Ear Training: One Note Complete Method

Rating:
Summary: An easy read and straight-forward method although...
Review: I have just started using this a couple of weeks ago. Having taken up music (guitar) rather late in life I am starting from scratch, although I can usually find the right key for a blues song. I find this course less daunting than say the much advertised "Perfect Pitch" course [which gets hard around about CD 6 -- although that course taught me how to recognise the note G most of the time! -- and really explains well what perfect pitch and relative pitch is all about].

I haven't made any break throughs yet, so hard to say if it works -- but it seems like it should help. We use the first CD in the car and I have turned it into a game -- everybody gets a guess!

Rating:
Summary: A lot of work, but worth it
Review: I just bought the complete set after having the one-note beginner set for a long time. Some of the notes came to me very quickly, and then others have taken a long time. I should note that I didn't really make significant progress until I committed to listening to the disc extensively throughout the day, at least 4-5 times, with special attention paid to being present and listening to the entire cadence, then focusing on the note and letting it ring out before I attempted to name it. When I get it wrong, I go back and listen to the example again, making sure to let the note ring out before naming it so that I know I have actually *heard* the note and absorbed it consciously. For others, this may come quickly, but I'm also trying to unlearn old habits from a previous interval ear-training program I worked on.

For those who have also used previous interval-based courses, be warned that the note from a previous exercise can "hang over" and create an interval effect with the next note that colors it. When I notice this, I usually back the CD up and listen to it again to make sure I can hear the sound of the note in relation to the key. This seems to help.

I'm enjoying this course because it explains, in a direct experiential way, what I can only describe as the "harmelodic" effects of melodies versus various keys and chords. (Oddly, this course has taught me that I used to hear the 5th as the "root" note, and so I've been surprised to actually hear what the root of a key really sounds like...)

I'm still waiting for the benefits of the course to show up in general listening, although I've found I notice a lot of note-vs.-key effects in very tonal baroque music, especially the way the pieces cadence and resolve to the keynote (and which has enormously benefited my enjoyment). Being able to hear shifting key centers in "out" jazz or "atonal" classical music is a long way off, though.

A previous reviewer wondered about the use primarily of C as the key for the exercises. Remember that with the addition of sharps and flats, every other key is basically a variation of C, and what you learn in C can be transferred (with some work) into other keys. Also, I went ahead and bought the Fanatics Guide to Sight-Singing, which explicitly has you work through all 12 keys singing scale degrees. This definitely helps you retrain to hear the note in relation to the key instead of by interval. Oddly, hearing the major 6, for instance, in every key helps me hear how that degree is the same in every key, but it's also made me notice how something else about each of the 12 notes stays the same, no matter which degree it functions as. I've begun to notice a certain thing about A "underneath" the sound of its key function that stays the same. But, I guess that's an altogether different topic.

Anyway, I think this is a worthwhile course and it explains some things I had noticed before but had no way to access or study in a systematic fashion. I can say that my guitar playing has benefitted, although its been more subliminal so far, and manifests as kind of a subconscious ability either to hit the right notes or to make "out" notes "work," and the sense of my playing being more intentional and coherent. Learning parts by ear has also become a lot easier, although I'm a long way from being able to hear something once and just play it.

Rating:
Summary: You Can Do It
Review: I noticed that some people seem to be confused about why the CDs that accompany this book are all in one key. I took this excerpt from the FAQs for Fanatic's Guide and Ear Training One Note Complete from the publishers website.

"You will definitely want to play vamps in different keys. You will want to sing in different keys too. But remember as far as the ear training goes - ALL KEYS ARE THE SAME. The 3rd in C major will sound exactly like the 3rd in F# major. The 3rd always sounds like the 3rd. You want to do other keys mostly to build up your music theory ability to know for example what the b6th in Gb major is quickly. That is where I recommend using the Music Theory books so you can speed up your music theory knowledge so it's ready when your ears are."

I have found myself that when I started there were things that didn't make sense to me. Through contacting Mr. Arnold and reading the FAQs from hundreds of students I have learned many things. Two of the most important are don't judge something until you truly understand it and perception grows over time mostly through learning and studying. The most important thing I've learned from my interactions with Mr. Arnold is that understanding how I learn and controlling my mind's tendencies will be the real challenge to learning anything including ear training.

