Violin Forum/Message Board

[Amalia]

Thought I'd post my favorite link to an on-line interval ear trainer:

http://musictheory.net/trainers/html/id90_en.html

[techfiddle]

I have a bunch of theory stuff online also:

Theory Notes - Printable version
http://beststudentviolins.com/TheoryNotes.html

Music History/Theory Guide to Studying for Placement Tests
http://beststudentviolins.com/guide.html

MP3 Files: Tonality, Meter, String Articulations
http://beststudentviolins.com/SoundFiles.html

Math/Music/Literacy Curriculum Unit
http://beststudentviolins.com/curriculum.html

Free Handouts
http://beststudentviolins.com/resources.html#handouts
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Internet resources for string players,
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http://beststudentviolins.com/Home.html

[John Cadd]

I just tried the first test and quite frankly I was rubbish.I have a good ear but never did this sort of test in my life.The closest was singing Gregorian Chant in the school choir.You needed to imagine the note from the archaic 4 line (square notes ) manuscript.
It hasn`t been a drawback so far,but if I needed to communicate with somebody else it would a major problem.
In an orchestra you just listened to the conductor who told you --"Bar 43 pianissimo", and away we went.
I have never played piano so the sounds of the notes were confusing .Does that make sense? It is very similar to when I recently took up classical guitar.I found the low notes hard to tune in.My ear was not practiced with the frequency or the tone.I have adjusted now.

[John Cadd]

Here`s a question for Techfiddle---If you go to a concert do you find yourself thinking Exposition Recapitulation etc etc or do you switch all that off and feel the music? Does all that technical jargon spoil the freshness of the music? If I had to grow really old and senile and could only remember the last half hour the ideal would be to hear every piece of music as if for the first time.Perfect!
Maybe Heaven would be Beethoven`s Minuet in G ,on a Strad,for Eternity. Who knows?

[Amalia]

Amezcua, was it my link that you tried? I was surprised to find out how badly I did the first time I tried it too. OH MY! I have always been told I have a good ear but even after practicing for awhile I still could not do that test very easily, certainly not the minor intervals. So I began working on it a few intervals at a time, associating each interval with the first 2 notes of a familiar song (a perfect 5th would be TWINKLE TWINKLE for example).

Anyway, I'm apparently NOT a natural at this, but since I've learned to recognize and indentify these intervals I have become MUCH more focused on the sound of the specific intervals AS I AM PLAYING (rather then focusing on which finger/which spot on the fingerboard) and it has really helped! I find that my "finger memory" has improved drastically ... or maybe it wasn't my "finger memory" that was lacking. Maybe it was my ear training! Now, after the initial learning of the piece, I'm playing far more by "ear" than by "geography". I've also found it MUCH easier to learn difficult new passages, and to memorize them. Now, instead of aiming at the sound/melody of the whole line or passage of music, I begin by focusing on each specific interval and it's specific sound. After a few lines I hardly need any more "warm-up" of any kind, and this new attention to the sound seems to pull everything else together and helps to free me from struggling over the notes. At that point I can move on and think about all those other things that make music beautiful.

Perhaps, I'm not explaining it well, but I have been OVERJOYED with what this has done for my playing. I feel like I just discovered a giant short-cut to beautiful violin playing.

[John Cadd]

Yes Amalia the first one.Hopeless first attempt.I shall be coming back to that one.It is a thing you can learn.Very glad it worked so well for you.Similar to what you say is the way that playing a tune suddenly becomes easy when you recognise it from a radio concert or from childhood.I don`t play by ear but there is some connection that triggers the old grey cells.
I was also reminded when I chatted with my lady violin teacher (with a charming lisp,but we won`t go into that) and I was amazed that she could not whistle a tune.How can you be a musician and not whistle? Not all the time but sometimes a snatch of a quartet while cooking some toast,a bit of Mozart in the shower some Beatles as you tie your laces. Is there a new topic here?

[John Cadd]

Spot the odd one out Sago,Semolina,Hemiola.