This app was mentioned in 84 comments, with an average of 2.23 upvotes
I suggest you spend a lot of time tuning by ear, then checking yourself electronically. You'll get better over time, and that'll give you more confidence.
Also - and this is great for any musician in any situation - download one of the interval training apps (I like this one ) and spend time trying to pick out different intervals. You'll get a feel for the difference between a fourth and a fifth, a seventh and major seventh, etc. I found it gave me a sharper ear overall, and I could hear smaller differences in pitch.
I understand there are also apps for singers that let you pitch-match - can anyone confirm this?
Step 1: if you take off your edgelord glasses you'll see there are thousands of resources out there to help you. https://play.google.com/store/apps/details?id=com.evilduck.musiciankit&hl=nl This app can help you train your ear. There are enough places on the internet where people can give you advice on technique, including this very reddit.
Like I said: if you truly think professional singing lessons are a scam, then you need to stop thinking professional singing lessons are the only way to learn singing. Otherwise, this is indeed a catch 22, at least in your experience, and no one here can help you. As long as you keep convincing yourself that singing lessons are the only way to learn singing, this is a you problem, not a rest-of-the-world problem.
Numark DJ2GO2 is what you're looking for I would think: https://www.numark.com/product/dj2go2
I would also recommend an app to train your ears and learn music theory and chord progessions like this one: https://play.google.com/store/apps/details?id=com.evilduck.musiciankit
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basically yes. Practice every day at least 30 minutes if you want to make some real progress.
Learn music theory, learn scales, learn all the chords and their position on the fret board. understand why scales are the way they are and how chords are formed. learn about chord progression, harmony, understand the why of this stuff while practicing it, practice rhythm, then you will soon start hearing the why and how everything fits together. You'll be able to pick up songs faster and to improvise.
The fundamentals are the hardest part. You'll always learn 20% of the argument in 80% of the time
EDIT: this is a great resource
EDIT2: this is a great app
On Android: Perfect Ear 2, which has loads of articles and exercises, as well as Music Theory Helper
Both are free!
There is one called PerfectEar, it has thousands of exercises you can try for rhythm, chords, intervals and single note identification.
Edit: Link to the app on Google play store https://play.google.com/store/apps/details?id=com.evilduck.musiciankit
I've been moving more towards transcribing by ear. I picked up an ear trainer (https://play.google.com/store/apps/details?id=com.evilduck.musiciankit&hl=en) where the app plays random intervals and you guess what they are. I've gotten great results with it.
It's good to do a mixture of both, I think. Learning the notes to a song is kind of the first step of learning to play the song, and tabs/sheet music help you reach that quickly so you can actually practice playing.
Learning by ear is invaluable if you are interested in playing with others.
Highly recommend this app
https://play.google.com/store/apps/details?id=com.evilduck.musiciankit
I've used it for years and own all the expansions and it's worth every cent and I love that I have it on the go.
On top of theory, I'd strongly recommend ear training. Aural skills are vital if you're to put theory into practice. My favourite ear training tools are Perfect Ear for Android and Ear Trainer for iOS.
I have two recommendations:
Check out Perfect Ear 2. I've been using it a bit here and there and really like it so far. It has a good selection of free exercises, and you can purchase a ton of additional exercises for 2 or 3 bucks.
I started using a couple of Android apps, to be honest, and also teaching myself to play piano, classical guitar, and recorder. They're all helping each other.
I got Perfect Ear, which has a free and a paid tier. They had a Christmas sale that I took advantage of.
I also got Complete Music Reading Trainer, which I like better for starting to learn. I have not upgraded to the paid version of this, as the free version is suiting me fine, for the moment.
I also downloaded a bunch of worksheets and have been filling them out while watching TV. Maybe not 100% effective, but it is helpful. I'm trying to fill them out quickly and not count lines and spaces.
I've only been doing this for a month, or so, and not every day, but I've already gotten MUCH better at the treble clef main notes (no ledger lines, except for middle C). It takes time, and if I actually did some practice every day it would definitely go faster.
The Perfect Ear app has a guitar fretboard trainer, which is cool. I've limited it to the open strings until I can identify those with no hesitation. I wish they had a violin fingerboard trainer, too, but oh well.
