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Comment by chris_st | Hacker News Reader

Levi Clay has done a bunch of ear training content which is fantastic, but it's only available via his Patreon page. Notably, he's going for hearing intervals first (that is, hearing it internally before playing the interval), then playing them/singing them/etc. Made a huge difference for me. [1]

This short video is awesome for ear-training for anyone -- it's presented for guitar, but it's general, with some fantastic exercises. Pretty audacious claim at the end, which I intend to test over the next few weeks :-) [2]

1: https://www.patreon.com/m/578011/posts?filters[tag]=Ear%20Tr...

2: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=NX61J18YcHk

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Thank you for mentioning this resource.

Btw I really think that the world's obsession with learning to hear intervals before hearing harmony qualities (minor triad, major triad, dominant seventh, diminished), and before hearing harmonies within a key (I or i, V, pre-dominants, VI or vi, V/V) is a wrong order to master things. I still can't solidly tell apart a minor sixth from a major sixth, but so what? The more important skill to me is to focus on a chord that currently sounds, so that I can interact with the real tonal language (homophony) of the last 2.5 centuries. This way I can eg. play by ear the melodies with chords that stuck in my head (including from way in the past).

We switched from polyphony and intervals on top of each other to chord progressions around Bach's time, and since then intervals aren't the main thing, I'd say.

Which one of your resources would be most relevant if I would like to start as you recommend by learning to hear harmony qualities and then to hear them within a key?

I'd recommend to start with HookTheory (either books or free resources). I'm hesitant about their latest ChordCrush, I played with it a tiny bit and I think it's weaker than it might be (too tiktok'ee).

Then depending on your tastes (i.e. whether you like classical or not), I'd either watch some of https://www.youtube.com/playlist?list=PL613D1A6B3C4BBDF2 or even try to listen examples mentioned in "Christopher Doll. Hearing Harmony" or watch some harmonic dictations (either YouTube or Artusi or https://www.teoria.com/en/exercises/)

> Pretty audacious claim at the end, which I intend to test over the next few weeks :-)

Well not any, like that, but at least any simple melodies should be easy peasy. Larger interval jumps are harder to hear/identify and moreso if they're fast.

In any case learning to sing what you play is really really useful ear training!

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