USEFUL TOOLS

Free software

Play-along:

Music Theory Training:

Ear training:

Lyrics:

Harmony:

Sound Editor:

Drumbeats:

Metronome:

Tuner:

Midi Player:

Staff paper:

Mixing:

  • Band in a Box with Real Band (more then you can imagine)
  • Myriad Software
  • Chord Pulse (I like it because of it’s great UI and ease of use.)
  • For mobile devices(iOS and Android) I recommend:
    iRealb

    It comes with hundreds of predefined lead-sheets and different styles of music. Check out their forum and find hundreds of predefined tunes.Jazz-standards out of the Real Book series and Lego Harmony Bricks to name a few.

Ear trainer:

Metronome:

Studio technique

 

Can You Learn to Play an Instrument at 40? Q&A with Psychologist Gary Marcus | Healthland | TIME.com

Of course you can and most probably you should!


Can someone with no musical talent learn to play guitar as an adult? That’s what New York University psychology professor Gary Marcus wanted to find out when he turned 40. Along the way, he discovered that the struggle to learn was as rewarding as playing music itself.

 

IMPROVISING

First steps in improvising

To take the first step in improvising, get yourself a lead sheet of your favorite song. It could be simple 12-bar blues (like: | I7 | IV7 | I7 | I7 | IV7 | IV7 | I7 | VI7 | II-7 | V7 | I7 | V7 |)
and identify the chords. Set your metronome to a tempo that you can easy follow, like 80 bpm, and play quarter notes.

  • Play the root notes only. This gets the basic sound of the overall progression into your ears.
  • Play the root and third notes. The third is the qualifier for major or minor chords.
  • Play the root and fifth notes. The fifth is the dominant note of each chord.
  • Play the root and seventh notes. The seventh is an additional chord qualifier and tells us if the chord is major, minor, or dominant.
  • Now outline the chords (play arpeggios).
  • Play bass lines, adding swing, rhythm, and connecting notes besides the root, third, fifth and seventh, the focus being on how to connect the chords smoothly.
  • Now try to mix the above and play an improvised solo.

Do Question & Answer phrasing as you do in a normal conversation. Roughly speaking: questioning phrases are ascending melodies, answering phrases and statements are descending melodies. This creates a realistic and interesting movement.

An exercise on pitch class

Take a note out of a scale that matches the key, and play or sing repeated choruses of whole-note improvisations through an entire chord progression. Stay on that same note throughout the entire chorus, adjusting only when necessary. Do the same with other notes of that scale. This way your ears learn how each note sounds through the entire progression. In a performance, you will be able to land on any note with confidence.

A time exercise

Systematically practice in each time dimension, beginning with choruses of whole notes, then half notes, quarter notes, eighth notes, and sixteenth notes, including various triplets as well. This will enable you to improvise while using various note lengths. Practice different tempos also.
Simplifying a melody can be done by placing all notes on the beat, and eliminating non-harmonic tones and repeated notes. This method leads you to the core of the melody.

Essential scales to learn

Begin with

  • Ionian (Major)
  • Dorian (Jazz Minor)
  • Mixolydian
  • Major & Minor Pentatonic

Move on with

  • Locrian
  • Whole Tone
  • Diminished

Details of all the scales will be in a later posting.

Tips for successful improvisation

  • Rhythm is most important
  • Listen and respond accordingly
  • Play melodies
  • Use long notes
  • Use spacing and breathing
  • “Less is more”
  • Let the music play itself
  • Keep to form of the song
  • Know your instrument
  • Develop a well trained ear

 

RHYTHM TRAINING

The most essential rhythm trainer for every musician still is the metronomeinfoInfoA mechanical or electronic tool that gives audible and or visual signals in constant periods of time. There are also thousands of software metronomes for any operating system available. – true and efficient in telling us whether we’re in time or not. The easiest use is to clap your hands along to the beat; you’re exactly on the beat when the click of the metronome is no longer audible. This should be mastered in several different tempos and rhythms, and everything except sound building exercises should be practiced with a metronome – be it your instrument or your voice. A further useful rhythm training exercise with your instrument or voice is to vary the tapping of the foot. The metronome is only on the fourth beat, so start by tapping on every beat, then as you feel comfortable, on 1 and 3, then only on the 1, and finally without tapping at all. This establishes a good sense for the feeling of the placement of each beat, especially with the accents.
If you don’t have a metronome at hand, this one will do it: www.metronomeonline.com

MetronomeOnlinePic

Metronome

You can train your rhythmic feeling while you listen to music at home or on the road, and you can count it as practice time. Snap your fingers, tap your feet, clap your hands, use your fingers or hands as drumsticks, or sing or whistle along, making sure you’re on the beat and in time. Mimic your favorite musician or singer and concentrate on the phrasing and time feeling.

