A KEY NOTE RECOGNITION: Relative Pitch Ear Training Exercise [Spiral-bound]

Bruce Arnold (Author)

Book Description

Publication Date: July 11, 2003

To play by ear a musician must first sense the key a chord or chord progression is in.  You must also be able to sense key modulations in order to follow chord progressions that change key.  The exercise found in this book is crucial to developing these skills.  

Imagine being able to know the key of what you are hearing by just playing one note on your instrument.  Think about the power this gives you to follow unfamiliar chord changes and get a quick sense of where keys are changing.  This is the first step in developing the ability to follow complicated chord changes or to make informed scale choices when playing over a chord progression.  

More importantly, developing the skills found in this book allows you to organize and remember sound based on how you hear it, not on how you consciously think about it.  It will move you away from remembering sound based on non-musical distinctions such as instrument fingerings, and toward remembering and organizing sound based on how you hear it.  Ultimately, this brings you closer to a deeper understanding of music and you will be able to store and retrieve music in your mind from a much more musical place.

Recommended prerequisite to this book: Ear Training: One Note Advanced; or the completion of Ear Training: One Note Complete Method.

EXCERPT 1

There are many applications in the real world for this technique. Below are a couple of common examples:

1. If you walked into a room and a friend was playing a song or melody on an instrument, you could play one note on your instrument and instantly know what key he or she was playing in. Armed with that information you could start improvising in that key, or just playing along with them in the right key.

2. If someone played a chord progression that changed keys and you were asked to improvise over it, you would be able to listen to the notes you play and follow the key changes. For example: a chord progression might start in Ab, you would play a C, it would sound like the 3rd so you could improvise in Ab. Then you might come back to your C a few bars later and notice that it now sounded like the 6th; this would tell you that you have now modulated to Eb so you would start improvising in Eb.

Editorial Reviews

From the Publisher

Mr. Arnold's new ear training course is a first of it's kind available. He has taken the time to give students a detailed explanation of what works and what doesn't work when it comes to ear training. This book is meant to be used between the Ear Training: One Note Series and the Ear Training: Two Note series. If you are serious about improving your aural perception and basic musicianship it is recommended that you work with this book in combination with the following:

About the Author

Guitarist Bruce Arnold has developed an extensive reputation as a composer educator and guitar virtuoso. He has created a unique signature sound that stems from his combination of jazz techniques and 20th Century compositional methods. He has played with such diverse musicians as Stuart Hamm, Peter Erskine, Joe Pass, Joe Lovano, Randy Brecker, Stanley Clarke, the Boston Symphony Orchestra. Mr. Arnold is also deeply devoted to music education and had written more than 100 music education books. Mr. Arnold Currently teaches at Princeton University and has taught at some of the most prestigious music schools in America, including the New England Conservatory of Music, Dartmouth College, Berklee College of Music, New School University, City College of New York and NYU.

Product Details

• Spiral-bound: 7 pages
• Publisher: muse eek publishing (July 11, 2003)
• Language: English
• ISBN-10: 1890944300
• ISBN-13: 978-1890944308
• Product Dimensions: 10.8 x 8.4 x 0.2 inches
• Shipping Weight: 5.6 ounces (View shipping rates and policies)
• Average Customer Review: 4.4 out of 5 stars  See all reviews (7 customer reviews)
• Amazon Best Sellers Rank: #2,041,691 in Books (See Top 100 in Books)

Customer Reviews

Most Helpful Customer Reviews

22 of 22 people found the following review helpful:

5.0 out of 5 stars Outstanding for self-study, August 18, 2000

By A Customer

This review is from: A KEY NOTE RECOGNITION: Relative Pitch Ear Training Exercise (Spiral-bound)

As an amateur musician with limited time to practice and few opportunities to jam (which is probably how most music students improve their ear), Bruce Arnold's ear training CD's are especially welcome. I've used other ear training tapes that emphasize the sol-feg method (i.e. identifying the note in the context of a key center), but this series has major advantages. The biggest is the possibility of shuffle play, which prevents me from identifying pitches by (inadvertently) memorizing their order --- a problem that eventually made my ear training cassette tapes useless.

I've been working with this book and vol 1 of the two-note series, and am delighted with the results. When I started, I wondered if the key note exercises were redundant, since I could already identify all of the notes in the one-note advanced level CD. However, I could only get about half of the key-note exercises correct at first. Perhaps it is more difficult than the one-note series, because the key center changes with every track. I also like the author's emphasis on speed of recall. In real music, some notes are sounded or can be distinguished from other chord tones only for an instant. As a result of practicing with these CD's, I find that I'm able to identify notes in my favorite music that I wasn't previously aware of. (The presumed existence of other tones motivates me to continue practicing.) My only complaint is that my CD player (a 1996 IBM laptop) typically takes about 5 minutes before it can finally `latch on' and read the CD (although this is not a problem with the two-note vol 1 disk).

