| Aural skills are one of the lesser known skills that are | | | | For most musicians who just started to pick up |
| vital in every musician's progress as a player. So what | | | | learning their instrument, it is very common that they |
| exactly are aural skills? Why are they so important | | | | dive straight to learning music theory or even technical |
| and yet many musician's simply do not bother to | | | | aspects of playing the instrument. Very often, the ear |
| practice and sharpen them? In this article, I will address | | | | training of the musician is neglected. |
| some of the most common issues that I have seen in | | | | Many musicians do not understand that when they are |
| musicians ranging from violinists, pianists, guitarists and | | | | playing music, the most important aspect is to be able |
| even drummers. | | | | to hear and understand what they are playing. None of |
| Aural skills is also known as ear training skills. There | | | | this can be achieved without good ear training skills. |
| are several aspects to this skill and is also commonly | | | | Consider this, a musician who cannot identify what is |
| known as relative pitch. Relative pitch allows the | | | | being played is as good as being "blind" to music. A |
| musician to identify music intervals after hearing it | | | | better analogy would be a blind painter (no aural skills) |
| accurately. On the other hand, there is also an aspect | | | | trying to paint a good portrait of someone. Would a |
| known as perfect pitch. Perfect pitch allows the | | | | blind painter be able to paint well? Of course not! |
| musician to visualize how a note should sound like in his | | | | The importance of ear training is obvious. You play |
| or her mind even before hearing the note. For many | | | | what you can hear! Both aspects of this ear training |
| people who have perfect pitch, they can identify music | | | | skills can be honed using separate techniques and |
| so accurately down to the tiniest detail. | | | | music courses available online. |