The reason to develop a strong rhythmic feeling is simple: if you’re not playing in time with or without other musicians, you’re not in sync, and that will destroy the whole performance.

In my ear-trainer exercise you find two media players (among others) that hold play-lists of click tracks and drum loops.

The “Rhythm Trainer” is a free flash-based application to help you. Find it at : http://www.therhythmtrainer.com/

A big goal in improvisation is the ability to play at higher speeds, and this requires a lot of dedicated practice. The common approach is to start phrases slowly with a metronome, and steadily increase the speed in steps of five or ten beats per minute.

According to Hal GalperinfoInfoForward Motion at http://www.forwardmotionpdf.com/, one of the secrets of all those great jazz masters when improvising over fast bebop chord changes is to count in half time. By playing accordingly, the length of the song is halved. This results in a more relaxed feeling while improvising, and could make a ballad sound like a fast-swinging bebop tune.

Later we find that there is another technique that uses syllables to train rhythm patterns, and other details about rhythm, efficiently. We also learn that it is necessary to distinguish between downbeats and upbeats, and on-beats and offbeats. The way that music phrases put emphases on different beats determines the style. For example a FunkinfoInfoAs played by James Brown and many others. groove strongly emphasizes the downbeat on the first beat of the measureinfoInfoIn terms of music, a measure (or bar) is a partition of time having a specific number of beats with a defined duration. ReggaeinfoInfoReggae is a music genre which was first developed in Jamaica. does the opposite and de-emphasizes the first beat of the measure to the point of silence (one drop). In swing and jazz, the emphasis is on beats two and four and on the offbeats.

A quote from Dizzy GillespieinfoInfoJohn Birks “Dizzy” Gillespie was an American jazz trumpet player, bandleader, singer, and composer.: “The more upbeats you have in the music, the more it swings.”. From a composition by Duke EllingtoninfoInfoEdward Kennedy “Duke” Ellington was a composer, pianist, and big- band leader.: “It don’t mean a thing if it ain’t got that swing.”

 

RECOGNITION OF INTERVALS

The difference in pitch between two different notes is categorized in intervals. We also need the ability to recognize these intervals in between notes and chords and it would be wonderful if you can recognize them. One of the best practice methodsinfohttp://www.trainear.com to learn intervals is by having a small list of easy tunes in our memory whose first two notes represent a certain musical interval. I suggest the following list with well known pieces.

Table of interval songs:

Interval

Ascending Example

Descending Example

Unison

Happy Birthday to You

Happy Birthday to You

Minor 2nd

I’m Dreaming of a White Christmas

Joy to the World

Major 2nd

Silent Night

Beatles: Yesterday

Minor 3rd

Greensleeves

Beatles: Hey Jude

Major 3rd

Oh, when the Saints go marching in

Swing Low, Sweet Chariot

Perfect 4th

Amazing Grace

O Come All Ye Faithful

Triton

Maria (West Side Story)

Blue Seven

Perfect 5th

Twinkle Twinkle Little Star

Flintstones Theme

Minor 6th

Black, Orpheus

Theme from Love Story

Major 6th

My Way

Nobody knows the trouble I’ve seen

Minor 7th

Theme from Star Trek

Watermelon Man

Major 7th

Superman

I Love You (Cole Porter)

Perfect 8th

Over the Rainbow

Willow Weep For Me

Several other examples could be found following these links:

http://www.earmaster.com/intervalsongs/
http://www.justinguitar.com/en/AU-002-SongIntervals.php
http://www.trainear.com/Interval_Song_Associations_Interval_Songs_Song_Hints_23_2009.php
https://secure.wikimedia.org/wikibooks/en/wiki/Music_Theory/Scales_and_Intervals#Mnemonic_memorization_examples
https://secure.wikimedia.org/wikipedia/en/wiki/Ear_training#Interval_recognition

 

SOLFÈGE, SOLFEGGIO OR SOLMIZATION

Solfège or Solfeggio, is a method of assigning a syllable to every pitch / degree of a scale.

