The Secret of Ear Training

[@maxkonyi]

My new ear training mobile app, Sonofield Ear Trainer, which is based on this method, is nearly ready! Sign-up to be notified when the app releases: www.sonic-sorcery.com/set

[@jtonthatrack3984]

Lol when the note doesn’t resolve I feel ANGER

[@maxkonyi]

💢💢💢

[@luckas221a]

when the note doesn't resolve I usually feel excited, lmao WHERE ARE WE GOING???

[@yumeno-w-]

​@@luckas221adats cool!! :3

[@selimoztunc]

Anger leads to suffering… 😂

[@librasky]

When it resolves on the wrong note , it's JAZZ I feel like some jazz players are trying to piss me off

[@Oxdazdndconfuzd8O]

Musical Edging

[@existentialcwboy]

😂😂😂

[@mahshshsrklingfa7031]

Nahhhhh

[@texasman2893]

precisely my brother

[@BryanParnala]

Wahahahaaah!😂😂😂😂

[@deveyous6614]

😂😂😂

[@joshkasen]

1. Love the video. Wonderfully produced. 2. Thank you for actually playing the final note and not leaving me with that terrible “feeling” 😅

[@maxkonyi]

🙌😜🙌

[@ELLIOT8209]

True. A video on tension and release would be great

[@joshkasen]

@@ELLIOT8209 Agreed!

[@FinnDhaHuman]

Can ya drop what it actually is for us plebs

[@ryancarter6876]

Same, that was the huge take away feeling, that terrible cliffhanging feeling of the note right before the tonic. (Pretty confusing since, it seems like he is saying that is the feeling on the tonic.)

[@Lwhale.3797]

As a singer, I’ve always felt insecure about my note / Interval / chord recognition abilities, but after being able to recognize the tonic note in all the exercises in the video, this renewed my confidence and made me want to make music moving forward. THANK YOU 🙌🙌 Also, OMG man, you have the most transfixing eyes 👁️👁️ I have ever seen

[@maxkonyi]

That's great! So glad that this approach has been genuinely helpful for people. I appreciate the comment 🙌🏼 ✨👀✨

[@nuncotics791]

Hey now

[@nickolawl77]

As a music teacher, I always like to keep watching content from other teachers, to see if I can come up with new approaches. I've never seen this approach to ear training, and it makes so much sense. I will surely use it in my future lectures

[@maxkonyi]

Great to hear!

[@dawnyurenwick]

This makes me think of the episode of The Office where Andy starts singing a song about the other businesses in a building and Pam cuts him off before he can finish singing on the tonic…so he begs her to let him resolve the melody 😂

[@maxkonyi]

lol

[@nikooplayer]

This was probably the best course I had on ear training. Thanks.

[@kestineniiquaye6110]

I side with you! Easy to understand. You got my rest! 👌

[@sviborgamulin3929]

@@kestineniiquaye6110 same here. Amazing work! Thank you!!

[@yiler7683]

This is definitely one of the best ear training tutorials I’ve seen. It almost feels like unlocking a new superpower after watching this.

[@maxkonyi]

🗝🔓👂🏼

[@yoavco99]

Agreed

[@roomsey9044]

Today I learned that I'm really good at tonic recognition. I do it all the time when I'm doing solos.

[@maxkonyi]

Nice! That's very fortunate

[@away_5719]

Musical Blue balls is crazy, love this

[@bobloblaw9690]

This is why I think most people who play lots of instruments started out on drums. It speeds up the feeling process necessary to make learning scales and chords less stressful and easier to apply to your music. You can't force precision, it's a slow crawling into more fluid movement. Just like with correcting your bodies movements....no amount of adjustments, massage, nor pushing through it, or over-working will 100% fix anything, since you have to train the mind/body connection to function as one to allow free flow. The mind and body already know natural movement, it's just lost at a very early age. Music is no different of a sense to the brain. Rhythm literally opens the body up without conscious effort.

[@maxkonyi]

You make some good points there! Do you really think most multi-instrumentalists started on drums? I don't think that's been my experience with people I've met, though I haven't considered it deeply...

