Reasonable goals for ear training? (spinoff from littletune's topic)

[starlady]

This is related to Littletune's "Hearing the Intervals', but I think different enough to be its own topic.

I never had any ear training, period. When I started lessons this year after my 40+ year vacation the  teacher tried asking me to identify intervals, and we established very quickly a) that the only ones I really knew were unison and octave and b) there was a real danger I would burst into tears.  So we agreed to leave intervals alone for a while.  Then Littletune's thread came along and the suggestions on it have been FANTASTICALLY helpful, especially the ones about relating the interval to a well-known song (which, believe it or not, I hadn't head or thought about before).

So, thanks to everyone here, I can now actually practice intervals without suffering mental trauma.  The next question: what are some reasonable goals I can aim for? If I jump into doing all 24 at once it will be hopeless. Do I start by learning to recognize one interval, like thirds, then move on to others?  What are the most important ones?  And, how accurate is a normal person likely to get in this?

Thanks for your advice, --s.

[littletune]

Hi! I'm really glad if my thread helped you!  
Well I don't really know how people usually learn the intervals but the way we learn them is not all of them at the same time at all! Last year when I was doing grade 1 and 2 we were only listening to half and whole tones (minor and major seconds) and the same ones (unison).
And this year in grade 3 we are also listening to minor and major third. Well we also got to know other intervals (specially the octave and the fourth) but in the test we only have seconds and thirds. So that's all I know... that's the way we're learning it. 

[starlady]

That makes sense.  I was trying to learn them all at once and it was very confusing.

Thank you! --s.

[ongaku_oniko]

You go by the dificulty

so same note, octave, perfect fifths, perfect fourth

Major third, minor third, major second, minor second

Major sixth, minor sixth, major seventh, minor seventh

and the leftover one (augmented fourth) you'll recognize because it's none of the above. And because it sounds so weird.

[floydcramerfan]

I was taught the intervals based on relating them to a song.  Of course I always had weird song choices that were different from everybody else.  In theory 1 in college they did the intervals at the beginning of the semester, and when they asked me for a song that used a third, I embarrassed myself by blirting out the title of a well-known southern gospel song.  Everybody was like, what???

[thinkgreenlovepiano]

You go by the dificulty

so same note, octave, perfect fifths, perfect fourth

Major third, minor third, major second, minor second

Major sixth, minor sixth, major seventh, minor seventh

and the leftover one (augmented fourth) you'll recognize because it's none of the above. And because it sounds so weird.

Augmented fourth is like the Simpson's theme song.
There was a time when I got it mixed up with minor sixth somehow... so none of the above didn't work for me.

What I always, always have trouble with is major seventh and minor seventh. When I practise a lot I can get it right, but after a while I'm confused again.
And when I'm nervous, like during exams, I even doubt intervals like perfect fifth!

It's ok to have weird song choices, most of mine are from those Alfred's basic piano library pieces. It's useful because they gave you pieces with certain intervals after teaching you the interval. And I still remember the tune.

[floydcramerfan]

Ahh, good ol' Alfred.  I never used that because I was self taught and my teacher taught me by ear, but my best friend is a piano prodigy and when she was learning the devil---oops, I mean braille music, she worked through that whole series starting at the most basic stuff and going up.  She used to make up words to the cheesey little tunes they had in the basic levels.

[Bob]

Get a college ear training book and work through that. 

Do dictation and sight-singing.  It's attacking the issue from two ways.  Dictation alone isn't going to cut it. 

I think it's reasonable to get a good grasp on diatonic stuff and to be able to recognize function of any variation along the lines of I IV V I.

[brogers70]

Augmented fourth is like the Simpson's theme song.

Or Maria, from West Side Story

[garyp]

I have a similar problem, created these excercises to train my ear:
https://pitchimprover.com/
Maybe you would find some of them helpful too.

[Bob]

Interesting garyp.  I'm liking what I'm seeing on that site so far.