Student’s question:
Hello Mireia,
I love the IFR approach to ear training! I would like to start learning from one of your ear training video courses, but how can I decide which course might be more appropriate for me: Ear Training for Musical Creativity 1 or Recognizing Chords by Ear? And can I take them both at once?
Thanks,
Andrew
Mireia’s response:
Hi Andrew,
I’ll explain a little bit more about the two courses to help you decide which one is best for you.
Ear Training for Musical Creativity 1 will teach you how to recognize melody notes by ear. With each lesson I give you singing exercises, creative exercises with your instrument, listening activities and self-tests. Through the organized exercises you will learn to feel the sounds of the major scale in relation to the key, know where they are located and find them right away on your instrument without having to fumble for the notes. To decide if this course is right for you, the question to ask is whether you are currently able to recognize the notes of the major scale in songs and melodies that are based in a major key. For example when you listen to simple music like pop songs, are you able to instantly recognize the melody notes by ear? If that’s still a challenge for you, then this course is exactly where you should start.
Recognizing Chords by Ear is focused on chords and chord progressions. In this course you will learn how chords feel in relation to the tonal center. You’ll learn to hear the individual notes that make up each chord, and you’ll learn to harmonize melodies with your own choice of chords. It’s not a prerequisite to take the other course before you can take this one. But you will take more advantage of this course if you can already recognize the notes of the major scale by ear, because we’re going to use that ability in this course as well. So if you can already play simple melodies by ear and you are interested in learning to recognize chords and chord changes by ear, this course is your ideal next step.
I love that you want to take both courses at once! But I suggest you take them one at a time and I’ll explain why. A big part of what makes our method so successful is to assimilate the sounds in a precise order, and to become deeply familiar with these sounds before moving on. What we want is total immersion in the sounds so that these sounds can become truly “yours” before moving on. If you’re trying to do another course in parallel, you won’t get the benefit of this immersion and this will greatly slow down your learning. So the best place to start is with Ear Training for Musical Creativity 1. This will give you the perfect foundation in ear training that will serve you for the rest of your life, and it will prepare you to be very successful with the second course as well.
All the best,
Mireia
The ear training program that actually works
The ear training program that actually works
Both video courses are part of our Membership. Join today and start your ear training journey!
Thousands of musicians have tried every ear training method out there. Our ear training program is the one they come back to — and the one they won’t stop recommending.
