You need to develop many essential skills to move forward as a musician:
- good technique on your instrument
- a great rhythmic feel
- knowledge of stylistic interpretation
- improvising
- reading music, chord charts, tab
- the know-how to arrange music
- an understanding of basic recording technology
- “working” your equipment [synth(s), effects, software]
- promoting your music
- people skills (band members, managers, at venues)
But your most prized possession as a musician is…
Your Ears!
First of all it is essential to protect your hearing at all cost. I hate to break the news to you, but no, you won’t automatically have Beethoven’s musical skills by becoming deaf like him. Use ear plugs in loud locations (concerts, gigs, rehearsals) – it’s the smart thing to do.
However, there’s more to hearing than registering sound waves via your eardrums.
You need the ability to analyze and interpret the incoming sound. That’s what ear training is for. It helps you develop the skill of understanding what your ears are hearing.
Functional Ear Training
One of the best ear training methods I’ve come across is functional ear training. Instead of learning to recognize the sound of individual intervals, with functional ear training you focus on learning the specific sound of a note in the context of tonality.
What do I mean by specific sound?
Let’s listen to a C chord followed by a C note. Notice how stable and resting the C note sounds. The identical C note is then played after a B chord.
Simply put, the C note plays a different role in the key of B major than in the key of C major. And with the different function goes a different sound quality as well. It’s your job to learn to recognize that difference in tonal character.
Now the big question is: how do you do that? Do you just listen to music and hope that those characteristics jump out at you? Should you just sit down at the piano and play individual keys over and over again trying to memorize their sound?
No, because fortunately there’s a better way.
Attention: this is an article that I originally published back in 2011. The original software still runs on my Windows 10 PC. However, it does not seem to get maintained/developed further anymore. The screenshots in this article show the legacy software. All the principles/exercises can also be transferred to the more up-to-date Functional Ear Trainer App.
Step 1 – Download the Functional Ear Training Software
Head on over to Alain Benbassat’s site, then download and install the free Functional Ear Training software.
Step 2 – Follow the Tutorial
Unlike the previous versions this new V2 software is a cross-platform Adobe Air application and there’s no additional set-up required. No MIDI sound card settings and initial options to deal with.
You can get started immediately and the built-in tutorial section explains the functional ear training method step by step. It’s interactive with concise explanations and corresponding sound examples.
For example, here’s screen #11 of the method explanation.
Step 3 – Repeat
Don’t just rush through the initial explanation screens. Spend some time with the preliminary exercises. Let them sink in. Repeat them often. Especially if this is your first time practicing functional ear training exercises. Trust me, it’s an investment of your practice time that really will pay off big time.
Step 4 – Customize Your Practice Sessions
When you feel like you have mastered Part I, it’s time to get into a practice routine using the Practice Lab. Here’s where you can fine-tune and develop your ears.
Choose what you want to focus on and tweak the settings:
- which key
- major, minor or random
- how often (if at all) the cadence gets played to help you establish the tonality
- how many questions
- which notes and chromatics to include
- the labeling of the notes – letters, numbers or solfege
- small or large tone range
As you can see lots of options to customize your practice sessions.
Tune Your Ears with Functional Ear Training!
I highly recommend you get started with your own ear tune-up through functional ear training. It has made a tremendous difference in how I hear music. Treat it like a game where you shoot for a result in the 90-100% range. When you score consistently in that range for a few days in a row it’s time to move on to more difficult settings.
Just make sure that you don’t tire your ears – keep your functional ear training sessions short. 10 minutes is all you need.
P.S.: The 1st additional post is up. For more practice tips read the “2 Strategies to Master Chromatic Notes with Functional Ear Training” article.
And one more time … Here’s the link to the more relevant, up-to-date Functional Ear Trainer App article!
Marko
Good article – and although recognizing intervals might be important, ‘functional’ ear training as you call it makes so much more sense than ‘traditional’ ear training.
(Can I just add to Marko’s warning about protecting your hearing at gigs and rehearsals???)
I advise all my students to construct their practice routines using backing tracks with chordal material as well as rhythmic material – that way they get ‘subliminal’ ear training of playing the bass in context of real world chord progressions.
This is how most keyboard players get such good ears – it’s not because they spend more time at it, it’s purely that they spend so much time playing melodies and lines with ‘chordal’ backing that their ear subliminally recognizes the sounds of chords and chord sequences over time.
Be posting this to my bass guitar facebook page.
Paul
Hi Paul,
Thanks for the awesome comment.
