That’s weird—I’m the total opposite!
One thing that’s kinda fun (and you may feel stupid doing it at first) is whenever you hear a sound that has a distinct note to it is to try and guess what it is. Hum it to keep it in your head. Of course, you’ll have to be near a piano or some other instrument to test yourself. I do this sometimes, just for fun, lol.
An example: I was at Long Beach, California, and heard the Queen Mary’s horns go off. It sounded to me like an Ab, but after doing research on the internet I learned it was actually an A. I don’t know if hearing things from a distance distorts pitch quality, but I realized that sometimes I “hear” things a half pitch lower than they actually are. Sometimes, to me an Ab is an A, but that just goes to show that I was getting rusty and needed more practice!
Another thing is you can try to develop an ear for at least one note. If you can remember the sound of a single note, then you can use relativity to figure out any other note you hear. Of course, you have to be good at hearing intervals to guess right the majority of the time, but that’s another thing you can practice using the piano and humming. First, pick a base note, like C. Then, pick an interval—say, a perfect fourth, and try to hum that out loud. After that you can check yourself on the piano by playing C and then the perfect fourth interval (C – F). You’ll know right away how close or far off you were. Once you perfect intervals, you wil have a lot easier time at understanding the relationship between notes just by ear.
About being able to hear one note and knowing you can always identify that one correctly: , some of the notes I can almost always pinpoint and just sing out at random are:
– A (I play viola and the concert tuning pitch for strings is A)
– C (this note just feels like home base to me. Ever watch The Sound of Music and hear them sing the “Do—a dear, a female deer; Re—a drop of golden sun…” song? It starts on the note of C and I always think of this when I hear that note)
– G (many popular songs, if they aren’t in A, D, or C, are in the key of G)
– sometimes E, but I usually have to think of A first (it is a fourth up from A and is the highest string on the violin; I think in terms of strings)
– and D (lots of soundtracks for movies use songs in the key of D—major or minor; it can be quite powerful and moving!)
I have a harder time deciphering black note keys on the piano, though. I can figure them out eventually but I have to think about it in relation to notes that I feel more comfortable with.
These are just some of the methods I use, though taking guesses and immediately testing yourself on an instrument you are most comfortable with is probably one of the best ways to train your ear. I know some people, like @harple, are more at home with chords, and a lot of guitar players think that way. I guess it depends on what instrument(s) are “home” to you and the methods you’ve been taught to help you learn how those instruments work. Certain modes of thinking are going to be more effective for you depending on your primary instrument, and chords work very nicely with the guitar. Piano, too, but again, I learned to play that by ear and I’ve also played viola music, which generally uses fewer chords; so I’m coming from another perspective here.
Anyway, I hope some of that helps. :)
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