is singing a great tool for ear training?

“I don’t think I have a good voice.”

“I thought it’s a Piano class, or Guitar class. I can’t sing.”

Above statements are highly common in keyboard classes or guitar lessons online. And this is one of the ways we convince ourselves that singing is not our cup of tea.

But singing, just like playing an instrument, can be learned.

And, in fact, it is a great tool for ear training.

And interestingly, ear training is one of the most important aspects of learning to play a new instrument in music classes online or offline.

What is ear training?

Ear Training is a practice to develop the ability to listen carefully.

This skill set includes identifying pitches, notes, rhythms, chords and various other nuances of a song. 

Listening seems to be a natural activity, but like most skills, to improve the ability to listen carefully, we need to train our ears with practice. 

And one of the most effective ways to do that is to sing.

But how does singing improve our listening skills?

Regular singing requires us to listen closely to melodies, harmonies, and rhythms. 

• This enhances our ability to process and interpret various notes and sound frequencies, making us more familiar with such details in music and speech.
• Also, singers often develop an acute sense of pitch, which involves distinguishing different notes and tones. 
• This skill is not only beneficial for music but also helps in discerning nuances in speech, such as intonation and emotional cues.

The most interesting part is that listening and singing are interconnected. So, as you improve your singing, you also improve your listening, and vice-versa.

Because you can only sing the nuances and technicalities of a song when you can figure them out while listening.

And this aspect of listening is what helps in learning an instrument as well.

If you want to know how listening helps in learning music, click here to read.

How does singing help in learning an instrument?

Most music methodological books, especially the ones for music classes for beginners, have music with words. 

Well renowned and popular books, supported by years of research and observations, have emphasized the importance of singing in understanding the instrument better. 

And the majority of them begin with the first five notes, be it
C-D-E-F-G or
Do-Re-Mi-Fa-So or
Sa-Re-Ga-Ma-Pa

Now, these notes are used and taught for over the entire first book or first level. Popular children's songs and nursery rhymes can also be sung and played around these five notes from Frere Jacques to Baby Shark! 

When we constantly sing these rhymes or songs, our ears develop muscle memory through constant repetition. This muscle memory helps in recognising the notes when we play the song on an instrument.

And at this stage, each lesson is like exercising our auditory/listening skills. 

So the initial aim of developing aural skills is to pick up simple tunes and play them on the instruments. 

The first few attempts will not be perfect. For example, when young children look at a picture and draw it, the initial drawing is never perfect but it’s a start. 

Playing an instrument is no different, the first few times won't be right but it’s a step in the right direction.

But what stops a student from singing?
The fear that they can’t sing well.

Young children are taught to sing before they speak because the most traditional or unconventional child specialists will vouch that music is naturally ingrained in us. 

It is somewhere during our formative years of education, that we start thinking that we can’t sing.

And through music learning, we relearn to recondition ourselves to use sounds, most importantly our voice, in an effective way to communicate our thoughts. 

So as a music student, whether you are taking piano classes or guitar lessons, please sing along and have fun...
Even if you croak, it is the teacher’s job to help you croak well!!!