Why is the Intervals method so ineffective?

In this article we’ll take a look at the biggest mistakes of the intervals method and why it’s really ineffective.

1) As you might have already understood from the free video included in the homepage of this website, every interval or chord sounds different based on the harmonic context in which it's included.

As result we understand that learning intervals while isolating them from a surrounding harmony is an almost useless exercise because firstly it will make the learning process difficult, and secondly because we can't apply it within a real musical context, where we have to deal with harmony.

The same thing applies to the chord recognition exercise for example. Isolating chords from a surrounding harmony doesn't work. For example, if we take the same major chord, it sounds extremely different if it's the tonic’s chord or the fifth degree's chord; they have a totally different color and the same thing happens with every other chord.

Learning intervals with the purpose of developing a consciousness of musical language is like learning a lot of words without learning their meaning: They are totally useless, especially at a practical level.

2) The interval method doesn’t promote an efficient way of thinking for practical musical situations in which we must elaborate our musical ideas and react to what others musicians are playing. This is because the interval method forces you to think with a note-by-note approach: When you practice intervals exercises you are always focusing on a maximum of two notes at a time, so you’re used to thinking of a note, and then the next note, and so on. If you approach music this way you’re wasting an incredible amount of energy and you have probably already found many difficulties in improvising, in coming up with good musical ideas over a given chord progression, in singing or playing in pitch, etc.

That’s not because of you, it’s because of the way you’re thinking; it’s the interval approach that causes all these problems.

In fact, since music is based on tempo, it’s crucial for us as musicians to be able to come up with and process our ideas almost immediately—ideally, we should be able to anticipate what’s coming next. So the note-by-note approach is really inefficient; we need to have an entire system of notes in the back of our mind; we need to be able to group notes together and to think in an effortless and economic way.

Exactly as you practice on your instrument in order to make economy of movement for your fingers, the Use Your Ear method will show you how to practice ear training in order to make economy of thought and to build this effortless musical consciousness I’m talking about.

3) The intervals method doesn’t help you to experience and internalize all the melodic and harmonic elements contained in the key, which is the fundament of modern Western music, and internalizing its sound is the basis of developing a natural and instinctive sense of musicality which can be brought further into the kind of musical consciousness we discussed earlier.

4) The fourth biggest mistake of the intervals method is that it does not take into account the way the mind absorbs musical information, so it inadvertently requires the most complex exercises from the beginning, giving it a total absence of progressiveness. Absurdly, the traditional intervals exercise, in which you are required to sing or recognize a random interval is the most complex of all, because the mind is forced to repeatedly change key, so we are forced to include these intervals in really complex and weird harmonies that in real life music we would never hear. Practically, it forces us to sing and recognize some ugly and totally unpleasant melodies in order to develop a much-desired musicality.

Do you understand the enormity of the paradox?

Lastly, before say goodbye, I want to make a parallel with a musician and a basketball player who is approaching a free-throw.

I can say that playing and thinking of music with the intervals approach felt to me like approaching a free-throw while focusing on things like…mmmm….the basket is at a distance of 15ft from the ball, the ball weighs 22 ounces, so in order to make the ball go into the basket, I have to push the ball with a 1.3 Newton force while also considering that I should move my arm so the ball trajectory makes a 47.5° degrees angle with the ground.

Ok, maybe you can perform the task successfully with this method, maybe you’re even called to play at NBA…but man…what a horrible experience! I would quit playing basketball immediately.

If you're serious about developing great relative pitch skills, don't forget to check out the use your ear workshop. This is a free 3-hour workshop packed with actionable content and proven exercises that you won’t get anywhere else!

In this free 3-hour long workshop, you will:

• Discover a science-based model that reveals the secrets great musicians use, without even knowing it, to recognize music on the fly ... secrets that anyone can harness to quickly develop a pro-caliber musical ear. 

• Preview our step-by-step method to develop relative pitch faster and easier than you ever imagined. See first-hand how our students get results quickly, experiencing music on a much deeper level in a matter of weeks — no more tedious mental math on intervals.

• Practice multiple exercises during the workshop. You’ll discover the right way to recognize melodies and chords, so you walk away with practical direction based on your own skill level and sticking points. You will know how to improve, instead of just guessing.

• Learn which exercises to avoid at all costs — ineffective exercises, prescribed by generations of well-meaning music teachers, that doom 99.9% of promising musicians to failure — so you can avoid years of frustration and lack of progress.

• Get TWO GIFTS, available nowhere else, to help you build on the concepts and exercises you learn during the workshop.

Seats are limited, and this free offer won’t last forever.

Register for the use your ear workshop right now.