If you think that “an elephant has stepped on your ear” and you will never be able to perceive the sounds around you the way people who are gifted with an ear for music from birth perceive them, then you are deeply mistaken. Develop ear for music not as difficult as you think. And today we will give you some tips to help you do this.

First, let's look at the types of hearing. To develop an ear for music, we need to hone:

• Rhythmic hearing. That is, learn to hear and feel the rhythm.
• Melodic ear is the ability to understand the movement and structure of music and hear its subtleties.
• Relative - hearing that allows you to understand the size of musical intervals and pitch.
• Inner hearing is the hearing that allows you to clearly imagine music and individual sounds in your thoughts.
• Ear of intonation, which allows you to understand the character and tone of music.

Of course there are many more types hearing, but we will focus on these five, since they are enough to gain an ear for music.

So, what do we need to do to train these types of hearing?

1. Musical instrument

The ideal way to “pump up” all types of hearing is to start learning to play an instrument. This way, you'll remember how each note should sound, train your sense of rhythm, and generally begin to understand music better. But since you most likely don't have time to learn how to play a musical instrument, let's move on.

2. Singing

If you don't have a piano at home, find one online version on the Internet and play scales on it several times every day and sing them along with the piano. As you begin to feel confident with scales, move on to intervals, chords, and simple melodies. The main thing is don't be shy. If you are afraid that someone will hear you, try to train while you are alone at home. But in fact, there is nothing shameful here! Just remember karaoke bars, where people, to put it mildly, without voice or hearing, sing so loudly that they can be heard outside the bar.

3. Meditation

We called this point that because the exercise we are about to tell you about is very similar to meditation practices for beginners. It will help you develop awareness of sounds.

Walk on the street without headphones, trying to catch snippets of conversations, the noise of trees, the sound of cars, the sound of heels on the asphalt; the way a dog shuffles its paw on the ground; the way someone shakes out a blanket on the balcony... you will notice that you are surrounded by so many sounds that it’s hard to believe. At home, spend five minutes a day listening to the humming of the refrigerator from the kitchen, the sound of water in the pipes, the neighbors talking, the noise from the street.

4. Voices

When talking to a person, try to remember his voice. You can also watch movies, memorizing the actors' voices, and then listen to parts of the movie and try to name the character based only on his voice.

Try to notice the manner of speaking of your interlocutor, the timbre of his voice; When remembering a conversation with someone, try to pronounce the interlocutor’s phrases in your head in his own voice.

5. Learn to hear music

Of course, it’s very nice to listen to music and not think about anything. But if your goal is to develop an ear for music, then try to delve into the music you listen to. Learn to separate one musical instrument from another; study how a guitar sounds under different “gadgets” so as not to confuse it with other instruments; also learn to distinguish different synthesizer modes from others musical instruments; listen to how real drums and electronic ones sound.

This practice will not only help you develop an ear for music, but will also teach you to hear music more subtly, which in turn will give you even greater pleasure from listening to it. There is one by-effect with this practice - most likely later you will not want to listen to what you are listening to now, you will want something more complex and voluminous. And this is great, because isn’t this the main indicator of your progress?

6. Rhythm

There is such a cool thing called a “metronome”. You can buy it for yourself or find an online version on the Internet. Every day, practice with a metronome, tapping with your finger (arm, foot, whatever), the rhythm that it sets for you.

Once you feel comfortable with the metronome, move on to recognizing rhythm in music. Start with music that contains drums; it’s easier to determine the rhythm using them. And then move on to working with music that does not contain noise instruments, allowing you to easily determine the rhythm (classical music, for example).

Another enjoyable way to improve your sense of rhythm is dancing. Sign up for dance studio or dance at home for your own pleasure.

7. Sound source

If you have a helper for this task, great! Close your eyes and ask someone to walk around you in and outside the room and make sounds (voice, hand clap, ringing a bell, etc.). And every time your assistant makes a sound, you should try to understand from which direction it is coming. A fairly simple task if you and your assistant are in the same room, but once he starts walking around the apartment, you will notice that it becomes more difficult for you to determine where the sound is coming from.

