Instagram – Listen Up Games

.e-tabs-inner-tabs .e-inner-tabs-wrapper .e-inner-tab-title.e-inner-tab-active a {display: none; }

listenupgames

Here's the final installment of patterns for heari

Here's the final installment of patterns for hearing Neapolitan and augmented 6th chords.⁠
⁠
Now we return to major keys, where the French 6th chord requires altering two tones in the major scale: la drops to its alter ego le, and fa rises to its alter ego fi... both tones are longing to resolve into each other and become so. And this "pre-dominant" chord functions in exactly that way, compelling your ear to desire a resolution to the dominant chord so that you can THEN resolve to the home tone and its triad: the I chord ("one chord").⁠
⁠
If you love the music of Debussy or the sound of the whole tone scale, the French 6th is a good one for you. Its tones (le, do, re, and fi) all come from a single whole tone scale, so we get a sort of dreamy, open quality from the chord when it is outside of a tone context. Inside a tonal context, our ears are pulled towards the V chord as I mentioned above.⁠
⁠
Back to the world of jazz and pop thinking, if you take off the veil of classical music terms, your French 6th chord becomes a 7#11 ("dominant seventh sharp-eleven") chord build on the flatted sixth tone of the major scale. It's a mouthful to say, but notice that that "sharp-eleven" tone is just lowly old re! ⁠
⁠
But don't let all this thought thinking get in your way of savoring the sound of the chord. Just follow along with me, singing the melody I give you hear. You'll notice yet a new flavor our tones can provide when combined in new and interesting ways.⁠
⁠
Again, your ability to produce these vocally ("conjure them") will make it dramatically easier to notice them, to transcribe them, and to hear them in musical contexts. ⁠
⁠
Play with your ears!⁠
⁠
⁠
Give a look and listen here, and then give it a try yourself!⁠
⁠
#eartraining #solfege #musiceducation #listening #chordprogression #chords

How to hear "French 6th" chords in minor keys. "F

How to hear "French 6th" chords in minor keys.

"French 6th" chords are another kind of augmented sixth chord that features fi. They are basically the same as the German 6th chord with one important difference: me (the 5th of the German 6th chord) is replaced by re, and that's the special sauce with the tangy spice. That normally vanilla flavored re, all innocent in its lowly position as the second note of the scale, is now the #11 (sharp eleven) of a dominant seventh chord built on the flatted sixth note of the scale. Wow! From such small beginnings come such delicious adventures!

These country names like German 6th and French 6th... Think of them like you might think, "oh, that's a West Coast style," or "hey, listen to how they play it in Brooklyn. That's an East Coast style." These names that shroud the harmonic delight in the mists of historical styles aren't so bad after all.

Again, your ability to produce these vocally ("conjure them") will make it dramatically easier to notice them, to transcribe them, and to hear them in musical contexts.

Play with your ears!

Give a look and listen here, and then give it a try yourself!

#eartraining #solfege #musiceducation #listening #chordprogression #chords

Here's a vocal pattern to help you hear German 6th

Here's a vocal pattern to help you hear German 6th Chords in Major Keys⁠
⁠
I used to find German Sixth Chords darn confusing until I figured out that they are just a dominant seventh chord built on the flatted-sixth degree of the scale. Their natural habitat is minor keys, where you only need to alter the fourth scale degree by raising it a half-step. Here, in a major key, you also need to lower the 6th degree from la to le, and you can think of this as "borrowing" from the minor key. But that's not all you borrow from the minor in order to make a German 6th chord. You also need to borrow that third tone as well, replacing mi with its darker alter ego, me.⁠
⁠
They are relatively advanced to hear, but if you can sing this a cappella or against a tonic drone, you will have little difficulty recognizing this flavor of augmented sixth chord.⁠
⁠
btw - the "augmented sixth" is the interval from le up to fi... that altered fourth scale tone. The classical music theory people like to think of that note as fi to emphasize how it resolves up to so (or sol). I prefer to think of that same note as the lowered fifth degree of the scale, which makes the whole thing spell as a straight forward dominant seventh chord.⁠
⁠
BUT! There's a reason the classical folks think of that as fi... it's to underline how voices singing both those tones (fi and so) resolve TOWARD EACH OTHER to land on so, the root of the dominant triad and second in line for the role of home tone ("tonic"). You might think of fi when you are hearing melodically, and se (the lowered fifth, which would be the 7th of the dominant seventh chord built on b6, or le) when you are hearing harmonically.⁠
⁠
I give it to you here as fi. ⁠
⁠
⁠
Give a look and listen here, and then give it a try yourself!⁠
⁠
#eartraining #solfege #musiceducation #listening #chordprogression #chords

