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[dahans]

You sillies. Have you not considered dyads?

I have looked for a German translation but didn't find one. I guess we call it interval in German, whereas you have a special term for it. Funny^^.

[Ruto]

I've only heard the term interval, lol...

[Olimar12345]

An interval is just the distance between two notes, so a triad has three intervals-the distance between the root and the third, the third and the fifth, and the root and the fifth.

[Taser9090]

The end of the school year is coming to a near and I did not learn much on ear training.

The process seems mind boggling; you find the key and time signature, find the rhythm and pitch. Just thinking about it makes my head spin. You guys must have super brains to do this.

[FireArrow]

I'm learning to play by ear and it really isn't as difficult as I initially thought it would be.

Just practice, a lot. The funny thing is, I found that one of the best ways to do that is to try and arrange a song - no matter how badly it ends up coming out.

[Jompa]

The only "hard" thing, is to find the pitch of the song (the key), but as long as you have an instrument there is absolutely no problem.

One does not recognize notes, that is literally absolutely impossible without an absolute pitch, which I don't think any of us here have.
So Instead of "recognizing them" you can hear the interval between the note and tonica. Get it? You don't recognize the note, you recognize the interval. And because you have tonica as a source, you don't need absolute pitch, or even any exeptional relative pitch for that matter, to do this.

So why are some people having trouble? - they simply don't recognize the interval.
So that is the field one is supposed to practice - intervals.

[Ricky]

Recognizing the correct pitch is possible with lots of practice, so basically absolute pitch or "very good relative pitch" as it's been named here sometimes is possible but anyways. If you're interested try the Pitch Paths method and follow the schedule suggested in the method. But either way, lets talk about other types of ear training. I would say that you should start with the most basic things first: recognizing basic rhythms and all the intervals up to an octave, first ascending and then descending and harmonic (try this site: http://www.trainear.com/). And no it's not about superior brains in the end, it's about what you practice, how you practice and how much you practice. Basically to progress quicker practice the right thing, practice it the right way and practice it enough (better a few mins a day than an hour a week or so). Ear training takes lots of time so don't worry too much. Once you can handle the intervals quite good you should practice recognizing short musical patterns without considering rhythm and then melodic dictation where you have both rhythm and note patterns to notate.

[Jompa]

Recognizing the correct pitch is possible with "very good relative pitch".

That is not what relative pitch is for. What you call possible falls under guessing and luck.
There is no "degree" of absolute pitch. Either you have it, or you don't, and there is an unjumpable gap between.

[Olimar12345]

Don't listen to him, Ricky. You're right-it is possible to recognize individual pitches through relative pitch. Not only am I my own example, but we teach it over here at UH and HCC.

Jompa, every time you post about this topic, you make it into this black-and-white, can/can't argument, and that's not what relative pitch is. I could sit here and explain the process if audition, but until you try it for yourself you'll never understand.

[SlowPokemon]

That is not what relative pitch is for. What you call possible falls under guessing and luck.
There is no "degree" of absolute pitch. Either you have it, or you don't, and there is an unjumpable gap between.

I'm sorry but I just don't think this is accurate. I can for example recognize a D, or a B, or a few others just by hearing the pitch, but for others I require relative pitch to figure out.

[Ricky]

We had this discussion several times. Recognizing individual pitches is a matter of memory. It's hard to memorize but it's possible (for example by associating pitches to beginning of pieces, which is what the Pitch Paths method builds upon) and requires lots of listening. Like Olimar said it's not really black and white. I for example can (at least from the practice files which come with the Pitch Paths method and ones I made myself) recognize most pitches when listening. I sometimes get things slightly wrong by a semitone or sometimes more but it depends alot on the instrument (pitches on piano are easier for me to recognize as I've practiced them the longest). I'm actually listening to one of the practice files right now (played with C Trumpet) and just recognized an Ab by association to the beginning of Moonlight Sonata.

