Video Courses with Jason Zac

In this Ear Training lesson, we look at a sure shot way to find the key and scale of a song using nothing but the song of interest and your ears, along with a pen and paper of course! Trial and Error and an adventurous approach will get you there eventually and in the long run prove to be a lot more effective than relying on someone else’s judgement! Part 1 uses “Big Country”, a great instrumental piece by Bela Fleck and the Flecktones

In this Ear Training lesson, we look at a sure shot way to find the key and scale of a song using nothing but the song of interest and your ears, along with a pen and paper of course! Trial and Error and an adventurous approach will get you there eventually and in the long run prove to be a lot more effective than relying on someone else’s judgement! Part 2 uses a variety of songs to explore the key and scales!

Using a variety of music, we understand the proper way to feel time while listening to a song. First, we look at the all important PULSE, and then move the flowchart forward to beat divisions by 2, 3 & 4. We also understand the difference between Swing & Straight feel

In this lesson, we look at strategies to identify every single interval from a root. We have a specific approach for resolutions, anticipations, tensions, and “mysteries” which can help you locate these sounds in a song of your choice

In this lesson, we look at a simple idea to represent a melody using X and Y axes with a crude depiction of the pitch variations between notes. High, Low and Same are the only possibilities which can occur. This serves as a solid foundation for transcription of the entire melody using actual notes, intervals and staff notation. Wait till the end of the lecture for numerous ear training drills to fine tune your awareness of notes in the most natural way possible!

In this lesson, we develop a flow chart to melodic transcription, by looking at music in its crudest form, “Melodic Curves” and then moving step by step to interval recognition and bringing the absolute notes to the forefront with the Music Theory of Scales!

We play songs from “O Brother, Where Art Thou?” which have a bunch of I, IV, V based progressions and learn how to find the chord changes with just our ear. After knowing the scale & key, we rely on our Theory to simplify the quest for chords to just a few simple permutations. We’ve notated the album for you in our book. Please go through after trying it out yourself!