Customer Reviews

A Fanatic's Guide to Ear Training and Sight Singing Volume One

5 star:		(8)
4 star:		(0)
3 star:		(1)
2 star:		(0)
1 star:		(1)

 

 

I bought this book about 6 months ago. I have only been working on two of the exercises so far but even that has really turned my head around about how to hear sound. I basically have found that this book has started to change my perception of how to identify sound. Though I haven't mastered the ideas presented in this book I am starting to realize that you can indeed memorize the sound of each note within a key and use this as a method to identify pitches. My overall recommendation is not to get this book if you don't have a lot of dedication to practicing. I have found the exercises to very difficult and quite honestly was about to give up a few times. I suppose each person who might buy this book is coming from a different place so my comments may not pertain to everyone. For me, I just couldn't latch onto a method of ear training that worked for me. This method is no "walk in park" but it is working and that's what matters to me.

Mr. Arnold offers practical advice and information to the contemporary music student. His several books present methods for learning music in an efficient and enjoyable manner. The methods were developed and refined during his many years of teaching, and are well informed by his professional associations with many of the world's finest musicians.

I have taught music theory and aural comprehension to well over 1000 music students at New York University. These future performers and composers hail from a wide variety of musical backgrounds - classical, jazz, rock, music technology, and music theater - and I have instructed them in ear-training techniques that are similar in methodology to Mr. Arnold's. These techniques have caused dramatic improvement in almost all students that have applied themselves and allotted sufficient time for practice.

In the 10 years of our acquaintance, Bruce Arnold has consistently impressed me with his abilities as a performer, composer, and educator. I share his philosophy of ear-training instruction and feel that he has realized it in a highly functional and useful manner with his books and CDs. For these reasons, I especially recommend his materials to my students, as I recommend them to anyone with the desire to expend effective hard work in the pursuit of their musical aspirations.

Klaus Sinfelt, Assistant Director of Music Theory, Department of Music and Performing Arts Professions, New York University

I recently purchased the Ear Training One Note Series and Fanatic's Guide by Mr. Arnold and thought I would share my experience. You can see my review of the Ear Training One Note Series under those book titles. First let's look at the positive things. I like the fact that this is a method and there are many levels and types of books in this series to help you develop at your own pace. I also like the fact that you can start with a level that is right for you and not have to purchase a book with a bunch of exercises that you already can do. But really the main thing that separates this method from any other method I read about or used is that you can contact the author through the muse-eek website if you don't understand something, need direction or just need encouragement. I had quite a few questions over the last couple of months and Mr. Arnold has responded with quite insightful responses. The author is obviously concerned for my development and helped me organize a way to work with this book and others in his series. My one main criticism of this book is that it's overwhelming. There are so many exercises and page after page of note combinations to sing that I was really confused where to start. Although for each exercise it was easy to understand what to do I just didn't know which one to do first and how to organize my practice time. I contacted Mr. Arnold about this and his explanation was that this book "is an overall encylopidia of exercises for students both beginning and advanced." Mr. Arnold directed me to the member's area of the Muse-eek website where book owners can download further information for free about this ear training method. There are lesson files for this book located there which for me really helped me organize my time and get on the road to improving. I think it's important to realize that this method of ear training is really quite different from other available methods. Mr. Arnold calls in "Contextual Ear Training" because you are always relating pitches to an underlying key or sense of key. I'm a giging musician and I've found that this type of ear training has really changed my perception over the last 6 months. Overall I have to say I'm happy with this book. For me being able to contact the author and all the help files on the publisher's website make this a great learning experience! I got the other members of my band working with this method too. In my band mate's humble opinion and mine, muse-eek has one of the best if not only distant learning place for music on the internet.

I've been using Mr. Arnold's approach to ear training for about a month now. I have found it very challenging but on the same hand very rewarding. The main thing I have come away with from Mr. Arnold's Ear Training method is how damaging interval based ear training can be to your musical development. He believes that you must first understand how to hear the sound of all 12 notes against a key. I was a little unsure whether this all made sense but after working with this method I am seeing real progress. I'm currently using a combination of the (Ear Training One Note) and the Fanatic's Guide and I find it to be a winning combination. If you are serious about developing your ears like I am, I'd highly recommend checking this method out and starting off on the right path.

I have been working with Mr Arnold's ear training methods for just over two years now and would like to share with you some of my experiences over that time.

There is no other system of ear training i know that constantly pushes the boundaries of your aural perception. Working with his is as Mr Arnold reminds us a "lifetime's journey". Over the years i have steadily gained the ability to recognise any pitch in relation to a key center and sight-sing any required pitch readily (including chromatics). That is what one note complete and the fanatic's guide seeks to achieve.

The above lays the foundation for further development. In December of 2007 I finally completed key note recognition, that helps you to learn to adapt to various modes(major and minor) and recognise the key by listening to how notes function in relation. Now I am beginning work on two note that builds recognition for multiple notes and following complex modulations.

All this is impossible without dedication and an intense commitment to practice, practice,practice. As a guage i have worked at this at least an hour a day broken up into short sessions over the last two over years. And without keeping to this and really working at it, you won't be able to really understand what this method is all about. But IF you do, this will really change the way you are involved with music.

