👉 Get 20% off your first year of Chord Crush Premium: www.hooktheory.com/ryanleach 🎸 Why You Feel Nostalgia from this Angsty Chord ua-cam.com/video/SSbEV5BHDQg/v-deo.html
I was a tone deaf drummer my whole life until college. I started school as a percussion and switched to piano because I realized it would be more fruitful. So I started playing piano and ended up finishing with a piano performance degree. In regards to jury’s and barriers aural skills and ear training were my biggest set backs. The best thing to do for it is just emerge yourself in music. Now that I’ve been playing piano 10 years it’s so effortless. Playing piano really is a theory/ear training hack because you’re constantly applying it just playing the instrument
That's why teaching music in schools without kids simultaneously learning an instrument is weird. It literally only makes sense when you apply it. If everyone started learning an instrument at age 4 or 5 then music would be an easy thing that everybody could do.
I played trumpet. I was good. But I was a reader. I had no ear. I took a music theory class in college. But because I couldn't play a multi-note instrument, I did my homework like a math problem. No idea what it sounded like. A long long time later - after a lifetime of listening to all kinds of music - I began doing on the guitar what I wished I'd done at the beginning. Knowing tge theory did help, but... Ironically, my band leader said he could always tell people who started on piano. I eventually became first chair first, because I could play perfectly what I could read or had practiced. But that's not really the goal. It leaves out listening. I never realized until this week that jazz trumpet players also work on arpeggios. Hearing the intervals is so important I can't understand why they aren't at least pointed out at the beginning. For a trumpet it would be relatively easy. Same fingering, different lips, what's happening?
@@tompw3141 yeah obviously. I mean the practice of learning to sing scale degrees from memory as well as identifying them. Chords are made of notes so being able to identify notes really helps.
@tompw3141 the problem with this is: what do we do for chromaticism? Sharp 4? Flat 5? It's a mouthful. With solfege you just change the syllable. Mi turns to Me, Fa to Fi etc. It's a system that can actually be used for sight singing and dealing with modulations. Numbere are fine assuming the piece is entirely diatonic and no modulations take place.
From personal experience, it is 100% possible to learn to "hear" chords. I had no proper musical experience until around 2 years ago. I never used any apps, I simply played a lot each day, listening to a variety of songs and trying to identify the chords, and 2 years later, it is like second nature. An interesting thing is that I don't so much listen for the root (as you can have inversions, etc. which can make it a bit more ambiguous), but I assign a certain feeling to each chord, "getting to know" each chord in a way. It's incredible the amount of freedom it grants. If a song is stuck in my head, or I've even just heard a song, I can play it instantly on the piano, rather than spending a month learning it as I used to when I started out.
@@ShaharHarshuv Not sure what scale degrees are, again no formal music education..😅 But if this does answer your question, I don't think of chords in terms of any specific key (which actually comes in extremely handy for transposing!) To me, a 6 minor (vi using Roman Numerals notation) will have the same "feeling" no matter if its an 'Am' in the key of C, or a 'Bm' in the key of D, to me it just sounds like a 6m (vi). And so, if I hear a song and recognise its chords, I can not only play it back in the original key, but whatever key, without too much trouble :) If you think about everything relatively, there's actually only so few chords you have to "get to know". It's difficult to summarise in 1 comment, but I hope this helps :)
@@ShaharHarshuv Oh okay! Thanks! When I first started, I didn't know.. I just used numbers.. with an m next to it if it's minor (2m for example). This is the notation that my dad taught me when he introduced me to this way of playing. But I discovered the Roman Numerals from some UA-cam video a while ago, and found it to be very convenient!
