In Day 4: Mobile Music 2 we talked briefly about analytical listening, this post is going to go into much more detail on how our ears are the most important piece of gear.
It’s very easy for us to think that that new piece of gear, synth, plugin is the magic bullet that we 100% need. even easier when it’s sold to us on plug in boutique, or Black Friday sales. But if you have a fully functional DAW you already have most of the things you need and buying that new plug in most likely won’t help you. But what will?
Generally your ears and your instrumental skills are the best tools that you have.
From the professional audio engineer who can say “It sounds a bit harsh in the 400 Hertz range”, to the arranger who can hear one note of the saxophone section is out of tune, these specific ear training skills are the best value for money.
Music theory ear training: Musictheory.net
Start with the basis of all music intervals, if you can identify intervals really well you can identify anything. You should be able to identify all major and minor intervals within an octave ascending and descending. Once you have done one octave it’s not so hard to do more than one octave.
These three exercises in music theory it will be the most bang for your buck you will ever get. Start with interval ear training, and if you are a beginner make sure to limit the intervals and slowly build up. once you’ve done intervals you can move on to scale and or chord ear training. Remember chords are just a few intervals together and scales are a collection of smaller intervals.
https://www.musictheory.net/exercises
Analytical ear training
Understanding how the musical elements fit together is one of the most important parts of analytical listening. You need to understand each element, be able to recognise it, and also how it changes during a piece of music to create contrast and interest. the musical elements are usually listed as follows :
- instrumentation: for example the list of instruments/sound sources used
- dynamics/volume
- rhythm/time:for example, time signature, pulse, length of notes, tempo, rhythmic motives and rhythmic devices such as syncopation, ostinato, augmentation/diminution, polymetres and cross rhythms.
- texture: for example layers of sound (contrapuntal, polyphonic, chordal, homophonic, monophonic, heterophonic, pointillistic, unison); the density of sound (from light/thin to heavy/thick); tessitura (effect of pitch height on texture).
- articulation: for example the attack, release and decay of the sound; staccato; marcato; legato.
- tone colour/ timbre: for example the effect of the way in which the instruments/sound sources are used and the effect of techniques employed; combinations of instruments used at various stages in the work or excerpt; particular instrumental techniques employed such as muting, pizzicato, glissandi, flutter tonguing; production techniques such as reverb, chorus, distortion.
- structure/form: for example: large scale structures such as symphonies, dance suites, and operas; medium scale structures such as twelve bar blues, sixteen and thirty-two bar song form, verse/chorus, strophic, sonata form, binary, ternary, rondo, theme and variations, through-composed, fugue, round, canon, cantus firmus, metrical and/or harmonic cycles; small scale structures such as motives and motivic development, phrasing, chord patterns, textural components, modulatory systems.
- tonality: for example: modal, diatonic (major/minor – functional), pentatonic, poly-tonal, whole tone, chromatic, atonal, serial.
- harmony:for example, triads, triadic extensions, cluster chords, organum, vertical pitch combinations and the inter-relationship of chords (functional or non-functional), modulation, ostinato, harmonic rhythm (rate of harmonic change per bar), pitch centres.
- melody:for example the tune, tone rows, themes, horizontal pitch patterns and the characteristics of a melody, for example: intervals, phrasing, tessitura, shape, motives and, where appropriate, influence of text.
Understanding each of these elements by itself can be complex so start with just a few at a time. For my younger students of music I usually start written analysis like below, with a table.
A good one I like to start with sometimes is Flume’s You and Me remix as it has fantastic production with interesting changes to all these elements
| Style – Element | Instrumentation | Dynamics | Texture | Tone Color | Structure/form |
| Eg1 |
Audio ear training
Always be listening, always be analyzing. When you’re at a concert notice the balance between the different instruments, notice how each instrument is miked and try to notice how the audience perceives them.
If you want to start with the basics and train your ear with certain frequencies and techniques like compression isotope has a really good online tool. Izotope’s Pro Audio Essentials is a website that allows you to practise improving your audio skills with things like EQ, compression and other digital audio basics. This website is free, easy to use and had some great practise questions which look like they can be randomised.
I’ve also in the past used another programme called Harman how to listen -although this programme is good I’m not sure it’s still being made and seems a bit dated.