How to Imagine Your Own Music part 1⁠ ⁠ If you

How to Imagine Your Own Music part 1⁠
⁠
If you're interested in doing something different (with your ears), check out my new little track to help you cultivate your musical imagination. It's a guided ⁠
listening and I say very little and I play⁠
even less, giving you lots of quiet space to imagine sound. ⁠
⁠
So check out the link and give it ⁠
a listen. I'd be very interested in what you thought. ⁠
⁠
The idea is that by at first imagining very simple musical sounds, you will strengthen your musical imagination. There are so many opportunities in our culture to have our minds filled with thoughts, images, and sounds that *other* people create. Yet, your mind is capable of such amazing things if you slow down the rate of input into it and give it a chance to create its own music, to tell its own story.⁠
⁠
So much of our time is spent consuming content, I believe you have the opportunity to create something on your own. Kind of like daydreaming. Kind of like meditating. Kind of like visualizing, but with music.⁠
⁠
So this is the first in a series I'll be making to get you started and to gauge who of you might find this a compelling stop on your musical journey. ⁠
⁠
You might even fall asleep!⁠
⁠
Now, this is only for people who⁠
can lie or sit with their eyes closed for about five minutes and if you have any thoughts at all, I would love to hear what they are. See you soon.⁠
⁠
COPY THIS: ⁠
https://soundcloud.com/user-538270370/guided-imagining-1?si=b2e9e13f198d411ba408f437dcc9ac42&utm_source=clipboard&utm_medium=text&utm_campaign=social_sharing⁠

How to Hear the "German Sixth Chord" in Minor Keys

How to Hear the "German Sixth Chord" in Minor Keys

I used to find German Sixth Chords darn confusing until I figured out that they are just a dominant seventh chord built on the flatted-sixth degree of the scale. Their natural habitat is minor keys, where you only need to alter the fourth scale degree by raising it a half-step.

What does this mean? It means that German Sixth Chords are not as hard to think as you might have... thought, AND they're pretty cool to listen to.

They are relatively advanced to hear, but if you can sing this a cappella or against a tonic drone, you will have little difficulty recognizing this flavor of augmented sixth chord.

btw - the "augmented sixth" is the interval from le up to fi... that altered fourth scale tone. The classical music theory people like to think of that note as fi to emphasize how it resolves up to so. I prefer to think of that same note as the lowered fifth degree of the scale, which makes the whole thing spell as a straight forward dominant seventh chord.

I give it to you here as fi.

Give a look and listen here, and then give it a try yourself!

#eartraining #solfege #musiceducation #listening #chordprogression #chords

How to Hear the "Neapolitan Triad" in Major Keys

How to Hear the "Neapolitan Triad" in Major Keys

This is advanced, but if you can sing this a cappella or against a tonic drone, you will have little difficulty recognizing the "Neapolitan triad".

This chord has a very cool sound as it contains ra, the lowered second scale tone, and in a major key, it sounds even more spicy than in minor.

Give a look and listen here, and then give it a try yourself!

#eartraining #solfege #musiceducation #listening #chordprogression #chords

How to Hear the "Neapolitan Triad" in Minor This

How to Hear the "Neapolitan Triad" in Minor

This is advanced, but if you can sing this a cappella or against a tonic drone, you will have little difficulty recognizing the "Neapolitan triad". This chord has a very cool sound as it contains ra, the lowered second scale tone.

