Ear Training--Part I: Intervals

Several days ago I downloaded Ear Master 5. I've always known that my ear isn't exactly up to par, but using the program shows that I probably have regressed since the days when I was taking the ABRSM grade exams. Oh, the aural tests. It's been a very, very long time.

The problem with the aural tests back then is that I treated them like I was treating a math problem. I hear an interval, and I just count semi-tones from top to bottom and bottom to top, and spit out the answer. The method was good enough for me to get enough points on those tests.

My teacher who did these aural tests for me never taught me what I should be listening for. Not to denigrate her, but Macau at the time I was growing up was quite devoid of musical talents. There was maybe one or two half-decent piano teachers, and she wasn't one of them. My grandma never taught me ear-training--as she probably didn't need them, being a child prodigy who entered the Shanghai Music Conservatory at the age of 14.

So this time I'm gonna train myself the "right" way. That means I want to get a feel for what the intervals sound like, what the chords sound like, etc.

So... using Ear Master's... here's what I learned:

What I suck at: major and minor 6th's, in particular. perfect 4th's, to a lesser extent.

I just don't seem to have a feel for them. It's gonna take some time.

What I'm good at: 2nd's, 3rd's, maj 7, dim 5's.

2nd's and maj 7 are easy--they don't get any more dissonant.

The 3rd's I can identify mostly because 3rds come up a lot in piano music, so for once I actually have a feel for them, which is good.

dim 5: Saint-Saen's Dance Macabre happens to have made an impression on me so I just think back to the two opening chords of that piece. It's a pretty distinctive chord anyway, although after listening to dozens of random chords I occasionally even get this wrong.

Some strategies I've come up with:

min 7: Try to fit either a V7 or II7 between the two notes. It's gonna take me a little more time to internalize, but it seems to be working. Like I said, I try not to count semi-tones--though sometimes I still get caught in the habit of raising the top note by a semi-tone and try to hear whether it sounds like a maj 7. Again, I don't think it's a good habit. I want to get to know what a min 7 interval sounds like.

maj 6: Here's the funny thing. If I can sing it ascending, then I can recognize it as NBC's "sol-mi-do". Descending--I get it wrong pretty consistently. I don't know, it sounds like a minor chord sometimes, which is obviously because it's minor 3rd inverted, but when it's make up of notes on the C major scale, it sounds "pretty major" to me. It must be some kind of C-major bias I and a lot of other people have.

min 6: If it's descending, I try to to sing "do-mi-fa-so" in my head. If ascending, it's more obvious, but I haven't come up with a strategy yet. The C-major I described earlier bias also creeps in here.

For both maj and min 6: I've tried adding a note in between (like "mi-so-do" or "do-so-mi") to complete a triad. But I'm pretty bad at that it seems. Wouldn't hurt to develop that though. Maybe it means I need to learn solfege, if it is what I think it is.

I'll have more on my ear training endeavors later on.