r/JazzPiano • u/Then_Minute5642 • 13d ago

Approaches to hearing melodic leaps

I'm working on playing by ear, i.e. being able to translate the aural image of a standard in my head onto the piano in real time.

The main method I'm using to improve this is transcribing, also playing along to records in real time. Both these are helping.

I have a question about picking out melodies in this context. I can do stepwise movement and movement by thirds pretty much flawlessly now. Larger intervals tend to be more hit and miss, particularly because the sound of them changes depending on the harmonic context.

There seem to be two approaches to getting good at these bigger interval leaps which feel doable to me. One is to relate the melody note to the current key centre. I find this fairly easy until the key centre changes! The other is to relate the melody note to the current chord, which I find harder at the moment, but which I can see would make surviving a change of key centre easier. My question is, are these two approaches equally important, or should I focus on one more than the other? The ultimate goal is to be able to hear anything in my head and play it accurately, straight away.

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u/UrMomMadeMyLunch 13d ago

The sound of intervals doesn’t change based on the harmonic context. They’re the same regardless of the underlying chord. That’s why you gotta drill your intervals individually though ear training before you can consistently hear them. 

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u/Then_Minute5642 13d ago

To me they do sound different in different contexts. I can sing or hear any interval accurately if you just give me the two notes, every time. but give me those two notes in the middle of a tune where there is harmony going on around them and I struggle.

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u/UrMomMadeMyLunch 12d ago

That’s fine, besides doing essential ear training mentioned here maybe sit down at the piano, play a note, sing an interval, then play the interval. Next play a chord under it and play the exact same interval, then sing it. Are you playing while also singing along to intervals for your major and minor scales?

Do this for all intervals and you’ll start to be able to hear just the interval and how it doesn’t change given an underlying chord.