How To Make Practicing Ear Training Fun

By Dylan Andrews

Ear training is a skill every guitar player needs. It allows us to improvise more freely, learn songs quicker, progress faster, and many other benefits.

But most guitarists find practicing ear training boring because most ear training exercises are boring.

But it doesn't have to be this way!

You just need to know how to make it fun.

To get a highly trained ear, you need to practice ear training consistently; otherwise, you simply won't get the results you want.

You need to enjoy the process.

This is why training your ear needs to be fun and something you look forward to.

But what makes ear training fun?

It all boils down to one word: 

Progress

If you don’t see yourself improving, you’re eventually going to stop. 

But when you see improvement every time you practice, you will want to practice more.

This is why you need to track your progress when you train your ear.

And the best way to do this is to turn every ear training exercise into an ear training game. 

Ear training games are a great way to make practicing ear training something you enjoy.

Here are a few of my favorite ear training games you can implement into your practice.

Ear Training Game #1 Beat your high score

This will work with almost any ear training exercise that you do. When you train your ear, you need to see how fast and accurately you can do something.

For example:

• A common ear training exercise is to sing scales. With this, you can track how many notes you sing correctly. Write down how many you get correct once a week to see how you're progressing.
  
• Another great ear training exercise is to listen to a simple song or melody and see how long it takes you to figure it out. Write down the time, and after doing this with multiple songs and melodies, you will see how you are improving.
  
  

Ear Training Game #2 Sing a melody and see how long it takes you to play it on the guitar 

This ear training exercise is one of the best ways to train yourself to play what you hear in your head.

Think of a simple 3 or 4 notes and see how long it takes to transcribe them. 

Write the time down and then do another 3-4 note melody and see how long that takes.

This is a great way to train your ear, and over time you will see that the amount of time it takes you to do this will quickly decrease.

Ear Training Game #3 Compete against a friend 

If you know someone also interested in practicing ear training, think of ways to compete against each other.

One ear training game you can do is have someone play a melody or chord progress and guess what they are doing.

Whoever gets the most number of answers right wins.

Reward Yourself

As you track your progress, you will see yourself significantly improving.

It’s a great motivator to set goals and work towards a goal.

Rewarding yourself isn't an ear training game, but it makes practicing ear training just as fun and motivating.

The reward could be music-related or anything you like.

You could buy some new music equipment, go to the movies, buy yourself a candy bar, etc.

Whatever it is, it should motivate you to train your ear.

If you start implementing these ear training games into your practice, I promise you will have way more fun training your ear and progress faster.

To get more help with your ear training, I invite you to join my online ear training course. This is the ultimate ear training for guitar course that doesn’t suck, isn’t boring, and works every time.

Click here to learn more about online ear training lessons.