Oh my god this is such a godsend. I was looking everywhere and didn't know what to follow because there were so many 'tip' videos that didn't provide long term solutions. But this app seems to teach you in a linear way where you just need to practice and it's just the type of thing I was looking for. Thank you!!
one of the biggest roadblocks in developing good aural skills is the way we teach music in schools. inevitably the most optimal way to teach 100-200 kids music at the same time will fail a certain percentage of overperformers and underperformers and sadly there is not an easy or obvious solution to this problem (other than lessons, we cannot count on lessons being the solution to this however, because there is not built in quality control to taking music lessons) that doesnt hurt the other % of students that are not affected. I learned harshly when I got into college that some people are destined for failure by their upbringings. I had to overcome a lot of barriers directly set by this huge emphasis on UIL myself and I even knew my junior and senior year not to spend all my time working on 3 etudes for UIL or whatever scholastic competition is regional and had I been given time (like in my senior year) to learn and ask high level questions in a 1 on 1 setting (outside of lessons, in mine and a lot of other cases, lessons do offset this problem a decent bit) its possibly I would have been more prepared for the polarizing shift in the level of material being presented. Surprisingly (its not suprising at all we have known this and the statistics back this up) stuffing 500+ kids in a building and teaching all of them at the same time will fail to a certain percentage. Lowering that percentage to the lowest possible point tends to again, hurt certain over and underperformers, in math, music, english, science. I could go on all day. Aural skills and having a good ear are devalued because of this method of teaching. The kids who will play the UIL etudes the most proficiently have likely spent less time practicing applicable music skills and (like with countless people I see now in college at UNT) they end up being behind when they arrive at college. and just like with so many before them, if they do end up underperforming, they switch to music education, which again failed these students in the first place. So the cycle continues. Videos like these are so increibly valuable for these kids, dont stop what you do. The actual effective solution to part of this problem is a universally available, free educational system to provide the knowledge typically only recieved from the most prestigious directors or from private lessons. for some students, this is the only way this information is presented.
and to be clear im not saying 'music education is bad' or 'music education doesnt work' because it isnt bad and it does work for a large percentage of people, its the entire point of our schooling system. Lower the amount of fails or subpar scores and they reward the school and teachers present, without considering who got left behind. A successful system would being everyone along and thats more my point. There HAS to be some way to decrease this over emphasis on scholastic competition and that very well may be by completely devaluing having students who achieve UIL success as a high school band director. Its not their success that causes these students to achieve. Sounds stupid when you say it out loud but imagine a world where band directors can just teach. Take the whole 'I need UIL students and a good UIL score to make the school district happy' out of the equation.
Playing a local production of Kiss Me Kate on guitar right now. It’s been a while since I had to do this much reading and one of the ways I’m keeping up with the task of reading as chords go flying by in cut time is to identify common progressions, key changes, etc. being able to hear a I VI II V when I see it on the page is really helpful - though the skills of reading and hearing chord progressions feel like they developed separately for me and have only recently started to merge.
@@RyanLeach Might I disagree? I believe a Dim is Double "contracted". A mere MINOR is singly contracted; whereas diminished seems 2 B a Minor twice removed.
First video I've seen of your channel. haha, I just bought my own "app", a piano. I've always joked that I was born with two left ears but at 65 it's time to learn a new language. I'll work on my fingers and hopefully that'll tickle my ears into learning this. But it looks very interesting.
I've tried Chord Crush before but it was too easy for me. Maybe I should try again at least until I get to where it's challenging. Edit: I just tried the training mode (I think for the first time) and it actually is kind of challenging! I like it! It uses real songs from UA-cam if you want!
Thank you for these type of videos! Usually when I'm making something I just do things until it sounds good, but now I'm starting to actually feel like I'm not faking it until I make it 😅
@@RyanLeach Thank you, but,unfortunately, your answer is not helpful because my question was about how to distinguish each individual note, because when a harmonic chord is played, I only hear one actual sound, (usually the tonic, if the chord is in the direct state)! How can I hear the other sounds (third and fifth)? Is there any method that can help us in this regard! Thank you!
@@dragoivasile1375 I am talking about hearing each note. Learn solfege, because once you can identify if a note is “do” or “mi” for example, then you’ll be able to hear “oh it’s do plus something else”. You can’t identify two notes at a time until you can identify one note at a time.
@@RyanLeachI have to say that I can hear each individual note very well and can accurately play each scale degree in the set key. The problem occurs when two or more notes are played simultaneously! Ex. I hear there is "DO and something else" but I hear it all as one sound, not two different sounds! As a result, I can't "isolate" the other note, and by default I can't even identify it. Please understand that this is my problem and I am wondering if you have any idea how I can overcome this obstacle in my hearing training!? Thank you very much for your pointed answer!
