Absolute and relative ear: what are and how to train them
The absolute ear is rare and difficult to acquire as an adult. The relative, the most widely used by musicians, training at any age with daily exercises.
The absolute ear is the ability to recognize or sing a note without any reference: you listen to a sound and you know that it's a sound, without comparing it with anything. The relative ear is the ability to recognize the notes by their relationship: if they give you a do, you know how to find me or identify that the melody increased a fifth.
The absolute is rare and very difficult to fully develop in adult age. Instead, relative training at any age and most musicians use every day to tuning, listening, improvising and making dictates.
To sum up
- Absolute hearing: identify a note without reference. relative hearing: identify it from another known note.
- The absolute ear is often associated with a very early musical formation and is difficult to acquire as an adult.
- That's how you don't have an absolute ear to be a good musician or to study music at university.
- The relative ear improves with short and daily practice: singing intervals, drawing ear melodies and making dictates.
- To sing is the basis for all listening training: if you can sing it, you're listening to it inside.
What's an absolute ear
A person with an absolute ear, also called a perfect ear, hears the dick of a car, a bell or an any piano key and can say what note it is. Some can also sing a sun or a re bemol without anyone giving them to them first.
It's considered unusual and often related to intense contact with early childhood music, combined with an individual predisposition. It's very difficult to achieve this completely in adults with no development as a child, but memory of some reference notes can be improved.
How to figure out if you have him
Ask someone to play random notes at a piano without you looking at the keyboard, at different heights and without giving you any reference note earlier. If you name them quickly and without hesitation, you'll most likely get them right. Eye: singing a famous song at its original tone is very common and isn't the same. It's memory of that song, no recognition of loose notes.
Not everything's benefits.
A person with an absolute ear can be upset with a work being moved to another tone, with a chorus passing down tuning or with instruments tuned up or down as usual, as with some orchestras or with Baroque music. He can also have an opportunity at first to read with transpository instruments such as clarinet or saxophone.
What's relative ear
The relative ear works with distances. He doesn't have to know that the first note is a do and he needs to know how much the following goes up or down. He uses it when:
- Filling up his guitar and comparing his old string with his old one at the fifth place.
- The choir of a song from every note you get from your ears.
- That's right. That's right.
- You admit that one song uses the same chords as another that you already knew how to play.
- Do a musical dictation at an entrance test: they give you the first note and write the rest.
It's the most widely felt skill in a practical musician, and the good news is that she gets better with constant training.
Absolute ear and relative ear differences
| Aspecto | Absolute hearing | relative hearing |
|---|---|---|
| What do you recognize | Each note by itself | The distance between notes and their function |
| Needs reference | No | Yes, a note or a starting chord |
| How to acquire | Almost always in early childhood | Training at any age |
| How common it is | Uncommon | He's been developed by every musician who practises him. |
| What's more good for? | To identify loose tones and notes | Touch ear, tuning as a group, improvising, transcribe |
| Possible disadvantage | Inconvenience with different transport or tuning | Depends on an initial reference |
In practice, many musicians with an absolute ear also train relative, because music is understood not as note by note but by relations: a melody is recognized as equal in any tone.
How to train relative ear
Three principles make the difference between training an ear and listening to music:
- To recognize an interval that you can sing is far easier than to recognize one that you have only heard.
- A little more and more. Ten minutes a day give more results than an hour on Sunday.
- From simple to complex: first if the melody goes up or down, then intervals, then chords and at the end complete dictated.
To understand what each interval is and how it's name, read what's a musical intervalIf you prefer a guided path, in [music theory classes]](/clases/teoria-musical) hearing training is worked with reading and solphis.
Exercises to train the ear
Sing and check
Play a do and sing and then sing the re and me and the sun without touching them. Then check with the instrument or with the [tuning machine]](/herramientas/afinador)That shows you whether your voice was high or low and changes the starting note every day.
Intervales with reference songs
To associate every interval at the start of a known melody is a classic trick, and then you can get tested with our [hearing training]](/herramientas/entrenamiento-auditivo). Some ascending references:
| Interval | Referencia |
|---|---|
| Second minor | The theme of the movie "Shark" |
| Second largest | Happy birthday, between "cube-ple" and "a" |
| Third minor | The start of Smoke's Riff on the Water |
| That's right. | Wagner's wedding march, the one that sounds as his girlfriend goes in. |
| Fifth fair | Stars, where are you? |
| Eighth | Somewhere Over the Rainbow, at something-where |
Shortcuts
Ask someone to play three or four notes starting with a do. Sing them, search them in your instrument and write them. When it's easy, move to five notes and then to different rhythms. It's the basis of [musical dictation]](/blog/dictado-musical-como-prepararlo) That they demand the entrance tests.
Exceeding or less
Listen to chords and classify them into more or less. At first you can be guided by the most light or darker sensation, but with time you will recognize the third chord, that's the note that makes a difference.
Take out ear songs
Choose songs that you know by memory and look for the melody in your instrument. Start with melodies with few leapes and, once you feel secure, try to get the line out of the bass.
Frequently asked questions
Can an adult develop an absolute ear?
To achieve this completely is very rare in adults. What you can do is to memorize some reference notes, such as that of the tuner or the most serious note of your instrument, and to combine them with a good relative ear.
Do I have an absolute ear to study music at college?
No. Admissions tests usually evaluate dictation, intonation and reading, and depend on relative ear and practice. If you are preparing, the [preuniversity music]](/preuniversitario-musica) He's been working his skills.
How do I know if I have a good music ear?
Some signs: you can write a note that you listen to without bad tuning, you know how bad something sounds and you get to repeat a short tune after listening to it. If you don't get out of it, that doesn't mean you have an ear: that means you haven't trained him.
Do hearing training applications serve?
They are useful for daily intervals and concurrently but they do not correct if you are singing out of tune. They are combined with singing exercises and, if you can, with the review of a teacher.