[@lunarscapes6016]

@@maxkonyiI play drums as well as keyboard/piano and I’m learning guitar right now. I think the main thing about learning percussion that lends itself to learning multiple instruments is that drums are literally multiple instruments. Like I had to learn how to play marimba, which is very different from a snare drum, which is very different than a timpani, which is very different than a drumset. You essentially learn how to learn if your first instrument is drums. But I know plenty of multi-instrumentalists that have never played drums, like my girlfriend who plays guitar, bass, piano, and clarinet (I showed her drums and she was better at them her first time than anyone else I’ve seen). I definitely think ear training adds to this though, because it’s really easy for me to learn guitar because I know the order I can play notes in based on piano and I can just figure out how to do that on guitar. I don’t feel like I did a good job explaining that, but hopefully it made at least a little bit of sense.

[@poj2121]

Never realised that I have always done this naturally and since learning music theory It's been making so much sense. Feeling really is key.

[@vcodev108]

Thanks for revealing the secret of ear training, feeling is the main ingredient that most of the music teacher never mention, thanks for guiding us in the right track as always.

[@maxkonyi]

🙌🙌🙌

[@ThomasJLarsen]

A nice tool analyzing music in your head is the fact that about 95 - 99 % of all melodies in Western music (classic, jazz, pop, rock, anything), end on the tonic. Check it out (without touching an instrument if you are trained).

[@maxkonyi]

Indeed!

[@maypling]

i think this concept exists in language learning too. in our native tongue, we won't always be able to say exactly how we know something is gibberish, or why someone's accent doesn't sound native - we just know that it sounds 'off'. (maybe two words that should rhyme don't, or a word is unusual for a certain context, etc.) spelling as well - if it looks off we keep trying different things until it's resolved/familiar. this intuition is built somewhat passively over time as a child, but can still be achieved as an adult, especially with active learning. all to say, listening is super important to build a strong foundation! thanks for sharing ♥

[@eneldia85]

Thanks for this clear explanation. Years of playing the guitar and years of vocal entonation issues. Finally I am getting there.

[@justapieceofbread9150]

This was really helpful as a self taught musician. I didn't know how to improve or test my own hearing ability and i was surprised to nail the real music part! (Level three)

[@maxkonyi]

Nice!

[@clockworkhearts4085]

oh! I've been doing this unknowingly since I was a kid. I liked to try to guess what note would come next in a song, or I'd make up little tunes to hum and try to find notes that made the most sense together. I've never had any musical training so it's great to finally have a word for this.

[@MelissaR784]

Same here. Had a organ growing up and played that same game until it came naturally. What's weird was when I was older and picked up a guitar, found I could play the tune by ear also.

[@andreamora-nq3jx]

i looove how simple this starts, because i feel totally iliterate to music and i can start anywhere

[@PITFALL11]

The delay with you hitting the last note is so painful!

[@Prod.4D]

It’s damn near palpable

[@Elevenses.]

I knew it, I was on the right track for ear-training this video confirms it

[@guscox9651]

Your idea of feeling is really true in my experience. I was practicing ii V I in ascending keys, but instead of doing it logically I was trying to hear the next key centre each time, then working backwards to ‘hear’ V and then ii. It’s hard but rewarding. Respect to you and anyone who gets into this.

[@maxkonyi]

Oh interesting exercise. I'll have to give it a go...

[@SaveManWoman]

When it comes to feeling, I have benefited in an immense way from studying Indian classical music. Look up Navtej Singh who teaches masterly. I have learned from him in 4 months what would have taken 10 years. Hard to explain but you will thank me a billions. Navtej Singh also plays amazing harmonium you will most definitely enjoy if you are music lover.

[@maxkonyi]

Nice! Thanks for the recommendation. Will definitely check him out. I love Indian classical! That's where the method I teach originates...

[@PreethamChandra-jh3fe]

Could you tell what videos of navtej singh are you referring to?