Traditional ear training is great – in combination/as supplement to functional ear training.
The problem is that relying on interval recognition alone won’t cut it for real time application.
It’s great to know that you just heard a perfect 5th – but the question now is: which perfect 5th did you hear? The 5th between the tonic and 5th, or the fifth between the 2nd and 6th, or the fifth between the 3rd and 7th, or… you get the idea.
Because they all have their individual character and in my experience it’s more immediately useful to recognize that it’s been the major 3rd and major 7th you just heard. You can still label it perfect 5th afterwards and get all the benefits of both methods.
Love the subliminal ear training angle when using backing tracks. I’ll definitely add that to my student assignments e.g.: focus on your phrasing and also notice the difference in sound and feel when the chords change from Ami9 to Fmaj9.
Thanks again.
Here is a different way that beginners can use ‘Functional Ear Trainer’. The task is not to ‘test’ the learner. The task involves learning, through imitation, the sounds (‘personalities’) of scale degree tones, one at a time and within tonal contexts. Here is how it is done:
First, you need to set the program up to do it. For ‘Key’, select ‘Major’ and ‘Random Key’. At ‘Note Choices’ select only the first note of the scale. Select ‘Always’ at ‘Play Cadence’. This setup will only play first scale degree notes (the all-important ‘tonic’) in randomly selected keys.
‘Start’ the training and carefully listen to each of the notes (to begin with, they will always be the tonic of some major scale). Also, sing each one. When singing, use scale degree numbers, solfeggio, note names or a single syllable like: ‘to’, ‘so’, ‘fa’, ‘la’, ‘go’ etc. Better still, use more than one of these options from time to time (some people find it difficult to sing the words of a song when they have always used the same syllable for a scale degree). You can press ‘Repeat the Question’ as often as you want. It is best to do this training in frequent brief sessions. From time to time, change the instrument in ‘Midi Setup’ to learn the sounds when instruments with different timbres are used. Only when you can quickly and accurately predict (in advance) how the tonic is about to sound, should you start to learn the sound of second scale degree notes. This may take a number of sessions.
To internalise the sound of a second scale degree note, do the same as above, except that this time you should select only the second scale degree from ‘Note Choices’. Sing the notes you hear.
Also, try singing the tonic after you have sung the relevant scale degree note (applies to scale degrees 2 – 7).
Continue as above for all the scale degrees of the major scale. After the major scale, you could try the above with one of the minor scales.
The above will provide a good foundation for when you use the program to train yourself to identify notes within scales, i.e. without knowing in advance which notes of a scale they are (when you will be ‘testing’ yourself).
Doug Truter
[Note to Marko. Because I have a pre-Intel Mac I am not able to download V2 of the program. e.g. I am not sure if one can change the instrument in the new vesion (I have the Basic version). I would also have suggested starting with a slower Tempo, but again I am not sure that this is part of the latest version, i.e. some editing may be required]
Awesome, Doug. Thank you so much for taking the time to write such an epic comment. It’s a tutorial in itself and a great way to lay a super-solid foundation. Anybody having troubles with confusing scale degrees should definitely take the time for deliberate practice sessions following your method.
Yes, the tip about changing instruments in the Midi Setup” menu is important, too in order to not get “stuck” on the sound of the piano. Unfortunately, that’s not possible in the new version, which seems to be based on samples. Actually, I most often stick to the V1 for that very reason.
I’ve had another blog post planned specifically with troubleshooting tips and how to devise a personal practice plan, but never got around to it (yet.) And now, thanks to your awesome comment, it’s probably obsolete and unnecessary. 😉
Thanks again, Doug.
Hi Marko,
Thank you very much for helping me to discover functional ear training method. I started practicing every day about a week ago and still struggling through random major scale. I dedicated 30 minutes a day for it but it feels like after 15-20 minutes my ears get tired and that causes more errors. Should I cut my everyday session to 10 minutes as you suggested?
Also some days are better overall where I get 18/20 correct answers and some are worst with 13/20 within random major scale. I can’t imagine what causes such different rates. Are your days also different? How many days did it take to complete the method for you?
Thanks
Hi Yuri,
Yes, absolutely – cut your sessions down to 10 minutes. You’ve experienced it for yourself that your ears get tired at a certain point.
See, what’s really important is the consistency. Developing your ears takes time. You can’t “force” your ears to hear stuff they are not ready to hear yet. And believe me, 10 minutes is plenty of time to get a more than decent amount of exercise in. 🙂
If you feel ambitious and your schedule permits it, you could do the following: do a 10 minute session in the morning and another 5 to 10 minute session in the evening. Then there’s enough time and space for your ears to recover between your sessions.