Finally, I'm grateful that the author emphasizes how difficult and time consuming ear training can be. I'm progressing with the two-note exercises more slowly, and his acknowledgment keeps me from getting discouraged. Again, I'm grateful for shuffle play on my CD player, which keeps rearranging the order of the exercises: I would have memorized the cassette tapes by now, effectively halting my progress. Because of my improved ear, I'm listening to music with greater awareness and appreciation. Thank you, Mr. Arnold!

15 of 15 people found the following review helpful:

1.0 out of 5 stars Buy the CD. Skip the book., April 9, 2008

By 

B. Rose - See all my reviews
(REAL NAME)   

Amazon Verified Purchase

This review is from: Key Note Recognition (Perfect Paperback)

Buy the Key Note CD, but skip this book. I have only praise for Bruce Arnold's method, but I have never seen an instruction book with less instructional content. If this were a review of his method, I would give 6 stars, but a 1 star rating is being generous for this book. Why?

Page 1: How to use the CD that is not included with this book.
Pages 2-5: Summary on Ear Training method, which you have probably already read in the One Note and Fanatics book if you made it this far.
Page 6: One additional paragraph about using the CD that is not included with this book.
Page 7: Track listing for the CD that is not included with this book.
Page 8: One paragraph stating that Pages 9-13 contain frequently asked questions about Key Note, Fanatic's, and Two Note
Pages 9-13: FAQ section. This information is available online at the muse-eek site.
This is followed by 13 pages of listings of Bruce Arnold's other books, and then 15 pages of Key / Answer blanks for you to record your scores.

That's right, this book contains a little over one page of new instructional content, and that content is about a CD package that is not included with the book. I have been happily (and I think successfully) using Arnold's method for 3 months, and will continue to use it, but this book is going back to Amazon.

2 of 2 people found the following review helpful:

5.0 out of 5 stars The best ear training out there so far, March 10, 2008

By 

Jason J. Mescia "Jason" (Philadelphia) - See all my reviews
(REAL NAME)   

This review is from: Key Note Recognition (Perfect Paperback)

Bruce Arnold's series of books are designed to achieve one and only one purpose: to teach...and to teach each subject the right way and in the most rational manner. He makes mention in different books and interviews to the fact that most music books or methods are designed for students to get good grades in school (I can't see how this method could be easily grade-able) or to offer the consumer a quick fix of success to feel that the book has worked and they haven't wasted their money, while in fact they will not really retain much of the information at all in the long run and the whole experience will have been a waste of time and money. I personally in my quest for good books on the subject of music have found this to be true, and I think that most of these books are made solely for the purpose of generating money (as most things are these days) and not really achieving their true purpose...the ones that seem to try to go past this I have found to be filled with half baked ideas and hazy methods.

I am a professional jazz/classical saxophonist and an composer. I have a degree in music composition and performance and studied with some of the greatest teachers that I believe that are out there. For me, disappointment with music study books, whether they be for improvisation, ear training, composition, has been a normal thing and I have been mainly writing and inventing my own exercises,techniques, and practice routines for lack of finding anything that made any more sense from any "educational book". This ended when I found Bruce Arnold's series of books. I am in awe of the infallible logic behind every method in every book. I have been working out of many different books of his: the ear training books, the sight singing books, the Rhythm series, Big Metronome and Time Transformation, and they all WORK. I mean they really, REALLY work, as long as you follow the instructions and have patience and make up your mind before you start that you are going to stick with it. When I first found the books I instantly knew that I finally stumbled across something finally that made sense...but have refrained from writing a review anywhere until I thoroughly tested the products out. I believe that many of the more negative or indifferent reviews you will find here or on other sites are from recent buyers who have not yet started to see the results or are from people who have not made the decision to follow the directions and truly have the patience to follow through.

I have been working with the Ear Training Method for some time now and am in the Two Note Series now, and my ears are at a level that I never thought possible. The concept of relative pitch as opposed to interval training is dead-on and if you study the method diligently you will see why it makes so much more sense. I have been working from THE BIG METRONOME every day and going through the rhythm books...and I am feeling rhythm in a way that is so effortless. When I play or compose music now it becomes more of a joy every day rather than a strenuous effort.

If you want to learn music the right way, so that every aspect of music from theory to transcription to rhythm is like a second nature, then I recommend Bruce Arnold's books. As an added plus, you can (and are encouraged) to email him about any problems you are having or just even on your progress and he is very prompt and thorough in his responses. This is clearly a person who truly cares about what he is teaching and who has limitless integrity in his methods.

If you ask me, the series of Bruce Arnold's Books and CD's are a goldmine, priceless treasures that can be bought for an incredibly low price considering the immense benefit that can be reaped from them.