Give a look and listen here, and then give it a try yourself!

#eartraining #solfege #musiceducation #listening

I’ve got a quick question for you. I've been rel

I’ve got a quick question for you. I've been releasing short play through videos on different levels on Tone Hole, and the idea is that if you don't have the game yet, you can still train your ear by following along as I play them.
Now, I'm pretty good at this, so I sometimes think I might be playing too fast.
So, what I want to know (and please comment below) is,

Am I playing these too fast? Am I playing them too slow?
Can you keep up with me as I play this game?
And hopefully, you're getting some value out of these little moments of ear training every time you see one of these little videos.

The more you sing aloud, the clearer your inner listening will become. Eventually, you won't need to sing anymore, but you may want to!

The more you play, the better you'll play. #musicgames #musicgames #musiceducation #Kodàly #eartraining #solfege

How to Confidently Increase Your Musical Listening

How to Confidently Increase Your Musical Listening Skills

Be Forgot - Warm Up Level

FREE DOWNLOAD: https://apps.apple.com/us/app/tone-hole/id1600969950

This set of levels is based on the song "Auld Lang Syne", which is quoted very subtly in this Warm Up Level.

On this warm up level, you'll notice that re, mi, and do can all follow one another, but ti can only follow and be followed by do. That is so that you become more and more tuned into to ti's sound of leading to do. Ti and do have a very important relationship and they kind of... compete for power. Yet, ti continues to have a real pull, a real desire, to yield to do.

See if you can keep up with me as I play. Of course, if you play Tone Hole yourself, the game will pace itself to your response times.

The more you sing aloud, the clearer your inner listening will become. Eventually, you won't need to sing anymore, but you may want to!

The more you play, the better you'll play. #musicgames #musicgames #musiceducation #Kodàly #eartraining #solfege

How to Train Your Ear To Recognize New Melodic Pat

How to Train Your Ear To Recognize New Melodic Patterns Episode 6 of 6

The Embrace Challenge Level pt 2

FREE DOWNLOAD: https://apps.apple.com/us/app/tone-hole/id1600969950

So here I go, I'm going to play this game. And I'm going to play it fairly quickly, because now, I'm very confident. And I'm just going to be tapping the circles or... the tones. Can you keep up while you watch?

This is the next step in our recipe for internalizing new melodic patterns: You are going to play Tone Hole on the challenge level for your pattern. These are the third level in every set of levels, and challenge levels like this one force you to internalize the sound of each tone on the screen: when you tap the answer tones, the do NOT make a sound. It's up to you to hear them in your mind or sing them yourself. This is where the heavy lifting of ear work happens.

It might take you a while to pass through challenge levels, but that's ok. With consistent effort and patience, you'll crush it and move on to the next set and a new warm-up level.

This is Level 51. It's a challenge level, and what that means is that when I play, these outer circles (the answer tones)... I won't be able to hear the sound they make. So I have to totally internalize the sound of the scale. Of course, that's the point of ear training in the first place. So, it's good to have that third level with every set of levels. It really cements your ability to hear tones and recognize patterns without thinking.

Listen, Sing, Tap. REPEAT.

The more you sing allowed, the clearer your inner listening will become. Eventually, you won't need to sing anymore, but you may want to!

The more you play, the better you'll play. #musicgames #musicgames #musiceducation #Kodàly #eartraining #solfege

You Are Loved Sending out a message in the world.

You Are Loved

Sending out a message in the world.

A positive use for social
is a positive way to start ear training.

Sing it out: You are loved. You belong.

