't think this has been mentioned yet- playing the violin is a great way to become very focused on the melody in particular, and especially on the expressiveness of a melody. That is, much of the violin literature will be very melodic, and without left-hand piano chords to distract you, it will heighten your sensitivity to hearing melody notes. For example, I teach eartraining classes, and I've found over the years that, when I play a progression and then ask students to tell me the melody, I get lots of good answers from typically "melody" players: flutes, violins, trumpets, soprano singers, and so on. Likewise, in fact, if you ask the class to identify the bassline, then those "melody people" often have trouble, while my bass-players, bass singers, tuba players, and so on are often quite strong. When I ask for the chord type, the "chordal" instrumentalists are often the strongest: mainly pianists and guitarists, but of course there are other chordal instruments. The moral of the story is, playing an instrument within a certain common "role" seems to have a way of sensitizing that person to that musical role. Playing the violin will force you to "be" ONLY the melody, which is great!

Practical application of eartraining is often boiled down to three things: melody, chord-type, and bass. To that end, I attribute my own ability to hear melody to my 14 years of playing violin, my ability to hear chord-types to years of transcribing and playing piano, and my sensitivity to hearing basslines to the fact that I sing bass in choirs. Not tooting my horn here, I'm just saying that the more you can play instruments in each of these three areas, the stronger your ear will be overall.

Also, though, I hope you're adding theory to all this! The role of theory in eartraining is often misunderstood. In a nutshell, people often think "theory is learning how music works, but eartraining is where you get a stronger ear." Well, playing violin alone may get you to the point where you can reproduce any melody note you hear- but by itself it won't help you to figure out whether that note is the root of the chord, the third, the fifth, or something else. But why is that important? Because "transferring" things from just "I hear every note" to "I understand what these notes are in the chord and how they function in the music" is a MAJOR step toward doing things quickly, in the "practical" musical world. For example, if you understand that a particular song starts with the melody on the third of the chord, then you can quickly transpose to any key you want. And this is a HUGE thing for harmony: if you can quickly identify not just clusters of notes but actual chord progressions, translated into roman numerals, then you can do many things with that information! For example, if I'm playing jazz at a gig and someone comes up with a wild request, like "can you play that song from 'Titanic'?" (why do they DO that?) then, even though I've never seen the sheet music, and even though I don't have time to pull it up on my phone and listen to it, I'm able to play it- because I can "play it" in my head and quickly recognize the progressions, what's happening in the melody, etc. I'm quickly processing not just individual notes, but large chunks of info, like chord progressions and elements of the form.

Like Bandit, I had a teacher who required me to transcribe pieces- solos, chord changes, comping rhythms, you name it. He was relentless, and had the leverage of being able to "threaten" me with a bad grade if I didn't bring in what he asked. It was one of the greatest things that could have happened for my playing. I won't lie- it can be excruciating, especially at first. And the truth is, your second piece is also excruciating. Your third piece-- excruciating too... and this may be as far as many people go.....but if you make it to the 25th piece? After a while things start to click!!! And it can get better and better. I went from listening over and over and playing at the piano over and over and writing on paper and erasing and correcting over and over- to doing the same things but with less repeating and correcting- to being able to remove the piano altogether and just use paper- to where I am now, which is pretty much being able to just turn on the radio, and process everything in my head. That's not to brag-- I'm a bad dancer, I can't keep hermit crabs alive, and you don't want to taste my cooking- but I'm solid on this, and it's not because I'm a genius or some sort of genetic anomaly- it's because of the process of sitting down and DOING it. I absolutely agree with the others who have said that there's no getting around just doing the work.

I also definitely agree with another idea that has been mentioned here-- it works the best if you WANT to do it. To that end, I'd definitely recommend you create whatever situation you'll be happiest with, which is to say, transcribe things you like- whether it's video game music, Christmas carols, TV themes, or whatever. In my private teaching I've had bring Game Boys to lessons, and we'd transcribe music from them. Whatever it takes..

So to sum up this hopefully somewhat coherent lecture, my two cents would be to learn as much theory, especially diatonic harmony, as you can, and to transcribe, transcribe, transcribe! Of course, if you have a teacher and you're moving more formally through lessons, that will help, too. For example, if a teacher starts putting you through some of the standard jazz voicings commonly used today, then you'll eventually get to where you recognize them being played on recordings.

Hope this helps!

-James

I definitely agree that transcription is a important aspect to developing ones ear. I have been considering lately how I might incorporate this into my practice sessions. But I think I should beef up my knowledge on chords first, as it is a little weak. Any tips on learning the sounds of chords? Obviously, playing them helps, but is there any structured practice routine you can suggest that would help me recognize them efficiently.

This may be crazy or very elementary or something, but my teacher had a list of fairly common songs that begin with each interval going up and going down. I will forever hear "Here Comes the Bride" when I hear a perfect fourth played, the star wars theme song for the perfect fifth, and "Maria" for a tritone. My son's music books (Celebrate Piano) have animal sounds for each interval, so my son sings about the donkey, the cat, and the busy bee. I quiz him, but I can see how it might be difficult to quiz one's self.

My girls play violin and viola, but I can tell you, ear training does not necessarily go hand in hand with playing a string instrument. I do not intend to allow any of my younger children to play a string instrument. Aside from the need to constantly buy a bigger and better instrument, it is rough to listen to them practice out of tune. Sometimes way out of tune.