Good luck! I'm 49 and for YEARS resisted learning to read music, even though I said I wanted to learn. It wasn't until I found the Complete Music Reading Trainer (which starts you with two notes and adds one each level) that I feel like I made much progress at all.
I just want to add to this that I found a fantastic app for ear training called Perfect Ear. It's extremely well made (and I'm a software engineer by trade so very picky with this type of thing), and has expanded my understanding of music 10 fold. It also has a lot of reading material in the app itself about music theory.
This is, without a doubt, one of the best apps I've ever had on my phone. It's thorough, demanding and helpful.
Get the app called Perfect Ear on Android!
https://play.google.com/store/apps/details?id=com.evilduck.musiciankit&hl=en_US
Its Theory games and 6 minutes of reading explanations would be good enough for me to go quite a long way alone... if I particularly cared about learning theory in depth lol, but for the people that are interested beyond knowing just enough to play it's a very good tool!
There are some apps which can help you, if you want to use your phone for that. I use this for example, it has an option to play you certain intervals and you have to recognize the bigger one, the interval etc. with increasing difficulty.
I'm a stickler for good UI/UX design. Perfect Ear has been the best I've seen so far for Android. Complete Ear Trainer would be a 2nd pick but Perfect Ear just has the best design by far. It also has sight reading exercises and chapters and quizzes on basic theory.
URL: https://play.google.com/store/apps/details?id=com.evilduck.musiciankit
I use this app, it's got tons of different lessons and exercises. Don't know if there's anything similar available on iOS though.
https://play.google.com/store/apps/details?id=com.evilduck.musiciankit&hl=en
If you have android, you can try the following apps:
Perfect Ear 2 - all around ear trainer, it teaches to recognize intervals, scales, chords and rhythms
ChordProg Ear Trainer - ear trainer focused on teaching you to recognize chord progressions
I don't know which would be the equivalents for iOS.
If anyone is interested in a tool like this, but much more detailed and with many more tools, I recommend this app: Perfect Ear 2. It's really been helping me differentiate more nuanced scales and expand my vocal range...this shit reads like an ad, I swear I'm not getting payed, just been really impressed by this app.
Perfect Ear (free) is the best one I've ever found. It teaches you to recognize intervals, scales, chords and rhythms, it's great! It also has a small feature to teach you the fretboard, but for that I recommend this method instead.
I don't know if it's right for learning music from zero but I'm using Perfect Ear 2 (on Android) and I found it to be the best ear training app I've tried. It got exercises about almost everything (scale recognition, chord recognition, absolute pitch, rythm, intervals) and you can also make your custom exercises. Here's the link!
Usa questa app. É fantastica. Ha esercizi a diversi livelli, secondo me perfettamente adeguati a quello che ti serve nel corso.
https://play.google.com/store/apps/details?id=com.evilduck.musiciankit
Io avevo già un buon orecchio, ma questa mi ha fatto migliorare ancora parecchio.
I recommend an app that listens to you. It has a form of progress tracking, I also recommend looking into other apps that to that - play the note/scale and then listen to you. Pitch work is like target practice. Keep practicing, you'll find the notes in your voice!
https://play.google.com/store/apps/details?id=com.evilduck.musiciankit
I found a couple of these over time, but i think this is the good one, idk if its on IOS, this will help you count time away from the added pressure of playing something, and just focus on rythym, should help.
Truth! For Android I recommend the apps Perfect Ear or Functional Ear Trainer, they work wonders. I think that anyone who appears to have "natural" abilities (in many skills, not just music) has just passively internalized different patterns and knowledge. Like you said, no one comes out of the womb able to play well.
Where are you on your reading level? This is the method I've been using currently:
I've also found this app called "Perfect Ear" has been helpful for learning how to read the music: https://play.google.com/store/apps/details?id=com.evilduck.musiciankit&hl=en\_US&gl=US
From my humble experience, what helped me at least, and I really recommend, was to completely shut up and just train my ears and my brain first. 1) Learn all the musical notes by memory, yes, it's boring but it will help tremendously. 2) I used (and still use, it's something you should train from time to time) a "perfect pitch" Android app. This one: https://play.google.com/store/apps/details?id=com.evilduck.musiciankit&hl=es_419&gl=US&referrer=utm_source%3Dgoogle%26utm_medium%3Dorganic%26utm_term%3Doido+absoluto+android&pcampaignid=APPU_1_hnlSYfT5KOrf1sQP1bWs2AU
A piano note plays and I have to guess which one it is. Sounds difficult but it's really fun, I could be like an hour playing with it. You don't have to be perfect at it, don't worry if you miss. Start with only 1 octave and when you get good begin to add more octaves.
