How We Hear

Today, we want to jump into a great topic relevant to everybody dealing with music. It's the basis of what we create as composers, musicians, and orchestrators.



Notable Quotes

"How do you hear the root of a musical structure that is not included in that structure? In short, we tend to locate the strongest tone in a structure (or chord) and regard it as the root. If the root is not included, we hear more complex overtones, and it's tough to determine the fundamentals."

"Usually, we can tell the category of a chord, like dominant, major, or minor, because they have colors in them. But hearing chords and hearing intervals are two separate things. Chords are interval combinations, and it's easier to hear those. And it's even easier to hear them if they are in their close position!"


Advice

Please go through the questions raised by TC and Frank in this episode, and you'll quickly find out how good your hearing actually is.


For Academy members, we offer a special course on "How We Hear" designed to improve the quality of your hearing and how to make the best use of that when composing.

Author: Thomas Chase Jones & Frank Herrlinger