Don’t worry about the fluctuations in results. That’s absolutely normal. One day, you have the feeling that now you’ve got it and you are musically invincible – the next day you don’t hear anything at all and all those notes sound the same. Keep a sense of humour and laugh about yourself – and continue with your exercises. 🙂
Again, consistency is the key. All those minutes over a period of weeks and months do add up and you are gradually closing any weaknesses in your aural understanding.
Initially, it took me a while to get used to the method, because I had extensive training in conventional, interval-based ear training. Once it clicked for me, I progressed through the basic levels rather quickly. Nowadays I practice random major and minor scales with all chromatics to strenghten the foundations. And I also put in sessions where I customize the exercises and focus on specific note pairs like b5 vs #5, b9 vs #9 etc…
Yuri, I hope this helps. If anything is unclear, feel free to ask. Most importantly, keep up with the regular ear training sessions. 🙂
Take care,
Marko
Thank you Marko! What a comprehensive answer. And you also worried to send me an e-mail. I do appreciate that very much! And I surely did subscribe for comments.
I also did try occasional intervals ear training before, not as much and not as regularly as required probably. Your words motivate me to do it a little by little every day. How do you think, do I have to do intervals too? Or should it be enough to stick with a functional training?
On another point: when I sing notes aloud doing functional ear training I’m not sure I’m getting correct pitch with my voice and sometimes that cracks me up. How do you deal with that?
Maybe you know an iOS app for functional ear training?
Yuri, you’re welcome. 🙂
Let’s get the negative out of the way first. I don’t have any iOS devices, so unfortunately, I don’t know of any functional ear training apps for that system. Sorry.
In regards to interval training…
Let me pre-face this a bit. As long as you don’t do anything stupid, like drilling the wrong information (e.g. listening to 5ths and calling them 7ths, singing totally!! off-key, etc.) then there is no “bad” ear training.
Any ear training method practiced consistently will improve your musicianship and is therefore a wise investment.
It sounds like you really want to whip your ears in shape. From my own experience I just know that it is easy to be too impatient and want too much too quickly. So, you have those plans and intentions for long practice sessions.
And this might work for a while. However, there is the danger of burning-out and of losing motivation. Or for feeling overwhelmed with too many options.
Life gets into way. You skip a session here and there – then you get angry with yourself for slacking promising yourself to get the full program in tomorrow. Tomorrow comes and you are tired after work, etc…
What I’d suggest you to do is the following:
Build your major functional ear training practice session of 10 minutes into your morning routine. You get it out of the way while your ears are still fresh.
If you do nothing else that day, you’ve already gotten your consistent action in. Anything above that is a bonus.
Do a 2nd practice session of 5-10 minutes max in the evening. If you feel like it, split it up into 2 five-minute segments, where 5 minutes are interval singing.
Pick an interval you want to work with like a perfect 5th. Play yourself different starting notes on your instrument first, match them with your voice then imagine the 5th and sing that sound. Check on your instrument how close you got and make corrections.
Maybe play that 5th interval melodically and sing along.
Rinse and repeat.
For the accuracy checking, record yourself while doing the exercises as best as you are able to and then listen and critique yourself later – when you can simply listen.
If you aren’t a singer by trade I wouldn’t worry too much about intonation. Of course, you don’t want to be totally off-key, but when you don’t sing all the time you don’t have that precise vocal cord control that a trained singer has.
As long as it’s reasonably in tune I wouldn’t worry too much.
Yuri, I hope this helps.
Have a great weekend,
Marko
Wow! Thanks a LOT! That’s super informative and helping my worries. I’m entirely into developing my ear so I’ll try to stick to the little-by-little plan you suggested. That sounds so reasonable to me as you explained everything.
I’m starting this new week with a new learning plan.
Awesome – keep me posted on your progress. 🙂
Yuri (and others) may be interested to know that there is a functional ear trainer for those using Chrome on their computers. It is a free app and is called “Toned Ear: Ear Training”. It includes scales, intervals, chord progressions, perfect pitch and melodic dictation. It uses a functional approach (except for perfect pitch).
There is also an Android “Functional Ear Trainer” available from Google Play. It is based on the original one by Alain Benbassat. It is also free.
I am not aware of any functional ear trainer for iOS.
Doug
Hi Doug,
1) I didn’t know about the Toned Ear app before. I’ve only tested it briefly, but it looks really good. It’s always nice to have some options and tackle ear training from different angles.
