Here are a few recent developments in the world of music and sound which might help inspire or guide you in your ear training!

Jump to:

• Big Update for Theta Music Trainer
• A possible end to the “Loudness War”
• Piano Carnival CD: Classical Music and Stories for Kids
• New Wah-Wah and SwingIt! apps for iOS
• Happy Birthday, Don Leslie!

Big Update for Theta Music Trainer

Back in October we covered the launch of Theta Music Trainer, an exciting new website which provides a wide range of ear training games. You play online via your browser, and the games teach everything from intervals and chords, to rhythm, music reading, and more. Varying difficulty levels make it easy to get started, and there are ‘courses’ you can take to build up your skills in a structured way.

Here at Easy Ear Training we love seeing fun new ways to develop aural skills, and so we were excited to hear about the new version of Theta Music Trainer, which introduces three new games, a smart Personal Trainer feature, and strong support for music teachers to use the games with students in the classroom. It also adds Spanish to the English and Japanese language options already available.

Number Blaster is a fun arcade-style game to learn musical numbering

Two of the new games focus on your ability to judge pitches, with Speed Pitch testing your ability to make broad judgements quickly, and Dango Brothers essentially making a game of tuning a guitar string. I’ll admit, I had to look up what a Dango is – but fortunately this didn’t hinder my ability to enjoy the game!

Dango Brothers checks your fine-grained pitch judgement

Click to read the rest…

Last time around we spoke with Joanne van de Heuvel-Berkers, founder of the Play On Education Music School in the UK, which is using aspects of play and singing to make early music education fun for children. This week we’re speaking with another expert in the field, Natalie Wickham, who runs the excellent piano pedagogy site “Music Matters Blog”.

Music Matters Blog has been running for over 6 years, sharing ideas, guidance, anecdotes and plenty of useful resources for the modern piano teacher. Natalie seems to have a real flair for keeping the fun in her lessons and innovating new ways to escape the traditional teaching methods and really engage her students with music making – so you can see why we were keen to include her voice in the Music & Life series!

Read on to find out her number one tip for encouraging music appreciation in children, learn some fun games to liven up music lessons and discover how modern technology has (and hasn’t!) changed her music education methods.

My parents started me in piano lessons when I was 7 years old. My first teacher was very strict, and my sister and I dreaded going to our lessons each week. She moved several years later and we transferred to another teacher who was almost the complete opposite. While our first teacher sat and watched our every move with an eagle-eye, our second teacher often did laundry in the basement or washed dishes in the kitchen while we played our assigned pieces for her. We dutifully worked through theory and repertoire books, but very little real learning took place.

When I was 17, I attended a 3-week intensive music course where my mind was opened up to the wide world of music and all of its exciting possibilities! Click to read the rest…