The good thing is that it helps you to engrave all the musical notes in your brain. Try to REALLY focus on the notes you are hearing and associate your favourite songs to notes (instrument, singed notes, whatever) and go up or down the notes in your head.
For example the first note sang in "What do you mean" by Justin Bieber is a G#. For some reason it stuck in my brain and whenever I hear a G# I recognize it almost immediately and think about that song. And from there I go down or up to match the note that the app played.
I made this only for 3 days I instantly noticed A HUGE change in my ability to recognize notes and improved my pitch.
I hope this helps!
I'm on a similar quest right now.
In terms of apps, both these seem good for training intervals, scales, chords: https://play.google.com/store/apps/details?id=com.evilduck.musiciankit&hl=en&gl=US https://play.google.com/store/apps/details?id=com.binaryguilt.completeeartrainer&hl=en&gl=US
I won't add advice that's already here, and I'm still on the same journey as you and these are the things that I feel have helped me the most.
Grab a cheap acoustic guitar, I started with a low end Yamaha. I started on piano, but picking up guitar also opened up another way to explore music. Now I play the electric guitar as much, if not more than the keys. Don't give up because it hurts your fingers, just practice a bit each day and you'll get you'll get through it. I found the Fender tutorials really good, but only used them because I got a free 3 month trial with the electric guitar.
I also found this app, Perfect Ear, extremely helpful and well made.
Learn about different scales, play them and try to find what mood they evoke in you. Play along with the music during a movie or TV, try to pick the key and scale (or use a tuner to tell you) and play along, learn what moods are commonly evoked.
I also watched a bunch of YouTube documentaries on the history of music. Finally, there are a couple of master classes that I really liked by Tom Morello and Carlos Santana.
First off, I really didn't want this to sound like I've got a "theory nerd wanker" hat on but sometimes it's just how this stuff comes out. I think you're talking about perfect pitch which you could punch into youtube and find a bunch of videos on how to train for perfect pitch etc. Usually it's something people are born with or have developed from a young age but it can be trained. imo it's not really worth learning, because it doesn't really have many practical applications, unless you're into making arrangements on the fly.
What you're better off doing is learning scale degrees/solfege + intervals + major vs minor tonality to develop relative pitch. It's not as cool as being able to hear a fog horn and say that was an Ab but having a strong ear for intervals makes sight reading a hell of a lot easier. And even if you don't read music, thinking minor 3rd interval is a stronger sound to aim for(at least in my mind) than trying to sing A-C from a cold start. Does that make sense?
There's a cool app called Perfect Ears that trains all those things as well. The more advanced stuff you have to pay for but the basics are on there for free from memory. It's not the most fun or sexy thing to train but it'll make you a better musician.
Here's another thread from a while ago that sounds like a similar question.
Hope that helps
To add to what others have said... I'd suggest training your ear with one of the many available apps for that.
My dad started learning music after he retired, so I looked around a bit, and Perfect Ear seemed decent enough, but there are quite a few to choose from, so it's a matter of trying them. Just don't give up on it, even if it seems tedious or repetitive - practice is key to improving.
Once you're confident enough, try identifying the chords in simple popular songs, and playing the root notes along. I'd start with classic blues tunes, early (ie. first couple albums) Beatles, or famous pop hits and ballads from the 80s and 90s, to name a few examples.
Perfect Ears is probably a bit better, it explains some of the theory within the app. Betters ears is just exercises.
i use this https://play.google.com/store/apps/details?id=com.evilduck.musiciankit&hl=en for ear training, used to use staff note recognition apps but i am good enough to sight read now.
That's interesting. I've always been able to tap out melodies on a keyboard because I can see and visualize the pitches. Maybe that's related to playing by ear.
I don't recognize exact notes that I hear or imagine, but I recognize their relative positions on a scale so I can type a melody (in the key of C Major) that I hear, such as
5887998
Looking at that I can hear the music. If I type rests in there, I hear different music patterns depending on where the rests go.
