Answer: It's a myth only some people are born with a special ear for music, anyone can be trained to play music and sing by ear. The only exception is if you're completely tone deaf, which is a very rare disorder. Just because you're a bad singer does not mean you're tone deaf, it just means you haven't been trained, or you lake the passion to try, or you have been told you can't sing. Stop listening to people who say you can't do things, just do it and prove them wrong, you just need the right guidance. 

Answer: Western music is designed around the western major scale, all the white notes on the piano. The white notes, starting on C are named C D E F G A B. The black notes are named from the white notes, and depending on the key signature, you can either sharpen or flatten a white note to reach a black note, this is called enharmonically equivalent. So the note C# is enharmonically equivalent to the note Db. D# is enharmonically equivalent to Eb, F# is enharmonically equivalent to Gb, G# is enharmonically equivalent to Ab, A# is enharmonically equivalent to Bb.

Answer:  The first thing you need to do on the piano is learn all the note names by closing your eyes and visualising the keyboard. You need to remember the note names instantly, see Lesson 1.  Knowing your note names will enable you to identify the root notes of chords.  With the Akousunesis Method, you'll learn to describe melodies in terms of harmonic intervals, you'll use the intervals and make memory associations with the note names also. Learning melodies in terms of absolute notes isn't natural, especially when located on a staff.  We hear music and communicate language with relative pitch, so to learn music effectively, you need a system sympathetic to the way we hear music, this is why I created The Akousunesis Method.

Answer:  Learning the language of harmonic interval movement is how our ear hear music. Intervals will become your foundation and when combined with a  solid understanding of music theory, you'll be able to learn songs quickly and retain more information. You'll be able to improvise and compose music easier. Learning intervals is also one of the many memory associations helping you to remember songs. Interval representation of melodies are key independent, meaning once you learn a melody in one key, you can play the melody in any key. We hear intervals, this is the reason we can instantly recognise a song regardless of the key signature it is played. Intervals are relative pitch movements, not absolute notes on a staff.

Answer: The first thing you need to do is learn the melodic interval series for the western major scale, root note, tone, tone, semi-tone, tone, tone, tone, semi-tone. By starting on any note, you visually location the notes of the western major scale using which may also be represent as the harmonic intervals 1 2 3 4 5 6 7 for all scales, 1 being the root note. Once you know all your scales,  intervals out of key are easy to find since they’re only tone or semi-tone adjustments from already know intervals. 

Answer: A 9th is just a 2nd an octave higher, it’s still the same interval to our ear, just the same pitch higher. An 11th is a 4th an octave higher; a 13th is a 6th an octave higher. We use these intervals when describing chord characters which go beyond the 1 3 5 7 chord families.  

Answer: We use tones and semi-tones all the time in our real time playing. To find intervals out of key, you only need to travel a tone or semi-tone to find them. You only ever move tones or semi-tones to alter chords, you need to find these distances instantly, for example, a 6th is just a tone above the 5th, a fourth is just a tone below the 5th. In The Akousunesis Method, another very important interval is the 5th. You’re going to find the 5th interval to be the secret in constructing all your chords quickly in real time 

Answer: The root note refers to the founding note in which a chord or scale is based, we always indicate root notes with the number 1. A bass note may be any interval, however in most cases, a bass note and root note will be the same note. If a bass note is different than a root note, then you have a slash chord.

Answer: Tonality refers to our ability to hear a scale. A singer will sing in a particular key signature, western people are very good at recognising the tonality of the western major scale. Our brains ear will use tonality as the reference when identifying intervals and chords. You will become good at identifying when melodies come out of key.

Answer: To be able to locate intervals quickly in real time. Depending on the context, for example a Lydian is described as a Ionian #4, this says the Lydian has all the same intervals as the Ionian without a fourth, it becomes a #4. The intervals -5 and +5 are used only when describing intervals in a melody to help with our real time playing, locating notes quickly.  When using the fifth as a reference point, it makes it easier to find a 4, -4, +5 and a 6 intervals.