audio fidelity Posted October 9, 2008 Share Posted October 9, 2008 I wanted to share with the community the two sites I use daily which are really helping me with my studies in college and my own musical abilities. The first is this interval trainer that is the only free online resource, that I know of, that utilizes songs to help you associate the intervals. And the best part is the guy included a bunch of video game songs as resources. So this program is like a godsend for me. For anyone who doesn't think ear training is important is missing out on being able to pick out melodies and even chord changes on the fly. (i also like how they let you use a sine wav as a source so all you hear is the fundamental) You can check it out here at trainear.com The other is really helping me with sightreading for piano. And its challenging at the upper levels. Its a paced note name sightreading game where you have to identify the pitch on a grand staff as it pops up. The trick is to get good at looking ahead at what's coming up. You can check that out here emusictheory.com I usually do this once everyday at the beginning till I can't I take it anymore (10-20 mins usually). Its been really helpful; hoping some of you guys can benefit from this as well. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Zephyr Posted October 9, 2008 Share Posted October 9, 2008 Nice, I'll try them a little bit, the site reading one I don't believe will help me much, I can already read notes quickly, but finding them and playing them as they come is different, if it utilized a midi keyboard feature I might use it. Nice find though. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Vivi22 Posted October 11, 2008 Share Posted October 11, 2008 The ear training one seems pretty good so far. I'm terrible at recognizing intervals so I had to limit it a bit at first to just four. I like that it let's you scale it down depending on how good you are, so I can bring it back up as I improve. I'll give it a shot for a while since I know ear training is something I could definitely stand to improve on, and I was getting better by the end of trying it just now. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
audio fidelity Posted October 11, 2008 Author Share Posted October 11, 2008 yeah - best advice is to take what you can handle - if your having problems with m6 and M6 or whatever, just limit it to those two till its inbedded in your brain and you can sing either at a whim. singing helps a lot for this. also, give it time. It takes a repetitive approach to these exercises to allow for your ear to develop. I notice the improvement with each day. But one day of like 3 hours of ear training amounts to basically nothing. heh. So don't get frustrated. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Vivi22 Posted October 11, 2008 Share Posted October 11, 2008 The nice thing is that I find when I'm off, I'm not far off. Like when I pick, say m3 and I'm wrong it might be M2 or M3. I'm usually not far off so I guess my ear is a little better than I usually think it is which helps keep the confidence up. I'm going to keep with it though. After about twenty minutes of limiting myself to only four options, I went from almost never getting one right to starting to get streaks of four or five at a time. Now part of that is probably getting used to hearing the same intervals over and over, but then I guess that's the point. This sort of thing only comes with repetition and practice. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Kizyr Posted October 13, 2008 Share Posted October 13, 2008 Wow, I'm already noticing some improvements with this after just two days. Thanks for the link. I'd like to get to where I don't have to actually think of a song, but can just sort of feel the interval. With a few of the ones that're easier for me to pick up, that's already happening (like an m2 or m3, occasional tritone/Dim5), but there're several others that I'm still constantly missing (M4 especially). I like the interface, too. I was always rubbish at picking out intervals, and now I'm not completely rubbish. Maybe after a few weeks I could be half-decent at it. KF Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
audio fidelity Posted October 13, 2008 Author Share Posted October 13, 2008 awesome - glad to hear it I have done ear training kinda on and off for maybe 5 years and never really had results like this. the association is so important. It was always like a shot in the dark before. Try working on a set of intervals at a time. Not sure if you mean P4 or M3...but either or for P4 do P5 and TT. And for M3 do it with m3. And then expand it when you're familiar with the differences. What I ended up doing when I started this was constantly go back to the song page when I hear an interval I'm not sure of. I still do this. Play all the songs that you think the interval is from and make your best judgement (no shots in the dark). You'll get better at it. And make sure to practice singing the songs and the intervals. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Kizyr Posted October 13, 2008 Share Posted October 13, 2008 Try working on a set of intervals at a time. Not sure if you mean P4 or M3...but either or for P4 do P5 and TT. And for M3 do it with m3. And then expand it when you're familiar with the differences. Yeah that's what I'm doing. I'm not half-bad at it for a beginner (since I did take around 7-8 years of piano lessons, just never practiced ear training) so I started out with the first six intervals. I meant to say M3--my main confusion is between a minor and major third. I'm pretty good at recognizing an m3, but when I hear an M3 interval I have a hard time distinguishing it (for now). I'm trying to drill in on that single difference. I wish I could think of another easily-recognized song besides When the Saints... for an M3. Speaking of which, the way it tracks statistics to let you know your main problem spots is really great. KF Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
audio fidelity Posted October 13, 2008 Author Share Posted October 13, 2008 practice singing triads. knowing where the 5th is what helps me Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Lunahorum Posted October 20, 2008 Share Posted October 20, 2008 tooting my horn a little bit - I can recognize all the intervals and transcribe a typical song by ear. I recommend the David Lucas Burge course as well as supplementing some self study (which he gives some guidelines for in the course) Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Kizyr Posted October 21, 2008 Share Posted October 21, 2008 practice singing triads. knowing where the 5th is what helps me Singing is a bad idea for me. I think I have a pretty awful voice. But thinking in triads seemed to help a bit. Anyway, I'm still working at this, and I'm at around 80% accuracy for the first six intervals (and far better at the M3/m3/p4 distinction that gave me trouble earlier). KF Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
audio fidelity Posted October 21, 2008 Author Share Posted October 21, 2008 just practice singing scales (all modes) and triads - you'll surprising get a lot better with your accuracy - trust me just worry about hitting the pitches - your not singing an aria or anything i am in a music theory class and everyone is forced to sing, and no one really cares - most people don't sound too good - but being able to sing the pitch is going to solidify these intervals in your head - so you can look at a sheet of paper with no instrument and know what the melody is Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
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