Best Practical Guide To Develop Your Relative Pitch

Having Relative Pitch is like walking around a room with your eyes closed.

It is all about context.

The shocking truth is that Relative Pitch is all about guesses and the process of elimination. Musicians like myself who developed this skill don’t know the true pitch of a Note unless context is given.

But with the right ear training, we can get pretty close to Perfect Pitch.

This guide will give you the right tools and provide a step-by-step process to build your Relative Pitch.

Relative Pitch Ear Training for Notes

Let’s begin to develop Relative Pitch for Notes. Keep in mind that we are not trying to find the true Note (eg. C#, G, etc.), but its position in the Key.

We will work with the following excerpt:

1) Determine the Key of the song

Firstly, listen out for the Note that can be the Root Note of the Key.

The easiest way is to listen to the melody if there are vocals. There will be a Note that gives the greatest feeling of resolution – the song can end on that Note and everyone will be happy.

That Note is usually the Root Note of the Key.

Beware, the first sung Note is not always the Root Note. As always, Relative Pitch is all about context, so listen further before making a decision.

Listen to the audio above and try to figure out the Root Note of the Key. Play the audio below to reveal the answer:

2) Sing the Major Scale

Tool #1: Major Scale

Literally, sing aloud. Start singing from the Root Note of the Key to your desired Note. You can sing upwards or downwards depending on where your desired Note is.

The audio below will play the desired Note, then the Root Note, and finally the scale to sing.

3) Take note of the Note positions

While singing, count. Which position is the desired Note in the Major scale? 6th position? 2nd position?

It is in the 5th Position.

Keep that in mind and repeat it for every other Note. Once you are done, you will have noted down a series of numbers.

At this point, you still don’t know the true Notes, but at least you know the relations between Notes

3) Check your answer

Finally, whip out your phone or go to a piano. Find the song’s Key, and apply your Notes to that Key to see if you got it. If you did, great job! If you didn’t, don’t worry! The more you practice, the better you will get at it.

This approach of guessing and checking will force you to listen and think without relying too much on physical tools all the time. You can only build the skill by actively and consistently doing it in your head.

In time, you will count less and rely more on intuition thanks to constant practice.

Relative Pitch Ear Training for Chords

Now that we have learned how to decipher Notes, let’s try to do Chords.

We will work with the following excerpt:

1) Determine the Key of the song

Similar to assessing Notes, we do the same steps for chords. Remember that we are not looking for the true Key but the Note that can be the Key. Repeat the steps in Relative Pitch for Notes, and listen for the melody or –

2) Listen for the lowest-pitched Note (Bass Note)

In most cases, the lowest pitch will give us the greatest hint on

• The Root Note of the Key (if there is no melody)
• The Chord’s Root Note

If you are listening to a band playing, which instrument will you get the Bass Note from?

The Bass Guitar.

Beware again, the lowest Note may not be the Chord’s Root Note if the Chord is inverted (starting on a different Chord Tone).

Here are the bass notes extracted from the excerpt:

3) Eliminate unlikely chords

As mentioned, Relative Pitch is all about elimination. With this skill, we narrow our selection of Chords to give ourselves higher success in picking the right one.

Tool #2: Diatonic Chords

Remember that the Major Scale comprises Diatonic Chords, and each chord has a quality: Major, Minor, and Diminished.

Major	1, 4, 5
Minor	2, 3, 6
Diminished	7

Let’s listen to the first chord:

What is the quality? Major? Minor? Diminished? The answer is Major.

Knowing that it is Major, you can eliminate all Minor and Diminished chords, leaving you with chords 1, 4, and 5. This is a major (pun intended) step in abstracting the correct chord.

Tool #3: Chord Functions

All diatonic chords in the Major Scale have a role in the Key. There are 3 types of Functions:

• Tonic: Resolved
• Dominant: Tendency to resolve to the Tonic
• Subdominant: Tendency to lead to the Dominant

Chord	Function
1, 3, 6	Tonic
5, 7	Dominant
2, 4	Subdominant

This also explains why some chord progressions are prominent, such as:

• 2 (SD) > 5 (D) > 1 (T)
• 4 (SD) > 5 (D) > 1 (T)
• 1 (T) > 6 (T) > 4 (SD) > 5 (D)

Using the chord functions can help us narrow our chord choices further. Listen to the first chord again:

Does it sound resolved? Or does it sound like it is on the verge of resolving? If neither is true, maybe it is a Subdominant Chord?

It is a Subdominant Chord.

With our remaining selection of Chords 1, 4, and 5, we now know that the Chord is most like a 4 Chord.

4) Check your answer

Finally, whip out your phone one more time and look for the song’s Key. Then, locate the 4 Chord and play! Congratulations, you can now pick out Chords with just your ears!

Ear Training Materials

Many resources and websites provide a platform to train your ear. Refer to the list below for some recommendations:

Tonedear – They provide different types of training modules to develop your ear, such as Intervals, Chords, Scales, etc.

Closing Words

Progress is possible

“Just because you can’t do it now, it doesn’t mean that you can do it next time”

That is the wisdom I share with all of my students. Learning takes time, and it is ok if you don’t acquire Relative Pitch you want by the next day.

The important thing is to put in the effort and get a little bit out of each practice. Small progress is better than no progress.

Everyone learns at different paces, but if there is one thing I have learned to speed up the process, it is to:

Force Yourself to Listen

I started with ZERO Relative Pitch, even after learning the piano for 5 years. I found musician friends who helped me unlock this skill in my 6th year of learning Music. They told me to practice consistently at every opportunity I can listening to music on the train, in the mall, at a cafe, etc.

6 years later (2 years detached from music from serving in the army), I have Relative Pitch.

The consistent and constant exposure to music and the decision to jump at any opportunity I can to practice helped me propel my proficiency forward. Now it is your turn to make the next step.

Conclusion

We have learned to use our ears to determine notes and chords with a good level of accuracy. Relative Pitch will take you very far as a musician and allow you to adapt quickly to many situations such as learning a new song, performing on stage, improvising during jamming, and more.

Take your time to practise and you will soon be able to rely more on your ears than a piece of scoresheet.