Three ear training programs

[boneyguy]

In the last couple of days I've come across 3 ear training programs that I thought I'd share with those of you who might have some interest. I know there are lots of them out there and I've seen quite a few. These three are new to me however.

I know that there's a lot of strong beliefs about ear training and I'm not trying to be controversial I just want to share what seems to me like some potentially useful opportunities for those of us who are interested in developing our ears.

I have absolutely no affiliation with any of these programs.


The first two are software downloads.

1. http://reelear.com/
This one has a free trial download and I like it a lot. It's a user controlled melody generator where the user gets to set all sorts of parameters. Essenstially you use it for call and response practice either vocally or with your instrument. I can see this simple program having a real fast and useful impact on someones ear. Only $12.95.

Here's a basic rundown of it.




2. http://www.brycealexandermusic.com/

This one addresses perfect pitch. It's an interesting approach that he uses and it's worth at least reading what the guy has to say. If you sign up he will email you some example lessons. It was pretty easy for me to hear what he's pointing out as the character of each pitch. Essentially he's saying that each pitch is recognizable by it's unique emphasis of certain harmonics (upper partials). The software teaches you to hear the definitive harmonics in each of the twelve pitches. At least that's what I've got out of it so far. I haven't bought it but it's somewhat enticing.

I assume this is what David Lucas Burge refers as hearing the 'color' of each note although Burge doesn't relate it to specific harmonics that are emphasised in each note.




3. http://www.eartraininghq.com/the-pro...aining-course/

I may wind up signing up for this one at least to initially check it out. I can spare the $2. I've really given this one a good look over and it seems like a very legitimate and well designed course. He's got some YT vids up as well.

[JayFreddy]

THANK YOU!

These look great!

I will post back later when I've had a chance to play with and compare them. I've got a lot going on so it might not be till next week... But seriously, thank you! I know I will enjoy checking these out!

[boneyguy]

You're welcome Jay. I think you'll very quickly see the value of the first one, ReelEar. I've been playing around with that one a little bit. I've only got the trial version, which is fully functional, but only lasts 10 days. I absolutley think that if you used that program for even just 10 minutes a day you would very likely notice an obvious improvement in your ear in a couple weeks if not sooner. Most obviously, I think it would be really useful for improving a person's improvising skills and creating call and response lines in a group setting. I'll probably wind up buying that one for sure since it's only $12.95.

[Chris S.]

Well organized and very simple. You can start at Beginner and work your way up at your own pace:

http://www.good-ear.com/servlet/EarTrainer

Enjoy. :-) CS

[boneyguy]

Originally Posted by Chris S.

Well organized and very simple. You can start at Beginner and work your way up at your own pace:

http://www.good-ear.com/servlet/EarTrainer

Enjoy. :-) CS

Thanks Chris. I've seen that one before. I think there are a number of those online that are all very similar. I was introduced to formal ear training in 1981 or so and it seems very little has been done to improve and enhance the approach to teaching it. And personally I think there's lots of room for improvement.

Of the free programs online that I'm aware of my favourite by far is the Functional Ear Trainer I and II. I think that's a pretty well thought out program where you're asked to identify intervals within an actual musical context rather than just hearing an interval on it's own. It looks like there's a v2 now which I haven't used. http://www.miles.be/software/34-func...ear-trainer-v2
Here's the original. http://www.miles.be/software/4-funct...-trainer-basic


The thing that interests me about the three programs in my OP is that they each have some unique aspects that go beyond the typical offerings available online. I think any ear training is better than none at all but I also think that there have been some important improvements and better designed approaches to teaching ear training that I see are starting to make there way onto the scene. The goal of these approaches is to significantly improve the success of the student which is a good goal. I'd say that by and large the 'tried and true' approaches have failed miserably at providing the majority of students with an effective method of getting good results within a reasonable time frame.

For example Bruce Arnold who teaches music and guitar at NYU and Princeton has some unique and I think advanced approaches to teaching ear training. If you scroll down this page you will see the materials he offers for ear training. Good stuff.

[P Thought]

Because of my mother, who always turns these things this way, I had to wonder what kind of training this thread would offer, and who has three ears, anyway?

