An important component of learning to improvise in a particular musical style is having a strong ear that can not only identify the intervals, chords, and rhythms associated with the style, but can also help with the rapid decision making process of choosing what to play next during an improvisation and how to get there.
A good ear can help you maintain musical context if your goal is to improvise in a particular style. Deviating from the context of a musical style will make your improvisation sound less like the style you intended. An example of this would be improvising with chords, intervals, and rhythms that are not characteristic of the style.
How do you develop a strong ear? In addition to the act of improvising itself and experimenting with intervals and chords, transcribing music by ear can go a long way toward helping you improve your musical ear. This process involves identifying intervals between notes, note durations, chords, and rhythms. For example, are you able to identify what a perfect fifth sounds like? What about a minor third or a tritone? Can you identify a triad in second inversion by ear? A 4-3 suspension in first inversion? Can you transcribe rhythms? Can you figure out the melody of the theme song to your favorite movie or TV show by ear on the piano (or your preferred instrument)?
Practice
Finding music online to transcribe is easy and your options are limitless. So give it a try. Find a piece of music you enjoy and start transcribing it by ear. If you're intimidated by the thought of transcribing by ear, try focusing on one voice at a time and breaking down the piece into a simpler form. Work phrase by phrase, voice by voice.
For example, for your first transcription, focus only on writing down the notes themselves. Ignore the rhythms by making all the notes you hear quarter notes regardless of their actual duration. You don't necessarily have to transcribe in the exact same key as what you're hearing either. Put your transcription in the key of C if you want. The goal here is to get the intervals between the notes correct.
For your second transcription, focus only on writing down the note durations. Ignore the note values by making all notes an A, for example. The goal here is to get the rhythm correct.
For your third transcription, bring it all to together by transcribing the proper note intervals and proper note durations. Once you gain more experience transcribing music, you won't need to rely as much on the steps outlined above for your first and second transcriptions.
If you want to practice transcribing the actual notes of a piece in the proper key, determine the first note of the melody (ie: using a piano, musical instrument, or your ear). Then use that first note as a reference for figuring out subsequent notes.
When you feel comfortable transcribing more than one voice, try your hand at two, three, or four voices. Work on improving your identification of various types of chords, including major, minor, diminished, and augmented chords for example. See if you can identify chord inversions, suspensions, and retardations.
For fun, I've put together a short video with an ear training quiz to help get you started on your journey toward improving your musical ear. The first and second parts of the quiz ask you to identify note intervals with notes being played both together and separately.
- Minor 2nd (m2)
- Major 2nd (M2)
- Minor 3rd (m3)
- Major 3rd (M3)
- Perfect 4th (P4)
- Augmented 4th/Diminshed 5th (tritone)
- Perfect 5th (P5)
- Minor 6th (m6)
- Major 6th (M6)
- Minor 7th (m7)
- Major 7th (M7)
- Octave
- Minor 10th (m10)
- Major 10th (M10)
The third part of the quiz asks you to identify whether the chord you hear is in root position, first inversion, or second inversion. Feel free to pause and replay the video as many times as you need. The answers to the quiz are at the bottom of this page.
Bonus Points
Transcribe the improvised closing thought by listening to (not watching) the video. Then download the sheet music to see if you got your transcription correct.
Summary
Developing a strong ear is paramount to maintaining musical context during an improvisation. Your ear will help you identify what makes up a particular musical style, maintain context during an improvisation, and determine how to get to where you want to go throughout an improvisation.
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