Wait but I don’t get how notes transcend instruments,,, like I don’t know bass so how am I to know that’s a C ,someone please explain how this works😭😭😭
I’m looking to learn music theory but I don’t know where to start. I already have a pretty basic understanding and are doing grade 8 guitar. Any suggestions for how I should learn?
I have been using Chord Crush for a while now, but don't get further than level 3 unfortunately. I somehow can't tell the difference, even mixing up minor and major at a certain point, even though I have been playing the piano for years to a satisfactory level. Any tips how to approach this? It's very frustrating.
@@RyanLeach No never did official solfege, but trying all sorts of things to get used to the interval sounds. Once i have it in C major and try to expand, it gets totally mixed up in my head, let alone inversions... impossible to do.
Thank you for the video. Too bad chord crush is not working on iPhone and iPad (You can't hear the chords). Is there other app that is working on mobile devices ?
Wow, this is really very helpful! Thanks so much! Maybe I can actually write something decent now, haha. ~ Ana P.s. Could you do some sort of video that involves the Fantastic Beast soundtracks by James Newton Howard? I just find the soundtrack(s) absolutely incredible and _fantastic_, and would love to hear what you generally think about it!
Is not true the statement that some people are tone deaf. Of course, some people have it really easy to find out intervals and coping melodies from ear (without absolute ear), and other people struggle more. But careful with that kind of statement Ryan, I love your channel, I know how you work hard in it (you can tell for the quality) and is amazing the information you bring to musicians around the world, but with statements like that, maybe people interesting in music say "naah, is not for me, I could never do it". And that's simple not true. If you want to hear more about why everyone disting tones and timbres, there are some talks from Benjamin Zander, where he explains that if exist people that are tone deaf, they can never drive a manual car, or recognaince in a milisecond the voice of their mother on the phone. And not only that is their mother, but how is she, just with "Hello". Again, I know you have the best intentions, I really love the channel, but statements like that can be discourege for people that struggle in the first years of music formation, and music is for everyone. And hope we don't lose in translation here (english is not my first language), the comment is with the best intention. Hope the channel keep growing, because is unique and really useful. Thank you Ryan, and best wishes!
Excerpt from Tone Deafness Explained from Harvard Medical School: "But researchers have found that only 1 in 20 people truly has amusia, the technical term for tone deafness. Tests have shown that some people with bad singing voices hear music just fine. Amusics are a smaller group with a perceptual problem: They can't pick out differences in pitch or follow the simplest tunes." www.sciencedaily.com/releases/2007/08/070823214755.htm
You can learn to HEAR chord changes FOR $79** I guess you've made it as a youtuber when you give your viewers the most basic tutorial on X disguised as an ad.
👉 Get 20% off your first year of Chord Crush Premium: www.hooktheory.com/ryanleach
🎸 Why You Feel Nostalgia from this Angsty Chord ua-cam.com/video/SSbEV5BHDQg/v-deo.html
Hey not sure why but this didn't pop up in my subscription tab even though im subscribed. Just fyi. Really love the videos!!
Hi
I was a tone deaf drummer my whole life until college. I started school as a percussion and switched to piano because I realized it would be more fruitful. So I started playing piano and ended up finishing with a piano performance degree. In regards to jury’s and barriers aural skills and ear training were my biggest set backs. The best thing to do for it is just emerge yourself in music. Now that I’ve been playing piano 10 years it’s so effortless. Playing piano really is a theory/ear training hack because you’re constantly applying it just playing the instrument
Those poor drummers in my ear training classes..
That's why teaching music in schools without kids simultaneously learning an instrument is weird. It literally only makes sense when you apply it. If everyone started learning an instrument at age 4 or 5 then music would be an easy thing that everybody could do.
I played trumpet. I was good. But I was a reader. I had no ear. I took a music theory class in college. But because I couldn't play a multi-note instrument, I did my homework like a math problem. No idea what it sounded like. A long long time later - after a lifetime of listening to all kinds of music - I began doing on the guitar what I wished I'd done at the beginning. Knowing tge theory did help, but... Ironically, my band leader said he could always tell people who started on piano. I eventually became first chair first, because I could play perfectly what I could read or had practiced. But that's not really the goal. It leaves out listening. I never realized until this week that jazz trumpet players also work on arpeggios. Hearing the intervals is so important I can't understand why they aren't at least pointed out at the beginning. For a trumpet it would be relatively easy. Same fingering, different lips, what's happening?
