“You have to be born with perfect pitch to have perfect pitch…” This is a quote that I have heard countless times throughout my musical education. Sure, the statement certainly holds some merit and validity, though it is not entirely true.
You see, if one views ear training similarly to, say, lifting weights, then the concept becomes rather simple to break down. The ear is just another ‘muscle’ that, if taken through consistent analytical and critical listening and/or ‘training,’ can naturally advance and become infinitely more capable. That said, who’s to say you can’t develop perfect pitch?
Ear Training for Traditional Musicians
Ear training for music comes in several forms, all of which aid equally in sharpening a set of ears, but differ immensely from one another. For instance, traditional ear training, which is typically taught in programs that follow conservatory principles, is bound to ensure most individuals a solid base of musical intellect and a set of ears capable of recognizing specific sound patterns and relationships while having a keen understanding of harmonic structure.
Traditional ear training entails learning your key signatures, rhythmic values, intervals, chords, and so on. The more familiar you can become with various chord progressions and harmonic structures, in general, the more proficient and advanced you will inevitably end up as a songwriter.
In regards to vocal training, practicing the vowels and their respective mouth shapes in tangent to reciting all the scales — natural, harmonic, and melodic — will certainly aid in building up one’s confidence when it comes to singing on pitch and enunciating words and phrases like a true professional.
As for a more modern approach to ear training, one that I like to call ‘ear training for producers,’ we can take a step back from all the big, fancy words mentioned above and just — listen.
Ear Training for Producers
What shocked me most upon entering the world of music production and attempting to make my first few tunes was the realization that there was practically no carryover from my earlier music education. Sure, I was able to put together a couple crafty chord progressions and understood the fundamentals of rhythm, but my finished products almost always sounded like crap. After sitting through numerous YouTube rabbit holes and absorbing hours of production content, I realized that some of the best producers don’t know a lick about music theory yet will produce circles around me, even still…
When it comes to ear training for producers, the main exercise is critical listening. This is not to be mistaken for simply listening to a whole bunch of songs, though of course that would never hurt, either.
Examples of critical listening include identifying frequency ranges, stereo profiles (how wide certain sounds appear on the stereo spectrum), and audio effects (reverb, distortion, delay, etc.). The ability to pinpoint these physical details is often what depicts an experienced producer over a less experienced one. Learn how to ‘pocket your sounds’ using subtractive EQ and apply compression and saturation to enliven certain sounds that you feel deserve treatment. Otherwise, use audio effects and plugins sparingly to enrich your sounds or even, turn them into something completely unexpected — a happy accident, so to speak!