As far as actual notes, I don't know what that might translate to on a piano. But I could play it on a piano once I was in front of a real or digital keyboard.
Maybe a Play Store Ear Training app can help you recognize pitches and intervals. If so, perhaps after training, you could speak or write pitches that you hear in your head.
After over 62,000 ratings, that app still has a 4.8 rating on a 0-5 scale. Here are some features ..
>Melodic dictation exercises
>
>Ear training exercises: practice intervals, scales, chords
>
>Absolute pitch trainer
That absolute pitch trainer might be very useful for you. As noted, I don't know the absolute pitches of pitches I hear in reality or in my head. I only know pitch intervals and relationships between pitches. That means I can type out a melody using relative numbers. But until I get to a keyboard, I don't know what the actual absolute pitches of those notes are unless I know what one of them is - which I don't.
On the other hand, there are people who can tell you that a G is a G when they hear it because they can recognize absolute pitches.
There is no secret formula for ear training. It just comes down to putting focused time into it. There are free apps, and cheap apps, that have the tools you need to most easily put in that focused time. If you like Beato, and want to support him, and have that kind of money laying around to give away, go for it. Otherwise, there are plenty of tools to help with ear training that are not expensive.
I use and like Perfect Ear, but there are dozens of free/cheap ones with good reviews.
You can also use an app called perfect ears that plays intervals and you need yo guess the tones. Don't know if it exists for iOS but here's a link to the play store: https://play.google.com/store/apps/details?id=com.evilduck.musiciankit
What exactly do you want to practice?
For interval hearing practice try the perfect ear app: https://play.google.com/store/apps/details?id=com.evilduck.musiciankit
For finding intervals on your guitar: Play some scale patterns and try to identify all the intervals from the root note to the other notes. As a next step, play some solos and stop each lick on specific notes. Like on the root and the fifth.
Perfect Ear (an Android app) is awesome. Great for drilling intervals. https://play.google.com/store/apps/details?id=com.evilduck.musiciankit
Some functionality is enabled by purchasing modules, but none of them is particularly expensive.
You can learn music theory and ear training using "Perfect Ear". It's an android app, but they're are plenty of ear training apps on apple too.
You can learn intervals, chords, and practice rhythm exercises using the app.
https://play.google.com/store/apps/details?id=com.evilduck.musiciankit&hl=en
I use the Perfect Ear app every day on my train ride into work. Great way to add in some ear training during otherwise unproductive time.
My teacher sent me this link: http://calebhugo.com/musical-games-interact-with-sound/identify-intervals-ear-training-game/
But I use an Android app. It's easier to dip into it in odd moments.
https://play.google.com/store/apps/details?id=com.evilduck.musiciankit&hl=en
Thank you for this comment :) I do try my best to be as open musically as much as I can (one of my obsessions nowadays is Dorothy Ashby's music). I do too find enormous pleasure in mathematics - it has a universe of its own, where you get to highhandedly play with its natural laws. Lately I also am study with a little gem of an app to better comprehend music at large...
So yeah, we both get to be busy for our own pursuits. And we're at it no matter what or who or by what means. :)
Perfect Ear for Android. It has exercises for the vast majority of aural skills. Unlocking the exercises costs a few bucks, but it's superb value for money.
Not OP, but I use Perfect Ear 2. It teaches:
It also has theory lessons. It's free but it costs $3 to get the harder lessons.
/u/alfaalex101 you should also check it!
> Is it possible for an amateur to learn such a thing, any good exercises?
Yes. It's called ear training and it is extremely useful for any musician. I recommend using software like Perfect Ear 2 for Android or Tenuto for iOS.
Ear training allows you to consciously name a chord progression or a note in a scale, but the more important effects are on your subconscious mind. As you progress with ear training, you'll find that you start finding the right notes naturally. Your hands will just fall into the right places on the guitar.
Perfect Ear 2 its an app i use for ear training but it allso has rhythm reading and imitation sections for free, the premium version has more stuff
That's awesome, just noticed your name there, very apt haha. If you're interested, this app is very useful for learning to distinguish even the most complex chords and scales. Good for training more accurate singing too!