I think "solfegge" is underestimated. For me it was a game changer for ear training. I recommend any one who struggles to learn it.
Going 1, 2, 3, 4 etc. up the scale also works. Rather than going "fah, which is the fourth degree of the scale", you can just go "4".
@@tompw3141 yeah obviously. I mean the practice of learning to sing scale degrees from memory as well as identifying them.
Chords are made of notes so being able to identify notes really helps.
@@ShaharHarshuv Exactly!
How do you apply it?
@tompw3141 the problem with this is: what do we do for chromaticism? Sharp 4? Flat 5? It's a mouthful. With solfege you just change the syllable. Mi turns to Me, Fa to Fi etc. It's a system that can actually be used for sight singing and dealing with modulations. Numbere are fine assuming the piece is entirely diatonic and no modulations take place.
From personal experience, it is 100% possible to learn to "hear" chords. I had no proper musical experience until around 2 years ago.
I never used any apps, I simply played a lot each day, listening to a variety of songs and trying to identify the chords, and 2 years later, it is like second nature.
An interesting thing is that I don't so much listen for the root (as you can have inversions, etc. which can make it a bit more ambiguous), but I assign a certain feeling to each chord, "getting to know" each chord in a way.
It's incredible the amount of freedom it grants. If a song is stuck in my head, or I've even just heard a song, I can play it instantly on the piano, rather than spending a month learning it as I used to when I started out.
I'm curious... do you think of scale degrees when you do that or just the chord names?
@@ShaharHarshuv Not sure what scale degrees are, again no formal music education..😅
But if this does answer your question, I don't think of chords in terms of any specific key (which actually comes in extremely handy for transposing!)
To me, a 6 minor (vi using Roman Numerals notation) will have the same "feeling" no matter if its an 'Am' in the key of C, or a 'Bm' in the key of D, to me it just sounds like a 6m (vi).
And so, if I hear a song and recognise its chords, I can not only play it back in the original key, but whatever key, without too much trouble :)
If you think about everything relatively, there's actually only so few chords you have to "get to know".
It's difficult to summarise in 1 comment, but I hope this helps :)
@@darkalligraph So the answer is yes. vi is the scale degree (6).
Did you know about Roman numerals before you started practicing?
@@ShaharHarshuv Oh okay! Thanks!
When I first started, I didn't know.. I just used numbers.. with an m next to it if it's minor (2m for example). This is the notation that my dad taught me when he introduced me to this way of playing.
But I discovered the Roman Numerals from some UA-cam video a while ago, and found it to be very convenient!
@@darkalligraph So my friend you would just get familar with chords and their sound / feeling and thas how you improved your ear?
Oh my god this is such a godsend. I was looking everywhere and didn't know what to follow because there were so many 'tip' videos that didn't provide long term solutions. But this app seems to teach you in a linear way where you just need to practice and it's just the type of thing I was looking for. Thank you!!
This is exactly the video I was looking for. Thanks so much! Hope this gets more view over the years
Why the heck do they charge $49 per year? Seems like they’d sell a butt load of them if they just charged even $9.99 once.
one of the biggest roadblocks in developing good aural skills is the way we teach music in schools.
inevitably the most optimal way to teach 100-200 kids music at the same time will fail a certain percentage of overperformers and underperformers and sadly there is not an easy or obvious solution to this problem (other than lessons, we cannot count on lessons being the solution to this however, because there is not built in quality control to taking music lessons) that doesnt hurt the other % of students that are not affected. I learned harshly when I got into college that some people are destined for failure by their upbringings. I had to overcome a lot of barriers directly set by this huge emphasis on UIL myself and I even knew my junior and senior year not to spend all my time working on 3 etudes for UIL or whatever scholastic competition is regional and had I been given time (like in my senior year) to learn and ask high level questions in a 1 on 1 setting (outside of lessons, in mine and a lot of other cases, lessons do offset this problem a decent bit) its possibly I would have been more prepared for the polarizing shift in the level of material being presented.