Rating:
Summary: if you really want to learn something... do this.
Review: If you don't really want to learn something, this will be useless to you. Mr. Arnold points out that this is hard. I've been working with the method for about 2 weeks now, and I'm here to tell you that it is DRIVING ME CRAZY. But the more I work with it, the more sense it makes, and the more it is rearranging my brain.
I have worked on eartraining for years, in college as a music major, and after college, ongoing for over 10 years. I could never get the traction I wanted, no matter how I worked. And really, I couldn't tell that anyone else had either.
Turns out that I had been trained in every counter-productive method Mr. Arnold mentions in his work. A lot of horrible habits, given to me by people I trusted...
Those habits are really, REALLY hard to break. But I now believe that it can be done. And after so much sweat over so much time, I'm now certain that the level of hearing I've wanted for so long really is possible. It's really HARD, and I expect to be working on this for years. But, hey... I also expect to be a musician until I die, so it's very much worth the work to do it right.
(One last note: when I first read Mr. Arnold's writing on this method I nearly cried. It was like he'd looked at everything I was doing wrong and all the time I'd wasted and said, very directly, "You should stop that. And you should grit your teeth and do this, if you really want to fix anything." Honestly, the man had my number. Maybe he has yours. You got the guts?)

Rating:
Summary: if you really want to learn something... do this.
Review: If you don't really want to learn something, this will be useless to you. Mr. Arnold points out that this is hard. I've been working with the method for about 2 weeks now, and I'm here to tell you that it is DRIVING ME CRAZY. But the more I work with it, the more sense it makes, and the more it is rearranging my brain.
I have worked on eartraining for years, in college as a music major, and after college, ongoing for over 10 years. I could never get the traction I wanted, no matter how I worked. And really, I couldn't tell that anyone else had either.
Turns out that I had been trained in every counter-productive method Mr. Arnold mentions in his work. A lot of horrible habits, given to me by people I trusted...
Those habits are really, REALLY hard to break. But I now believe that it can be done. And after so much sweat over so much time, I'm now certain that the level of hearing I've wanted for so long really is possible. It's really HARD, and I expect to be working on this for years. But, hey... I also expect to be a musician until I die, so it's very much worth the work to do it right.
(One last note: when I first read Mr. Arnold's writing on this method I nearly cried. It was like he'd looked at everything I was doing wrong and all the time I'd wasted and said, very directly, "You should stop that. And you should grit your teeth and do this, if you really want to fix anything." Honestly, the man had my number. Maybe he has yours. You got the guts?)

Rating:
Summary: The pluses and the minuses.
Review: It appears that like other reviewers I am in the midst of using this book to improve my "ear" as I write this review. I've had a month to work with it, mostly for about 5-10 minutes a day, because it is a rather intense workout. I like Arnold's approach: that rather than memorize every single tone possible (good lord!) and rather than relying on the "interval" method (which is incredibly deceptive), we should learn notes in relation to the whole, so that we can play within/comprehend that whole--isn't that the point, after all? Kudos to Arnold for going to some length to explain this in the book, and even for including commonly asked questions, complaints, and reports of progressive. It helps make sense of his approach, and his explanations are what I'd consider accessible to students at any level. Three discs are included with a slim booklet; that is quite nice. Each disc has 99 tracks, of course only seconds long but that's all that's required. The music and pause time before answers is shorter in each of the three discs. The booklet includes written answers as well.

The method seems helpful, and it is set up quite nicely. ... Was this a needless expense? I guess the explanatory essay might be worth it, but it mostly serves as a reassuring authority of the "relation" principle--for example, no matter what key you are in, or how many octaves apart the tone is, the root note is the root note; the seventh is the seventh; the flat sixth is the...you get the idea. The cds might be worth it for convienience's sake alone, perhaps. (By the way make sure your player has shuffle, or you'll memorize the order of answers. Also, the exercises are with piano, not guitar. I find this no problem, but you might.) Another annoyance is Arnold's acceptance of the Key of C paradigm that pervades music instruction. All three cds use C. Why not use different keys on each disc? Just to prove your point? It should not make a difference if the premise is right, but it would be refreshing to the student and increase her or his confidence.

