Short Term Musical Memory

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A couple of months ago I bumped into this Use Your Ear YouTube Channel and I think it worth sharing. They have a lot of videos, but I checked only very few of them for two simple reasons:

  1. They spend too much time in emphasaising how the Intervals approach to Ear Training would be inneffective, which I might ascribe to what I call “The Young Teacher Syndrome”(so annoying, but I suffered that too so one should be indulgent and just keep the good).
  2. It’s really more than what I’m able to process, with lots of things that I can’t understand at the moment and exercises which I’m not able to accomplish.

So I decided to stop and focus on this concept on which they insist upon and which I found not only very interesting, but also a good tool for me to keep on developing my melodic recognition skills… and that is The Short Term Musical Memory. Here’s a video that explains it. I find it easier to work out my own exercises though, following that concept.

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I don’t know why, but I have a deep visceral dislike of ear training based on intervals. For me, it feels both difficult and useless. (I’m probably wrong about it being useless, but I continue to fail to understand the point.)

I would be interested to hear more about the exercises you have developed based on these concepts, explained in the video.

For me, the best exercise I have found – by far – is to sing, and play scales in different keys. This increased my ability to find melodies on the guitar like nothing else I’ve tried…

But it hasn’t helped my ability to find chord progressions much, however.

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That’s because you don’t understand intervals and how chord tones relate to scales.

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Have look and listen to chord tones, this guide looks quite good. I started on this 20 years ago when starting to play jazz standards at college. My teacher, who played jazz semi-pro, at the time was keen introducing me to the concepts and hearing then so I could substitute chords more easily.

It also helped me with melodic harmony, and using chords passing from one to another using shared chord tones.

Chord tones

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My practice have been very structured both in May and June and I had this big 15minutes label called Ear Training and since I struggle too at identifying intervals I decided I would train my ear my way with exercises based on myself. I ended up practicing in many different ways, all meaningful and useful to my own self…from trying to be able to sing the notes of the Major Scale accurately both ascending and descending (is it that easy?), to work out melodies by ear, to try and play chords progressions of songs from memory (something I still struggle to) by actively listening…and more…

In the video it’s mentioned that to improve short term musical memory we should work in a tonal way and that is what I’ve tried to do. Re-active listening was what first I thought of and so I re-checked Justin’s lesson, :pensive_face: it was about improvising and I wasn’t able to improvise! My attempts at improvising had been rare because to improvise one needs decent Rhythm skills, which I lacked in the past. But now I felt much progress in that respect so I decided to try improvising again…and I did it in the easiest of ways (the Theory Class on Modes helped here) and, surprise surprise, I was able to improvise in the Ionian Mode! :exploding_head: Which is basically playing a X scale not over a chord progression but over that same X chord (in my case it was the G Maj Scale over the G chord): here it was my ear training goal! Work within the tonality, listen to each note and explore what it felt like in that context! I had much fun, it felt good and I couldn’t believe I was able to improvise!

Another exercise I made was this one: while working out melodies by ear (only key of C or G to make my life easier) I hummed one note of the song at the time and keep it going (here is the challenge, to retain the note) while starting playing the scale from the 1rst degree until the right note matched with my humming.

Another thing I did, (I’m afraid this will sound as a lot of gibberish to the reader…nevermind :woman_shrugging:) was to picture this House of the Major Scale in my mind…it wasn’t enough for me to say this note sounds good or bad or happy or whatever, this wasn’t enough to really figure out the quality or role of each note within the Scale so I thought I’d attribuite a character to each one of them.

Here’s my Major Scale Family (in the worst of cases you’ll have a good laugh at me :laughing:):

  • 1rst: is the only one which is not a character because…it’s the key to open the door of the house! And each note needs to be able to reach back to it in their pockets, if they want to enter!
  • 3rd: is the owner of the house, male, it makes sense, much balanced and rational; his partner is the
  • 5th: much female like, lively and a vulcan of energy, kind of "darling I was in a renovate mood, don’t you think the new curtains much fit with the rest of the furniture? :joy:
  • 6th is their little girl and it’s their pride because she has an innate strong sense of initiative…:roll_eyes:
  • 2nd is the clergyman of the family, don’t ask me why, if I play an A note over a G chord and I close my eyes I feel like I’m sitting in a church listening to a pipe organ :woman_shrugging:
  • 7th: oh the 7th is the far away relative…he emigrated decades ago and he has such a melanchonic feeling whenever he thinks home and dreams to come back one day.
  • 4th: here you have 2 options, you can think of him as a illigitimate son or as the guest, who you know, is like the fish in the fridge, after a little while it start stinking :joy:

Now…each one has his/her way to figure out things, right? :rofl::rofl::rofl:

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Thank you for that, Silvia!
I’ll check out the video(s) right afterwards, but it was so interesting to read this thread!
I did some ear training a while back, but didn’t really feel like progressing much, so I rather spent my time with things developing more easily or being more fun, knowing I’ll get back to it, because I rate it really important.
It’s great to read about your self invented excercises and I LOVE how you imagined that major scale house!
You have such a great imagination!

wonderful! :slight_smile:

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I’m not laughing at you Sylvia :joy:, but with you! You have started a whole new discipline, evolving music theory into music philosophy and music fantasy. Do you know a film maker who can take your guitar playing plus what is in your fruitful mind and make a grand movie for us all to enjoy?

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Hey Silvia!

Your House of the Major scale is something that I would never have come up with and I won’t be taking it on for myself….but……it is, first of all, very amusing and I think, most of all, that it shows you have an excellent sense of where the notes of the scale fit in with the tonality!