Just to describe a few simple experiences...

- Early on i began to gain a deeper sense of the music i was listening to. Suddenly everything opened up what can only be described as a kaleidoscope of colours.

- As an active musician, people began commenting on how musical and expressive my performances were getting and always "spot on" with pitching.

- Am now coming to grips with progressively more harmonically complex melodic forms such as modern jazz and funk.

I'm now embarking on the next phase in my ear training that is two note and beyond. I know it's going to be nothing short of gruelling, but with the positive changes that I have experienced in aural perception, I really can't wait to discover what else happens along the way.

Many thanks to Mr Arnold for his fantastic work, gift to aspiring musicians and continuing commitment to music education.

This method is excellent! If I could give it more than five stars I would. If you're willing to put in the time it pays off. I have been working on the exercises from this book for almost a year and my ear has improved tremendously. Follow Mr. Arnolds directions in the book exactly as spelled out and you will do yourself a big favor. He has put in the time learning this material himself and knows all the pitfalls of doing it wrong and has distilled a method that works. He learned from the pros and has published what he learned. If you want a nice glossy book with lots of cool pictures this isn't for you. If you want something that works get it, do it, and you'll be amazed. The bottom line is you have to the work for the results. I have noticed some reviews that note the starkness of Mr. Arnold's books. His books are all substance and no jive! He shows his dedication to the material he presents by providing a FAQ section on the museek Website. You can submit a question and he answers it right away, sometimes in minutes, never more that 24 hours. That really surprised me!

I feel like I am on acid when I read the five-star reviews here: This book & CD are unusable to anyone who is not an advanced musician or who doesn't have an instructor who can provide context and appropriate structure.

Here are the main issues:

1. It gives tens of pages of notes on sheet-music without actually telling you what you are supposed to be doing with them. I have stared at this book for two hours and am still clueless as to what I am supposed to be doing. (FWIW, I have lit and law degrees, have strong music theory background, and I am usually pretty competent at learning from texts.)

2. The author spends a remarkable amount of time slagging other teaching methods, to the point where it sounds petty and insecure.

3. The Q&A at the back runs to many pages, but gives almost no info I found helpful. It also feels strangely egotistical and vaguely insulting at times.

4. The CD is laughably bad -- there are twelve five-minute tracks of each major chord played over and over again for the full five minutes, with no voice-over to tell you which chord is being played. This makes the CD effectively unusable for people who want to listen to it while doing other stuff.

Your results may vary, but I would have never bought this book, if I had had any idea how poorly constructed it was. Also, I have my suspicions about some of the positive reviews--they sound driven by aspiration, rather than results. The remainder appear to be posted by professional musicians, which is fine, but the item's description should include clear indication that this is its appropriate audience.

Finally, I have had decent early results using Ear Master Pro 5 software for ear training [...]. Wish I could find a decent text to accompany that software!

Whoa, This book gives you many ways to develop your ear! The method presented in this book really shows you why just learning intervals isn't even close to the right development of your ear. I highly recommend this book

My 7 year old son and I really enjoy using these materials by Bruce Arnold. We have One Note Complete, Contextual Ear Training, and A Fanatic's Guide to Ear Training. We have been using One Note Intermediate and Contextual for just over one month.

My son loves to do ear training, especially "name that note!" We home school, and we do One Note and Contextual as soon as we get out of bed, and then later in the school morning. I also do both programs later in the day, especially when I am working in the kitchen. My son almost always listens in, and sings along, or names the note, even when he is playing in the next room. After just one month, my son can accurately name all 7 diatonic notes, but none of the non-diatonic yet. I can accurately name C, D,G, and B. I can sometimes get A and F, and I hardly ever get E (yet!)

For Contextual, both my son and I can sing Root (Do) for all the keys, although sometimes the minor keys do give us a bit of trouble. We can both sing 3 (Me) most of the time, but 3 still needs work. My son was able to sing 3 much sooner than me. I asked him how, and he said he "just knows what 3 sounds like." As for me, I got every single 3 wrong for over two weeks, and I was doing them at least 5 to 7 times per day! Then one day, I started getting a few of them correct! Then within a few more days, I was getting most of them correct. This system really does work. After listening to the cadence, the sound of the 3 would just form in my mind.

We have been singing 5 (So) for about a week. 5 is coming along much faster than 3. Both of us could sing some 5's right away. My son and I also sing together every morning. We have the appropriate track (for example G Major drone for songs in the Key of G Major) from A Fanatic's Guide to Ear Training and Sight Singing playing in the background as we sing. It really helps to keep us on key. I am looking forward to going further in the Fanatic's book, because there are lots of great exercises in it.

I highly recommend these materials. They are fun to use and they really work!

The first thing that I remarked upon when reading this book is the amount of grammatical and spelling mistakes that are littered throughout the text. You would think that Bruce Arnold, as well as anyone else involved in the publishing, would take a few minutes to re-read the text. Yet it is this kind of sloppiness that is prevalent throughout the book. Bruce Arnold provides his method in an unorganized manner. While the man may be a great musician, I don't feel as though he is a great teacher, much of his advice involves going on his website. That being said, if one can get past the sloppiness in which the book is presented, the method is sound, and can aid any one wishing to improve their ear.