[@neftalialavez2970]

This is the key to being able to talk through your instrument

[@celparadise3726]

This is wonderful. It's the kind of lesson a beginner should learn on day one. Most of us, unfortunately, won't do this for many years in, especially if we're self-taught.

[@derycktrahair8108]

Yrs ago in an Army Band while we were having lunch, a Cornet player would stick his bell though the window & play a Maj scale from 1 to 7 & walk away laughing. Our reaction was always "Resolve it you Bastard". Music is fun when you know how to listen.

[@SalvadorRuberto]

Ear traning is the entrance to a new realm of puns and I´m all here for it

[@lawrencetaylor4101]

After my retirement I started learning the piano. Moi? The piano? I lived my whole life joking that I was born with two left ears. I went through 6 years of choir class where the teachers told me to move my lips and not make a noise. And now, I'm looking at videos like this. BTW this was one of the most surprising ear training videos I've seen. And you started by descending the scale. So the leading tone is leading us away on a journey, and not leading us back home. I've asked two piano professors what would happen if someone taught students scales by descending to start with. Would that alter their musical creativity?

[@maxkonyi]

Great to hear! Regarding your last question there - I don't know! Despite scales generally being taught in ascending form, humans have a great propensity towards descending melodies...

[@allisonal]

Great comment! My piano teachers always had me ascend-descend in things like scales, arpeggios, etc. I had thought about why from a mechanical sense, but I hadn’t really thought about the ear training aspect of it.

[@drymonday6832]

I learned how to play by ear and music theory from a very young age and i can say hands down it is the most important thing you can learn as a musician that will separate you from others

[@chcorreia]

As a teacher (comp sci, not music), congratulations for your skills in breaking down the hard stuff in its simple parts and communicating it beautifuly in simple language.

[@maxkonyi]

Thanks! I'm glad it's coming across...

[@TheCompleteGuitarist]

I think an interesting quality at play here is that the audience hears this too. It just doesn't know it. This idea of tension and release and relative to the tonic. When you play and mute a chord, its tonal centre stays in the head of the listener until you play a new one, then it changes. But it is like a ghost imprinted into the aural centre that fades slowly like when you stare at something bright and close you eyes the ghost remains on your retina and fades slowly.

[@kidkodama]

thoroughly enjoyed this presentation. I think I would really enjoy a sequel to this, where you go into more advanced territory. If you mastered recognizing the Tonic, where do you go from there? How do other Notes FEEL in relation to the tonic? I know there's plenty of material out there already, but if you feel like making a series out of this, it would be much appreciated!

[@maxkonyi]

Thanks! Appreciate the feedback. More videos in this series coming soon...

[@briancleary6751]

​@@maxkonyi Can't wait for exercises beyond the tonic!

[@RafaelXavierOcc]

Thats an awesome class! I'm a music teacher myself and I just feel you nailed it on explaining the basics of ear training in such little time. I loved how you bring the concept of "feelings that we label". In my personal view, everything in music theory is exactly this - names we give to specific feelings caused by specific techniques of phenomena. Congratulations, and thank you for this lesson!

[@maxkonyi]

Agreed! I'm glad it resonated with you as well

[@elultimopujilense]

I just cant believe this content is free. We live in the future, no doubt about it.

[@lavatr8322]

Is that why I get shivers on certain notes , Or I get excited when listening to _For eg: HansZimmer-Man of Steel tracks_ And this is how Films are scored right??? I never understood how to explain to people the Way I listen to Music and Sounds.... but this is what it is... And i think most people just put on headphones and blast something..... But i truly get immersed into it..... its actually incredible to have that ability. To feel.

[@maxkonyi]

While getting shivers and becoming emotionally moved by the feelings of a song is definitely related to the tonic (tonality in general), there are many more factors at play. Also, beyond all the theory, some people are just more sensitive and attuned to music in general!

[@aster6000]

Subscribed after the intro. That tickled my brain in the perfect way

[@maxkonyi]

SUCCESS

[@nefertitimontoya]

I got chills

[@apokalyhpse]

Same here, sinestesic ❤

[@balazsjenei2649]

I developed and ´´upgraded´´ my ear / hearing through meditation journey. I watched the first segment 10sec of the video and I got goosebumps. I haven´t expected any of this. Just clicked on your video! Thank you for sharing your expertise!

