A warm up that activates both your ear and your sound.
Trying to discover smarter ways to warm up and do ear training is often on my mind when teaching. Many students spend time doing long tones but still have trouble singing, haring and recognizing #9, #5, 13, #11, b9 as independent tensions over a dominant or as combined tensions. Why not work on both ear training and long tones at the same time? Through hearing and engaging with these tensions each day during our long tone routine we can better develop our ears.
Here are several play along tracks I made for students and myself, to practice hearing, singing and playing specific tensions over a dominant 7th chord. Each play along last for 5 minutes or so. Try holding each note for 4 beats (at 60 bpm) and descend by half steps. For example, you could start on the 13, playing and or singing down by half steps while “knowing” what chord you are on. Eventually the knowing and the sound become one thing, that is, the sound of the 13 is the knowing of the C13 chord.
Here are just a few examples. All start on concert C and descend by half steps at 60 bpm. Each track repeats for 5 minutes or so. For the best results alternate one pass singing and one pass playing, be sure you know what chord you are on instead of just moving the notes down by half step, this will help integrate the sound with the thought or symbol.
Doing a warm up that utilizes ear training will develope your sound and will help you play better in tune. It will also help you create a tone that resonates when playing notes within these complex harmonies.
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