Take note this is a frustrating set. (But this is coming from someone who has never been able to play anything "by ear".) The learning process is intense for the "ear-challenged" such as myself, but this seems like it'd work better than the other methods, or by random luck or wishful thinking. You are basically asked to proceed by intuition, or some likewise indescribable way of learning. A serious trial by fire. If you need a "how do I do it" guide this is not the place to come. It's more like learning a language by being surrounded by it for a long time, and *not* by someone handing you a vocab list and rules for turning the present tense into the past: you'll learn it, and you might even be better at it because it's *in* you, so to speak, rather than *on* you. But it is an intense and probably prolonged experience.

I hope this helps you decide whether this is for you, and if it is worth the price. I haven't noticed any improvement in myself that I am not convinced isn't just luck; but it could be so subtle I don't see it yet. I do imagine it will help. Time will tell.

Rating:
Summary: The pluses and the minuses.
Review: It appears that like other reviewers I am in the midst of using this book to improve my "ear" as I write this review. I've had a month to work with it, mostly for about 5-10 minutes a day, because it is a rather intense workout. I like Arnold's approach: that rather than memorize every single tone possible (good lord!) and rather than relying on the "interval" method (which is incredibly deceptive), we should learn notes in relation to the whole, so that we can play within/comprehend that whole--isn't that the point, after all? Kudos to Arnold for going to some length to explain this in the book, and even for including commonly asked questions, complaints, and reports of progressive. It helps make sense of his approach, and his explanations are what I'd consider accessible to students at any level. Three discs are included with a slim booklet; that is quite nice. Each disc has 99 tracks, of course only seconds long but that's all that's required. The music and pause time before answers is shorter in each of the three discs. The booklet includes written answers as well.

The method seems helpful, and it is set up quite nicely. ... Was this a needless expense? I guess the explanatory essay might be worth it, but it mostly serves as a reassuring authority of the "relation" principle--for example, no matter what key you are in, or how many octaves apart the tone is, the root note is the root note; the seventh is the seventh; the flat sixth is the...you get the idea. The cds might be worth it for convienience's sake alone, perhaps. (By the way make sure your player has shuffle, or you'll memorize the order of answers. Also, the exercises are with piano, not guitar. I find this no problem, but you might.) Another annoyance is Arnold's acceptance of the Key of C paradigm that pervades music instruction. All three cds use C. Why not use different keys on each disc? Just to prove your point? It should not make a difference if the premise is right, but it would be refreshing to the student and increase her or his confidence.

Take note this is a frustrating set. (But this is coming from someone who has never been able to play anything "by ear".) The learning process is intense for the "ear-challenged" such as myself, but this seems like it'd work better than the other methods, or by random luck or wishful thinking. You are basically asked to proceed by intuition, or some likewise indescribable way of learning. A serious trial by fire. If you need a "how do I do it" guide this is not the place to come. It's more like learning a language by being surrounded by it for a long time, and *not* by someone handing you a vocab list and rules for turning the present tense into the past: you'll learn it, and you might even be better at it because it's *in* you, so to speak, rather than *on* you. But it is an intense and probably prolonged experience.

I hope this helps you decide whether this is for you, and if it is worth the price. I haven't noticed any improvement in myself that I am not convinced isn't just luck; but it could be so subtle I don't see it yet. I do imagine it will help. Time will tell.

Rating:
Summary: It works for me
Review: Mr Arnold's approach is different from conventional ear training methods which focuses on hearing the intervals.

His approach focuses on identifing (naming) pitches you hear with reference to a "key center" that you perceive when you listen to a short musical phrase, a motif or a cadence, etc.

This helps especially during live gigs which require my responses to other musicians's playing.

Rating:
Summary: It works for me
Review: Mr Arnold's approach is different from conventional ear training methods which focuses on hearing the intervals.

His approach focuses on identifing (naming) pitches you hear with reference to a "key center" that you perceive when you listen to a short musical phrase, a motif or a cadence, etc.

This helps especially during live gigs which require my responses to other musicians's playing.