Ear Training Lesson - recognizing Major and Minor Chords

This is a video where I explain some ways to differentiate between a major chord and a minor chord.

Vocabulary Terms
Blocked chord: a chord in which all the notes are played at the same time
Arpeggio, arpeggiated chord: a chord in which each note is played separately

Associations
Blocked major chord: happy, bright
Blocked minor chord: sad, scary
Arpeggiated major chord: beginning of "Michael, Row the Boat Ashore" (traditional spiritual) or "Kumbaya" (folk song from Nigeria) I wished I had thought of "Kumbaya" at the time I recorded this video, but at least I wrote it here in case it will help you too.
Arpeggiated minor chord: beginning of "Oseh shalom" (Jewish song) or "O Come, O Come, Emmanuel" (Christmas carol)

After going through my explanations, I include a test consisting of 10 chords for you to identify. Please send me a message or post a comment with your answers (without looking at anyone else's first) if you'd like to try it out, and I'll let you know how you did. To skip right to the test, go to 7:04.

Good luck to all of you!

P.S. It wasn't until I just watched this back that I realized that there were moments where that stupid excess webcam noise was pretty bad. Yuck! Just try to tune it out. The good news is that it's not consistent, so hopefully it won't get in your way.

Category:

Music

[alika207]

@andrewleibs Your comment made me smile! Thanks so much!

[alika207]

BTW, I just edited the description because another song for an arpeggiated major chord is "Kumbaya." I wished I had thought of that at the time I recorded this. Hope it helps too!

[alika207]

@andrewleibs Stairway to Heaven might be another good choice.

[alika207]

3:54 till 4:57 Anyone know some other songs I could use?

[alika207]

@Engelbeaugt41491 Thank you so much! Actualy, I am now a junior at Keene State majoring in Music Ed. I am not throwing foreign language-related stuff out the window though. Do I know you by the way?

[alika207]

@JourneyRock92 @kd5txo @andrewleibs Thanks so much! Chrystal, feel free to try the test at the end of the video and write another comment with your answers. Good luck!

[andrewleibs]

Thanks to your teaching, I now use “blocked” and “arpeggiated” to refer to people, e.g.:

“You saw them?”

“Yeah.”

“OMG! Were they…”

“No, just arpeggiated—but they were about to get blocked, if you know what I mean!”

“Amazing!”

“What—their hookup?”

“No, the way Alex’s teaching is applicable to so many things.”

“I know! She’s a taskmaster, but man, do you ever learn schtuff!

“Word!”

[SchtoltzerYidd]

I have no words to thank you for this lesson. I think that I got the concept... Finally. Well, we'll find out when I get the mark on my test...

Here we go:

1). minor 2). major 3).major 4).minor 5).major 6).major 7).minor 8).major 9).minor 10).major

[Engelbeaugt41491]

Hey, Alex! You are such a great teacher! Is this what you're going to school for, now? I thought you wanted to be a translator, but teaching music seems like something you'd be very good at!