But the same thing has to take place. The same end goal is to know what to expect when you play some notes or chords. You know what the sounds will be before you actually play them.
For some people, simply playing & massive repetition will be enough. For others, it helps to have a more systematic approach. To plan & consciously think, "This is a major scale", or "This is a ii-V-I progression", etc. It takes longer for some, shorter for others. But the principle remains: you have to internalize & automate the sounds of music.
This is how some people can hear a chord progression, series of notes, a lick & automatically know how to play it: they've already heard something similar, they've played it or something similar, so it's stored in some form in their subconscious ("memory banks") & hearing it again triggers that memory.
It can help to sing along, even in a poor quality singing voice, because it is one more way for your mind & body to remember, to internalize & automate any given group of notes or chords. Your fingers, ears, mind and also, your voice are all doing the same thing, integrated in the same process.
It is not absolutely necessary to sing in order to get better at aural identification. But it can help because it is another way you can get your mind & body on the same task: getting sounds automated in your mind & associating them with certain physical motions.
I know that sometimes it helps me when transcribing a hard solo. I'll listen to just a short segment of a few seconds. Or a short phrase of 5-6 notes. Then I repeat that lick over & again. I'll sometimes hum or sing it until I've got it memorized while I am looking for it on the fretboard.
Originally Posted by: maggiorAlso, is practicing scale patterns a component and/or form of ear training?[/quote]
It depends upon how you are doing it & if you are paying attention to the sounds, or just moving your fingers without listening.Originally Posted by: maggiorSince I've been practicing the major and pentatonic scales for many years, I can tell immediately if I've hit a bad note in it. Hand me a minor scale or one of the modes, and it's just a string of notes to me...
Ah ha! You're starting to internalize the pentatonic scales, but not yet the diatonic.
So, it would help to practice the diatonic scales in a way that identifies relative pitch. The pedal point exercises in GF2 Chapter 7 are great for this.
Another approach that I find helps students is to play simple melodies in various places all over the fretboard. What you are after is to get beyond merely playing a graphic pattern of frets & strings, to the point at which it is a pattern of musical sounds.
[QUOTE=maggior]
I'm trying to fit a plan together for myself with this and I'm not sure exactly where to begin...and where exactly I'm trying to go. I'm told that developing one's ear is key to well rounded and melodic improvisation.
Sure, it's the key to that and more: in general, to being a better musician.
It's not bad to practice scales systematically. But when you do you should place them in some musical context in your mind. Think of the scale degrees when you play scales. Learn to associate that scale degree (it's relative position from the root) number with it's sound & position in the scale on the fretboard.
Play a scale over a backing track with a solid chord progression that you've memorized. Start & end segments of the scale so they are chords tones of the progression as it happens. Listen for sounds of how this works.
I often play scales & chords a measure each right after each other. Or play a bass note, or pedal tone in order to firmly ground my thinking about what key or chord I am referring to as I'm playing scales or licks.
I do that in these improvisation lessons & this channel lesson when I talk about adding a bass note in between licks.
www.guitartricks.com/tutorial.php?input=876
www.guitartricks.com/tutorial.php?input=483
www.guitartricks.com/tutorial.php?input=491
http://www.guitartricks.com/lesson.php?input=17553&s_id=1501
Conveniently, the channel episode is about using the pentatonic box as a visual reference, but adding diatonic notes. :)
Hope this helps! Have fun!
