Cracking the code: how to notate music

Its happened to us all…

You hear a great tune or like Winnie-the- Pooh, make up a little hum, it gets stuck and whirls around and you want to play it, but can’t figure out the notes or the chords. Your ear just can’t pick out the right ones and you put down your guitar in despair.

Or,

A second scenario: You can see the sheet music but they are all just dots on the page –- what does this sound like? You want to sing a harmony but can’t work out which note to pick especially whilst the other singers are belting out their own note.

What you need is Ear Training.

Ear training is a skill every musician should develop, knowing what note you’re expecting before you make a sound, listening to music and knowing what chord is sounding and where the harmony is headed can make all the difference between a great rehearsal or gig and a train wreck.

Open Academy at the Con run Ear training and Sight Reading classes that take you from the very start of this learning curve and step by step over 5 terms of classes you will become proficient at sight singing, follow your part, identify simple chord progressions, begin to notate tunes and harmonies and best of all, you now have the building blocks to write your own stuff or learn improvisation.

To join this class you need to have a basic ability to read music: recognise time signatures, key signatures and music notation. If that sounds like another language we’ve got a course that can teach you those basics too!  Check out the website for all classes on offer.

We’ve got something for everyone from the novice to the confident jazz player.

Anyone interested can enroll here via the Open Academy’s web site.