Step one (living):
You are loved. You Belong.
Step one (lEARning):
*do-re*

A tune with three or four words and
two tones.
Start at the beginning

*This is why my mother put me here.*

How to Train Your Ear To Recognize New Melodic Pat

How to Train Your Ear To Recognize New Melodic Patterns Episode 5 of 6

The Embrace Challenge Level pt 1

This is the next step in our recipe for internalizing new melodic patterns: You are going to play Tone Hole on the challenge level for your pattern. These are the third level in every set of levels, and challenge levels like this one force you to internalize the sound of each tone on the screen: when you tap the answer tones, the do NOT make a sound. It's up to you to hear them in your mind or sing them yourself. This is where the heavy lifting of ear work happens.

It might take you a while to pass through challenge levels, but that's ok. With consistent effort and patience, you'll crush it and move on to the next set and a new warm-up level.

This is Level 51. It's a challenge level, and what that means is that when I play, these outer circles (the answer tones)... I won't be able to hear the sound they make. So I have to totally internalize the sound of the scale. Of course, that's the point of ear training in the first place. So, it's good to have that third level with every set of levels. It really cements your ability to hear tones and recognize patterns without thinking.

So here I go, I'm going to play this game. And I'm going to play it fairly quickly, because now, I'm very confident. And I'm just going to be tapping the circles or... the tones. Can you keep up while you watch?

Listen, Sing, Tap. REPEAT. The more you play, the better you'll play. #musicgames #musicgames #musiceducation #Kodàly #eartraining #solfege

How to Train Your Ear To Recognize New Melodic Pat

How to Train Your Ear To Recognize New Melodic Patterns Episode 4 of 6

The Embrace Practice Level part 2

Remember, it's Listen, Sing, Tap, REPEAT. Over time, you will be able to do this with great speed, or automaticity. That's what we're shooting for. You want to understand a melody as it moves from one note to the next without thinking. Recognizing, say, mi to so will become easy as your ear improves. Yet, it becomes somewhat more challenging in a context where the melody is moving through many patterns. On this level, we are isolating the tonic triad (do-mi-so) and the supertonic triad (re-fa-la) in such a way that your ear will hear both structures as distinct entities.

In this video, follow along with your eyes as I play. I start by singing out loud, then I internalize my voice, imagining the sound in my mind. And then I pick up the pace, demonstrating the automaticity I've developed that you will develop, too!

From the previous video about recognizing new melodic patterns.

If you want to quickly recognize melodic and harmonic patterns, here's the third step of our simple recipe:

Step 3:

Play the practice level for that pattern. Here, I'm playing the practice level for "The Embrace", which highlights melodies that move through the tonic triad ("do mi so") and the supertonic triad ("re fa la"). You'll hear me humming back the question tone, connecting my ear to my brain with my voice.

When you play, or even follow along with these videos, you'll improve your ear dramatically faster by doing this: Listen, Sing, Tap. REPEAT.

The more you play, the better you'll play.

#musicgames #musicgames #musiceducation #Kodàly #eartraining #solfege

If you want to quickly recognize melodic and harmo

If you want to quickly recognize melodic and harmonic patterns, here's the third step of our simple recipe:

Step 3:

Play the practice level for that pattern. Here, I'm playing the practice level for "The Embrace", which highlights melodies that move through the tonic triad ("do mi so") and the supertonic triad ("re fa la"). You'll hear me humming back the question tone, connecting my ear to my brain with my voice.

When you play, or even follow along with these videos, you'll improve your ear dramatically faster by doing this: Listen, Sing, Tap. REPEAT.

The more you play, the better you'll play.

#musicgames #musicgames #musiceducation #Kodàly #eartraining #solfege

Level 49 "The Embrace": Warm Up If you want to qu

Level 49 "The Embrace": Warm Up

If you want to quickly recognize melodic and harmonic patterns, here's a simple recipe:

Each set of Tone Hole levels consists of three kinds of level: Warm-up, practice, and challenge.

This set of levels in Tone Hole is called "The Embrace" because the sound of a do-mi-so chord alternating with the sound of the re-fa-la chord is creates such a loving and caring energy field.

