Ear training frustration...

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Hey guys...

I've been playing guitar for a couple of years at a fairly basic level. Lately, I've decided do get serious and really take my playing to another place.
I've purchased over time a number of Troy Stetina's guide books, and I've figured out that the best one to start with in order to get a really good overview and control of the fret board is, well, "Fretboard Mastery". I'm at the very first pages concerning ear training via the A maj scale.

The frustration is such: I wrote down many different intervals on a piece of paper, and I try to "hum" each interval before I play it (ear training...). I find it almost impossible just to hum the 2nd note of the interval, without playing the root (A) first. Moreover, it's like I just can't get a fix of some intervals (maj 2nd, 4th, maj 6th) to my head, while the others are OK - and I guess that's because those intervals are dissonant, but is it always hard to "teach" my ear to distinguish those intervals?
I've picked up the consonant intervals fairly quick, but those dissonant really give me a headache... And further on with the book, the minor intervals really look like their gonna smash it all...

Was this the same way for some of your other guys? It's really getting down on my motivation to continue trying to crack this thing... Should I pause with this book and switch to the other ones, which at a glance seem more like "quick achievements" than "Fretboard Mastery" (Metal Lead Guitar Vol. 1/2, Metal Rythm Guitar Vol. 1/2, Speed mechanics for lead Guitar)?

[ginsambo]

You don't necessarily have to be able to hum it. But you have to be able to 'Hear' it. Its just that if you hear something you should be able to locate it on the fretboard instantaneously...at least within a semitone. My voice is crap, sounds like its still breaking after twenty odd years and really deep, worst of all I can't hear deep frequencies very well so sometimes when I talk its like I'm deaf, especially in a crowd. I remember my old music teacher...'Yes, that alarm bell its in C#'...'You sure it ain't D flat mate?' 'No definitely C#'. I can cut a killer Rammstein singing voice though.

A pro singer, even an ex choir singer will sing a pitch out of thin air that would seriously put an electronic tuner to shame but I wouldn't dwell on it too much. The notes and intervals you can hear in your head are more important. The idea is you should start to be able to break down chords by ear. That is a really really really important one IMO, I'd work on that. Maybe start with doublestops, experiment on the fretboard until you get the sound. Then remember what you've learnt. The more you learn the easier it is as your vocabulary increases. If you really can't tell the difference between intervals you are in trouble, but as to what interval they are, I wouldn't get hung up about it, I'd just get on and play. There might be names for those chords, but to me its just a sound. I get some theory though like modes and such but rock really throws it on its head.

If it were me, I'd put a CD of your choice on and work out the rhythm lines, way more important IMO. I still keep meaning to check those books out, but after twenty odd years I'II probably find they are stuff I already know written in another language.

As long as you can tune a guitar to jam pitch whilst playing any chord, that is the only thing I'd worry about.

What does dissonant mean anyway? Consanant? Is that like as in Vowel? Can I have a consanant please Carol!

Although I am now a convert, it just occurred to me another disadvantage of Floyds, especially when learning off the bat. The thing is I started with TOM Bridge and V Trems, and every song on a record or a CD was out of pitch with the last, you know just enough to piss you off like a quartertone or something stupid, I was forever tuning to pitch whilst I wanted to catch the first few bars before they progressed so as not to miss out on anything. That is how I learn pitch personally and it served me well. Problem is startiong out with a locking floyd, most beginner players have this 'I must tune everything with a Chromatic Tuner' thing going on. Many of them never develop an decent ear because of it.

Yeah, you can't beat records and V Trems or TOMs for learning pitch.