03. Flawless Ear Training: Unit 3 (Audio)

Lessons go to twenty minutes here, and they stay there through Unit 16. Never more than an hour a day. Forty-five minutes is better.

The new thing is the second inversion triad. A major chord with its fifth on the bottom, which puts a fourth in the bass. You've spent two units on the fourth and the fifth. That's why it comes now, and why first inversion doesn't. First inversion puts a minor third in the bass, and you haven't met that interval yet.

Each lesson opens with note meditation. I play two or three notes and you say change when the pitch moves. That drill is exempt. You can't get it wrong. Then the triads: sing the bottom note, then the top, then trade between them until you can pull the fourth out of the chord by ear.

Then root or second. I play one or the other and you answer before I do.

Lesson 1 is C major. Lesson 15 is C flat. Every major key in between, one per lesson, and the drills stay the same. Note meditation, second inversion triads, fourth or fifth, root or second, then the number progressions from Unit 2 over a percussive backdrop.

The progressions get one new label. When a cadential six four shows up you say so out loud, then count from it as zero. Naming it is how it stops blending in.

The final exam is in two parts. Part one is intervals, and you can miss three. Part two is root or second inversion, then the number progressions again. I modulate through a long string of keys in that drill. You should hear each one go by.

It won't explain the theory. The video version of Unit 3 does that. This one is built to get in, get it done and get out. Twenty minutes, then go play music and forget about it until tomorrow.

It won't touch first inversion. That puts a minor third in the bass, and we haven't started on that interval.

It won't make the fourth permanent yet. You may already know a fourth when you hear one. You'll drill it again anyway. Knowing it and never being unsure of it are two different levels.

Same rule as Unit 2. One mistake or fewer to move on. Nothing to write down. You just have to think.