[FireArrow]

How do you recognize tones by memorizing the first note of a song? I just end up singing the song in a different key >.>

And Jompa is completely correct on how you can figure out a note by it's interval with the tonic (which you guys aren't arguing about, but I think It's the best way to arrange.)

This is the ear trainer I use (correct me if I'm wrong, but I think this is what you mean Jompa.)

[Bubbles]

How do you recognize tones by memorizing the first note of a song? I just end up singing the song in a different key >.>

For me, if I listen to the song enough I eventually can hear it in the right key, but for most songs I transfer it to a different key accidentally. My piano has a very distinct F key, and since I abuse Lost Woods I can usually tell when a song starts with an F or has a strong one in it somewhere

[Jompa]

If you are presented with a note, lets say G, and you also get to know that it is G, and then you get to get to hear a piece in lets say F major:
If this happens then it is possible to hear that it is in F <-- this is what relative pitch does.
^Actually, this is very easy to do! But it is not a case of absolute pitch.

@Slow: it makes no sense that you can hear some specific pitches, like D and B, but you need help for other notes: if what you say is true, then you should absolutely be able to make out what any note is, from this D or B that you say you have in your head. Y'know; intervals:)
Also, if what you say is true, then you have absolute pitch - no doubt.
But the way you describe it, I would say your so-far successes with B and D, have either been luck, or a case of the method I wrote above this.
Don't forget, that the pitch of the last song you heard, can be kept in your head for a little while..
I think what I said was pretty accurate.

@Ricky: I think you are talking about intervals? Am I wrong?
If this is what you mean, then that is something you can hear even with a bad relative pitch. And this is what should be practiced. When hearing intervals you always have some note(usually the tonica) to "compare" the unknown note to.
Everyone knows a third when they hear one, so if one is played in a song in Bb major, you know right away that the note is a D.
Am I on a different subject now?

Anyways, this has nothing to do with "recognizing notes", as FireArrow
Puts it.

@FireArrow:
Oh good good, you actually understood my point!:) awesome! Then that should lead straight to where you want! I can't seem to open the link, but yes thereare plenty of eartraining-stuff that helps with hearing which interval an exact note is on!
I am in music high school, and I have a subject called "listening". So I've gotten quite the training on this.
Another tip: in most songs - simple songs - where the melody holds itself within the key at all times (this is where I refer to Pop); there literally only are seven different tones the melody can build itself on. Therefore recognizing the notes in the melody can also be as easy as just playing it right of the bat - I do this all the time - I hear a song, and I simply just play it - nothing more.
How, you ask? Well this is sorta subconscicious interval action: You will learn to trust how the intervals make out the melody, and eventuallly this will make you able to get a note picture in your head from just hearing the song. Yes, it is wonderful.
My golden rule is: "you can play ANYTHING as long as you can sing it!" The only thing in the way of this is that most people don't even dare to try:)

[Ricky]

@Ricky: I think you are talking about intervals? Am I wrong?
If this is what you mean, then that is something you can hear even with a bad relative pitch. And this is what should be practiced. When hearing intervals you always have some note(usually the tonica) to "compare" the unknown note to.
Everyone knows a third when they hear one, so if one is played in a song in Bb major, you know right away that the note is a D.
Am I on a different subject now?

I thought I was clear but I suppose I wasn't. The idea in the Pitch Paths method is that you first fix the association of each pitch to a piece that starts of the pitch, for example E for Fur Elise, Ab for Moonlight Sonata, D for Minuet in G (the famous one often referred to as written by J.S. Bach but it was actually written by Christian Petzold) and so on. Then once you've done enough practice in fixing the memory of a pitch to a specific piece you test your recognition for tones not intervals. Then if you do a test which happens to start on lets say Ab (or any other of the 12 pitches if you let Windows Media Player order things randomly) you recognize that tone by associating it with what you have in your memory (the first tone of Moonlight Sonata which is Ab) without a direct reference (so no piano, no notation program, nothing basically) except your long term memory.