Years ago, my teacher used to say:
“Eric, you don’t listen to what you want play”…

This was one of the best critique I got…

Ear training, the most important skill for musicians

Some time ago, I was presenting and talking about playing music during a trumpet workshop, an idea came to compare the art of painting and playing music. After thinking about it, the similarities are that painting is about seeing and creating using a brush and paint, and music is about hearing and creating using an instrument or voice…

The most important thing when painting is actually the ability to see before actually drawing or painting. To have an end result in the creative mind.

Then, when playing music, the most important thing is not actually playing the instrument, but the ability to hear the end result before playing it… In other words listening before playing.

Most modern method of learning an instrument focuses on operating the instrument, often forgetting about the “listen before you play” skill. The majority of music students are taught to  listen after producing the note, as to evaluate the results.

With new technologies emerging, with software and mobile app development, the extra tools are readily available to help the music lover progress in a faster way than ever before, but as long as the ability to hear and listen before playing is not developed in a certain point, the progress will get slower and eventually stop altogether.

The aspiring musician will then look for any way to overcome this hurdle, until eventually realizing the importance of the fundamental skill of listening before playing.

Simple daily exercises of ear training like singing or humming a pitch before playing is a good start, and subsequently will develop itself into a rewarding skill that will be mirrored in the music playing.

To be continued…