Ear training takes a lot of practice with different exercises to become proficient. Until recently ear training courses usually consisted of a few CDs. But more recently computer software is making ear training easier both at home and in the classroom.  Here are some of the reasons why, keep them in mind as you search for an ear training product.

More Varied Exercises

Ear training CDs offer a fixed set of exercises, the same intervals, chords, notes are repeated and after a while you get to know them by heart. Exercises become less effective as you use your memory more than your ears.

Ear training software has a big advantage in this respect. The software can generate new sequences and hardly ever play you the same one twice. No matter how long you work with the software you’ll always have to use your ears to recognize what you are played.

Feedback

Quick and clear feedback works wonders for the learning process. Ear training software can again excel in this area by instantly showing you if your answer is right or not. It can also let you replay the question and your answer as many times as you want so you can compare and learn.

No more waiting until the end of a sequence and then scrabbling around in books to check your answers.

The software can also keep track of your progress through an exercise and show you how you are doing compared to your past performance. This kind of reporting does wonders for practice motivation, turning it into a game against yourself to beat your past scores.

Work With Your Instrument

Some ear training software, Ear Master Pro is one example, lets you input answers by playing notes, intervals or chords on your instrument or by singing into a microphone.

This makes them even more powerful as you develop not only your skill at recognizing the notes and intervals generated on the computer, you develop your knowledge of where they are on your instrument at the same time.

Relating the notes you hear to those on your instrument also helps to develop your sense of absolute pitch. Recognizing notes precisely by their name rather than by comparison with another pitch.

Progressive Training Program

Well designed ear training software can offer you a progressive exercise plan with built-in progress measurement. The program tracks your performance and can adapt exercises to make you progressively better and better.

Statistics reports also provide a simple way to see your progress and help motivate you to do even better.

There you have four good reasons to prefer a software program as an effective ear training partner. Keep these in mind as you compare ear training products to help you develop your musical ear.

Ear Master Pro 5 ear training software lets you enter answers on a virtual guitar fretboard so you build your guitar skills at the same time as you train your ears. Download it today and try it free for 21 days.

Read my Ear Master Pro 5 review.

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My Ear Master Pro 5 reviews on this site are based upon the Windows version. If you are a Mac user though you can still benefit from this excellent ear training software.

Ear Master Pro was released for the Mac in November. According to recent news it is proving very popular with that audience.

“EarMaster has received the Staff Pick label on Apple Download and is ranking 7 for all categories this week!

Since the launching of the OS X version of EarMaster 5, Mac users have shown a very strong interest in EarMaster and we keep on receiving enthusiatic feedback from new users who can finally get hold of an ear training program that is both powerful, interactive, flexible and easy to use.”

Mac and Windows users can download a free 21 day trial version for free at Ear Master.

Source: Ear Master news, 27th January 2009.

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Ear Master Pro 5 is a software program for PC or Mac designed to help you train your musical ear. I recently chose to use this program as part of a goal to train my ear to recognize notes, intervals and chords. Here is a review of my first experiences with Ear Master.

Getting Started

The program is very easy to install. You download a single file from the web site and execute it on your PC.

Once installed you can choose your language from a wide selection. Ear Master then prompts you to choose the audio device you want it to use to play sounds. I selected the Microsoft MIDI mapper it proposed by default and it works fine on my Dell laptop PC.

Finally, Ear Master asks you to choose your preferred instrument for note input. In addition to the musical stave you can also input notes using a piano keyboard or a variety of graphical fretboards for string instruments, guitar, banjo, bass, violin, etc.

I chose the six string guitar and you can see the fretboard in the tutor screenshot.

Ear Master Pro Intervals Exercise

Ear Training Tutors and Exercises

Once started Ear Master offers the choice of three training modes:

• Standard Tutor - a selection of progressive ear training exercises
• Jazz Tutor - A supplement to the standard tutor focusing on skills relevant for jazz.
• Customized Exercise - where you can select your own exercises.

The rest of the review discusses the standard tutor which is suitable for ear training.

Exercise Areas

The standard tutor proposes a very complete selection of exercise areas: interval comparison, interval identification, interval singing, chord identification, chord inversions, chord progressions, scale identification, rhythm reading, rhythm imitation, rhythm dictation, rhythm correction, and melodic dictation.

Each area presents a number of exercises that are gradually more complicated. So far I’ve used the interval comparison and interval identification exercises. These present you with pairs of notes and you have to to identify the interval.

Entering Notes

Ear Master offers several ways of entering notes or intervals in response to questions so it should be easy to find something you are familiar with.

On the screen you can enter notes onto a musical stave, or using a simulated piano keyboard or stringed instrument fretboard - guitar in standard or non-standard tunings, bass, banjo, violin, cello. You can also set up your stringed instrument to be left-handed.

Notes can also be input using a MIDI instrument connected to the PC or using a microphone you can clap, sing or play notes on your favourite instrument.

Online Help

The progam is very easy to use and intuitive so you should have little need of help in using it. The online help provides descriptions of music theory terms and gives useful guidance on training your ear, though.

Conclusion

Ear Master Pro 5 makes a very good first impression and is easy to download, install and use. There are no heavy manuals or theory to wade through, you can get started on the exercises in only a few minutes. Entering answers is easy with a large choice of input mechanisms.

The screen layout and on screen instructions are very intuitive and easy to follow. The exercises are enjoyable and of a good length and pace. I am looking forward to working with them more in the coming weeks and months.

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Learn more about Ear Master Pro and download a free 21 day trial at Ear Master.

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This post tells you about the ear training software I have chosen to work with for my guitar ear challenge. I selected the Ear Master Pro 5 software to download and try, here’s why.

Why Software?

I chose to use software product to train my musical ear because I want a flexible and varied ear training programme.

I once tried an ear training CD but it was limited by the small number of exercises. Once I’d done one and checked the answers in the booklet the exercise became less effective - I remembered the answers instead of hearing them.

Software can generate infinite varieties of ear training exercises. This makes it easy to give your ear a lot more practice.

Ear Training Software Choices

So, what ear training software should I use?

I had already heard of GuitEarIt, an ear training game included in the Jamorama guitar courses. I sent an email to Jamorama to ask if the GuitEarIt software would meet my objectives.

The reply explained that GuitEarIt is an introductory tool that mainly teaches chord recognition. The reply was very helpful in recommending two other programs that might be more appropriate for my needs, Ear Master Pro 5 and Guitar & Bass Ear Training.

I noticed that the Guitar & Bass Ear Training description spoke only of recognizing intervals. Another email question to the company confirmed that the software doesn’t train chord recognition. This is handled by a separate program, the 100 Chords Method.

With this information I decided to give Ear Master a try first - it has all the features I want and is considerably cheaper than buying two separate programs.

Conclusion

I chose Ear Master Pro 5 because it trains the ear to recognize intervals, chords and rhythm. I downloaded the 21 day trial edition to give it a hands-on test.

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