LeonardoB
Member
Hi guys,
in addition to giving the warmest greetings for the new year, I wanted to ask you all your opinion on which is the best (I mean, variety of chords/scales offered and functionality) ear training software , if you ever used one.
On Ubuntu I use Solfege, now I'm looking for some Win7 software.
Regards,
LeonardoB
animitta
Member
Hello,
best wishes to everyone for an happy and healthy new year.
Sometime ago i have used this software: http://www.earmaster.com/ . It's not a free software but has a lot of functions and is not so expensive (about 30 $).
Here you can find a list of ear training software:
http://www.alisdair.com/educator/eartraininglinks.html
In my humble opinion, i actually think that the best way to develop the ear is to transcribe, better if you can sing what you transcribe (together with the instrument or not).
Just my opinion.
All the Best
Animitta
jorgemg1984
Member
Just a general ear training advise: everyone focus on hearing intervals and you should actually hear scale degrees, which is much more logical and faster. If you're in C and you hear C F D for example it's more logical to hear the phrase related to C (1 4 2) than to hear a perfect fourth up and then a minor third down.
Ear Master is fine for a lot of stuff but it does focus on hearing intervals instead of scale degrees.
gleepglop
Member
I agree with jorge, learning to hear scale degrees is much more helpful. Once you are solid with that, it's much easier get arbitrary intervals.
Earmaster is a good program in that it is completely customizable, you can make up your own exercises of almost anything you want, which is mostly how I use it. Currently I'm spending time working on hearing polyphonically.
Matt
Member
jorge emailed this to me, and i hope he doesn't mind that i share this, but it's from a book by armen donelain(sp?) and practicing these really bolstered my aural abilities:
1 - Singing is the key for good ear training
2 - Always sing by numbers
3 - Sight Singing is also essential (for these there are plenty of other good cheap books available)
Exercises (sing everything in the 12 tones, I usually make a random note order; you can sing with the chord in background, just the tonic as a pedal note or internalize the tonic before and sing with no background)
1 - Scrambled Triads - (135, 315, 513, 153, 351, 531) - These are the six possible combinations for the triads notes, sing for all the triads you know;
2 - Scrambled Seventh Chords (1357, 1375, 3157, 3175, 1537, 1573, 5137, 5173, 1735, 1753, 7135, 7153, 3517, 3571, 5317, 7153, 3517, 3571, 5371, 5317, 3715, 3751, 7315, 7351, 5713, 5731, 7513, 7531) These are all the possibilities, sing for all the seventh chords you know
3 - Scrambled scale patterns - basically make a random organization of a scale like 3 5 6 2 4 7 1 and sing for all the scales (for scales like the whole tone or the diminished you must adjust the number of notes). You can make any pattern you want, the idea is to be able to hear all chord tones related to each other.
4 - 13 Chords. Singing chords by thirds: Major 7h (1 3 5 7 9 #11 13), Dominant 7h (1 3 5 b7 9 #11 13), Minor 7h (1 b3 5 b7 9 11 13), Locrian ( 1 b3 b5 b7 9 11 b13) - you can sing the minor with a major 7h also and the dominant as an altered starting on the # 11 - singing the Db dominant pattern over a G bass. You can sing them in a row ascending and descending and also as triads (135, 357, 579,...) and seventh chords (1357, 3579, 57911, etc...) ascending and descending. The idea is to learn the sound of extensions and to hear them as groups of upper extension triads.
Floatingbridge
Member
Dude, he sent this to me too! And I feel like such a douche for not answering a question he had re: jazzmaster ultralight. Thank you! Re the amp , yes live it is so good. Granted , my pickiness may have a lower threshold when basic criteria are met. It exceeds my expectations and feels pretty alive. Honestly, I'm quite lame and didn't understand' EV ' ... If this is anything having to do with using a line in function then yes, I was satisfied there aswell.
But back to the material, this info feels almost depressingly obvious line of inquiry and practice but really overlooked by me: the empirical stuff of the input/ output of the absorption of fundamentals into my body/mind. Thanks again.
jorgemg1984
Member
No problem at all in sharing Matt! :) You will be doing all these exercises if you go to The New School, Armen teaches there.
