Jam out with your friends and hone your music skills with Rock Band! Use Rock Band’s easy interface to practice pitch and rhythm. You don’t need to be a professional musician – even beginners can learn basic ear training using Rock Band.

1. Set up Practice Mode

Rock Band II and similar video games have an easy Practice Mode, which allows you practice a song over and over without worrying about bombing out. Be sure that your USB microphone is hooked up to your video game console. Choose Solo Player and Practice Mode.

Use the game's Practice Mode

2. Start easy

Choose Easy or Medium Rock Band difficulty levels when you first begin. These difficulty levels are much more forgiving when you sing off pitch or fudge a rhythm. You also want to choose a simple song from the Warm Up List. Choose harder songs and difficulty levels as you improve.

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You don’t have to sit in a tedious aural theory classroom to improve your ear training. Everyday technology like the internet, your cell phone, video games, or even your car radio can help you train your ears to discern pitches, rhythm, and harmony. You can work on your music listening skills and have a ton of fun, too!

Sing along

Ever sing in your car? Practice matching pitch on your commute to work. Next time you turn on your satellite radio station, choose a station that has singable tunes. The station can have any type of music from the latest pop songs to country music to fun musicals to kid songs (I bet you didn’t know you could combine watching the kids with ear training!). Click to read the rest…