If anyone wants to also check it out, here’s the link to the Google Chrome app: Toned Ear
2) Is the Android Functional Ear Trainer the app that I reviewed in this post, or a different one?
Doug, thanks a lot for sharing and making us aware of the Toned Ear app. I really appreciate it.
Take care,
Marko.
I use the Functional Ear Trainer app too, but have a question:
You wrote: It’s great to know that you just heard a perfect 5th – but the question now is: which perfect 5th did you hear? The 5th between the tonic and 5th, or the fifth between the 2nd and 6th, or the fifth between the 3rd and 7th, or… you get the idea.
Because they all have their individual character and in my experience it’s more immediately useful to recognize that it’s been the major 3rd and major 7th you just heard. You can still label it perfect 5th afterwards and get all the benefits of both methods.
How does this gets trained by the FET app? You just have to sing your way upto or down to the nearest tonic. I never heard a 2nd to 6th, perect fifth interval, or did I?
BR, Johan
Hi Johan,
You’ll need either the “old” Functional Ear Trainer Advanced software. It says discontinued on the page, but you can still download it and on my PC it works without any problems.
Or install the Toned Ear Google Chrome app and use the “Intervals in Context (functional)” option.
A warning: it’s really difficult and frustrating initially – so don’t get discouraged and definitely work your way up using the “regular” Functional Ear Trainer first. It’s well worth it, though.
Johan, I hope this helps. Good luck (and fun) with your ear training. 🙂
Take care,
Marko
When will your web site be back up? I looked at it years ago and used the functional ear trainer. There was some vibe player who had an article on solfege and how to train with it. I sure would like to see that article again and download it.
Hi Russell,
Miles.be is Alain Benbassat’s site, who developed the initial desktop version of the Functional Ear Trainer. I have no information about when he’ll put his site online again. Unfortunately, I also don’t have a copy or bookmark of that article. Sorry about that.
Have you checked the 2nd article I’ve written about practicing the method? There are some tips and approaches outlined that have helped me improve.
https://advancingmusician.com/2-strategies-to-master-chromatic-notes-with-functional-ear-training
Take care,
Marko
I found this post after finding the link inside the iOS app. For years, I’ve wanted to get better at music. People always said “learn by ear” but I just couldn’t. I couldn’t hear the notes or intervals. But this app is helping me break apart the intervals and I’m feeling capable of transcribing some songs.
Thank you for this!
Hi Casey,
I’m glad that the Functional Ear Trainer app is working for you and helping you
get better at music.
My part in the app’s development is actually non-existent. I just happened to write a bunch
of articles about functional ear training using a desktop app which existed a few years
ago and unfortunately doesn’t seem to be available anymore.
One of my readers apparently got inspired and created the app, so all the glory and
praise belongs to Serhii Korchan.
Maybe send him a quick mail letting him know how much his app has helped you? I’m
sure he’d get a kick out of it. 🙂
Thanks again for taking the time to leave a comment. I truly appreciate it.
Best regards,
Marko
Hi,
Do you know what happened to Benbasset’s “Identify the key” program? He gave it away if you donated money. I used to have it but my laptop died 🙁
If anyone’s curious, it played “C” and then a key cadence. You had to recognize C’s relationship to the key, then identify the key. For example, if C functioned as the fifth, the key is F major.
I really liked it as another way to hear how notes function in a given key.
Hi Bill,
I do remember the software. It definitely was a cool (and quite challenging) way to train both your ears as well as the theory aspect at the same time. Unfortunately, I don’t know why Mr. Benbassat stopped offering this particular program – and it seems that there is no contact form anymore on his site either. 🙁 As an alternative you might want to have a look at Bruce Arnold’s material. He has a program called “Key Note Recognition”. It’s not software but rather a book/PDF & CD/mp3 package. It works the same way: you hear the note and the cadence and have to identify the key you are in based on the function of the fixed known note. Here’s the link: https://muse-eek.com/key-note-recognition-ear-training/
I hope this helps.
Best regards,
Marko
Thank you for the link, Marko!
In the beginning I was totally lost in the identify a key program. As I got better, I realized it was really the same thing as the “normal” program—identifying the quality of the note, how it sounds in the context of a cadence (in a key). What actually was still hard was reverse-mapping the key. If, say, C sounds like a minor 6, then the key is E but sometimes I’d think F#, getting the intervals wrong.
So, you’re right, it helped with ear training and theory. I miss the program and noticed that there’s no way to contact Mr. Benbasset 🙁