![]() Practicing fifteen minutes a day is better than four hours right before you go to your mid-term. It involves coordination, thinking fast and fluently, reading, and performance in real time. There are some things you can learn that way, but learning a foreign language or ear training you cannot do two hours before the exam. I think probably one of the hardest things to teach at the very beginning of college is not to cram, not to postpone. Part of our work is showing students how to practice, helping them develop a self-teaching ability and the ability to pace themselves. "We have some upper division electives that are very popular, but in terms of sheer numbers, most of the ear training sections are basic skills courses that students take in the first two years. I think an ear training teacher has to have empathy with the whole range of possible students and the ability to diagnose what each of them needs." Those are two really different cultural and musical backgrounds, and there's everything in between. Some have learned to play mostly by ear others grew up like I did in a school band or orchestra program, where the first time they played a note they were looking at it on a page. "Our students come to Berklee with all sorts of different backgrounds. When you have a good ear it makes your rhythm better, because you're not hesitant, you're confident." If you're in a group that has any element of improvisation or surprise in it-which most popular contemporary music, jazz, and all sorts of world music have-ear training is what allows you to hear what somebody else is doing and respond to it with something that fits and isn't an accident, but is intentional and meaningful, and has feeling and confidence behind it. It allows you to interact with other musicians. ![]() "Ear training is a tool that allows you to express what you hear, what you want to play, and what you want to sound like. If somebody plays a chord, they recognize that chord and how it moves to the next chord, and they can respond to that." If somebody sings something, they know what it is. So when they hear something in their head, they can very easily sing it or play it on their instrument, and they can very easily write it down to speed up the communication process with their band or whoever they're working with. "I want students to have a seamless connection between their inner ear, their instrument, and notation.
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