I've the same problem, but getting better. Take a look at the app Perfect Ear 2, very good for getting to know the sound of any scale, any chord, and even learning how to sing more precisely!
Perfect Ear 2 - It's an ear training toolkit for musicians looking to improve their aural skills. There are several categories (interval identification, chords, rhythm, etc.) and I found nearly everything to be really sensible in progression from beginner concepts all the way to advanced. Well worth it!
I have a Note 4 which I use to draw, The app (Sketchbook Pro) allows me to record what I draw too.
I also use it for Music, I compose tracks and practice intervals plus other aspects of music theory.
Language learning is another interest that I'm able to keep up with my phone, I know most people use duolingo but there are other poweful apps for this like Anki and Lingvist
I use one called perfect ear that I like: https://play.google.com/store/apps/details?id=com.evilduck.musiciankit
If you don't have perfect pitch already, I'm afraid to tell you that you will never have it. Perfect pitch is something you can't develop. However, relative pitch is something you can develop and is just as useful. Here's an article on that matter.
For relative pitch, which is the ability to figure out sounds by having a reference point, check these threads:
And try these Android apps:
And it doesn't hurt to learn basic music theory.
Perfect Ear 2: A music ear training app. It's got little animations and everything.
Not OP, but perhaps it's https://play.google.com/store/apps/details?id=com.evilduck.musiciankit&hl=en?
Also check out this app to help with ear training and music theory. A bass players biggest asset is his ears
https://play.google.com/store/apps/details?id=com.evilduck.musiciankit
1) Practice makes permanent. If you practice with poor technique, you'll get very good at playing badly. Practice as slowly as necessary to play perfectly, then gradually increase your speed. Don't be tempted to play sloppily just to go quicker. Keep your fretting, picking and muting clean.
2) Rhythm is king. Many amateur players overlook the importance of rhythm. They feel satisfied if they can play what's on the tab, even if what they're playing sounds rushed and inconsistent. Get a metronome and use it often. Concentrate on maintaining accurate timekeeping even in the difficult phrases. An audience won't really notice if you play the odd bum note, but they'll certainly notice if you're out of time.
3) Learn to listen. The human brain is very bad at multitasking, so we often don't hear ourselves properly when we play. This mostly explains the deluded lunatics you see in the early stages of The X Factor or American Idol - they really don't know how bad they sound. Once you think you've got a piece perfected, record yourself on your phone or computer. It can be sobering to hear yourself truthfully, but immensely useful. Really analyse the parts of your playing that need improvement, taking notes if you need to.
4) Don't neglect theory. Learning material and the physical technique of playing guitar is only a small part of musicianship. Being a complete musician requires ear training and a strong understanding of music theory. It'll make you a better soloist and a better composer, it'll allow you to learn songs more quickly and to play by ear.
5) Manage your time. It's easy to fall into bad practice habits, especially if you don't have much time to practice. It's tempting to rest on your laurels rather than keep pushing yourself. Plan out your practice sessions in advance. Allocate time to warming up with scales and arpeggios, consolidating material you know, learning new material, ear training and theory study.
justinguitar.com has lots of useful lessons and resources. He has iOS apps for each of his exercises.
musictheory.net is one of the most friendly courses to learn fundamental music theory (something every music player should know). It has two apps for iOS.
For Android, Perfect Ear is a great app to develop your ear; Metronomerous is the best metronome app I've ever used (and I've used lots of them) and gStrings is great for tuning your guitar.
My greatest resource is jguitar.com. They don't have an app (I just contacted them a month ago and they told an app is in development). But this is the best site for guitar. You can find names of chords if you know the frets, places to play the same chord if you know the name, scales and modes bases on any root and can mark down the scale degrees/intervals or note names all along the fretboard, harmonization for every chord and scale, suggested chords within a key or scale, etc.
Ultimately they're just provided by people on the internet doing their best. Perhaps search for tabs in .pdf. In my experience, most of the time these tend to be better/more accurate transcriptions, and more 'professionally' put together.
As a further note, I'd recommend starting some sort of ear training programme. There's a few great apps available such as:
Earmaster - https://www.earmaster.com/
Perfect Ear 2 -https://play.google.com/store/apps/details?id=com.evilduck.musiciankit&hl=en_GB&gl=US
Ultimately, it would be hugely beneficial to be able to skip the apps entirely and be able to transcribe for yourself by ear.
