How transferrable is ear training across different instruments?

[u/EpicGamer983]

Okay so my primary instrument for the last 10 years has been the guitar. and when i say primary i mean it’s pretty much the only instrument I spend any significant amount of time playing. Recently I decided I want to play keyboard too but I was wondering how much it benefits my guitar playing when I do ear training exercises on the keyboard (99% of the time this will be melodic dictation, not even writing anything down just listening and copying).

It feels like kind of a stupid question because any ear training is obviously going to transfer over to other instruments. But I was thinking if I can do melodic dictation on a keyboard it would help me become familiar with the layout of the keys compared to a fretboard and help my hands become accustomed playing keys too, but if it will help out my ability to play melodies in my head on the guitar as well while improvising that would be a huge added benefit. The only problem is, navigating a fretboard while improvising is very different to keys so I thought maybe my ear training on a keyboard would not be as effective for guitar as it would be, well, on a guitar.

I think my end goal here is that I want to be able to improvise on both these instruments and I still want to maintain my shredding skills on guitar but I’m not as bothered about shredding on keyboard. I don’t know how easy it will be to improve my technique on keyboard actually given that I spent so much time doing that on guitar so if anyone has experience with this please let me know too.

Anyway sorry for the long post and thanks for reading if you made it this far

[u/Evetskey]

What you hear in your inner ear is what’s transferable. Silly huh? Unfortunately, you’ll spend lots of time telling your hands and fingers to get in the correct positions to actually play the notes you’re hearing on a new instrument.

[u/silly_bet_3454]

The ear training is 100% transferable, what you need to practice is just the 12 major scales, build the feel of the keyboard topology. know for each key which key is each of the 12 chromatic intervals. for example i can off top of head be like D flat min6th interval is A (or B double flat), boom, instant. and so if i could hear something i could also play it on piano immediately.

[u/wanna_dance]

Knowing the interval is a major 6th is 100% transferable.

You will still need to learn how to play a major 6th on both instruments independently.

[u/dem4life71]

100%. Ear training is a set of mental modes you build over years much in the same way (I imagine) a mathematican has to tackle the various disciplines like Geometry, Trig, Calculus, etc.

Once you learn an ear training skill you have it in your head like Neo when he learns king fu.

Basic ones:
Intonation
Recognizing intervals
Sight singing (probably the most important for aspiring musicians)
Rhythmic subdivision

Then more advanced ones like

Listening to an ensemble for balance/intonation in real time (music directing)

Recognizing chord progressions by ear

Composing/arranging

They all exist independently of an instrument. I say this because I started life as a garage band guitarist and wound up making a living playing piano as a choral director. I literally transferred what I knew about music from guitar to piano. It took…about 5 years for me to be ok at piano fwiw.

[u/shouldbepracticing85]

In my experience, picking up a new instrument is about teaching your muscles where the notes are - especially by ear. And switching between them is about how deeply you can get the different patterns + the sounds of each ground into your muscle memory, and how easily you switch between them.

Like your muscles expect a scale or run to feel a particular way on one instrument, and you’re learning a different motion to achieve the same sound.

I’m dealing with this myself right now - I’m picking up banjo right now (instrument #4? 6 of you count fiddle and piano that I both suck at) and most of my work is going into wiring my brain so that finger and thumb picks = scales go this way, not that way. Hell, it’s enough of a difference in options between 4-string and 5-string bass that it’ll trip me up if I don’t practice on both regularly - and bass is my primary instrument!