So this level focuses on motion within the tonic triad (the "one chord") and within the supertonic triad (the "two chord"). And the only way the melody can pass between those two chords is between la & so and between do and re. Otherwise, once the melody enters the chord, it stays there until it finds an exit to the other chord.

This warm up level will get you tuned to the sound of this pattern and the outlines of those two chords by ingraining in your ear this little ditty. When I play it in rhythm for you here, you might notice how it is kind of paraphrasing the old folk song "Paw Paw Patch".

So, the first of these simple steps is to master the warm-up level to the point where you can successfully play it quickly and with the rhythm I show you here in this video.

Once you've done that, you'll be ready for the next step in this process.

#musicgames #musicgames #musiceducation #Kodàly #eartraining #solfege

How to Practice Intervals Going Down from "do" L

How to Practice Intervals Going Down from "do"

Level 80 "Seed Drop": Training Mode

How to practice intervals going down from *do*. This is how you do it: Find a note in the middle of your vocal range. Then randomly ask yourself to sing down to *ti*, *la*, and *so*. Then sing that lower note and return to *do*. Ideally, you'll check yourself at an instrument.

I put Training Mode into Tone Hole to help you with this. Tone Hole gives you the tone to sing, and you sing it! Then tap the tone and check your answer. On this level "Seed Drop", Tone Hole will go back and forth between *do* and the other notes, so you are always anchoring yourself on the home note, *do*.

This is a foundation skill for sight singing: you SEE something, then you IMAGINE the tone. Then you SING it. Finally you CHECK it... and repeat.
1. SEE
2. IMAGINE
3. SING
4. CHECK

#musicgames #musicgames #musiceducation #Kodàly #eartraining #solfege

#affirmation ticker:
As you continue your practice of singing descending intervals from *do*, your ability to *recognize* them will get stronger and stronger. Your persistence will pay dividends and music will sound clearer and clearer. Your memory of melodies will become stronger. You can play music on your instrument with increasing ease, and you will have moments when this ease surprises you. You notice more and more moments when playing music becomes comically simple, and you find yourself wondering how you ever didn't hear like you do now, moments when recognizing a melodic pattern is as elementary as distinguishing red from blue.

How to Practice Sight Singing without Reading Musi

How to Practice Sight Singing without Reading Music

Level 48 "Red Foxes": Training Mode

When you put Tone Hole in Training Mode, game play halts and you can practice singing the melodic patterns for that level.

Here, we are at Level 48, which is a level of steps and skips but no leaps bigger than a third.

So, just like with sight reading music notation,
you SEE something and then
you SING something.

I go pretty quick in this video, and it feels much more natural to do it yourself. Tapping the tones yourself, at your own pace, really gives you the feel of confirming that you sang the right thing!

Tone Hole's first 18 levels are free to download on the iPhone/iPad App Store!

How to practice in training mode
1. Tap the T (and make it upside down)
2. Find the WHITE RING
3. Imagine the sound of that tone
4. Sing the tone
5. Tap the tone

1. See
2. Imagine
3. Sing
4. Check

Play at your own pace
Download Tone Hole for FREE

#musicgames #musicgames #musiceducation #Kodàly #eartraining #solfege

How to Practice Sight Singing Without Sheet Music

How to Practice Sight Singing Without Sheet Music

Level 15 You Are Not Sleeping Training Mode)

When you put Tone Hole in Training Mode, game play halts and you can practice singing the melodic patterns for that level. Here, we are at Level 15, which is a level based on "Are You Sleeping" (Frere Jacques). This simple folk song contains the essence of melodic motion between do, re, and mi.

So, just like with sight reading music notation, you SEE something and then you SING something.

I go pretty quick in this video, and it feels much more natural to do it yourself. Tapping the tones yourself, at your own pace, really gives you the feel of confirming that you sang the right thing

Tone Holes first 18 levels are free to download on the iPhone/iPad App Store!

