Remembering musical intervals becomes easier with the help of mnemonic devices. When you practice listening to musical intervals, take note of the intervals at the beginning of well-known pieces of music. For example, the opening two notes of "Here Comes the Bride" make a perfect fourth, and the opening two notes of "Twinkle, Twinkle Little Star" make a perfect fifth. If you have trouble identifying an interval, you can compare it to known intervals from popular songs.
Solfege syllables are words that represent the notes of a scale: do, re, mi, fa, sol, la, ti and do, for a major scale. Practice ear training by singing on solfege syllables with a movable "do," meaning that "do" always represents the first note of the scale. Singing a different syllable on each note of the scale helps you differentiate the notes, making it easier to identify intervals. You can practice ear training with solfege syllables by singing up and down the scale, then skipping notes: for example, sing "do, re, mi, re, do, mi, do."
With enough ear training practice, you can learn to sightsing, or sing from musical scores without hearing the melody first, as well as identify and write down melodies, harmonies and chords in recorded music. In order to be successful, however, you need to start small and work your way up to more complicated ear training activities. Begin by practicing small intervals in the major scale. After you have mastered one level of ear training, move on to more complicated levels: larger intervals, which are more difficult to identify; longer series of notes; and chord progressions. Even if you are skilled at advanced ear training, you should still consistently practice the basics to keep your skills from getting rusty.