Learning music theory (like, with audio)

EggyToast

No, not a musical post, sorry.

I'm looking to learn more music theory. I play upright bass as essentially a beginner -- I can learn a piece and play it relatively well, reading the bass staff slowly. I have a good ear for intervals, and, when practicing, can pick out when I'm sharp or flat (to a degree).

I can't tell notes by ear, let alone chords. I took a music theory class in college as an elective and did well, and understand some of the basics of song construction.

What I'm looking for is an audio-based approach to learning more music theory, whether it be ear training for notes (which I consider pretty basic, but important) or something more advanced, such as learning notes by ear and then moving into keys, scales, intervals and so on.

There's tons of books out there, and plenty of courses I could do, but here's why I made the thread:

Are there any audio books, or training tools that exist primarily as a CD or MP3s? I work in a computer-based job where I can listen to music for a large portion of any given day, and would rather use this flexibility to improve my music skills.

Feral

I'm kind of where you are in learning music. Basic instrument skill, but still learning the fundamentals of music theory. I found these sites helpful:

Ricci Adam's http://www.musictheory.net/ <- very basic stuff, like ear training for notes and chords. But all Flash based, and you can download a "local" version to put on a flash drive.

Pandora.com's Musicology Podcast: http://blog.pandora.com/podcast/ <- 15-20m episodes each week highlighting a different area of music theory, like time signatures or chord progressions.

EggyToast

That podcast looks pretty promising; I'll get those on the iPod tonight. I'll see if I can "construct" something good from the downloadable version of Ricci Adam's site, too.

Space Pickle

If you want an ear-training approach, go to good-ear.com. Although if you already know how to listen why not just do some lifts and then buy a couple lessons to explain the parts that you don't get?

EggyToast

I'm not sure what a lift is, but the lesson thing is twofold: time, and money. I don't have either to engage in an activity beyond work, as I'm working to finish a full masters program, have a full-time job, and would rather practice playing bass than perfecting my ears (when I'm at home).

But my ears are rarely used at work, which is why I'm primarily looking for audio resources.

Once I've got my masters, I'm fully planning on getting into lessons again for my bass (had lessons for a little under 2 years, teacher moved and I was broke) and will have more options for other ear training or musical "stuff," but listening to stuff at work is the most feasible at the moment. The Good-Ear stuff looks like it might have some useful stuff, though, although the fact that it appears I need to interact w/ the website is kind of a drag.

I realized this the other night that they make "learn a language" books and such that have, like "See you tomorrow.... Hasta Mañana... Hasta Mañana...." but I've never heard of one for musical tones and theory, like "[beeeeeeep] E7. [beeeeeep] C#5."

Hamju

A great tool you could have for this is MacGamut. MacGamut is a program where it plays you something audibly and then you answer what it is (ie. at the most basic level it plays an interval and you have to identify what it is). It gets into more advanced stuff like playing a melody and you have to dictate it and also chords and series of chords. Now it seems you might want something passive that you can listen to in the background and this requires a lot of active participation so it might not be completely ideal for work.
http://www.macgamut.com/

I'm in my third year of a music degree and a big part of that is a class called "Skills" where you have to do a huge host of things including melodic and harmonic dictation. In this class we all had assignments on MacGamut (ie. had to do up to level 4 of interval recognition by such-and-such a date) and it really, really helps. It's hard and can be a pain in the ass but it really helps your recognition of intervals and chords. Don't have any hope of being able to identify notes though without something to base if off of as for that you need perfect pitch and it is really, really difficult to "learn" perfect pitch when you're old (ie. older than like, 4).

Now, I'm not sure how it'll work to just by the standalone MacGamut because we had "presets" that were written by our teachers that we had to use. If you do choose to get it and need something like that I could always send mine.

Feral

EggyToast wrote: »

I realized this the other night that they make "learn a language" books and such that have, like "See you tomorrow.... Hasta Mañana... Hasta Mañana...." but I've never heard of one for musical tones and theory, like "[beeeeeeep] E7. [beeeeeep] C#5."

Most Music Theory books (Alfreds, for Dummies, for Complete Idiots, etc.) come with CDs that include ear training exercises.

EggyToast

Hamju: I fully realize that I can't learn this passively, so your suggestion is well-taken. Part of music, and part of my problem historically, is that making music involves, well, making it. I'll play with the demo for MacGAMUT and might pick it up after Xmas, since it's pretty cheap. If so, I'll drop you a PM to snag your presets.

Feral: I had a feeling, or a hope at least, that that would be the case. Do you suggest any? We've got a spanish language thing that references the book for everything, so it's actually useless w/o the text, which obviously wouldn't be so great if I was just listening to it at work.

Feral

EggyToast wrote: »

Hamju: I fully realize that I can't learn this passively, so your suggestion is well-taken. Part of music, and part of my problem historically, is that making music involves, well, making it. I'll play with the demo for MacGAMUT and might pick it up after Xmas, since it's pretty cheap. If so, I'll drop you a PM to snag your presets.

Feral: I had a feeling, or a hope at least, that that would be the case. Do you suggest any? We've got a spanish language thing that references the book for everything, so it's actually useless w/o the text, which obviously wouldn't be so great if I was just listening to it at work.

I don't have any specific suggestions unfortunately. I've got the Alfred's book and it's got exactly the problem you mention: the CD is useless without the text.

acidlacedpenguin

Perfect Pitch?

I always see the ads in guitar world magazines and I always think they're a huge scam, but I may be wrong.

Space Pickle

They are. I think you can develop some sense of perfect pitch as an adult, but it isn't the same as if you had held onto it from early childhood/baby time and it's kind of a pointless skill anyways.