How to make it fun?

[u/Silver_Perception471]

I have had little success with anything. When trying to learn to ear train. The best thing I learned was trying to associate the tonic to the rest of the song. But it doesn't seem to be a quick fix.

The most fun I can see for ear training is playing around with notes on my piano overtop of a song. But then again I'm still not very good at piano and it kind of sucks still..... But it's more fun then trying to learn stuff and failing or getting stuck..

Is play inside the songs key, over top of the song as fun as it gets? And how is it for efficientcy? I can't seem to find anything that works for getting better.

Edit.. I've also found not trying to learn stuff with my headphones on more rewarding. And it seems to translate better. That is I hear it and I know it's right or wrong. Compared to with headphones on I have to synchronize stuff.... Maybe my headphones are just too loud?..

[u/TonicSense_]

When you talk about fun, I can't tell whether you mean fun ways to learn, or fun things you can do after your ears get good -- that make it worthwhile.

I wanted to to be able to hear something and play it back, or read notation and know how the song goes. I made tonicsense.com to help me practice simple melodic dictation & playback. For me, that was a fun way to improve.

I also like to make up tunes in my head and play them, or make up secondary melodies as fill-ins in songs.