I was wondering if anyone knew of a software program that allows you to choose a scale, then the program shows a random note on the screen. You then attempt to play the note on your whistle which the microphone attached to your computer picks up. Then the program tells you if you got it right or not. The obvious use of this would be to test you on your music reading ability.
Of course the program could be used for any instrument.
Practica Musica does this, plus lots of music theory and ear training stuff. I enjoy playing with it, but it’s not cheap.
http://www.ars-nova.com/aboutpm5/index.html
Be sure to check out the activities page to see all it can quiz you on. It has some rough edges, but can teach you lots of stuff, if you’re into music theory and ear training.
Ok, I’ll see if there’s a demo version I can try out. Thanks for the suggestion!
From the description of the software from Amazon.com:
Vocalis voice input technology allowing users to sing or play instrumental input into activities, using any USB microphone
I just tested it to be sure, and weirdly, the ordinary pitch reading activity doesn’t allow microphone input. But the “custom” pitch reading works fine with microphone input. Plus,on a whistle, one would want to use the custom setting anyway, so that one can set up a “pitch set” that includes only the notes that a whistle plays (otherwise it will default to C major).
Unfortunately, they don’t seem to have a demo version of this program.
What is the name of the activity for doing that?
Custom Pitch Reading.
On the activities web page it’s under “Pitch Alone: Melody Alone: Reading”