MJS Music & Entertainment (mjspublications.com)

[jenmarcjl]

My ear is pretty good for working out a song by listening to a short section and going over it with my guitar several times. But I've been having a hard time with recognizing intervals (and chords) just by their sound. I completed CD1, and listened to CD2 hundreds of times in my 45 minute drive to my job. Sat down with my guitar and matched all of the intervals on the CD and wrote them out in notation. Also looked up sample well-known songs on each interval. It's gotten a little better, but it seems I would have it down by now. I seem to have a mental block. Do you have any suggestions?

[forumadmin]

Can you hum the interval from memory? If not, that should be your next goal. Start with one that comes easiest. Once you get it down, learn one that is similar, and compare the two. Keep adding until you have learned them all. You can even go beyond one octave. The next step after that would be to compound the intervals. Learn to hum the 1-3-5 for a major chord, 1-b3-5 for a minor chord. You can also learn inversions that match the way a chord is structured on guitar.