Music

Ear training and music theory on your own

What music schools call solfège is two things at once: music literacy (how music is written down) and the ear (recognising and reproducing what is written). An adult learns to read in a few weeks; the ear grows more slowly, but you can train it ten minutes a day. Below is a six-month plan, the order of topics and self-check questions.

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In this article

Why an adult needs theory and ear training#

A children's music school stretches this over years, and an adult does not need that much. The practical goal is usually one of three: reading music for your instrument, working out melodies and chords by ear, or singing more in tune. The goal sets the proportions: a guitarist needs chords and intervals more, a singer needs sight-singing, a pianist needs fluent reading in two clefs. Decide this in advance so you do not spend months on things you will not use.

Weeks 1–4: reading without the ear#

Start with what you can check with your eyes. The staff of five lines; the treble clef (also called the G clef — its curl wraps around the second line, where the G above middle C is written); then the bass clef (the F clef). Note values: a whole note splits into two half notes, a half note into two quarter notes, a quarter note into two eighth notes. A dot to the right of a note adds half of its value. A time signature of 3/4 means three quarter notes per bar, 4/4 means four.

Daily practice: ten minutes on a note-reading trainer until you recognise notes in both clefs within a second. Learn rhythm by clapping with a metronome: clap a line, then compare with what is written.

Months 2–3: tones, semitones and intervals#

A semitone (half step) is the smallest distance in Western music — two neighbouring keys on a piano. Two semitones make a whole tone (whole step). Everything else is built from this: the major scale follows the pattern "whole, whole, half, whole, whole, whole, half". Intervals are named by the number of scale steps and specified by the number of semitones: a minor third is three, a major third four, a perfect fourth five, a perfect fifth seven, an octave twelve.

Train your ear on intervals: the trainer plays two notes, and you name the interval. At first, tell apart only two or three intervals — say, the major third and the perfect fifth — and add the next one when your accuracy is consistently above nine out of ten. Many people remember intervals by the openings of familiar tunes; it is a perfectly good technique, especially at the start.

Months 4–6: chords, sight-singing and dictation#

Triads: a major triad is a major third with a minor third on top; a minor triad is the other way round. Learn to hear major versus minor, then chord inversions. Start sight-singing with melodies of three to five neighbouring notes in C major: clap the rhythm first, then sing it on note names or solfège syllables (do, re, mi…), checking the first note against an instrument.

Melodic dictation is the hardest exercise and the most useful one: listen to a short four-bar melody and write it down in notation. Start with two bars and a known first note.

How to keep a notebook and check yourself#

In your notebook, keep a table of intervals with the number of semitones and an example tune for each, a page with clefs and note values, and a trainer log: date, exercise, percentage of correct answers. The log shows progress better than your feelings do — the ear grows quietly, and it seems that nothing is changing. A stage is done when your trainer accuracy stays above 90% for three sessions in a row.

Theory sticks best on an instrument or with your voice — see the plans for piano, guitar and singing.

Step-by-step plan

  1. Weeks 1–4 — readingTreble and bass clefs, note values, time signatures; you recognise notes in the trainer within a second.
  2. Months 2–3 — intervalsWhole and half steps, how the major scale is built, intervals by semitone count and by ear.
  3. Months 4–5 — chords and singingMajor and minor triads by ear, sight-singing melodies of three to five notes.
  4. Month 6 — dictationWriting down two- and four-bar melodies; trainer accuracy above 90%.

Start learning this in your own space

The plan goes into your repository: tick off stages, keep notes — the change history shows how far you have come.

Start the plan

Check yourself

1.How many semitones are there in a perfect fifth?

2.How many quarter notes fit into one half note?

3.Which note does the treble clef mark with its curl?

4.How many semitones are there in an octave?

Sources

  • musictheory.netFree theory lessons and trainers for notes, intervals and chords
    free
  • teoria.comTheory and ear-training exercises, including melodic dictation
    free
  • ToneDearFree ear-training exercises
    free

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