I ve been trying to learn piano on for half a year on a piano keyboard(alfred's first book+a few songs I like), that s about all my musical experience, apart from listening to it hours every day all my life. I would really like to be able to play by ear, to develop aural skills. I tried to do interval exercises, but after days of practice I can't evem differentiate between 3rds and octaves or between minor and major seconds. I tried the functional ear training app and after a week of constant practice I am able to identify notes in major scales(no chromatics) if I hear a reference first(by resolving the melody in my head). Then, I tried the melodic dictation exercise on the app with just 1st, 3rd and 5th, and it is impossible. I recognise the first note almost every time, but when the second plays I hear it in relation to the first and I am unable to identify it, because I don t know intervals. This has been really discouraging. I am 18, and perhaps I started too late to be able to develop solid musical skills, or I am just naturally not fit for it. Any sort of advice or information from more experienced musicians would be amazing. If this post is annoying or not permitted, I'm srry and I'll delete it.
Submitted March 14, 2026 at 06:37AM by mno_csf https://www.reddit.com/r/Learnmusic/comments/1rtf5t7/very_bad_musical_ear_fixes/?utm_source=ifttt