If you don’t have someone who can help you with this, then you can do the following. Go outside, sit on a bench somewhere and listen to the sounds around you, as in the third exercise. Only this time you will also need to understand from which side this sound is coming.

Programs and applications

Of course, there are many programs for developing your musical ear, and we have collected the best of them.

1. Eartheach

An excellent application containing exercises on scales, chords and intervals. Perfect for those whose ear for music is already more developed. You can also download the PC version.

The principle is very simple - you need to play the melody that you just heard. The application can also be downloaded on Android and iOS.

A simple game that will help you remember notes. Also on the right you can find many more games to develop your ear for music.

Music learning, especially for adults, can be difficult if a person has an underdeveloped ear for music. That is why most music teachers do not recommend ignoring solfeggio classes, the main task of which is to develop an ear for music in all directions.

What does the concept of “musical ear” actually mean? First, you need to decide what kind of hearing you need to develop. If you are learning to play, you need harmonic hearing, that is, the ability to hear harmony, mode - major or minor, the color of sound. If you are a vocal student, your goal is to develop an ear for melody that will help you easily remember a melody consisting of individual intervals.

True, these are local tasks; in life, musicians have to be generalists - to sing, to play several instruments, and to teach this to others (playing an instrument through singing and, conversely, singing through playing an instrument). Therefore, most methodologists who talk about how to develop an ear for music agree that both melodic and harmonic hearing should develop simultaneously.

It also happens that a person hears and distinguishes, even notices mistakes in other singers, but he himself cannot sing cleanly and correctly. This happens because there is hearing (melodic in this case), but there is no coordination between it and the voice. In this case, regular vocal exercises, helping to establish a connection between voice and hearing.

What determines the purity of singing?

It happens that a person seems to sing purely and according to the notes, but when he starts singing into the microphone, out of nowhere, mistakes and incorrect notes appear. What's the matter? It turns out that simply singing according to the notes is not everything. To sing cleanly, you need to consider some other parameters. Here they are:

1. Vocal position(or vocal yawn or singing yawn) is the position of the palate when singing. If it is not raised enough, it feels like the person is singing uncleanly or, more precisely, “lowering.” In order to eliminate this defect, it is useful to yawn for a few minutes before practicing vocals. If you find it difficult to do this, lift your tongue vertically and push the roof of your mouth until you yawn.
2. Direction of sound. Each person has his own unique voice timbre. Read about the types of voices in the article “”. But the sound (or color of your voice) can be changed depending on the content of the song. For example, no one will sing a lullaby with a dark and strict sound. For such a song to sound better, it needs to be sung in a light, gentle sound.
3. Moving the melody down. There is another peculiarity in music: when the melody moves downward, it must be sung as if its direction is completely opposite. For let's take an example famous song"Little Christmas tree." Sing the line from this song “...it's cold in winter...”. The melody moves down. The intonation falls; falsehood is possible at this point. Now try to sing the same line, while performing a smooth upward movement with your hand. Has the color of the sound changed? It became lighter and the intonation was cleaner.
4. Emotional Attunement– another important factor. Therefore, it is necessary to periodically sing for the audience. At least for your family. Stage fright will gradually go away.

What hinders the development of hearing and clear singing?

There are some things that can negatively affect hearing development. You can’t play an out-of-tune instrument and practice with two people in the same room at the same time. Music such as hard rock and rap is unlikely to help you develop your hearing, since it does not contain an expressive melody, and the harmony is most often primitive.

