Suggestions to "train" my ears to hear Silver?

[kennedyfan]

Suggestions to "train" my ears to hear Silver?

I'm always frustrated when I read posts here where people say they recognize the distinctive ring of silver right away when it hits the counter (in front of them, or on the other side of the bank).

My hearing is pretty darn good, and yes, I notice the distinctive ring of a silver coin in a controlled environment (e.g. balancing it on my finger and striking it) but even after months of CRHing, I just can't tell the clínk of silver from the clìnk of clad.

Can any of you sonic experts suggest some ways to train my ear to notice this? It's driving me crazy!

 

[ivan salis]

Re: Suggestions to "train" my ears to hear Silver?

yes listen carefully -- drop a clad , 40 er and a 90% er repeat as much as needed till you pick up the tonal duifferance --unless your tone deaf you will hear it.

 

[Gilmore Happy]

Re: Suggestions to "train" my ears to hear Silver?

yes listen carefully -- drop a clad , 40 er and a 90% er repeat as much as needed till you pick up the tonal duifferance --unless your tone deaf you will hear it.

+1. Pretty much sums it up.

I have done this exercise (funny you bring it up) and I mainly concentrated on what it sounds like when hitting other coins. Becuase a majority of the time, that's what it will be hitting when you hear it.

I have caught 2 dimes this way that I overlooked, and had a false alarm at work. I ran over to this chick's cube, and said...this is going to sound weird, but I collect coins and I think I just heard one that I need for my collection....blah blah blah. False alarm. That was when I first started though. GL

 

[dossier]

Re: Suggestions to "train" my ears to hear Silver?

The trick isnt exactly to 'hear'the silver, but to hear non-clad imo. For me it's from years of retail experience, but to substitute that in a small timeframe, just constantly flicking and dropping clad coins should familiarize you with clad. Then whenever you hear a higher pitched or different pitched sound.. you know. Hope that helps

 

[Generic_Lad]

Re: Suggestions to "train" my ears to hear Silver?

Buy enough loose halves and when the teller drops them in the envelope you should be able to hear if you are going to get skunked or not. I personally didn't really think I could tell much of a difference, but after a while of getting loose halves its fairly easy to hear the difference.

 

[madwest]

Re: Suggestions to "train" my ears to hear Silver?

Just like everybody else said, just listen to a lot of coin clanking.

I remember the first time I heard it (first time recognizing it anyway) in a bank. I was pretty pleased with myself.

Put six clads in an open hand and just turn that hand over dropping them into the other hand only a few inches away. Do that 8-10 times. You want to create consistent, repetitive clanking, not rapid chatter - so don't shake them like you would dice. Then, replace 2 or 3 of the clads with 90% junk and repeat. Then, if you are hearing it, try 1 Ag with the rest clad and finally change over to 1 40% junk.

If you can't hear the difference, you might have a narrow tone deafness. That type of hearing impairment is not uncommon (I work for a medical device MFG that at one time produced diagnostic equipment for that type of hearing loss - I'm technical though, not clinical so don't hold me to a diagnosis).

 

[TheRockDoc]

Re: Suggestions to "train" my ears to hear Silver?

I would suggest this, grab six clad halves. If you are right handed, put them all in your right hand, and drop them one by one in a stack into the palm of your left hand (without looking). and repeat the process for one or two minutes. Then grab your 1964 or whatever silver one you have and mix it in with the others in your right hand, and do the same thing, drop them one by one, so they land in a stack in the palm of your left hand without looking. After you do this a coule times, then start shuffling or sorting them in your hand without looking so you do not know where the silver one is in the stack and drop into other hand.... (do this all without looking- part of you learning this is to train your ears, and if you havent noticed yet, your senses (ears in this case) will over compensate to make up for the one you take out of the mix (eyes obviously).). This is what I did to really learn what it sounds like, I would shuffle the coins, and then drop them into the stack one by one, and stop when I would hear the silver one land in the pile. As someone above stated, it is not so much knowing how to hear the silver per-say.... It is more about learning how to hear the very noticable difference when a silver (or something else) is mixed in with a bunch of similiar sounding clad. I have been very excited because I would keep hearing a silver one in my bag knocking around, just to finally see it in my hand, and realize it was or is not silver, (it was just different than the clad, making a distinct different sound when clanking around.). My second trick coin was the last to "trick" me so to speak.

Another way I have described it, is that clad "clinks" and silver will "clank" I think that is a verbal way to explain the difference in tones between silver and clad.

good luck, you will get used to it very soon.

 

[kennedyfan]

Re: Suggestions to "train" my ears to hear Silver?

Thanks everybody for your suggestions!

 

[Straight_Flush89]

Re: Suggestions to "train" my ears to hear Silver?

I learned very quickly by clinging two silver coins together, and listening to the higher ring. Then clink a clad with a silver, and you notice the subtle difference. Keep going back and forth until you are familiar, but I personally like to visually identify silver rather than audibly.