Here's the second e-mail I sent you with even more things to do.
"Some things I missed, some are in his books others are mine actually.
1) Bebop scales at eight notes up and down from all chord-tones (implies knowing bebop scales theory well)
2) Target Notes (from up and down and all the usual combinations) to all chord tones (implies knowing targeting notes theory well)
3) Make a random scale pattern ( 4 2 5 7 3 6 for example). For each note sing it and then descend to the root. Then do the same ascending. (singing in a scalar fashion, by steps)
4) Make a random chord pattern (11 9 5 7 3 13 for example). For each note sing it and then descend to the root. Then do the same ascending. (singing in a chord fashion, by thirds)
5) Choose a scale tone. Sing all the other scale tones against it (2 1, 2 3, 2 4, 2 5, 2 6, 2 7) You can also do this random ( 2 6, 2 3, 2 5, 2 7, 2 4, etc...)
6) Singing all the intervals in a chord / scale. For example in a major scale; minor seconds (34, 78), major seconds (12 23 45 56 67), etc... Do this to all intervals and up and down"
Floaring: I just wanted to know how happy you were with the line out funtion, I still haven't used it for recording or gigs and was curious, good to konw you liked it! About that amp, have you ever tried bass really low, treble really low and mids flat? Sounds like a good Polytone!:)
arewolfe
Member
Interesting stuff. In number 5, are you singing the scale tone against the other notes in the scale harmonically (i.e. with a piano) or just melodically (i.e. strictly singing them)? I'm sure doing both is good but wondered what your version implies.
jorgemg1984
Member
I meant just singing but works both ways!
jorgemg1984
Member
An interesting question on ear training: when you are improvising on a standard tune do you hear 1) tonal (always related to the tonal center even if you play the b9 of the dominant - this means hearing it as the b6 of the tone) 2) chord by chord (everytime the bass changes you adjust the ear to the new chord, this means hearing that note as a b9)
arewolfe
Member
I hear everything related to the tonal center (i.e. b9 on a V chord is b6 pulling towards the 5th of the key)
In minor keys I always hear pentatonic as the basis, and all the other notes around those 5 can come and go.
jorgemg1984
Member
Interesting. Any more opinions?
gleepglop
Member
I seem to hear it both ways, almost simultaneously. First I hear it in relation to the tonal center, but also in relation to the root of the chord. I don't know how to explain it, but once you know both sounds, they are not really separate.
If the tonal center is shifting or ambiguous, the relationship to the root tends to be more prominent.
jorgemg1984
Member
I understand your last sentence - I think it's almost mandatory to do that on "Time Remembered" for example.
silverwater
Member
Has anyone else used Relative Pitch Ear Training by David Lucas Burge? It's not a program, but a 5-CD set of exercises that I think really covers all aspects of ear training very well. I highly recommend this.
For Android: Perfect Ear Pro
Website: http://www.iwasdoingallright.com/tools/ear_training/main/
@Matt: With regards to "singing by numbers", do you run into many problems with having 2 syllables to sing (like "flat fiiive")? I've always used moveable do solfege for singing, but I never think "do re mi" unless I'm singing an exercise, so I think singing on numbers could be good.
jorgemg1984
Member
I tried his Perfect Pitch course and didn't found it very good actually - maybe the Relative Pitch one is better but I doubt it... That site has lots of great info about ear training don't know why I forgot to post it.
Yeah that 2 syllables is probably the major issue with "singing by numbers", but I got used to it. I was never a big fan of the "moveable do" system, I find it very confusing (and probably because in Portuguese we call the notes do re mi fa sol la si do and not C D E F G A B C as you do)
silverwater
Member
I don't know about his Perfect Pitch course, but his Relative Pitch course really opened up my ears to be able to sing and instantly recognize things. I remember I felt like I was just beating a dead horse and not really getting anywhere with standard ear training programs, but that Relative Pitch course really helped me to be more confident in recognizing what I was hearing. What was also good was I was able to get away from recognizing intervals by relating them to common songs, like m7=Star Trek, etc.
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