Instead of singing the actual names of the notes in the scale (eg. C D E F G A B) we use the syllables instead (Do Re Mi Fa Sol La Ti). There are a few different versions of solfège in use. The basic hand signs are:

solfege

Handsigns for Solfege, Solfeggio, Solmization

Solfège, also called Solmization, is a tool which stimulates your visual and tactile sense along with the aural impression and thus strengthen the mental connection in between. It is used to accelerate the education of vocalists. This method is capable to train the site reading and helps to develop an aural sense for relative pitch thus it is not only good for vocalists but also for instrumentalists. Besides it is a very good method to train little children and their sense of musical imagination.
We distinguish between absolute and relative Solmization. The absolute Solmization keeps the Solfège syllables strictly connected to the notes.

Example:
C Major scale:
C D E F G A B C
Do Re Mi Fa Sol La Ti Do

D Major scale:
D E F♯ G A B C♯ D
Re Mi Fi Sol La Ti Di Re

In relative Solmization, the Do is moved to the root of the key and all other syllables move accordingly. However minor scales start with La

Example:
C Major scale:
C D E F G Ab B C
Do Re Mi Fa Sol La Ti Do

D Major scale:
D E F♯ G A B C♯ D
Do Re Mi Fa Sol La Ti Do

A Natural Minor scale:
A B C D E F G A
La Ti Do Re Mi Fa Sol La

C Natural Minor scale:
C D Eb F G Ab B♭ C
La Ti Do Re Mi Fa Sol La

D Natural Minor scale:
D E F G A B♭ C D
La Ti Do Re Mi Fa Sol La

In the harmonic minor scale with the raised 7th, Sol becomes Si. The melodic minor scale also has the raised 7th, plus Fa becomes Fi.

A complete list of solfège syllables including all 12 different notes and examples of different scales can be found at: www.music.vt.edu/musicdictionary/appendix/scales/solmization/syllables.html

 

A collection of some famous Quotes considering many aspects of Music:

My attempt to support the ideas discussed here at YOU CAN TRUST YOUR EARS. Most of them speak like books.
The posting on Music: an alternative language explains many aspects of them.

