For me, the improvisational continuum extends to the edge of tonality and as music moved to a point where the music redefined what you could do with a tonal piece, the language of options grew too. I get your point Tal_175, most music is tonal. However most music is tonal and I find that functional approach is more natural when dealing with tonal music.Don't want to derail the thread too much. I agree that both intervallic and functional approaches are useful in different contexts. Both as playing a recording by ear and as writing down in music notation. I'm using the word transcribe a bit loosely. We don't just hear the major 7 chord quality in major harmony when we hear a major chord but we also hear either restfulness (I chord) or a sense of motion (IV chord). I want to be able to identify chord tones and extensions instantly as different colors in the context of the chord (notes in both melody and harmony) not as intervals from the chord root.Īlso chords themselves are functional. Same applies to hearing melody in the context of a chord. I am thinking about music as a sequence of intervals when I do it. But in order to transcribe without the instrument I have to think about the intervals which is what I learned and that's a very strange experience. Say, I can transcribe music WITH my instrument fairly well. However most music is tonal and I find that functional approach is more natural when dealing with tonal music. Working 'outside' made me a better 'inside' player.ĭavidI agree that both intervallic and functional approaches are useful in different contexts. I don't see the value of limiting one's ear 'literacy' especially since intervallic ear training can give a huge amount of awareness and control over consonance, dissonance, tension and release while functional ear training gives one control over navigating within diatonicsm. It gives me a strong basis for phrasing that is not tonally based and that, in turn, gives me a real expansive contrast to and with tonal diatonicism. I've worked with Modus Novus and continue to. As a really practical aspect of my own music, there exists a strong element that derives lexicon from atonal music. I find they are forests and trees, and I can honestly say both have real practical use for me.

I don't see any kind of mutual exclusivity between intervallic and functional ear training.

Solfegge ear trainer