It is only a week until Christmas, and 2 weeks until the start of a new year! At Easy Ear Training we are taking advantage of this holiday season to reflect back on the past year and present you with our year’s highlights. We also have a great new “Rocking Blues” active listening article, a tutorial on the song writing process, an interview with bassist Chris Tarry, and a Christmas ear training giveaway for you!
Before we dive in check out this awesome video of activists in Paris who staged a protest during the Paris climate talks by holding a concert in a bank:
Awesome. Yesterday, activists stormed a bank and held a guerilla concert. BNP Paribas is one of the main sponsors of…
Posted by 350.org on Thursday, December 10, 2015
The Best of Easy Ear Training 2015
As the year is drawing to a close it is a good opportunity to review the events of the year and start thinking about your New Year’s (Music!) Resolutions for 2016. Here at Easy Ear Training we took a look back at our “best of” 2015, and summarised the highlights for you. So make sure you didn’t miss out on anything great by checking out The Best of Easy Ear Training 2015.
Christmas Ear Training Giveaway!
There are countless music and ear training resources online, and it can be overwhelming to try and find those which are right for you. Two weeks ago we reviewed the Best Winter Holiday Ear Training Resources to help you use the holiday season to inspire your ear training. This week we looked in more detail at two workbooks written by Amber Staffa: “All I Want for Christmas is Ear Training” and “Christmas gets a Makeover”.
Amber has generously offered to giveaway a copy of her workbook“All I Want for Christmas is Ear Training” to an Easy Ear Training reader! To be in for a chance of winning all you need to do is leave a comment on our Facebook page right here before midnight on the 20th December. Just a few days left!
Writing “Pink Slips and Baby Shoes”
Continuing our 10-part series on songwriting, this week we covered The Songwriting Process. Sabrina walks us step-by-step through her song writing process, using the example of one of her tracks “Pink Slips and Baby Shoes”. I don’t know about you but that song title certainly roused my curiosity! Check out her tutorial and hear the song at the different stages of its development.
A good place to start with songwriting is the classic I-IV-V chord progression we talk so much about here at Easy Ear Training. This 3-chord progression is most famously used in blues music, which has influenced so many other genres. For this week’s active listening exercise we chose a 5 song set inspired by the blues. So open your Ears to some Rocking Blues and get ready to chill, dance and be inspired by these 5 great tracks.
“Making it” in Music
The road to becoming a professional musician can be challenging and frustrating. It can be difficult to stay motivated especially in such a competitive environment. New York Bassist Chris Tarry shared his musical journey and advice with the Musical U team in an interview on their blog. For his top tips on practicing and advice on becoming the best musician you can be, read his interview – The Road to “Making it” – A Professional Musician Reflects on the Journey.
Speaking of successful musicians: this week the world has been celebrating Beethoven’s 245th Year and yesterday Google celebrated the composer’s anniversary with a fun ear training musical doodle. Put short exerts of the composer’s masterpieces in the correct order to help him arrive at the symphony hall in time for the big crescendo:
Whatever you music or ear training goals are, I hope that we have given you some ideas and inspiration to take that next step in achieving them.
Remember you don’t need to start from scratch – you can always “borrow” an idea from somebody else to help… On that note I leave you with one more piece of advice, from the queen of jazz Ella Fitzgerald.
