The Most Basic Ear Training Exercise For Beginners

                This is a preliminary step for interval ear training and chords ear training. Do you want to play songs on your instrument immediately after you listen to them? Mastering this exercise is the very first baby step to achieve that ultimate goal. Practicing this exercise regularly will definitely yield result within a couple of weeks.

Finding Unison

When you play 2 same notes which may or may not be from a different octave it is called unison. Finding this unison is the exercise. Let me give you some examples. (Play these examples on your instrument to understand them).

These 2 are both 'C' notes in the same octave. So they are unison. Let's see another example.

Here one is a 'C' note and another is an 'A' note. They are different notes. So this is NOT a unison. Let's see one last example. Then you are good to go.

This time it's both 'C' notes but in a different octave. Though they are in different octaves they both are 'C' notes. So this is also considered as unison.

Ready to test yourself? 

Try out these exciting 1 min challenges. You can play the given note as many times as you want. Just click on the speaker icon if you want to repeat the question. You are allowed to use your piano / keyboard to try and match the given sound.

For beginners this test works by trial and error. So if your first few guesses didn't match the question, don't lose hope. Every time you don't get a match, you are one step closer to the answer by eliminating the wrong answers. So once you are sure that it's not a match, immediately go for your next guess.

 

Note : Don't blindly tap the keys in a random manner. There are chances that you will repeat the wrong answers again and again. So once you are 100% sure that your guess is NOT a match, NEVER repeat that note again.

 

Black keys test - There are only 5 black keys. This is the easy one. So try this first. 

White keys test - 5 keys are too easy for you? Try this. Now you have 7 keys.

The ultimate final test - Mastered both of the above exercises? Try this final test. Now you have all the 12 keys.

Result

Accuracy : Above 90% is good. Recognizing the same note is the first step for all other exercises like interval ear training and chords ear training. So keep the errors as low as possible.

Score > 20 : You have unbelievable ears. (Or you might have perfect pitch).

Score > 5 : Excellent!!

Score > 3 : Great!

Score > 0 : Good! You are getting there. Give another try. Be a little quicker this time.

Score = 0 : Not very confident? No problem. Just give another try. Keep on trying. This exercise can be a little tricky for some people.

 

Note : More than getting a higher score, concentrate on never getting false negative. That is, when your guess is same note as the note given in the question, you should be able to recognize the match every single time. You should NEVER mistake it for a mismatch.

The systematic method 

There is a proper systematic method to do this exercise. But unfortunately this may not be suitable for all beginners. Nonetheless we will see this method.

 

For this method you have to compare your guess with the given note. If your guess is lower in pitch than the given note in the question, your next guess should be any note higher in pitch than your current guess. Similarly, vice versa for the other way around. This method will get you the answer quickly. But the problem is that beginners might find it difficult to compare and determine if their guess is higher or lower than the given note in the question. So use this method only if it really works for you.