  • Music is the shorthand of emotions.~Leo Tolstoy
  • A painter paints pictures on canvas. But musicians paint their pictures on silence. ~Leopold Stokowski
  • Music washes away from the soul the dust of everyday life. ~Berthold Auerbach
  • All deep things are song. It seems somehow the very central essence of us, song; as if all the rest were but wrappages and hulls! ~Thomas Carlyle
  • If the King loves music, it is well with the land. ~Mencius
  • Without music life would be a mistake. ~Friedrich Wilhelm Nietzsche
  • Take a music bath once or twice a week for a few seasons. You will find it is to the soul what a water bath is to the body. ~Oliver Wendell Holmes
  • If a composer could say what he had to say in words he would not bother trying to say it in music. ~Gustav Mahler
  • Why waste money on psychotherapy when you can listen to the B Minor Mass? ~Michael Torke
  • And the night shall be filled with music, and the cares that infest the day shall fold their tents like the Arabs
    and as silently steal away.
    ~Henry Wadsworth Longfellow, The Day Is Done
  • He who sings scares away his woes. ~Cervantes
  • Music was my refuge. I could crawl into the space between the notes and curl my back to loneliness. ~Maya Angelou, Gather Together in My Name
  • Were it not for music, we might in these days say, the Beautiful is dead. ~Benjamin Disraeli
  • Music is what feelings sound like. ~Author Unknown
  • There’s music in the sighing of a reed. ~Author Unknown
  • There’s music in the gushing of a rill. ~Author Unknown
  • There’s music in all things, if men had ears. ~Author Unknown
  • Their earth is but an echo of the spheres.~Lord Byron
  • Musical compositions, it should be remembered, do not inhabit certain countries, certain museums, like paintings and statues. The Mozart Quintet is not shut up in Salzburg: I have it in my pocket. ~Henri Rabaud
  • Music is the poetry of the air. ~Richter
  • If I were to begin life again, I would devote it to music. It is the only cheap and unpunished rapture upon earth. ~Sydney Smith
  • There is nothing in the world so much like prayer as music is. ~William P. Merrill
  • If in the after life there is not music, we will have to import it. ~Doménico Cieri Estrada
  • Men profess to be lovers of music, but for the most part they give no evidence in their opinions and lives that they have heard it. ~Henry David Thoreau
  • Music is the mediator between the spiritual and the sensual life. ~Ludwig van Beethoven
  • I have my own particular sorrows, loves, delights; and you have yours. But sorrow, gladness, yearning, hope, love, belong to all of us, in all times and in all places. Music is the only means whereby we feel these emotions in their universality. ~H.A. Overstreet
  • My idea is that there is music in the air, music all around us; the world is full of it, and you simply take as much as you require. ~Edward Elgar
  • Alas for those that never sing,But die with all their music in them! ~Oliver Wendell Holmes
  • Music is your own experience, your thoughts, your wisdom. If you don’t live it, it won’t come out of your horn. ~Charlie Parker
  • Life can’t be all bad when for ten dollars you can buy all the Beethoven sonatas and listen to them for ten years. ~William F. Buckley, Jr.
  • Music cleanses the understanding; inspires it, and lifts it into a realm which it would not reach if it were left to itself. ~Henry Ward Beecher
  • Play the music, not the instrument. ~Author Unknown
  • Music is the wine which inspires one to new generative processes, and I am Bacchus who presses out this glorious wine for mankind and makes them spiritually drunken. ~Ludwig van Beethoven
  • Music is the cup which holds the wine of silence. ~Robert Fripp
  • An intellectual is someone who can listen to the “William Tell Overture” without thinking of the Lone Ranger. ~John Chesson
  • Music’s the medicine of the mind. ~John A. Logan
  • You are the music while the music lasts. ~T.S. Eliot
  • Music is the universal language of mankind. ~Henry Wadsworth Longfellow, Outre-Mer
  • Music rots when it gets too far from the dance. Poetry atrophies when it gets too far from music. ~Ezra Pound
  • He who hears music, feels his solitude peopled at once. ~Robert Browning
  • You can’t possibly hear the last movement of Beethoven’s Seventh and go slow. ~Oscar Levant, explaining his way out of a speeding ticket
  • The Irish gave the bagpipes to the Scots as a joke, but the Scots haven’t got the joke yet. ~Oliver Herford
  • What we provide is an atmosphere… of orchestrated pulse which works on people in a subliminal way. Under its influence I’ve seen shy debs and severe dowagers kick off their shoes and raise some wholesome hell. ~Meyer Davis, about his orchestra
  • …where music dwells Lingering – and wandering on as loth to die… ~William Wordsworth, “Within King’s College Chapel, Cambridge”
  • Music has been my playmate, my lover, and my crying towel. ~Buffy Sainte-Marie
  • Music is an outburst of the soul. ~Frederick Delius
  • Music is the art which is most nigh to tears and memory. ~Oscar Wilde
  • In music the passions enjoy themselves. ~Nietzsche, Beyond Good and Evil, 1886
  • Music is what life sounds like. ~Eric Olson

 

EAR TRAINING

In solfège, we already learned that our ears can be trained to recognize relative pitches and the sound of different pitches in parallel or in series. We also learned earlier that our ears are a very special organ that physically does everything for us, and we only need some sort of ear training in terms of:

My book will address the above mentioned points in detail but also check out GNU Solfege – Smarten your ears, it’s an open source software tool that can be of great help. Versions for Windows, Linux and MAC are available.
Other good resources for ear training are:

 

MENTAL TRAINING

This is the key to quick success. Some things that should be seen in your imagination – one at a time – are:

  • chord symbols,
  • each chord symbol above the music staff,
  • the root in the chord,
  • the aural sense, and
  • the tactile sense

Do this in every key and gradually add up all the chord notes to the 13th. Visualize pairs of notes as block chords or as sequential half notes. Add more notes and be creative, and you will find that the possibilities are endless. Do this on your instrument or while singing.
The benefit of this exercise is to not only increase the speed of recognizing chords and their notations, but to hone your musical instinct and improvise with more confidence.