Ear Training for Band/Orchestra Students

Instrumental music programs do an excellent job at preparing students for formal music settings: Band, Orchestra, Jazz Ensemble, Chamber Ensembles, etc. However, all our students, whether they pursue a music career or not, will hopefully have opportunities to participate in less organized musical situations. The informal side of music happens in dorm rooms, at open mic nights, with family members at home, and in other more free-form open settings. In such situations, it is unlikely that anyone has sheet music at all, much less parts in the correct clef or key for the band and orchestra instruments that our students play. If they are to be successful in these settings, then they will need to rely on their ears. Transcribing simple melodies is an important musical life skill that any successful instrumental music student should be familiar with.

Below are some simple activities that you can do with a band or orchestra that will help get their ears working. These only take a few minutes, and they work best if used consistently throughout the year at the beginning or end of rehearsal. These would also be excellent activities if your school is in a virtual learning setting.

1. Singing/Identifying Pitches: Pulling a note out of the air with your ears and playing it on your instrument is the first step to transcribing. Sing or play a pitch for your ensemble and have them match it with their voices. Once they have found it, ask them to keep singing the pitch while they find it on their instruments. Repeat with other pitches and continue as often as possible over time--daily or weekly.
2. Interval Studies: Becoming familiar with simple intervals is the next step to transcribing melodies. It can help to associate the interval with songs that they already know--"Jaws" for the half step, and "Happy Birthday" for the whole step, or whatever or songs you prefer. Play each interval several times so they can wrap their ears around it and identify which type of step it is. Once they are able to do this reliably, add a minor third to the lineup, and then a major third. After each new interval is added, give them some time with the new grouping before adding the next one to the mix.
3. Simple Melodies: Once you have your students accustomed to listening to pitches and intervals, you can start with simple melodies for your students to transcribe. Use 2-4 notes at first, from the major scale. It will be easiest if the melody starts with the root, and when the notes are close together in the scale. Play the melody several times for the students before getting their responses. You can start by telling your students the first note, but as they get better at finding pitches, you can try without. As your students become more proficient, you can start to add larger skips in the melody, minor key melodies, and eventually even non chord tones. Bonus points if the melody is a tune that they recognize from a movie, TV show, or video game! 

Even if your students don't become transcription masters overnight, these exercises open the door for them to work on this skill independently. It will help them see that they can use their ears to learn any song they choose. For your students that do choose a career in music, the ability to learn songs by ear will open up performance opportunities with bands that do not have written charts for their musicians--they can take gigs that are not available to other musicians who are limited by what's written on a page.

Born in Chicago IL, 1991, Emmett Starkey is a working musician in Kansas City. His primary instrument is trombone, but he is also a composer, arranger, and keyboard player. Starkey has studied music from all reaches of history and across the globe, with a focus on Jazz and Latin genres. He has performed throughout the midwest alongside artists such as Maelo Ruiz, Mindi Abair, the Skatalites, Andy Frasco, and many others. Starkey has a Bachelor's in Jazz Studies from UMKC where he studied under Bobby Watson and Steve Dekker. His current musical projects include The MGDs, an energetic blues/funk band, and Inkontenible Sonora, a Mexican Cumbia band. Emmett is the manager of our PMC Liberty location.