Methods and exercises for hearing development

There are many effective exercises for hearing development. Here are just a few of them:

1. Singing scales. We play the instrument do - re - mi - fa - sol - la - si - do and sing. Then without tools. Then from top to bottom. Again without a tool. Let's check the last sound. If we hit it, very good; if not, we train further.
2. Singing intervals. The simplest option is intervals based on the same C major scale (see previous exercise). We play and sing: do-re, do-mi, do-fa, etc. Then without tools. Then do the same from top to bottom.
3. "Echo". If you don't know how to play, you can develop your hearing as in kindergarten. Play your favorite song on your phone. Let's listen to one line. Press “pause” and repeat. And so the whole song. By the way, a telephone can be an excellent assistant: you can record intervals and scales on it (or ask them to play it for you if you don’t know how to do it yourself), and then listen to it throughout the day.
4. Studying musical notation . An ear for music is a thought, an intellectual process, so acquiring even the most basic knowledge about music in itself automatically contributes to the development of hearing. To help you - !
5. Study of classical music. If you are thinking about how to develop your musical ear, then do not forget that classical music is most conducive to ear development due to its expressive melody, rich harmony and orchestral sound. So, start studying this art more actively!

THAT'S NOT ALL!

Do you really want to sing, but don’t sleep at night because you don’t know how to develop an ear for music? Now you know how to get what you've been thinking about these nights! In addition you will receive good video tutorial on vocals from Elizaveta Bokova - she talks about the “three pillars” of vocals, the basics!

Online game "Perfect pitch"

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For technical reasons, we no longer create a table of records, so you DO NOT need to enter data at the end of the game...

For technical reasons we are more
We do not issue DIPLOMAS and we apologize :-(

The game asks the first 33 questions from this list. The entire list of 55 questions (from 34 to 55 chips with a stave) is presented in full version of this game included in the program.

Alexey Ustinov, 2011-12-30

Game updated 2013-11-30

Teacher's comment

Absolute ear for music - the ability to determine the pitch of a tone, regardless of other tones, i.e. without comparing sounds with each other and, as a result, assigning a note name to this sound. The nature of this phenomenon has not been sufficiently studied in musicological circles and, apparently, is therefore represented by different points of view. But it is even less familiar to practicing teachers. At the same time, the skill of “absolute musical ear” constantly remains the focus of both interest and controversy among almost all musicians. It is generally accepted that all string players (violinists, cellists) have such hearing, but this is not so! On the contrary, it seems that the pianist does not need it at all - however, those who master this skill say that it helps a lot, for example, when reading scores... Another often discussed question is whether it can be developed, or is it something... is it innate?...

What to do with a child who easily picks out any melody and does not want to look at the sheet music at all? How to develop hearing for a student who knows musical notation symbols well, but can play false notes, memorizes them, and the teacher cannot help him in any way?

One day, my second grade student asked me to play him Gennady Sasko’s play “Blues,” which was quite complex in rhythm, with a passage at the end. I played it three times... and at the next lesson he played the Blues without notes and at the same tempo as the piece was played. The case of this boy was for me an example of my incompetence in working with a gifted student with absolute pitch... I have not encountered many children with absolute pitch in my teaching practice. And most often such children did not graduate from music school. From the very beginning they could remember and play pieces by hand, “by ear,” but reading complex text caused them resistance and, as a result, they lost interest in learning.

In other words, the skill of “absolute pitch” is not something separate in the learning process, clearly positive or negative. Both its presence and absence require additional attention from the teacher and a special approach to the student. Still, this skill is extremely desirable!

To help my students, and to avoid repeating the mistakes of my youth, I am now using S.M. Maltsev’s method. - the author of a comprehensive methodology for teaching piano playing, as well as solfegging, synchronized with piano playing. This method helps me identify children with good developed hearing and constantly work with them by sight reading notes.

For most students and those who want to master musical wisdom, it is easy to learn and play their favorite melodies on the piano or guitar, they still need to develop their hearing. And the game "Perfect Pitch" is an excellent tool for this. It is suitable for all ages.

Small children, who cannot even read, will guess the right answer from the pictures. (You just need to help them - first play the game NOTES - PICTURES so that the child gets acquainted with the notes hidden in in simple words: HOUSE, TURNIP. There, he will become acquainted with the sound of notes.).

