I tell my students that ear training is “strength and conditioning” for musicians. I love this analogy - serious athletes don’t just practice their own sport, they also run and lift weights. You might sing or play your instrument beautifully, but that’s not enough. Working musicians need EARS that are “fast” and “strong.”
How do we build this aural athleticism?
I started thinking about this again last week. One of my vocal jazz altos asked for some ideas about how to practice ear training over the summer before our fall auditions. Here are some exercises I suggested. Some of these are specifically for jazz and some are more general.
1. Play piano. Work through a hymnal or the Bach chorales. Do one hymn or chorale every day, and sing along with the different voice parts while you play. If your piano skills aren’t great, don’t worry, that’s why you’re doing this. The best thing you can do to improve your ears is to get better at piano. Play and sing slowly and deliberately every day, and you’ll start to develop a stronger connection between your ears and your brain and your fingers.
2. Transcribe jazz solos by ear. Listen to jazz singers and instrumentalists improvise. Listen deeply and repeatedly to a solo until you can sing along (or until you CAN’T NOT sing along). Start with something simple and do a few bars at a time. Pick music you really like so this is FUN and not a chore. There’s an endless number of great recordings to choose from, but here’s a good list of easy-ish solos to start with.
Side note: I’d also recommend this book, an incredible resource from Darmon Meader. It has tons of stylistic jazz solos notated for voice, and includes great recordings in different keys that you can sing along with.
3. Sing crunchy intervals against the piano. With the sustain pedal down, play any note repeatedly while you sing the pitch a half step away. Can you keep it in tune? Repeat with different dissonant intervals.