I have been trying to train my ears. I’ve been going to several sites but am not 100% happy with them. So far I’ve been to a site called Big Ears but the quality of the tones is not distinct to me, I’ve visited Ear Trainer but can’t get it to work on my computer. So far my best bet is Earplane, but that seems to be mainly for guitar players. Does anyone have any suggestions as to a free internet ear training site?
Thanks
What was the problem you had with Ear Trainer? I needed to install quicktime before it would work for me as it requires a midi plugin to be installed for your browser. Hope that helps.
P.S. You are talking about http://www.good-ear.com/servlet/EarTrainer right?
I’ve also been trying to learn ear training.
I have had more luck messing with a MIDI sequencer to train my ears. I find a clip of something, and I try to notate it.
The sequencer I use can be downloaded for free at www.anvilstudio.com
Really easy to use, and it’s helping me.
I sent my ears to ears obediance school. Worked for me.
What skills, exactly, are you trying to develop? Aural transcription, Pitch recognition, Intonation, Reproduction… the list goes on and on.
I may be able to give you some exercises that are fairly simple and very effective and you won’t need a computer to do them.
Best,
Scott McCallister
Same ear old chap!
Sometime ago I had a 30-day trial version of EarMaster Pro:
http://www.earmaster.com/index.htm
I had good fun with the program. It has graded tuturials for all areas of ear training: melody, harmony, rhythm etc…
Right now I could’t find a trial option on their page, but if you can find it it is well worth it.
Off to lunch now
Jeroen
Just learning trad tunes by ear is fabulous ear training. Plus you don’t need a computer, it is fun, and there are immediate concrete benefits (you know more tunes).
Your best bet is to find a partner, and trade tunes with each other, going over phrase by phrase, playing and listening and saying “no, no, not like that, like this” and playing again. If you have a house session, which is a good idea for students anyway, a weekly tune-trade is a good way to develop listening skills.
I found that after just a little learning by ear I began to develop a sense of absolute pitch without overtly trying—my microwave hums at a B, and the chimes of the house down the street rings a B G G B, B G G B.
Caj
I never knew about any of these programs when I was working hard on ear training. I got a program called Transcribe, which is a sophisticated music slow down program, and used that quite a bit.
Mostly I’d just listen to a tune over and over until I got a feel for it, then slow it down, break it down into phrases, and try to figure it out. I read music, and it helped me to try to write them out as I went along. As time went on, I started to find that I didn’t need to check every note with the whistle before I had the confidence to put it down on paper. You start to recognize the intervals between the notes, the repeated phrases, etc.
It helps to start with music that features flute or whistle playing, I think. Since you’re already familiar with the sounds, you’ll start recognizing the notes sooner.
I know Tom Dowling learned by the same method (because we learned together), and he went from completely musically illiterate (couldn’t read a note) to quickly and accurately transcribing Mary Bergin, Willie Clancy and Cathal McConnell tunes, complete with ornamentation, in a couple of years.
If you’re doing this all on your own, a good book on music theory might help as well.
This reminds me of my college days and 8:00AM music theory classes. (I don’t think I was ever fully awake…) We called the sight singing/ear-training course the “sight screaming/ear straining” course.
I agree.
Aldon
At this time I’m just trying to reproduce tunes I hear. I would like to hear a note and recognize it. I do have a basic music theory book but at this point it has more information that I think I need. I will try to download a few things to get Ear Trainer to work for me again, by the way Earplane seems to be a good site but it’s just not for me. Thanks for all the helpful suggestions.
I can wiggle my ears just like Stan Laurel, discovered this one fine Sunday morning in church when I was a kid. Had all those sitting behind me ready to pee their pants, when the minister stop his sermon and asked to come to the front to demonstrate..killed his sermon for that Sunday.
And what makes me really abnormal is that bald men aren’t suppose to be able to do this…wierd.
MarkB
Pitch recognition might be good. I have the problem of identifying the first note. Once that’s done it falls in place much easier.
BillG
Me too. My uncle taught me how.
Scott I’d be happy to try some exercises that might help.