Other online ear training resources…

In researching about ear training, I found a bunch of free online trainers and other resources, and thought I’d share what I came up with! Let me know if you know of others to add to the list.

http://good-ear.com/
http://www.ossmann.com/bigears/
http://www.trainear.com/
http://www.musictheory.net/
http://www.musicalmind.org/
http://www.learn2hear.org/
http://www.dolmetsch.com/musictheory43.htm

If you have not already taken our short ear training survey, head on over here to take it!
If you haven’t yet entered our GIVEAWAY this week, make sure you don’t miss that as well!

Review & Giveaway!: Ear Training Pro

Today I am excited to review a new online ear training resource – EarTrainingPro.com. This new website is an excellent resource for any music studio (and has been a great asset in my own studio over the past few weeks!) It contains over fifty different ear training exercises that students can practice on your studio computer, or at home (depending on which plan you sign up for).

The exercises on this website are in six different categories: Intervals, Pitch Perception, Chords, Relative Pitch, Scales, and Transcription. Exercises are also each categorized as Beginner, Intermediate or Advanced Level.

When beginning each exercise, there is a brief instruction page explaining what the exercise is. Many of these instruction pages include a brief listening example. For example, on the Major Chords Second Inversion exercise, students can listen to the difference between a root position chord, a first inversion chord and a second inversion chord, as well as a comparison between three different chords which all have C as their bottom note before they begin the exercise (see below).

I love this feature, and actually wish that ALL of the exercise instruction pages were as thorough as this one (although many of them are!). Some of the exercises will give a listening example of just one type of interval, and then quiz you on all of the major scale intervals.

The exercises consist of usually ten examples to listen to and identify. After the ten are complete, you are able to see how many you got correct, as well as which ones you got wrong. It will also tell you what your answer was and what the correct answer should have been, and you can listen to the example again.

I love the variety of the exercises and of their difficulty levels. I can assign beginning exercises to some of my younger students, while still being able to challenge my most advanced students (and myself as well!) with the advanced levels. Here is a list of all of the available exercises:

Intervals
Major Thirds and Fifths
Beginner
Intervals – Major Scale
Beginner
Intervals – Minor Scale
Beginner
Major Intervals Up to a Perfect Fifth
Beginner
Intervals in Semitones
Intermediate
Intervals – Chromatic Scale
Intermediate
Intervals – Major Scale with Intervals Up and Down
Intermediate
Intervals – Minor Scale with Intervals Up and Down
Intermediate
Intervals – Chromatic Scale with Intervals Up and Down
Intermediate
Intervals – Minor Scale, played together
Advanced
Intervals – Major Scale, played together
Advanced
Intervals – Chromatic Scale, played together
Advanced
Pitch Perception
Higher or Lower
Beginner
Notes on a Keyboard
Beginner
Perfect Pitch Test
Advanced
Chords
Major and Minor Chords
Beginner
Chord Progressions with Triads (Major Keys)
Beginner
Chord Progressions with Triads (Minor Keys)
Beginner
Major Chords First Inversion
Intermediate
Major Chords Second Inversion
Intermediate
Suspended Second and Fourth Chords
Intermediate
Chord Progressions with First Inversion
Intermediate
Major and Minor Ninth Chords
Intermediate
Augmented and Dominant Ninth Chords
Intermediate
Chord Progressions in C Major
Intermediate
Major Broken Chords First Inversion
Intermediate
Triads – Major, Minor, Augmented and Diminished
Advanced
Chord Identification
Advanced
Ninth Chords
Advanced
Major and Minor Seventh Chords
Advanced
Diminished and Half-Diminished Seventh Chords
Advanced
Augmented and Dominant Seventh Chords
Advanced
Major and Augmented Major Seventh Chords
Advanced
Seventh Chords
Advanced
Chord Progressions with Inversions
Advanced
Relative Pitch
Relative Pitch on C Major
Beginner
Relative Pitch on C Minor
Beginner
Relative Pitch Introduction
Beginner
Relative Pitch on C Major with Intervals Up and Down
Intermediate
Relative Pitch on C Minor with Intervals Up and Down
Intermediate
Relative Pitch on the Chromatic Scale
Intermediate
Relative Pitch on Chromatic Scale with Intervals Up and Down
Advanced
Relative Pitch
Advanced
Scales
Scales – Major and Minor
Beginner
Types of Minor Scales
Intermediate
Transcription
Transcribing a Few Notes From C Major
Beginner
Transcribing notes in C Major or C Minor
Beginner
Transcribing notes in A Minor
Beginner
Transcribing Chords – Triads
Beginner
Transcribing notes in C Major or C Minor – Intermediate
Intermediate
Transcribing Chords – Seventh Chords
Intermediate
Transcribing notes in any key
Advanced
Transcribing Chords – Ninth Chords
Advanced

When signing up for this website, there are four different plan options. I LOVE that you can choose a studio plan that includes a teacher account and up to 40 attached student accounts for your studio. The students each have their own log-in information and are able to access the website from any computer. The teacher is then able to assign specific homework exercises to individual students, see which exercises they have attempted, how many times they have attempted them and what their high score is on each.

Overall, I love this website and feel that it is much easier to use and much better than other online ear trainers I have tried. I love that it keeps track of how well you have done in each exercise and how well each of your students has done (anything to help keep my studio organized and on-track curriculum-wise is a definite plus for me!). I highly recommend this website to other music teachers for use in their studios.

And here’s the exciting news – Anthony from Ear Training Pro has offered to give away a free account on EarTrainingPro.com to one lucky reader!! To be entered into the drawing, leave a comment below! For one extra entry, share a link to this giveaway via facebook, your blog, twitter, or some other website and leave me one extra comment letting me know that you did. Make sure you enter by 11:59 pm (CST) on Thursday, April 21st. Winner will be announced on Friday the 22nd! Happy ear training!

Why Ear Training?

Lately as I have been teaching, I have found myself pondering the question, “What is so important about ear training, anyway?” I mean, I know it is important. I have done all sorts of sight singing courses, learned Solfege, taken crazy dictation tests where you have to write down all of the notes of a whole chord progression, learned to recognize how an interval sounds by whether it sounds like “Here comes the bride” or “Bali Hai” from South Pacific…but as I have had students working on ear training over the past couple of months I have found myself wondering…why is it so important?

When a piano student asks why in the world they need to know how a minor sixth or a major seventh sounds, what is your answer? Do you have a good answer for them? Is there a good answer?

This is what I have been thinking about lately. And the main conclusion I have come to is this: in order to become good pianists and musicians, we need to train our ears to recognize the music we play. I think that, too often, pianists especially are much too detached from the SOUND that is actually coming out of the instrument. I find that when I tell my student to play a piece or a section again, but this time to really listen to the sound, so many things are immediately ten times better. Phrases are more musical, dynamics are more contrasting, staccatos are shorter – there is so much more music in the music! Our ears need to be trained just as our fingers do! They need to be trained to have relative pitch, to notice notes and harmonies and sounds and colors in the music. When our ears are trained to be actively involved in the music-making process, that is when we are truly able to become great musicians.

Tell me what you think! Take a minute and take this brief survey about ear training:





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