Mom has a package label tacked on her bulletin board, that says, "38 Meat Ravioli." Let's see, now: beef, chicken, lamb, pork, squid, kangaroo. . . .

Anyway, these look great, and my ears will get after them. Thanks for posting them.

[boneyguy]

Originally Posted by P Thought

Because of my mother, who always turns these things this way, I had to wonder what kind of training this thread would offer, and who has three ears, anyway?

Mom has a package label tacked on her bulletin board, that says, "38 Meat Ravioli." Let's see, now: beef, chicken, lamb, pork, squid, kangaroo. . . .

Anyway, these look great, and my ears will get after them. Thanks for posting them.

Just like mystics speak of the 'third eye', most people don't realize that they also have a third ear. It's much harder to keep clean than the other two however.

Your welcome. I think there's some good learnin' in there.

[Chris S.]

Originally Posted by boneyguy

... most people don't realize that they also have a third ear. It's much harder to keep clean than the other two however.

[Larry F]

While I have always been pretty good at playing, composing, improvising, teach theory and analysis, doing theory research, etc., my Achilles heel is my ear. I am very good at picking things out and "seeing" music that I hear and walking around in it. After being paralyzed for two months, when I got back home, I found that music had become physical and concrete in the manner I just described. But as a college student, and even grad, I was not the best ear student.

As a grad student, I had to take 6 practicum exams in dictation, sight-singing, figured bass realization, reading 4-part counterpoint in treble, alto, tenor, and bass clefs, score reduction, and piano sight-reading at the Chopin level. Dictation wasn't so bad, just a Bach chorale. I had a little trouble at first, but then worked with a classmate severals nights a week. He would play a phrase, and I would write it down. The trick was that eventually, you find that Bach only has a limited number of moves he can make at any point. I am very grateful for my friend for playing those for me. Just doing it really helped. Also, doing it on a Steinway grand with a former piano major seemed to elevate the process. In a trade off, I would play at the piano selected passages from David Burge's perfect pitch book. Over two months, I was able to transcribe a Bach chorale with ease and confidence. My friend, however, didn't seem any better at perfect pitch than when he started. The structure of the exercises looked good and seemed reasonable, but, again, the outcome was not encouraging at all. Remember that my friend had great piano skills and was very dedicated to this process.

[Larry F]

I forget to mention sight-singing. That was really rough for me, as I always felt like I just couldn't sing, period. In college, I was required to sing in a choir, and that was an enormous help. It felt great to singing and have my pitch lock in with the others in my section. I had one thing I could do well in the choir, and that was to sight sing a new piece. It was funny to find that when we were learning a new piece, the guys in my section would huddle around me. But once they knew the material, they kept their distance.

When I first took the sight singing exam in grad school, I could actually sing the first couple of phrases of an opera aria, usually by Wagner in these exams. However, Wagner loved to change keys and use ambiguous notes. As a result, I would start modulating but immediately lose sight of the tonic. Once out there, I couldn't make my way back.

I tried practicing singing scale degrees, which helped a little, but not a lot. However, another classmate introduced me to the solfege system. Basically, it is do re mi fa sol la ti do for a major scale. If you raise a note, the syllable is modified. For example, fa becomes fi when sharped. When flatted, fa becomes fe. Within days, I would sing the syllables in the shower, walking down the street, etc. A couple of months later, I sang one of those modulating Wagner arias well enough to pass.

In short, based on my experience, I cannot recommend the Burge system for learning perfect pitch (this was in 1992, I think). I can recommend most highly the solfege system. It was practically a miracle for me. At the university where I teach, solfege is what we use. I strongly urge others to try it.

[Larry F]

BTW, the solfege system teaches relative pitch, not perfect. In the US, we generally use the moveable do system. In this, do is the note C in the C major or minor scale. In the key of G, do is the note G. In Europe and South America, I have found, students use fixed do. In this system, do is always C, no matter what the key is.

[slowpinky]

I think any ear training is better than none at all but I also think that there have been some important improvements and better designed approaches to teaching ear training that I see are starting to make there way onto the scene.

