One of the most common questions we get here at Easy Ear Training is “I want to learn intervals but I don’t have an iPhone for your apps! What can I do?” Well, today we’re releasing a new option you can try: a free pack of interval training tracks. Grab your free download now!
Our best-selling interval training app, RelativePitch teaches all the intervals of the octave, by using two modes: Training and Testing. In Training Mode you can choose a lesson or a custom set of intervals, and then listen to examples of those intervals (on piano, guitar, violin, French horn or clarinet) with each one named out loud after it plays. By listening you gradually build up an appreciation of the sounds of the intervals and how they differ from each other. Then you can use Testing Mode to check if you’ve really got it.
This kind of interactive learning is the most effective, but we wanted to come up with something else for those who can’t use our iOS apps. Something that can work on any desktop computer or portable MP3 player. So today we’re giving away a downloadable set of training tracks. These will teach you 5 intervals: Unison, Semitone (minor second), Tone (major second), Minor Third and Major Third, in the ascending form. This is the same as our introductory interval training app and a great starting point for developing your relative pitch.
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Download Intro Pack (16MB zip) (Right-click and ‘save as’) |
How does it work?
The downloadable pack includes 5 MP3 files, each of which is about 3 minutes long. Each focuses on a different interval. Here are a couple of preview clips:
Once you’ve downloaded the tracks and added them to your favourite music player, listen to them regularly. Ear training is a skill which you want to practise every day to see real improvement. Maybe you can listen to these while eating breakfast each morning, or while walking to school, or on the drive home from work.
Listen Actively
We’ve talked a lot about active listening here on the site, and this is a good example of where it’s very valuable. By really paying attention while you listen to the tracks you’ll be able to appreciate the sounds of the instrument and how the notes relate to one another more perceptively than if you just listen in a casual way. Additionally, it’s important to pay attention to the spoken label for each interval, so you learn to associate the sound of the interval with its name.
Listen Casually
One of the benefits of the Training Mode of our apps is that it doesn’t actually require interaction. Many users also report success with listening casually, allowing their subconscious to take in the examples while their conscious mind is busy with something else. In fact, we even implemented an “auto stop” feature for users who were using Training Mode while drifting off to sleep and didn’t want it to run all night!
What’s Next?
That’s up to you!
There are lots of additional packs we could produce, including:
- More intervals (e.g. perfect fourths and fifths, major and minor sixths and sevenths etc.)
- Descending and Harmonic forms
- Various instruments (e.g. guitar)
- Test tracks, which mix up the intervals and give you a chance to guess each one
We want to hear from you!
Are these tracks useful to you? What additions would you most like to see?
Let us know in the comments below!
UPDATE: Guitar version now available! As requested by reader Jared, here’s a guitar edition of the intervals intro pack: Download guitar intervals pack
will your programs work with the Lion processor on a Max computer?
Carol
Hi Carol,
These are just MP3 files, so should work with any computer. Just download, unpack the .zip file, and then add the files into whatever program you use to play music on the computer. If you need any further help just shout!
Christopher
love it, active listening seems to be quite beneficial to my ear training. Maybe its psychological but there's no denying advancement. I would LOVE to see more intervals and a guitar version of these if they do not exist already. I'm about to have a good look around this site, i like what i've seen so far. thanks!
Thanks, Jared!
Active listening is a hugely important skill for musicians. It can be hard to build up that listening stamina when we've all been trained to mostly tune out the music around us rather than pay attention. But practice pays off!
And we'll see what we can do about a guitar version… :)
Christopher
Hi Jared,
Sorry for the delay – here's a guitar version of the intro pack: http://www.EasyEarTraining.com/wp-content/uploads…
Enjoy!
I have a dream that one day the corporate world will stop performing felatio on the iphone.
Well, hopefully you'll approve of this adaptation of our iOS training material for other platforms then!
This helps a lot. More intervals if possible, moar!
Glad to hear it! We'll keep them coming… Any particular requests?
Well, sixths and sevenths of course. Also possibly a use of different instruments in one training set to prevent ear from adapting to the specific voicing.
thank you!