[@murftown]

Wow! I've been watching lots of ear training videos recently, because I'm working on my own approach to teaching it. But I've been mostly a bit disappointed by how robotic and rote everything is. In the first seconds of your video I immediately knew you were going to go deeper. I love the way you are explaining all this! Thank you! Cheers to good communication and learning! 🥂

[@GhettoFabuloso]

Great video. Had a teacher tell me that an easy way to find the tonic is to find a note that you can hum throughout the entire piece that makes sense at any point in the song.

[@maxkonyi]

Not always true but not a bad starting place!

[@amandaturnerpiano]

Amazing video. I'm a private piano/music teacher of many years and I was NOT taught this logic as a student. I love finding resources like this online and sharing them with my students. I will definitely be sharing this with them, along with your course.

[@maxkonyi]

Nice! Thank you 🙏

[@TreeFarmerMusic22]

Coincidentally, I stumbled across this video, as I've recently been placing focus into my ear training. I really love this video. You broke things down very nicely, and every bit of it makes sense.

[@FreeQueenSee963]

Thank you for this insightful video! I live with a very musical caique parrot and he can listen to any song and I will hear him sing that note that pulls it all together, as you say! I never knew how to describe it, but let me tell you, this feathered friend of mine sure has a natural feel for it. Thank you! Much appreciated.

[@maxkonyi]

Wow that sounds unbelievable! You could make a KZbin channel of just that...

[@FreeQueenSee963]

Who knows what the future brings! I'm personally more interested in 432Hz music myself. Still researching that and wanting to learn to play guitar tuned like that. One day it will all come together, I'm sure. 😉🎶 Thank you for your response!

[@iestynne]

Thank you so much for making this. What a wonderful gift to young people learning to understand and create music. I wish my music teacher had approached teaching like this. I wasted 8 years on empty technique, learning nothing of musicality itself.

[@Xitaychin]

In the end I could recognise the tonic! When i started learning the theory it seemed so frustrating these scales and I don't know how the notes sound but here i understood how to find it with my inner voice or by singing aloud. Thank you a lot!!! Will practice.

[@maxkonyi]

Great to hear!

[@miahlovato81]

LOVE this video!!! I'm a live musician that pursued DJing. I highly recommend this to any DJs out there. I use it to fine tune my students ears. I myself watch it frequently to keep my ears sharp. thank you for making such an awesome tutorial!!!

[@Gamvrelis]

In addition to the importance of your presentation, I really liked the depth/fullness of the piano or keyboard you were playing. Please tell us the make, model, etc. - thank you.

[@maxkonyi]

I believe I was using a plugin called Keyscape for this. An amazing sounding piano. I'm playing on a MIDI controller, not a digital piano. The controller is a NI S61 mk2

[@bransunmitchellartist9229]

Much more palatable than most who try to explain music theory. Thank you

[@hotpenguin607]

The thing I love about music is that it teaches me to learn to feel!

[@stranger5312]

wow the animations with the music made the video much more enjoyable

[@maxkonyi]

Glad you like them! Trying new stuff...

[@xperta1986]

Wow! Golden! Trust your feeling and then find the courage to improvise. Resolve when you are lost by reaching the tonic. Thank you.

[@StevenSuarezArdila]

I can't describe how much I appreciate this video! This is the best ear training I've seen so far! You're amazing! Thank you very so much!

[@dimitricerny6976]

This is an excellent video on ear training! I love your teaching approach-clear, engaging, and easy to follow. Thanks for sharing!

[@PaulaHeartland]

Thank you. My history is that of not being able to carry a tune, but I easily felt/heard the tonic note.

[@wagonet]

Ive never thought about music like a feel. Mind blown 😲

[@kenneth1767]

This is great. I'm an artist relatively new to making music, and I use the same approach in color mixing. Instinctively note the feeling the color produces, and then mix till that feeling is matched. With the music I've been singing to harmonize with notes or chords, and find that this feeling and expectancy for notes is slowly developing.

