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Ear Confidence – 6 Paths to Fearless Ears

Brand New Ear Training Course: Ear Confidence – 6 Paths to Fearless Ears

Ear Training – a Musician’s Compass!

The first review for the Ear Confidence course is in:

Hi Ariane,

Just wanted to let you know that I am getting so much out of the ear training course. I am on lesson #10, and I am becoming much more aware of how to distinguish the notes. I can see how this course is going to give me a game plan on how to listen better and be able to transcribe music and I’m really excited to do the exercises you suggested to really listen and describe what I hear. The sounds classification information is eye opening (maybe ear opening is a better description) but you know what I mean. Awesome stuff !

This Ear Confidence course streams online. Take it at your convenience. All you need is an internet connection!

Three requests I hear from my students more than any:

  • Having trouble taking tunes off a recording. I am lost without TAB or GuitarPro. Help me transcribe tunes!
  • Wanting to be able to jump right in on a jam!
  • I have all this music in my head and cannot get it out! Help!

I hear you and I agree these are vital skills for a musician. Maybe you tried a few ear training programs, dutifully stuck to exercises identifying intervals but felt when you were looking to transcribe a tune or playing on a jam, it didn’t really help! Or perhaps you are even duly doing your Functional Ear trainer Exercises (something I frequently recommend) but are still waiting for it all to click!

Ear training is so important and there are so many misunderstandings as for how to best train the ears that I felt compelled to create a course with ear training for the bass player as its main focus. As you know I have many courses coming, but this one felt so important I prioritized this Ear Confidence course.

There are excellent exercises one can do, but if used in isolation without applying a few key principles presented in this course, they will only help so far.

Here are a few common reasons why...

  • You maybe get confused when you listen to a song and don’t know what to focus on.
  • The exercises are nice and good, but if you look to isolate your bass line within a whole band arrangement, your ear gets overwhelmed.
    You get distracted by overtones.
  • Nobody has ever told you to appreciate and watch out for context. (A “sad” interval can sound “happy” if followed by a certain note, for example)!
  • You have learned the intervals without making them your own.
  • You never broke down rhythmic elements to understand how they affect your perception of pitch.
  • There is often a disconnect between what we think we are playing and what we actually are playing.
  • Considerations such as timbre, instrument ranges, or sound effects haven’t been brought to your attention.

I’m not going to promise you super fast results without you putting in any work.

Instead, however, I offer:

  • My 6 favorite ear training drills and their practical application
  • Multi-sensor awareness exercises that bridge the gap between exercise and bandstand
  • Explanations and examinations of common roadblocks and how to lift them
  • There are ways to understand something intellectually and ways to feel a sound and make it your own. We do both!
  • I differentiate between issues of ear training and issues of understanding how music is put together
  • I customize the exercises for bass players
  • Lots of resources for further systematic study
  • The Golden Ear Nuggets: tidbits and lifelines – a collection of tips to help you in the moment!

Here is a quick summary of what this Ear Confidence course covers:

We do a quick initial test to unravel a particularly negative stigma some musicians have been cursed with.

Then I guide you to open your perception of sound to include kinesthetic, emotional and visual elements. This is one huge step that will make ear training not only aurally exciting but also feel good. In this context, I will show you possible reasons why many of the ear training exercises you may have done left you puzzled and still unsure about your ear’s proficiency.

  • I introduce you to six crucial approaches to ear training that I have found to be the most effective.
  • I give you an overview followed by drills and practical examples – many applied directly to your bass.
  • I make an emphatic case for further drills providing useful resources and give you empowering tools to weather many situations.
  • You will not only listen and reproduce, but you will also “do” – on your bass.
  • You will learn to be your own coach and give yourself constructive feedback, which may just help you break through barriers on more than just musical levels.

Presented from quite basic to more advanced, this course is an amazing road map to better ears and more confidence on the bandstand.

It is my goal to make a persuasive case for the most effective ear training drills as well as help you understand how exactly to bridge the gap between theory and practice or drill and stage: sprinkled throughout the course are nuggets of information that will help you remember the awareness training we will be doing, that will enable you to detangle your confusion, to focus in on what matters and to throw you a lifeline.

PS: And yes, for those of you who are waiting for my other promised courses, all this is coming, too. This Ear Confidence ear training course just turned out too important to put to the end of the line!