Surprisingly (its not suprising at all we have known this and the statistics back this up) stuffing 500+ kids in a building and teaching all of them at the same time will fail to a certain percentage. Lowering that percentage to the lowest possible point tends to again, hurt certain over and underperformers, in math, music, english, science. I could go on all day. Aural skills and having a good ear are devalued because of this method of teaching. The kids who will play the UIL etudes the most proficiently have likely spent less time practicing applicable music skills and (like with countless people I see now in college at UNT) they end up being behind when they arrive at college.
and just like with so many before them, if they do end up underperforming, they switch to music education, which again failed these students in the first place. So the cycle continues.
Videos like these are so increibly valuable for these kids, dont stop what you do. The actual effective solution to part of this problem is a universally available, free educational system to provide the knowledge typically only recieved from the most prestigious directors or from private lessons. for some students, this is the only way this information is presented.
and to be clear im not saying 'music education is bad' or 'music education doesnt work' because it isnt bad and it does work for a large percentage of people, its the entire point of our schooling system. Lower the amount of fails or subpar scores and they reward the school and teachers present, without considering who got left behind. A successful system would being everyone along and thats more my point. There HAS to be some way to decrease this over emphasis on scholastic competition and that very well may be by completely devaluing having students who achieve UIL success as a high school band director. Its not their success that causes these students to achieve. Sounds stupid when you say it out loud but imagine a world where band directors can just teach. Take the whole 'I need UIL students and a good UIL score to make the school district happy' out of the equation.
That thumbnail is everything
Haha thanks, I keep trying out different variations
Playing a local production of Kiss Me Kate on guitar right now. It’s been a while since I had to do this much reading and one of the ways I’m keeping up with the task of reading as chords go flying by in cut time is to identify common progressions, key changes, etc. being able to hear a I VI II V when I see it on the page is really helpful - though the skills of reading and hearing chord progressions feel like they developed separately for me and have only recently started to merge.
Thanks for your time. I’m just tired of the subscription services. I prefer free with ads or one time but. Sorry
Idk why I watched all the way through, but I did. Hope this helps the algorithm
Thank you for your service
Ryan, thank you so much for all the tips you offer for us on your channel! You made the difference for me to start mine! 🎻🎺📯🎷🥁🎹
That's fantastic!
@@RyanLeach Might I disagree? I believe a Dim is Double "contracted". A mere MINOR is singly contracted; whereas diminished seems 2 B a Minor twice removed.
First video I've seen of your channel. haha, I just bought my own "app", a piano. I've always joked that I was born with two left ears but at 65 it's time to learn a new language. I'll work on my fingers and hopefully that'll tickle my ears into learning this. But it looks very interesting.
Great tool I will definitely check it out!
Let us know how it goes!
Thank you so much for your tutorials keeps my music theory fresh for producing.🎵🎶🎵
I've tried Chord Crush before but it was too easy for me. Maybe I should try again at least until I get to where it's challenging.
Edit: I just tried the training mode (I think for the first time) and it actually is kind of challenging! I like it! It uses real songs from UA-cam if you want!
Thank you for these type of videos! Usually when I'm making something I just do things until it sounds good, but now I'm starting to actually feel like I'm not faking it until I make it 😅
Nice explanation.
Awesome
Hello! Do you know how to train the ear in order to hear a lot of notes played simultaneously?
once you are good at one note at a time move to two at a time, slowly. Don't just dive in and try to hear every note in a symphony as it flies past
@@RyanLeach Thank you, but,unfortunately, your answer is not helpful because my question was about how to distinguish each individual note, because when a harmonic chord is played, I only hear one actual sound, (usually the tonic, if the chord is in the direct state)! How can I hear the other sounds (third and fifth)? Is there any method that can help us in this regard! Thank you!
@@dragoivasile1375 I am talking about hearing each note. Learn solfege, because once you can identify if a note is “do” or “mi” for example, then you’ll be able to hear “oh it’s do plus something else”. You can’t identify two notes at a time until you can identify one note at a time.
@@RyanLeachI have to say that I can hear each individual note very well and can accurately play each scale degree in the set key. The problem occurs when two or more notes are played simultaneously! Ex. I hear there is "DO and something else" but I hear it all as one sound, not two different sounds! As a result, I can't "isolate" the other note, and by default I can't even identify it. Please understand that this is my problem and I am wondering if you have any idea how I can overcome this obstacle in my hearing training!? Thank you very much for your pointed answer!