No problem! Glad I could help even in the slightest (:
Regarding ear training, I suppose you've heard of him, but Rick Beato has an excellent course on ear training. It certainly helped me a lot. Also, there a bunch of apps, like Perfect Ear, MyEarTraining and Functional Ear Trainer which I would wholeheartedly recomment if you're planning on getting into specifics of ear training.
Mgla is amazing! I just Love Antestor, you have really good taste in music! :D
Have fun learning them!
By the way, I hate to plug myself but I have a blackened death metal band/project and it'd be otherworldly to get your feedback!
The latest single can be found here and it'd pretty close to what you're listening to, except it's a bit modernized.
Take care!
Perfect Ear app is a great tool:
https://play.google.com/store/apps/details?id=com.evilduck.musiciankit
Perfect Ear and ChordProg Ear Trainer are great options.
As a side note, if you don't already have perfect pitch, you won't have it at all. The correct term would be "relative pitch". You can read more about it in this article from the FAQ.
For Android I recommend:
Also check the exercises at MusicTheory.net
I have used https://play.google.com/store/apps/details?id=com.evilduck.musiciankit quite a lot for ear training. This isn't exactly what you want, but it's a very good app.
To develop your ear I recommend the following:
About databases with key of the song, I recommend trying a google search like "[song name] music sheet" to get standard music notation, where it's very likely that the key signature will be written.
If you have some spare minutes, could you answer some quick surveys to improve our FAQ section? Official thread here.
Play store link
This is cool thing. Not a book, but still. https://play.google.com/store/apps/details?id=com.evilduck.musiciankit
I'd recommend to try this: https://play.google.com/store/apps/details?id=com.evilduck.musiciankit It's a very flexible app, you can even make your own chords and train them too
I've been using this one and I'm pretty happy with it:
https://play.google.com/store/apps/details?id=com.evilduck.musiciankit&hl=en_US
Simple, straigth-forward, easy to use.
I'll recommend a few: 1. Singing for dummies - you can find a free pdf version on epdfhub 2. New york vocal coaching - https://www.youtube.com/user/NewYorkVocalCoaching 3. Jacob vocal academy https://www.youtube.com/channel/UCc4sOlYxxoXNba2CYCRQJGw 4. Cheryl porter vocal coach - https://www.youtube.com/user/voicestudioit 5. Eric arceneaux (personal favorite for beginners, its how i started) - https://www.youtube.com/user/EricArceneaux 6. Ken tamplin vocal academy - looks kinda sketchy but gives amazing tips https://www.youtube.com/user/kentamplin 7. Felica ricci - https://www.youtube.com/user/madameunreality 8. Perfect ear (pitch training app, really important) - https://play.google.com/store/apps/details?id=com.evilduck.musiciankit 9. Vocaberry - good for vocal range and they have song tutorials too
I hope this helps💕
https://play.google.com/store/apps/details?id=com.evilduck.musiciankit
I think is one of the best apps on Android for practice music in general.
This is a good pitch training app for Android. https://play.google.com/store/apps/details?id=com.evilduck.musiciankit&hl=en_US
A different onem for iOS is Perfect Pitch, I believe:
https://play.google.com/store/apps/details?id=com.trifonopoulos.perfectPitchTrainer&hl=en_US
https://play.google.com/store/apps/details?id=com.evilduck.musiciankit
Idrk anything for iOS, but this one's pretty great
When I'm on my commute I practice mainly my hearing skills, at first I used Perfect Ear or any other ear trainer that suits you. Another helpful app is Chord Prog Ear Trainer.
When I got the hang of it, I began listening analytically to music, trying to feel each instrument, what they were playing, trying to figure out the chord progressions (and then verifying them with an app).
I also did digitation exercises, like the ones explained here.
I hope this helps you!
As I know, there is an Android app for that. Perfect Ear - Ear Trainer That's it?
I haven't found anything better than Perfect Ear for Android. It's about $3 for the full package.
Try Perfect Ear - Ear Trainer. It has sight-reading excercises, ear training, rhythm training, and a lot of other excercises.
this app is amazing!
used it for a week or so and now I feel pretty confident