Older children and adults, while playing, will discover that they HAVE absolute pitch and that this skill is developing - verified!

Of course, someone might say that there are no halftones in the game (more precisely, a full chromatic scale). Yes, the game only includes white piano keys, i.e. in fact, we are in a major (C) or minor (LA) mode... Someone may note that the degrees of the mode and intervals play a role here... Absolutely right! But, start with simple tasks, achieve confident recognition of these notes, and you will take a big step in improving your musical ear. Believe me, you will get great pleasure from discovering that you can identify the name of a note by ear!

Krivopalova L.N.
Piano teacher, Palace of Children and Youth Creativity, Tomsk
01.05.2011

The Virartek team expresses its gratitude to Lyubov Nikolaevna Krivopalova, who took an active part in the creation of this game and in its testing. THANK YOU! Good luck to you and your students!

An ear for music is not solely an innate ability. It can be formed already in adulthood, the only difference is that children learn easier and faster. With enough effort and patience, you can learn to hear music, the main thing is to stop imposing on yourself that you will not succeed just because you have no talent from birth.

1. We read poems syllable by syllable to music.
2. Let's clap to our favorite and well-known melody.
3. We create a rhythmic pattern and march at the same time. The count is 1-4, on the first and third strike we stomp harder, then we change and place emphasis on the second and fourth. Practice to different music.
4. Listen to melodies with complex rhythms.

1. We sing the scale: do, re, mi, fa, salt, la, si, do and vice versa. Repeat at least 20 times until you fix the sound of each note in your memory.
2. Chromatic scale - movement in semitones or consisting of semitones. Halftones are the closest sounds. Press all the keys in a row. To sing them clearly requires enormous concentration and attentiveness.
3. Study classical music, it has the most expressive and rich melody.

The ability to hear a melody, reproduce it clearly with your voice, write your own compositions in which pleasant harmonies predominate - all this is only possible if you have a good ear for music. Many are of the opinion that the presence of such abilities is a natural gift, and if you are unlucky enough to be born with absolute pitch, then nothing can be done about it. In fact, anyone can develop these skills with impressive results.

Main varieties

Among musicians, it is customary to distinguish several types of musical hearing, including:

1. Absolute. The owner of such data can reproduce any sound or note within his vocal range without prior setup with the instrument. Considered very rare.
2. Relative. It is the most common phenomenon among professional musicians. This type of hearing is very similar to absolute hearing, but its owners will need to be tuned to a certain key or note before singing.
3. Interior hearing can be defined by an eloquent phrase - “I hear, but cannot reproduce.” At regular classes Solfeggio can be brought closer to relative and even absolute.

There are also subtypes of musical ear – melodic and harmonic. It is easier for those with an ear for melody to select and reproduce a melody, to feel its movement and intervallic composition. With a harmonic ear for music, people perceive the texture of chords as a whole, without breaking them into individual sounds, and that is why it is easier for them to pick up a song on the guitar than to try to play a solo part.

Music ear development classes

Exercises can be as follows:

1. Required to become with eyes closed to a place where the speakers are not visible, but their voices are heard. Test yourself with voice and visual differences. Turning your face, compare your skills by determining who owns the voice. By doing this exercise, you can, over time, sharpen your hearing and learn to focus on sound effects.
2. Intonation chanting. The game for the development of musical ear is played on the piano according to the formula: do-re-mi-fa-sol-la-si-do, which should be sung from beginning to end, then return from the last note to the first, but without accompaniment. If you hit it - plus, if not - to be continued.
3. Musical didactic games for hearing development - interval singing. To the instrumental accompaniment, a chant is performed: do-re, do-mi, do-fa, after which independent singing continues with alternating sounds without an instrument.
4. Music for the development of musical ear. If you decide to master musical art at home, play your favorite composition and, after listening to part of it, repeat what you heard. The action is carried out throughout the day with pauses.
5. Learning notes. Knowledge of musical notation, which is used to create different tonalities of a piece, will allow you to achieve a keen ear.
6. Study of classical motifs. Thanks to the subtle presentation of the melody classical direction, sound perception becomes especially sensitive and has a beneficial effect on the development of musical hearing in preschoolers.