Definitely - but then again, its hard to say whether the general level of that type of perception has just deteriorated so much over the last half a century or so; that the approaches themselves have 'dumbed down' to accomodate that - and now we are seeing a Renaissance of ideas that were around in music education a long time ago. Ear training around pitch perception has to have singing as a first principle - and this has gradually disappeared out of schooling (especially in the State system in Australasia).
Hindemith still has some of the best ideas for actual ear training in a class level - I've developed many ideas from his book which was written in the 1940's. Getting students to perform two simple actions simultaneously - a melody and a rhythm for instance - so that peception is modelled around action rather than abstraction - is vital.


and er ...just sayin'.....

[boneyguy]

Well this is interesting although I admit it doesn't really prove anything conclusive, BUT.....

Yesterday I signed up for the few free lessons from http://www.brycealexandermusic.com/ That's the absolute pitch program. (Oh by the way I've now read that the term 'perfect pitch' has been copyrighted by Burge apparently!!!)

Today I recieved lesson #2. It was the same as lesson #1 except that today's note is Eb and yesterday's note was F#. It's a very interesting idea that they are using whereby they give you a note to listen to via mp3 and then they have an mp3 where they accentuate the harmonic (upper partial) that gives the note it's characteristic 'colour' or timbre. So you go back and forth listening for that harmonic in the full version of the note.

Well I listened to the Eb and it's accentuated harmonic this morning for maybe 2 minutes. I had also done this with the F# yesterday. Anyway, I went out grocery shopping and was gone for maybe an hour and a half. I hadn't given any thought to the 'Eb' or ear training at all. When I got in I went to the computer and saw the Eb lesson on the screen so I decided to test myself and......bang on. I mean dead on. I laughed out loud. And just now I was working around the house for an hour and repeated the same test and again I was absolutely bang on. I don't mean close. I mean bang on. So.....

Interesting.

[boneyguy]

Originally Posted by slowpinky

Just sayin'.....

Oh come on.... come right out and say it. I want to hear your thoughts on this Geoff.

[slowpinky]

Oh come on.... come right out and say it.

I wont (or at least Ive said enough) because Im just a thread killer when it comes to this stuff - and as you say any ear training is a good thing and thats the important bit - the good thing is that there seems to be more awareness of how important 'responding' is in the process - but there are real limitations with computer based stuff.
One day I'll get a head of steam up and start my own thread be-moaning the state of the contemporary ear - but you'll just have to wait in trepidation for that!:

[boneyguy]

Originally Posted by slowpinky

I wont (or at least Ive said enough) because Im just a thread killer when it comes to this stuff - and as you say any ear training is a good thing and thats the important bit - the good thing is that there seems to be more awareness of how important 'responding' is in the process - but there are real limitations with computer based stuff.
One day I'll get a head of steam up and start my own thread be-moaning the state of the contemporary ear - but you'll just have to wait in trepidation for that!:

With baited breath.....

[krowbot]

Originally Posted by Chris S.

Well organized and very simple. You can start at Beginner and work your way up at your own pace:

http://www.good-ear.com/servlet/EarTrainer

Enjoy. :-) CS

WINNER! that site helped me pass my ear training classes!!

[daniel89]

Originally Posted by Larry F

BTW, the solfege system teaches relative pitch, not perfect. In the US, we generally use the moveable do system. In this, do is the note C in the C major or minor scale. In the key of G, do is the note G. In Europe and South America, I have found, students use fixed do. In this system, do is always C, no matter what the key is.

Canada too. Im a music student at Lakehead (yes a small school) and we use fixed do. Our dictation/musicianship teach is from Russia and he preaches fixed do. It seems harder at first, but, with practice really helps the ear to gain perfect pitch. I personally can hear A440 - from memorization with a tuner- so I have pretty good relative pitch.

also, once you have good ear skills with fixed do moveable do becomes a cinch.....

[daniel89]

also I agree - the Hindemith method is fantastic. Just not for beginners. It was designed with 12 tone music in mind - so one could read a Schoenberg score or Webern score at sight. The rhythmic work alone is a workout!

[Big Tony]

Downloaded the 10 day free trial of Reel Ear, and it looks very interesting and useable. I like the call-and-response method. I'm an "ear musician" from the start, who learned a bit of notation and theory later in life.

I think I'm going to start working on the moveable solfege method, and probably purchase the Reel Ear software too.

Thanks for the tips, boneyguy & Larry F!

/ Tony