A Fanatic's Guide to Ear Training and Sight Singing Volume One
Why doesnt interval training workIf you are trying to sing each note as it flows by in music, there is no way that you can calculate the distance between each note even at a slow tempo much less the usual speed that notes flow by in real time. The only way to instantly know what notes are being played is to ingrain in your mind the sound of each note within a key center so that you know the sounds you are singing in the same way that you see the color blue and know its blue.Our minds cant process interval relationships at the speed needed to sing notes accurately.Maybe you have no problem in the classroom when the teacher plays a note and asks you to sing a Major 6th above it, but if you are trying to do this in time as you are actually singing a piece of real music, it becomes problematic, and the problem is compounded the more complicated the music becomes. In the real world, when music is being played in real time, as a musician, your mind just cannot calculate the intervals and analyze what you need to know in order to react properly right away. This isnt about intellectual ability, it's about the reality of TIME. So how do musicians identify the sounds they are singing instantaneouslyKey Center is the KEYHere's how they do it: They use the "key center" of a song and internalize the sound of all 12 notes within that key center. Quite simply when they sing the 3rd they are not thinking that the note is four half steps above the root or in relation to any other note --they are recognizing the sound of a 3rd because they have memorized that sound within a key center.Fanatics Guide to Ear Training and Sight Singing teaches you the Key Center processIn most cases we recommend you first work with Contextual Ear Training before moving on to Fanatics Guide to Ear Training and Sight SingingBy working with the audio files in the Contextual Ear Training over time, you gain the ability to sing the sound of all 12 notes within a key center. For some students this will be a quick and painless rebooting of the way they hear sound; for others it can be a frustrating path with many possible pitfalls.You have multiple singing method books. Which should I use first?Fanatics Guide to Ear Training and Sight Singing and Contextual Ear Training differences.Contextual Ear Training and Fanatic's Guide to Ear Training and Sight Singing are two closely related books. The first and probably most important exercise for a beginner in the Fanatics Guide to Ear Training and Sight Singing is the One Note exercise. This "One Note" exercise develops the ability to instantly sing any of the 12 pitches over a key center. Fanatics Guide to Ear Training and Sight Singing requires you to work with a CD and check answers with an instrument to do this exercise. Contextual Ear Training allows you to do this exercise anywhere because the answer is supplied within the audio files, and it is much more portable. Therefore you will improve more quickly if you use the Contextual Ear Training One Note exercise because you can do it anywhere that you can take an MP3 player.Which book should I get or should I get bothWe do occasionally recommend both Contextual Ear Training and Fanatic's Guide to Ear Training and Sight Singing to students that are working in a choir or other places where they are reading music. With Contextual Ear Training you are not singing notes from a page. It will help you to sing notes from a page once you gain the ability to hear all 12 notes of a key center, but it does not build your sight reading skills. Fanatics Guide to Ear Training and Sight Singing does contain many exercises that require you to sing notes from a musical staff. A singer who needs to work on both aspects we recommend both. --muse-eek.comPracticing Ear Training from two different perspectives is the best way to improve.With this in mind we have created a whole series of books that develop these two aspects of ear training. They basically boil down to listening exercises and singing exercises. For someone just starting our method we recommend: Contextual Ear Training and Ear Training One Note CompleteFanatics Guide to Ear Training and Sight Singing and Ear Training One Note Complete together make a great ear training program.Listening exercises found in Ear Training One Note Complete teach you to identify the sounds from external sources such as another band member or a song that you are hearing on your MP3 player. Singing exercises found in Fanatics Guide to Ear Training and Sight Singing help you identify the sounds you hear inside you when you are singing, improvising or composing. You need both sides of ear training to become a great musician. The good news is they complement each other so the more you work on one, the more it will the help the other.Bruce Arnold is here to help you through the process.Some students can fly through this ear training with no problem. But many musicians have problems and need personal help. But have no fear, Mr. Arnold offers email support for students as they work through this process! So rest assured as you enter this ear training method, that you are not alone, and you can get expert help if you run into problems.Helping musician for almost two decadesThis method has been transforming musicians for almost 20 years now. It's one of the best selling Ear Training systems on the market. Simply put: It is successful because it works! BUT the secret weapon is Bruce Arnold. He is only an email away to help you. If you are a beginning or an advanced student seeking to perfect your skills, you can call on Bruce to help you through this process.Where should you startFirst lets talk about how you will be doing this ear training. We have found that the best way to do this ear training is with an MP3 player. It allows for many more ways to organize the audio files and is most portable. We do offer physical books and CDs with with some of our ear training products but we HIGHLY recommend you not take this path with our ear training method. Why Because digital downloads are a much better way to study this ear training as MP3s are much less expensive, easier to organize, more easily portable and cost half as much as physical books with CDs. We also have many ear training products that are ONLY available as digital downloads so it just makes more sense to go the digital route. So unless you REALLY can only use a CD player we sincerely recommend that you buy digital downloads of our ear training products. Digital downloads can be found at our site muse-eek.comRecommended order of books.For singing we most commonly recommend students start with Contextual Ear Training and then move on to Fanatics Guide to Ear Training and Sight Singing. Also with Fanatic's Guide to Sight Singing and Ear Training we recommend you work with Ear Training One Note Complete--muse-eek.comWhere do I go after I finish Fanatics Guide to Ear Training and Sight SingingOnce you have worked through the exercises in Fanatic's Guide to Ear Training and Sight Singing we recommend you move on to Key Retention BuilderFAQsOver the years we have developed a resource containing thousands of questions that students have asked over the years. These FAQs are searchable by key word and we recommend that you read these FAQs because they will give you:A more complete understanding of the method.An insight into the problems and solutions others have had with this ear training.Encouragement and determination that you can do this, and that it just takes daily dedication.The proof that EVERYONE that has really put their mind to it has mastered this ear training without exception.The reason why dedicating a short amount of time each day 5 to 10 minutes 5 to 10 times a day will be all it takes to master this ear training.Bruce Arnolds BlogMr. Arnolds Blog on ear training and other musical topics can be very useful to learn about our ear training products. see brucearnold.com --muse-eek.com