How To Develop Your Ears

Welcome to Kubistra Music. My name is Yakub Saputra and today we’re going to talk about THE MOST IMPORTANT thing for a musician which is How To Develop Your Musician Ear!

By the end of this blog, you will know at least 3 WAYS to that will give you a NINJA EAR.

As a musician, we often forget that we are in the business of, SOUND!

Unlike Photographers and Graphic Designers - who primarily use their eyes to discern and create great pictures and design. We, as musicians, rely 100% of the time on our ears to create great music.

So, developing our ear has to be HIGH on our Priority List.

Not your Social Media,

Not your Gear Collection,

Not even more important than your actual Instrument!

This is because we won’t be able to play-back, or to sing back, or to compose something that we have never heard before.

Well, I don’t wanna get into a philosophical argument here, but I would say this: As a musician, you are only as good as your ears are.

So, how do you go about developing your ear?

NO. 1: TRANSCRIBE GREAT MUSIC

Transcribing is basically you go play a record, and try to figure out what the musician is playing in that record - as close as possible. Note-by-note, chord-by-chord, EVEN by the slightest inflection that the musician’s made in that record. The bottom line is that you are doing your best to figure out what they play, so that you can play along with the record at the end.

TRUST ME: Transcribing is absolutely gonna give you a NINJA EAR if you do it regularly. I believe this is the fastest way to upgrade your ear. The reason is that when you are transcribing a record, you are actually at a moment of HIGHLY ATTENTIVE LISTENING. This kind of Intense Listening Session cannot be achieved in any other way.

If you are a jazz musician, you are probably very familiar with this. But the benefit of transcribing music is not only limited to Jazz music. You can do it also with pop music, classical music, basically any kind of music.

So, if you hear great music on TIDAL, Spotify, or from wherever you hear it, don’t google the chart or the available transcription immediately. Instead, hit the rewind button, and start transcribing!

NO. 2: SING YOUR FAVORITE TUNE WITH SOLFEGE

Yeah, maybe this is the first time you hear somebody saying this. I know this is super nerdy. But TRUST ME!! It will give you an added point of NINJA EARS!

For those who don't know what solfege is: Solfege is the Do Re Mi Fa So La Ti Do system that we all musicians know. So, how exactly do we do this?

First, let’s sing your

favorite tune! Just pick one and sing it!

How about “Perfect” by Ed Sheeran.

I found a love for me

Darling, just dive right in

And follow my lead

Now what? Now, try to replace the lyric with solfege. So, now sing Perfect - only with SOLFEGE.

Sol La Do Do Mi Re Do Mi

I found a love for me

Re Mi Mi Mi Re Do Do

Darling, just dive right in

Do Re Mi Re

Follow my lead

You may not even know what the first Solfege note of the song is. But all you have to do is to count it from DO until you find the right Solfege Label.

This exercise will only give you NINJA EAR if you don’t first read the notation whatsoever. This is not an exercise where you have the notation in your hand, and you merely sing it off of the score. That is more like a sight-reading exercise. That’s why it is best to choose the song that you have naturally memorized.

The bread and butter of this exercise are that you figure out the right solfege note label yourself out of your favorite tune mostly in your head. So you create an immense connection in your head, between the sound and the right labeling.

Well, the first time you do it, you might want to go on your keyboard to check how accurate you are and it’s totally fine, even recommended.

Now, if you are really serious about developing your ear I want to challenge you to sing your favorite song in Solfege and post it on your Instagram, Facebook, Tiktok and use a hashtag #KubistraMusicChallenge.

NO. 3: GO LISTEN TO AN UNFAMILIAR PLAYLIST

This one is not as intensive as the previous two. But this is not that easy as well. In the first two challenges, you are working to develop your technical ear!

But in this one, you are challenging your musical comfort zone. In other words, going into an unfamiliar playlist could be daunting.

You like your playlist because you like the genre, the instrumentation, and you can relate to the lyrics. But when you listen to an unfamiliar playlist, you will feel like you’re going to a different country, with a different culture and a different mood.

You might feel a little out of place. But only then you can get something fresh: a new harmony approach, new perspective and new ideas that you wouldn’t have by staying comfortable in your own playlist.

It will challenge your ear to start listening to more elements. And as a result, make you a well-rounded musician.

That’s it, folks, 3 NINJA Ways to develop your Musician EAR.

If you want to connect more with me and get weekly jazz licks and bite-size music theory gems, head over to Instagram and follow me @SaputraYakub.

Now I want to turn it over to you, which of the 3 tips from today’s video are you gonna try first?

Are you gonna start by hopping into an unfamiliar playlist, or are you gonna go hardcore and start singing your favorite song in Solfege?

Let me know by leaving a comment below.

So, Thanks for watching, see you at the next BLOG!