Factors that make aural development in practice "difficult" originate often in a poor understanding of
- the working of the 5-line staff and its limitations, and
- principles of music notation.
The staff only gives a global indication of "higher" and "lower".
The real distance between notes can vary while the visual cue on the staff is the same.
The real distance between two notes on line 1 and 2 of the staff is with a treble clef a minor third (E-G), but with a bass clef a major third (G-B).
This phenomenon becomes even more confusing with the use of accidentals.
A flat for the first note and a sharp for the second note leads with a treble clef to an augmented third (Eb-G#), the enharmonic equivalent of a pure fourth, while the generic interval on the staff is still a third.
The same with a bass clef leads to an double augmented third (Gb-B#), the enharmonic equivalent of a tritone, while the visual cue on the staff is still that of a third (generic name).
Numbers and steps on the staff
Many of the pattern exercises that are presented here work with numbers representing steps on the staff, departing from a reference note with the number 1.
- 1-2-3-4-5 etc. represents a scale pattern
- 1-3-5 or 1-3-6 represents a triadic pattern
This approach is related to the principles of basso continuo notation.
Pay attention: sometimes the number 1 refers to the first note of a scale, sometimes (in case of a chord) it refers to the bass note upon which an interval structure is built.
In a later stage it stands to reason to use also numbers related to the chromatic pitch space, as used in pitch-class set analysis: the 12 pitch classes with number 0 through 11, starting with c = 0.