Singing Purity Factor

To ensure clean singing, the following nuances are taken into account:

1. Vocal position. In persons with a drooping palate, the pronunciation is unclean. To correct this, each time before chanting you need to press the roof of your mouth with your tongue, as if pushing it upward.
2. Direction of sound. Depending on the performance of the piece, the timbre of the voice is selected. The repertoire must suit the individual baritone.
3. Melody and its changes. In order to better understand the tonality of sounds when singing songs, one should change its intonation in the process of learning and developing hearing. For training, you can choose a light quatrain or song, and adjust the key as you perform it.

IN music schools The development of auditory skills occurs mainly in solfeggio lessons. Under the guidance of the teacher, students sing scales, intervals, single-voice and polyphonic intonation exercises. With each year of study, vocal examples become more complex, melodies begin to appear written in folk modes (Lydian, Phrygian, etc.), and also containing complex rhythmic figures.

If you don’t know how to develop an ear for music at home, then the easiest way is this try to sing your favorite songs both with a recording and on your own.

Note! Ear training should be regular and systematic - this is the only way you can improve your hearing and learn to perform complex vocal parts. Each lesson should include the following steps:

• repetition of previously studied material;
• studying new topic(complex intervals, singing individual chord sounds along with the instrument);
• consolidation of knowledge using the example of some popular melody or classical music.

Only when integrated approach can be provided proper development musical ear.

On our website we will post exercises for the development of musical ear.

Owners of Android smartphones will find a program called “ Absolute Pitch" The application includes more than a hundred varieties of chords, intervals, scales and motifs, as well as the ability to write melodic and rhythmic dictations. For devices that support iOS, there is an analogue of this program - “Perfect Pitch!”

It has been proven that with desire, perseverance and availability musical environment You can develop excellent hearing. Often parents do not know how to do this; they think that they need to train long and hard. It turns out that you can develop this ability in the form of an interesting game.

The development of musical hearing involves the formation of long-term memory for each of the signals heard. Training practically does not take much time, but requires daily practice. Many mothers wonder how to develop an ear for music at home. You can start classes immediately after birth, because children strive to imitate their parents. Any events and lessons should be carried out in a good mood.

You can start developing abilities from two months old; ordinary rattles are suitable for this. Variety different sounds, which make bells, squeaking and ringing toys, will encourage the baby to play music. He himself will reach out and extract different sounds from each, comparing them with each other.

As the baby grows, mothers begin to understand how to develop hearing, because this simple method their mothers and especially grandmothers used it. We need to sing songs and tell stories fairy tales, changing the voice from quiet to loud, from drawn-out to abrupt, from chaotic to rhythmic.

Hearing trains faster and more effectively than other senses. Exist special exercises, aimed at better perception and identification of sounds with which it is possible to achieve good results in music.

Regular ear training is required for everyone involved in music and other active creative activities.

The ability to distinguish certain signals by sound frequency indicates that a person has abilities. Children usually have poor musical qualities, so they need to do special exercises to develop their hearing. From the age of three you can begin to introduce children to sounds of different pitches. At first he will only be able to distinguish contrasting sounds in different octaves.

Often children are not too willing to agree to learning, even those who have great abilities. In these cases, you cannot force the preschooler to study, but it is better to interest him in the most attractive or funny aspects of such lessons.

Lessons are held in game form. They should create interest and excitement, but not as a teaching lesson. Musical abilities are important not only for preschoolers who are preparing to take vocal classes or learn to play an instrument. Good abilities are necessary for absolutely all children, since they have a good effect on the development of the mind and intellect.

Parents who work with their children, develop their hearing, monitor their speech and other necessary skills in life, can subsequently rejoice at their wonderful achievements.