[@maxkonyi]

Yeah! Great to hear. It all comes in time...

[@Rvx-mv5ro]

brooooooooooooo this process will be easier for you if you are learning to sing western or classical or any type of music i swear to god i just needed to think in the manner that this gentleman thought us to do. but i got everything right and I can safely say its because of learning to sing in key

[@calebhylkema2862]

You're an excellent teacher. This is the first time that ear training has really made sense to me.

[@gusty17]

THE SONG YOU PLAYED SOUNDS AMAZING. Will def check out all your playlists, especially weekly productions

[@Whatismusic123]

This is an extremely important skill many fail to learn, even with years of experience. It's also good to watch out thay you don't confuse the tonal center, with the tonic function, as they are not the same. Many confuse tonicization for modulation due to that.

[@maxkonyi]

An important distinction for sure. Both leverage the same mechanism but with varying degrees of strength and permanence.

[@isaacbeen2087]

"atonality doesn't exist" - @Whatismusic123

[@germansniper5277]

10:25 when I heard the note and you then started to sing it was eye-opening

[@Garfield_633]

OMG I thought I’m the only one who does this… Thanks for sharing! I use this method to quickly recognize the locrian mode since the next note it gives me is automatically the tonic

[@allwinantofranklin895]

Man, it should be the GOAT video for Ear training...... Awesome 💯

[@LokasmitAaruni]

Nice video. I was humming the note every time you left it unfinished, kinda felt like a compulsion ... 🙂 ...Although, never knew this doesn't come naturally to people, I assumed everyone feels it naturally. Probably because Indian music doesn't really define a specific scale/frequency for a composition, for us shifting octave is such common thing. I am researching similarities/differences between Indian and Western music and landed at this video. Would be great if you could make some content on that.

[@maxkonyi]

Interesting idea! I'll think on it. Glad you enjoyed it 🌞

[@Pianoandguitarplaywr]

yoooooooooooooooooooooo thanks again for the help in discord, I honestly dont deserve to know all of this so quickyl tysm

[@maxkonyi]

My pleasure!

[@petroludik8116]

Yes, yes yes, I got each note spot on. I just love music it is part of my soul. Thank you

[@PawanNandwani]

Ah! This is an interesting approach - I remember studying this with my piano teacher when we went through a (terrifying) book on harmony in music. The theory of it made me stress out to such an extreme point that we eventually ended up with me ditching the book and he taught me to learn by “feeling”. Seeing a visual element added to that is fascinating! Took me back to when I was in school. Good video :)

[@BBsheepy]

Amazing my brain automatically do that, especially when the radio stopped in the car and I will finish the note or the sound ... So cool and I have no idea... 😊 Thanks

[@bizzar2792]

Did this in realtime w/ my midi keyboard. Great breakdown!

[@barbarasayas7536]

I’ve never checked this out before, because I didn’t know it existed. I just know I’ve been doing it now that I’ve seen this video. The first example was easy for me… not sure of the second example… but it was a great experience.

[@lageekattitude]

Amazing video. I didn't think it could be so easy to get the tonic in a complete song.

[@lonez117]

praise be sent to ya whole lineage, this was so helpful in understanding

[@noadanger2790]

This was pretty illuminating. I got all of the ones in this video but after watching I tried to hum the tonic in some of my favorite songs and got them all wrong 😂 people play with the key a lot in the real world ig. I’m a 16 yr old violinist and trying to get into music theory, this is the first I’ve really seen about ear training and I really liked it

[@Leviathan894]

This was a really refreshing and I think approachable way to think about ear training. Also it got the listener involved and all around this was really helpful.

[@kalyanoliveira3224]

The first time I actually felt a major third was like magic!Suddenly, I was able to understand the importance of hearing intervals and thinking relatively between pitches.

