I am now using Ear Master 6. I am using this software because of its sight-singing and melody imitation feature. Melody imitation means a melody is played and I have to sing back the melody. I try to sing the solfege syllables, rather than just humming the melody.

I mentioned a while ago that I was inspired by guitar players, who can play on their instrument what they are singing. Basically they are playing what they hear in their head while singing the pitches. I am doing sight-singing because not for the sake of it, but to have the ability to just listen to any melody and then associate it with solfege syllables.

Do you think that by practicing sight-singing and imitating melodies with solfege will help me one day to recognize melodies instantly?

This question is a bit like “How long is a piece of string?” :)

Ear training is a huge and varied topic and so it really depends exactly what your goals are.

You’re not the only one wondering though – more info in this FAQ.

If you choose a specific goal, then it’s possible to estimate the time it will require, but even then it will depend a lot on how much you practice, how often you practice, how carefully you practice, and what training resources you have to help you practice.

To address your specific example of learning perfect pitch…

You can certainly learn a reference pitch in a month or two if you’re dedicated. You might be able to pick up a handful of notes on a particular instrument (e.g. mid-range C, D, E, F, G on piano) Learning to reliably identify each of the 12 chromas by ear in 3 months is probably too ambitious.

This is a tricky one to choose as the example though, because it’s one of the most challenging skills to develop, and the patience required is too much for most people who start. That’s why we recommend studying relative pitch instead, which lets you attain most of the same musical skills but is far more rewarding along the way.

There are three main approaches to learning intervals. One is the “reference songs” method you refer to.

I’d recommend this article for an overview of all three, and then the other resources on our Intervals page.

My name is John. I play guitar and also sing in a number of choirs. I am joining the Ear Training course to help with improvising on the guitar and also to develop my singing sight reading.

I play the guitar – want to do ear training to be able to play by ear and do fingerstyle arrangements of popular songs easily. I also want to get perfect pitch.

Oh and if my voice improves along the way, so I can actually sing well, then that’s a bonus.