#musicgames #musicgames #musiceducation #Kodàly #eartraining #solfege

This is tone conjuring in its purest form: You are doing what master musicians do. You are SEEING something representing a tone (the tone with the white ring), Then you are IMAGINING it in your mind. After that, you are producing it with your voice: SING!

By doing this repeatedly, you will gain fluency with the foundation skill behind sight singing. The more you practice in TRAINING MODE, the better you will do with CHALLENGE LEVELS, and the easier music will magically become for you. CONJURING is the reverse of CAPTURING, which Tone Hole's gameplay is built around. It's significantly harder to do: have a symbol in your mind and turn it into sound with your voice. That's CONJURING. CAPTURING would be where you hear a tone and you know its name: do, re, mi, etc.

Tone Hole Level 74 Playthrough Q: How to Hear All

Tone Hole Level 74 Playthrough

Q: How to Hear All The Ascending Intervals in a Major Scale?
A: Perhaps a better and more accurate question might be:
Q: How to Hear All the Ascending Major Intervals Within an Octave?
A: Practice singing up from "do" to "re", "mi", "fa", "so", "la", and "ti".

Use Training Mode in Tone Hole to advance your ability to conjure these intervals, so that your ear doesn't need to rely on walking through a pattern. Patterns are good, so start with them.

Then, of course, play Tone Hole levels 73-75. The Warm Up Level (73) will get you started, matching sound AND COLOR to sound AND COLOR. The Practice Level (74) will get your flight off the ground by removing the color cue. Then the Challenge Level (75) will help you internalize these sounds by silencing your answer tones so you really have to listen to the question tone.

You can play in Training Mode for any of these levels, where Tone Hole cues you sing or hum each of these randomly. Actually the Warm Up level will walk you through the same pattern as in game play.

Play with your ears!
#musicgames #musicgames #musiceducation #Kodàly #eartraining #solfege

#affirmation ticker:

Intervals up from "do"...... from "do" to "re" is a major second; from "do" to "mi" is a major third; from "do" to "fa" is a perfect fourth, from "do" to "so" is a perfect fifth; from "do" to "la" is a major sixth, from "do" to "ti" is a major seventh. counting to seven is easy. You can use your fingers and still have three left over to hold a paint brush! Daily play clears the doubt away. Your path to clarity may not be a straight line, but it is yours and yours alone. Yet, many are walking with you in song.

Level 44 Playthrough "Not Fa to Run". Q: How to T

Level 44 Playthrough "Not Fa to Run".

Q: How to Train Your Ear to Hear More Than Just Up-And-Down Motion.
A: Gradually, with patience and repetition, and by focusing first on skips, then on wider leaps.

While you can get pretty far in music hearing only step motion, where notes move only to their neighbors, over time you'll condition your ear to hear skips, aka "thirds". Each skip has a different flavor, and this level focuses on the skip between fa and re.

It's the sound of "open sleigh" at the end of "Jingle Bells", and knowing this can ground you in experience and connect your perception to your memory. Even without this reference, many European classical pieces come to an end by going fa-re-do. And so this level brings you through this pattern, identifying it repeatedly until it is another old friend.

For this playthrough video, I chose a sound that even I don't love, but I put it in the game so that you can challenge yourself to hear through timbre. If you do ear training with a piano sound only, you will quickly become confused when you are presented with music on other instruments. Solution: mix up the sounds you hear when you train. Simple

GOOD: Play with your eyes by watching this video: see if you can predict the correct match before I tap the tone.

BETTER: Download Tone Hole for FREE and play through the first 18 levels. Then, just a buck-ninety-nine for over 100 more levels! Play with your ears!

#musicgames musicgames #musicgames #musiceducation #Kodàly #eartraining #solfege

#affirmation ticker:

Your musical truth awaits you. Keep listening inside and you'll find it. Savor each tone you sing like it's the most beautiful note ever, because it is. These tones might grate, so you can change them! Stop working so hard and play your music. Music is to be played, not worked. Your musical truth is already inside you. Your singing voice is your birthright. No one can take it away!

Load More Follow on Instagram