[@celebratedrazorworks]

That was the most beautiful thing in my day. Even easy 4 a complete newb like me, easy enough to lay a foundation. Thank u kindly sir. 😊

Hey thanks for the info, I would also recommend that after you watch this video watch it again with your eyes closed and just feel the difference with your hands on your laptop feel the difference with your eyes open then closed......

[@ninism2958]

Best use of insomnia Ive made for a while! Your approach is awesome!

[@Ratstick58]

This is so true for technique, writing etc. art is so intellectualized because of the educational complex where people are just trying to make a living while “explaining” music, but so much of it is…. Not at the core of actually learning it. Videos that describe the truth are few and far between. Thank you.

[@maxkonyi]

Agreed!

[@kspades2530]

This was good thanks In my experience don't think anyone has ever done something like this

[@grungeamy]

Thank you for this! It was so surprising and exciting everytime i got it right. Super engaging and compelling, will keep practicing ❤

[@jonwright3114]

I consider myself to have a “bad ear” when it comes to pitch. So, I was cynical whether a video like this would be helpful. But, man! You crushed it. The idea of stopping music, finding that “feeling”, then attempting to sing that tonic note. This is gold! You earned a subscriber and I hope many more follow my subscription. You deserve it!

[@maxkonyi]

Much appreciated! I also considered myself to have a bad ear when I was younger...really bad!

[@irisbrasch7955]

Love you! Amazing how easy the complicated stuff gets through you!

[@hearpalhere]

Hi Max, greetings from Hungary! I really appreciate your video - I just came to this one after watching the replay of the livestream on feeling the major scale. I have struggled with ear training for all my years playing guitar. It's only been the last couple of years that I've felt like I've made some progress. I look forward to putting your techniques/exercises to use because I get a strong feeling that you've really landed on something super important. So thank you!

[@maxkonyi]

Great to hear! My last name is Hungarian 😎

[@sagarwankhede.thisside]

I learned so much and I'm glad I could resolve the parts ❤

[@mohammadaminmemarzadeh45]

Wow you are so underrated. I really needed this since many months ago that I started learning music. Please let us know how we should move forward from this.

[@lakep7798]

Wow, what a different take on it! I can really appreciate this-thank you!!

[@Sophia_Regina]

You have a great storytelling ability. Thank you for this video

[@ericashmead4049]

Lately Ive been trying to rework the way I think about music, using functional harmony and some Barry Harris techniques. I think this is one of the main concepts to grasp, being able to feel and identify the direction of music and how each part 'relates' to its counterparts. Really cool video man!

[@BloodSavedMe]

Saving this for later reference Max! Thanks for all you do

[@_cursedvlogs]

Informative for sure music is not study music is feeling and art

[@animalspirits5141]

A feeling state. The word "Tonic" might be on my mind for the rest of the day. Thank you. 😮

[@eviculum4518]

Thank you so much for giving actual ways to practice these!

[@bryermusicstudio2727]

Thank you very much for a perspective I have not seen before and more importantly I relate to seemingly innately. Congratulations and again thank you.

[@JAMES_III]

Gustav Mahler's Adagietto (Symphony #5) ... The most breathtaking resolve you'll ever hear ❤

[@maxkonyi]

Will check!

[@jsenger24]

Thanks for the video! This was a missing piece of the puzzle for me.

[@sidneycandido2917]

Nossa, precisava muito desse video. Muito obrigado, Max. Melhores 13 minutos de teoria musical que tive nos últimos anos.

[@terryhigson434]

Very good advice mate, good vid. Music is all about feeling.

[@1nfius948]

Finding the tonic is easy. Its finding out what note it is so I can play it

[@oscarwong67]

This was awesome. Just bought the ear training course since it’s on sale! I’ve got tons of theory resources but the method of ear training you show in this video really clicked with me in ways other content hasn’t before.

[@maxkonyi]

You bought which ear training course?? I don't have one...yet

[@oscarwong67]

​@@maxkonyioh I meant MWD1! My point was that I'm primarily interested in the ear training section

[@maxkonyi]

@@oscarwong67 Got it!

[@TheFlamingChips]

Great video. I wished I was able to watch this as an intro to music instead of being overwhelmed with theory