This month, Tokyo-based company Theta Music launched a new website with a range of online ear training games, sure to be of interest to Easy Ear Training readers. I got a sneak preview of the site and caught up with Steve Myers, one of the founders of Theta music, to ask him a bit about what they’re working on.

Site Overview

First, let’s take a quick look at Theta Music Trainer. The site provides ten (Flash-based) ear training games in four categories:

• Melody – Games based on sequential notes
  (tunes, intervals, etc.)
• Harmony – Games based on simultaneous notes
  (chords, chord sequences, etc.)
• Rhythm – Games based on timing
  (note lengths, rhythm notation, etc.)
• Sound – Games based on sound
  (instruments, mixing, timbre, etc.)

The games are quite easy to get to grips with and cover a good range of difficulties, from beginner level through to very challenging aural exercises! You can try the first few levels of each game for free right now to get a feel for how the games work, and what they teach.

After you’ve played a few games, you can look at your Training and Progress reports which clearly show how you’re getting on with the different training areas (and each game individually).

The later levels of each game are available to subscribers, for a very reasonable monthly fee. You also have the option to sign up for a training course, which then structures which levels you play when, and helps you track your progress better.

Here’s a short video showing a few of the games in action:
Click to read the rest…

Here are a few great ear training resources on the web which you might not have come across:

Arranging Music for A Cappella

“This guide should get you started arranging music for your a cappella group if you have musical ideas but don’t know how to put them down on paper. It’s no substitute for really learning music theory, but if your primary concern is just arranging your favorite song, this will help get you there.”

A fantastic introductory guide to arranging music for close harmony groups (a.k.a. a cappella or the sub-genre barbershop). I’m a big fan of a cappella music, and listening carefully to it can be a tremendous way to develop your ear.

It may sound like an intimidating topic, but you’ll learn a lot even if you don’t ever start arranging yourself, and it really is taken at a gentle pace. For example, Click to read the rest…

Ever pick up a piece of sheet music and wish that you could hear the notes on the page? Working on ear training can be frustrating if you can’t hear the melody and don’t know how to pick it out on a keyboard. Noteflight’s online notation software can help you develop your ear training skills whether you are a beginning musician, a music educator, or a professional.

Sign up for Noteflight’s free account at Noteflight.com. Once you have registered, you have a virtual music program at your fingertips. Not only does Noteflight give you the tools to create original music and your own ear training exercises, it gives you social networking capabilities through Facebook and Twitter. You can even set up a profile to share your work with the world. Noteflight provides you with HTML code to post your scores and exercises on your own personal blog or website and allows you to export your files as audio and MIDI files.

Picking out a melody

Use Noteflight’s simple interface to input a melody for easy playback. Click to read the rest…