(Diversion on theory textbooks.) Though I didn't pick it, at my school we use Steve Laitz's The Complete Musician (. The best way to learn/practice ear training is to find someone who's decent at piano and play through some progressions you'd find in a theory book. I'm always on the lookout for new things, because I'm unsatisfied with most solutions out there. For intervals, scales, and individual chords, though, it's really great. If you're interested in developing this further I'd be happy to help come up with some of these. The way around this, and the way I've done it before, is to generate a bunch of scale-degree patterns or chord progression patterns and shuffle them randomly. Once a chord gets a seventh (ii7), it doesn't usually lose it until its resolution (so ii7 to ii isn't a logical progression), and the progression ii to IV7 is a retrogression (at least in tonal classical music: this one you'd be slightly more likely to hear in rock perhaps, but I imagine it's still pretty rare).Īll this is to say that I really like the idea, but I'm hesitant to tell my students about it because the random generation might lead them to things which I would never play in an ear-training class (because they never show up in common-practice tonal music). This is a progression you would not be likely to hear in tonal music (even in rock, jazz, and other modern genres). Likewise, the first chord progression I tried went I - ii7 - ii - IV7. While the minor seventh is a really common tonal interval, it's really uncommon to hear it from scale degree 6 in a major key up to scale degree 5 (you'd only really ever hear it as an applied chord of ii). The melodic dictation I tried first went ^6, up to ^5, down to ^1, and down again to ^3. I had trouble with the chord progression and melodic dictation exercises, since they're not common tonal progressions. Something like this would be better (and better still with a bass voice playing the roots in a different octave): Usually when ear training, the idea is to be able to hear common tonal progressions, where this kind of voice leading almost never shows up. When it plays I-IV-V-I to establish the key, for example, it plays 3 root-position triads with parallel voice-leading: You're probably randomly generating these, but I would strongly suggest incorporating some voice-leading and standard syntax into the examples. For the AUv3 plugin you'll need an AUv3 host app such as AUM, Cubase, Nanostudio, apeMatrix etc.I really like this, for the most part (and apropos, since the first day of teaching ear-training for the semester is tomorrow!). You need to connect the MIDI output of the app to an audio app's MIDI input. Please note that In Theory is a MIDI app and does not produce any kind of sound on its own. Also, when you play a note, you will see the every playing note on the screen with the root note and the chord intervals. The circular display on the UI will show you where you are in the scale. The key and scale could be changed externally from a MIDI controller in AUv3 plugin with the AU parameters. You can also use the custom scales you made in ScaleBud 2 app as well. In Theory has more than 110 scales built-in. With the MIDI capabilities, you can also sequence the app with a MIDI sequencer app like PolyBud, ShiftBud, MelodyBud etc. If you send a MIDI CC value between 0-62, you can toggle the chord intervals respectively. You can set a MIDI CC number and a MIDI Channel for toggling the chord intervals from the settings menu. You can also toggle the chord intervals with MIDI CC messages. The white notes after the C4 note would trigger the positive buttons, the white notes before the C4 note would trigger the negative notes on the keypad. The middle C4 key on your MIDI keyboard triggers the 0 (zero) button on the app's keypad. You can use your MIDI keyboard to play In Theory as well. You can also select the notes from an octave above and an octave below for creating rich, extended chords. Zero means the current note, +1 means the note after the current note, +2 means two notes after the current note, -2 means two notes before the current note in the scale and so on.Ībove the keypad, you can toggle additional intervals in the scale for creating chord voices. It has a keypad at the bottom with the interval buttons like +2, +1, 0, -1, -2 which would change the current note. In Theory is an interval based MIDI keyboard app with more than 110 scales.
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