In jazz, one of the best ways to learn a tune, is to study the recordings of the masters…īut, learning tunes like this is not easy.

Apply alterations to chords while soloingīut as you can see the jazz musician has to get beyond the basics and internalize a wide variety of sounds in order to hear, play, react, and lead in the moment.Īnd although all of these points are important, you’ll probably use your ear the most to do these 3 crucial activities… 1.) Learn Tunes From Recordings.

Easily transcribe jazz solos and language.

Be able to hear altered & upper structure chord tones.

Deal with chords changing in the moment by the comping instrument.

Learn the melody and chord changes of tunes from recordings.

Create melodies over chords in real-time.

Understand and use chord voicings, not just root position chords.

Improvise over many chords, not just a single chord vamp.

Jazz is all about how you hear, so it makes sense that we require a deeper aural knowledge, so now let’s get into the specific requirements for a jazz musician… The ear training requirements of a jazz musicianĪ jazz musician has specific ear training requirements because they’re dealing with situations that you simply don’t encounter in other music. So the very first thing to understand about ear training specifically for jazz, is that you have to get the sounds you’re studying to a much deeper level than you might need to for any other type of music. Your goal is to automatically know without thinking that it’s a major third, and in jazz, this is a requirement because knowing this aural knowledge is how you play, how you practice, and how you learn. You shouldn’t have to think… hmmmm It sounds like a major third, but it might be a minor third. Nothing in ear training should be guesswork. In many general ear training choruses, the ear training mindset is treated much like guesswork – you listen to a sound and take your best guess as to what it is, and if you get the correct answer, then you’re the big winner and you move on. The very first difference has to do with the mindset…

Okay, so let’s get into what makes ear training in jazz a bit different… A deeper level of ear training You continually study the sounds you want to get familiar with and ingrain them on a deeper and deeper level until they click.

You see, ear training is something you do every single day on your own – a daily practice, pushing your ear forward, building upon your current aural knowledge while continually strengthening your fundamentals.Įar training is not difficult or magical. I will say though, no formal ear training class gave me the necessary ear training tools and techniques to develop as an improviser.įirst off, the specific aspects of jazz ear training that make it different from general ear training are rarely talked about, or even thought about, so most ear training classes typically go about teaching ear training in a general way.Īnd secondly, ear training isn’t really meant for the classroom… Over the years, I’ve taken quite a few general ear training classes and had both positive and negative experiences.

They both focus on intervals, chords, root movement, and have other common ground, but how are they actually different? Jazz ear training – What makes it different from general ear training? That’s a great question and when a reader recently asked this, it definitely made me think.

Music theory aural training