Hi everyone. I really struggle with Route VI and I don't think I am applying the right strategy. I can pick up the progression if I play the bass notes, but without them I am hopeless.
Does anyone have any suggestions for a good strategy or approach?
Elimination is not a bad strategy: as long as you can hear the relevant sonorities (major, minor, and diminished), you can usually narrow down the options to just one or two, and then go from there.
Alex Giddings is right, for a while I had to play the bass notes on my keyboard to figure it out but after sometime I realized I didn't need to anymore because recognizing the harmonic quality of the chords (major, minor and diminished) can do the heavy lifiting.
The first 20ish levels seemed the hardest to me, until they add minor and dimished chords as they are much more distinctive. Use multiple choice. I also recommend playing I IV V progressions on your instrument to begin to find the feel of each moving to the next.
Continue to play the bass notes. :) Seriously, the idea that you WOULDN'T use your instrument to help you figure out a chord progression is silly. Not a ton of practical value to that. I mean, in practice, the reason you would be figuring out a chord progression is to play it, right? I guess an abstract harmonic analysis is another reason, but what is the practical value of being able to do that without an instrument handy? Not much.
Some things that help me is to try to locate the one chord in the progression and work backwards. It can become more obvious where the one chord is if you just keep the progression going by tapping the play button again as soon as it finishes. Or not letting it finish completely and starting it again. Making it more into a song. And then you can kind of feel which chord feels most like the one. Once you find the one, try to find which is the most dominant to the one. So that's the V or possibly a version of V like diminished vii, etc. Then look for the IV, or subdominant, which can also be in the form of ii or vi. Music is a lot of the time in a I-IV-V-I progression, or some variation of that, so if you listen for that progression it can help.
You are creating a new neural network that will deal with the recognition of sounding chords. Evolution did not prepare us for this. We don't have a special part of the brain that is designed for this. Therefore, the only strategy that works is repetition. Do not try to use any kind of props. Advanced musicians perceive a sounding chord immediately, without remembering any songs or using any other mnemonic techniques. So again, repeat, repeat, repeat.....Until the neural network starts functioning. I hope I conveyed my point correctly.
A letter of pieces of advice to myself: I'm totally down with the last comment, however I wanted to clarify that it might come across to my mind that if I only repeat mindlessly and then I'll be done with the ear training. No, blind repetition is not much of a help for me, but the attention and intention to learn is my helping hand. So better put it - I should do a lot of repetition with an intention to recognize specific qualities.
Another strategy is to slow it down, strip it down to basics or make it easier for myself, set up easier exercises for myself, so I can gradually build my level of recognition until the examples presented in the game becoming more recognizable and feelibable for me specifically. In my own experience the threshold for the games at the beginning is high and overtime it becomes doable. Third strategy - sing, sing a lot, try to home the notes I hear, try to pay attention to the feelings it evokes in me - for example the notes wants to go in a certain direction in your mind after hearing a passage. I have to sit down and figure out where my ear leads to. For example, I use piano app on my phone and try to get the notes my ear leads to, I make a note of that and repeat it.
Also, make it exciting for MYSELF, nobody cares if I have a good ear or not, I do it for myself, then why not make it fun for myself? I might have completely different interests from what the website suggests me - I should go and explore them - this way I'll force my brain to associate things in an exciting way. when I'll return I see that my grasp of topics has improved.
I've probably gone too much here, but just wanted to help me to go through the struggle of mental training that I commit myself to.
@ALEXEY KALEYNIKOV I think that you have a point, but I would argue that the brain is very flexible, and does not need a special part just for chord recognition. And as to the idea that repetition is key, that is true, but it cannot just be repetition for the sake of repetition or mote learning. Instead the brain needs to be actively engaged, and practicing with an instrument is a great way to do that. It is not a crutch or prop, it is the first rung of the ladder to success.
Do you understand voice leading concepts? In the early stages singing the bass notes worked pretty well but as it got more difficult, then that doesn't always work right away. In minor, for example, maybe you're trying to hear if it's a vii diminished or a V. Using headphones to better hear the other voices (without the bass notes), then you would try to hear if Fa or Sol is present. Fa would be the vii diminished and Sol would be the V. Another example would be hearing ii dim or iv minor. Is Re present or Do? Re would be ii dim and Do would be iv minor. So once you have Do in your mind or on your keyboard, listen and write down the voice led lines you are hearing without the bass. For example, you might hear a line like Do-Ti-Do-Re or Do-Te-Re-Ti. As you get one line down, then you may have to listen for another line to get one or two of the chords correct. Also, if you are trying to zero in a one chord then make up your own voice led line with a note on the questionable chord that will help you figure it out. For example, if the progression is i min - bIII maj - ii dim - V, but you have a choice between V or vii dim, then make up a line such as sol-sol-fa-fa. If that last fa is crunchy then try singing sol-sol-fa-sol which sounds good, then you know it is V.
All of this assumes triads so far.
Let me know if there is something I can explain better for you.
2 props
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