Good Topic Ryan
Thanks Rod!
Wait but I don’t get how notes transcend instruments,,, like I don’t know bass so how am I to know that’s a C ,someone please explain how this works😭😭😭
I’m looking to learn music theory but I don’t know where to start. I already have a pretty basic understanding and are doing grade 8 guitar. Any suggestions for how I should learn?
Maybe check out HookTheory's music theory online books www.hooktheory.com/books
Just tried Chord Crush. It's honestly a good project but REALLY lacks finition right now. I strongly suggest waiting before buying anything.
Finition lol.
@@johnmc3862 Huhu he said "Finition lol." lol
I have been using Chord Crush for a while now, but don't get further than level 3 unfortunately. I somehow can't tell the difference, even mixing up minor and major at a certain point, even though I have been playing the piano for years to a satisfactory level. Any tips how to approach this? It's very frustrating.
Have you studied solfege at all? It might help you hear the specific intervals more clearly
@@RyanLeach No never did official solfege, but trying all sorts of things to get used to the interval sounds. Once i have it in C major and try to expand, it gets totally mixed up in my head, let alone inversions... impossible to do.
I imagine this would be very good for helping one imagine chord progressions in one's "mind's ear" when working with theory/harmony questions.
Thanks I was just wondering about this yesterday!
Awesome, the UA-cam mind reading features are working out great!
5:09 xDDDD
I associate chords with emotion and how they impact behaviors. Music can influence certain behaviors in some.
Wow, me too!
Thank you for this precious knowledge sir 🙇🏾♂️
Great lesson!
Cheeky shoutout to Rick Beato's ear training course!
Nice
Thank you for the video. Too bad chord crush is not working on iPhone and iPad (You can't hear the chords). Is there other app that is working on mobile devices ?
It's working for me on my iPhone with Chrome
@@RyanLeach Thanks, it’s seems they fixed the issue in the latest release
This is an 8 minute commercial....
This lesson was really interesting and informative. Would you be so kind as to do an example following this video?
Comment 🤖
Reply 🤖
Wow, this is really very helpful! Thanks so much! Maybe I can actually write something decent now, haha.
~ Ana
P.s. Could you do some sort of video that involves the Fantastic Beast soundtracks by James Newton Howard? I just find the soundtrack(s) absolutely incredible and _fantastic_, and would love to hear what you generally think about it!
Is not true the statement that some people are tone deaf. Of course, some people have it really easy to find out intervals and coping melodies from ear (without absolute ear), and other people struggle more. But careful with that kind of statement Ryan, I love your channel, I know how you work hard in it (you can tell for the quality) and is amazing the information you bring to musicians around the world, but with statements like that, maybe people interesting in music say "naah, is not for me, I could never do it". And that's simple not true. If you want to hear more about why everyone disting tones and timbres, there are some talks from Benjamin Zander, where he explains that if exist people that are tone deaf, they can never drive a manual car, or recognaince in a milisecond the voice of their mother on the phone. And not only that is their mother, but how is she, just with "Hello". Again, I know you have the best intentions, I really love the channel, but statements like that can be discourege for people that struggle in the first years of music formation, and music is for everyone.
And hope we don't lose in translation here (english is not my first language), the comment is with the best intention. Hope the channel keep growing, because is unique and really useful. Thank you Ryan, and best wishes!
Excerpt from Tone Deafness Explained from Harvard Medical School: "But researchers have found that only 1 in 20 people truly has amusia, the technical term for tone deafness. Tests have shown that some people with bad singing voices hear music just fine. Amusics are a smaller group with a perceptual problem: They can't pick out differences in pitch or follow the simplest tunes."
www.sciencedaily.com/releases/2007/08/070823214755.htm
Im afraid that i might be tone deaf 😢
Major chords can be sad depending on how you use them likewise with minor chords
You can learn to HEAR chord changes FOR $79**
I guess you've made it as a youtuber when you give your viewers the most basic tutorial on X disguised as an ad.
I think you got it backwards
If you're tone deaf, your mother-in-law may just be able to assist.
Such a poor/babyish looking app interface, even if it might work that puts me off completely.