Your ear is better than you think it is! :ear_with_hearing_aid::wink: :grinning_face_with_big_eyes:

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Eh?!! :open_mouth: What!?? There’s someone who doesn’t think I’m crazy :partying_face::partying_face::partying_face:

I think this is very relatable to the most of us. I do relate and I’ve been going through these same phases.

Now :smirking_face:…excuse me?! :sweat_smile: I’m afraid I don’t know any film maker Michael :joy:

David…sure you would be the third :wink: I’m glad you found it amusing!

Thank youuuuuu :sweat_smile::partying_face::star_struck::grin::zany_face:

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Thanks for sharing the link Adrian, I’m finding it a very interesting reading!

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Haha, definitely not - just very creative!

Now have watched two of their videos to find out those secrets.
It’s really interesting, but it was really long for just a few “Aha” moments - maybe I’m a bit impatient at times :slight_smile:
Still, it’s probably good to hear the longer story of it for many people to put all the info in the right bag.

So, in my understanding he says for example that, as a beginner or intermediate, you can practice intervals, but don’t change the key during it!
So you relate to the same scale and same “home” note and all notes have their same place and feeling!?
(Maybe afterwards switch to another key, but then stay in it for a defined time too)
The point was to not jump around keys, because that would confuse the beginner/intermediate brain.

Oh, now what were my other “Aha” moments? My memory is so bad! :roll_eyes:
Sometimes, I write down my key take-aways from such videos, but I forgot to!

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YouTube put this video in my feed today.

The author talks about how most interval training is focussed on passing tests for music school. That was my sense too, though I couldn’t put it into words.

He says that the more important skill is “audiation” … hearing sounds in your musical imagination, as Justin calls it.

I don’t know if this is correct, but it resonates with me.

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What do you think those sounds are. You can call them what ever you want but the rest of the world calls them intervals.
No need to pass any tests, you just need to hear these sounds and how they relate to eack other.

For example root to 3rd is a major third interval you can give this any name you want. Root to flat 3rd is a minor third interval. If you can’t hear these tonal differences you will always struggle with ear training. Play an A chord them play an Am chord. Then just the 3rd then the flat 3rd.
It has nothing to do with what they’re named. But naming something makes it easier to explain.

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Print it out…make copies or something, you never know when this might be useful to use against him (in any defense of course :grinning_face_with_smiling_eyes:)…

:roll_eyes: :blush:

Have a great weekend I hope that peace has returned a bit :sunflower:

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Levi Clay, is a cool Guy

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This guy spent the first 5 minutes talking about himself before he said anything about music or intervals.

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Yep… A common problem with YouTube videos.

I just fast forward through those sections to get to the good stuff.

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Sylvia, many thanks for your detailed reply! Lots of practical suggestions for me to try and see if they work for me.

Yeah, that really seems to help. I’ve noticed that the YouTubers Rick Beato and Chris Liepe both tend to use drones and sustained chords when teaching and practicing. Really helps to keep the root note in context with the intervals.

Unfortunately, I’ve found this is hard to do with a solo acoustic guitar. I have Chris’s Discover Your Voice and Ultimate Ear courses, and that motivated me to dig out an old synthesizer I had in storage. Much easier to sing and play notes in context, and a keyboard is so much more linear and obvious…which makes understanding the underlying theory easier as well.

I tried to find some apps to do the same thing on my iPad, but just found the physical instrument…bulky as it was…far superior. Highly recommend picking up a cheap keyboard that can play sustained tones (organ, strings, etc … piano is not so good for this).

You don’t need to be able to “play” the keyboard…just to know the 12 notes in the octave, and major and minor chords.

I’ve recently started playing electric guitar again, and borrowed a looper pedal from a friend. I suspect I can get many of the same benefits, but have not tried to use it that way yet.

I deliberately practiced playing and singing major scales of all the sharp keys in the circle of 5ths (A - G…didn’t bother with the flat keys). Not that difficult as long as you know at least one movable scale pattern on the guitar.

I fairly quickly got to the point where I could play a random note on the fretboard and sing the scale in that key, up and down 1 octave. This really seemed to help me quickly find the right note under my fingers when I was figuring out riffs and melodies.

I also found it highlighted where my vocal registers and break are, and motivated me to work on expanding my range.

I also did the same exercise with pentatonic scales, but didn’t find it that useful. But I’ll probably go back to that if/when I start doing more soloing and improvising.

Not at all! I see that’s the approach your linked video suggests, and good on you for inventing your own characters.

Chris Liepe uses a similar approach in his Ultimate Ear course. Each interval has its own “character”, and a silly little song that demonstrates the character in a musical context.

As I write this, I realize that one of my issues is that the terms that people use to describe intervals - “character”, or whatever - don’t resonate with me.

The single exception would be major/minor → happy/sad. I get the feeling when the chords are played in isolation, but can’t tell major from minor by ear in a song context.

So maybe I need to lean into finding some “characters” that resonate with me, or inventing my own - just like you did.

Good stuff!

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That is what I’ve understood too :sweat_smile: and it made much sense to me: making music is the goal so anything that makes it possible is good. Justin says not to practice new Scales Patterns if you can’t make music out of the first one. So maybe learning where the intervals are played all around the neck might be something more beneficial for advanced players and to work on the connection with the guitar…but before that, as an advancing begginer I feel like I should isolate the task to train my ears and my beginner chords seem more than enough to accomplish that.

Thanks for sharing the video Tom, this is what I’m actually focusing on, being able to hear/imagine and even hum the sound which is coming, whether it’s a note or a chord. But even before this if it’s a melody it happens to me often I haven’t “stored” it properly, some notes would be distorted, leave alone where they are in the bar! Mindful listening is the first step for me and then listen back again and again until I sort it out.

Michael, on second thoughts I might write a song about all this, I will call it The House of the Rising…Pitches :rofl: