EarMaster

Learning Music Is Fine. Practise Music Is Better!

If Pizzicato teaches you music theory and music notation, there is still one ingredient missing: apply the theory to music practise.

How do you learn skills like singing in tune, recognizing intervals, chords and scales, and playing with high rhythmic precision?

We have discovered a wonderful software to help you learn the practise of music and we decided to present it as a partner and companion software to Pizzicato. You can order it on our site, as a downloaded software, on the main Pizzicato order page. Here is EarMaster...

EarMaster 5 - Interactive Ear Training Software

Improve your number one musical resource - your ear!

EarMaster is highly interactive.

It gives you instant feedback on everything you do.

A lesson will change every time you take it.

Complexity will increase, as you make progress.

Develops your ability to interact with other musicians.

What Is Ear Training?

Have you ever thought about what might be the difference between a good musician and a REALLY good musician?

The answer is very likely to be Ear Training!

Ear training is the process of connecting theory (notes, intervals, chords, etc) with music (the sounds we hear). The more you will exercise to recognize this connection, the more you will appreciate playing music, because you will learn to understand what you play.

We, the people at EarMaster, have all experienced the difference ear training makes on our musicianship. This is why we recommend it to you.

Many musicians are not aware of the importance of ear training and have poor aural skills because of a lack of practice.

Don't be one of them, start training your ear!

Why Do I Need Ear Training?

Music is all about hearing. Having good aural skills is a fundamental aspect of being a good musician. Understanding the sounds we hear is a necessity to interact with other musicians, to reproduce melodies or chord progressions, to improvise or even to tune your instrument. A musical ear gives you a complete insight in music. Think of the famous composer Ludwig van Beethoven. His musical ear was so trained that he managed to write some of his most famous symphonies while being completely deaf, simply because he could hear the music in his head and transcribe it. The ability to compose music in your mind is just one of the many skills you will obtain by improving your musical ear.

No wonder all serious music schools and conservatories are devoting a great part of their curriculum to Ear Training, often with the help of interactive programs such as EarMaster, and have requiremtents in aural skills for applying students.

Even if you are not planning to enroll at a higher music education program, practicing Ear Training is doing yourself a major favor, as it will considerably widen your understanding and mastery of music as a whole, and will simply help you become a better musician!

How Do I Get Started?

The traditional approach is to pay for expensive private lessons, or perhaps to buy an ear training course on audio CD. But now there is a much better alternative: EarMaster!

EarMaster

Ear training for all musicians

EarMaster will challenge all trained and untrained ears! It is for all vocalists and musicians playing guitar, piano, bass, drums, flute or any other instrument.

A complete ear training package

EarMaster includes exercises in identifying intervals, chords, chord inversions, chord progressions, scales and modes. You will also find exercises in transcribing melodies and rhythms and in sight-reading or imitation of rhythms. The broad range of exercise areas covers all your needs for training pitch, harmonies and rhythms! All together the exercises areas will help you enhance your musicality and improve your playing.

Your own personal teacher

EarMaster includes two advanced Tutors that will guide you and increase the level of complexity as you improve your ear. The Standard Tutor has 440 lessons ranging from beginners to advanced users. The Jazz tutor has 211 lessons with swing rhythms and jazz chords. You can take a lesson again and again, because it will change every time you take it.

Powerful tool for advanced users

You can customize EarMaster more than any other ear training tool! There are a lot of settings for the user interface and for the way you use EarMaster. While you work with a lesson you can change clefs, time limits, input methods, tempo, sounds, etc. EarMaster also allows you to use your MIDI instrument to insert tones and rhythms, or as a remote control! There are also keyboard shortcuts to all features. A great feature is that you can make your own custom tuned string instrument for inserting and displaying the tones on the screen. Even left handed string instruments are possible.

Customized exercises

In the customized mode you are in control of the exercises and you can configure them to do exactly what you want! You can customize pitch ranges, keys and meters, how the chord or interval should be placed in the keys, how intervals and chords are played, and you can specify exactly what intervals, chords and rhythm values to work with, and much more. You can of course also define your own customized chords, scales and chord progressions.

Instant feedback

EarMaster gives instant audiovisual feedback on everything you do! The tones you enter are transcribed simultaneously on the staff and on the on-screen instruments. When you submit your answer, EarMaster will tell if your answer is wrong. Your answer and the correct answer will be shown on the staff and instruments, and you can hear both individually. This is a very effective learning process where you learn from your errors and improve your ear faster than with any other training method.

Guitar, piano, bass, violin, cello, ...

Make ear training a musical project by relating it to an instrument you play! EarMaster is designed for musicians playing almost any instrument. You can interact with EarMaster in a multitude of ways. EarMaster supports onscreen piano, guitar, bass, violin, cello, banjo and any other customized string instrument! Using General MIDI, you can utilize all of the 128 instruments and sounds. EarMaster also comes with real-time Sound2MIDI technology that allows you to sing and clap your answer using a microphone - and to play your answer on your favorite instrument! You can also use the onscreen staff, multiple-choice, or use MIDI input from keyboards and other MIDI-devices.

Detailed statistics on your progress

You can monitor your progress by viewing the detailed statistics about your performance! Has your ear improved at identifying the minor 7th chord? What progress have you made in the past two weeks? Are you answering faster? How much time did you spend on ear training during the past month? EarMaster will provide all this information for you.

Pass your ear training exams

Do you need to pass an ear training exam in a near future? EarMaster allows you to test your self at home in similar conditions as an actual ear training exam! Any tutor lesson or customized exercise can be turned into a strict and merciless test! Did you miss identifying the chord? Too bad, because I will not play it again! And I need your answer in 10 seconds!

Easy to use for beginners

EarMaster is very suitable for beginners. It is intuitive and has a user-friendly interface. Even kids can use it! The program starts with an ear training wizard that will explain the exercises and training modes for you. EarMaster suggests you to let the standard tutor instruct you and let him guide you through the lessons. EarMaster also includes a quick music theory introduction and comprehensive help available anywhere in the program.

Exercise Areas In EarMaster

We propose you two different versions of EarMaster. Here are the exercise areas that you will find in the two versions:

Descriptions of the proposed exercise areas

EarMaster offers advanced ear training and covers all significant areas in intervals, scales, chords, rhythms and melodies. Each exercise will improve different areas of your musical ear! Using EarMaster will refine all important areas of your musical ear. You will develop greater musicality, better musical confidence and experience real enjoyment of music.

Intervals

Once you get the hang of intervals, it will be easier to transcribe songs, compose songs or tuning your guitar. If you are a singer it will improve your ability to sing in tune and to phrase flawlessly. Whatever instrument you play, EarMaster will help you figure out the melody of a song based on the intervals: “Oh, that’s just a perfect fourth followed by a minor third.” EarMaster features two exercises that will help you do just that.

Interval singing

EarMaster will play a tone and ask you to sing or play an interval above or below this tone. Example: A tone (D) will be played and EarMaster will say: “Sing the perfect fifth above D.” You can also use this exercise to learn to spell intervals. If you answer the question by using one of EarMaster’s other answering methods, then this exercise becomes an “Interval spelling” exercise.

Interval identification

EarMaster plays a harmonic or melodic interval; you identify it by its name or transcribe the tones on the piano, guitar or notesheet.

Interval comparison

EarMaster will play two intervals; you answer which one is larger. This exercise does not require any knowledge about music theory. It is therefore an excellent starting point for beginners.

Scales and modes

With EarMaster you learn to identify scales (major, minor, blues, bebop, etc.) and church modes (Dorian, Phrygian, etc.)

Scale identification

EarMaster will play a scale or mode; you then identify it by name or insert the tones on the piano, guitar or staff. Scales are an essential tool when you want to improvise or when writing melody lines.

Chords

Recognizing chords and harmonies is an essential aspect of being able to interact while playing with other musicians. It is also an important aspect of being able to transcribe songs and to compose music. Being able to improvise and to play music by ear also requires knowledge in the functions and structures of chords. Combining harmonies and chords in music requires that you can hear and feel the quality of chords, and that you are familiar with their function within a given key. EarMaster features three exercises that will help you improve these skills.

Chord identification

EarMaster plays a harmonic or melodic chord; you identify it by its name or transcribe the tones on the piano, guitar or the note sheet.

Chord-inversion identification

This exercise works just like the chord identification exercise, but here the chords are inverted. Understanding chord inversions helps you to move around your fretboard or piano more efficiently in the combination of the chords. Being familiar with this approach makes composing and playing easier.

Chord progression identification

EarMaster will play a chord progression (e.g., II mi7 - V 7 - I maj); you then identify it by name or choose the step and quality for each chord. Becoming acquainted with different types of progressions will make you a more stable musician. When composing, it will help you to know what possible ways to develop the song you are working on. And when playing, you can more easily tell in which direction the song is going -this is very comfortable if you are involved in a jam session.

Rhythms

Modern music increasingly requires a musician to possess good rhythmic understanding. A good sense of rhythmic variations, the ability to feel a tempo, being able to grasp rhythmic figures, and the ability to keep a tempo are important for any musician. It is not enough to be able to read or hear individual note values; you must also identify a rhythm as a series of rhythmic patterns. EarMaster features four exercises that teach you to read and identify rhythms.

Rhythmic dictation

EarMaster plays a rhythm; you transcribe it.

Rhythm reading

Here EarMaster will play a rhythm score. You will then clap the rhythm following the metronome. Clap your hands in front of the microphone, tap the rhythm on the space bar, or play it on your MIDI instrument. This exercise is helpful in many ways; it of course improves your sight reading skills. You also develop your familiarity with rhythmical patterns and, very importantly, you will improve your time sense.

Rhythm imitation

EarMaster will play a rhythm and you have to clap the rhythm to the beat of the metronome. Clap your hands in front of your microphone, tap the rhythm on the space bar or play it on your MIDI instrument. This exercise will further develop what the two previous rhythm-exercises dealt with – only this exercise really emphasizes the musical approach, in that it is you who play – with no visual guidance.

Rhythm correction

In this exercise EarMaster will play a rhythm score and then play the same rhythm -but with a few changes. Your task is to identify these changes. Your ability to grasp rhythmical variations and other type of progressions in musical patterns and figures is the focus here.

Melodies

Finally, the question of the eternally desirable perfect pitch. Can you transcribe a tune when you hear it? Can you start of singing your starting line without a cue from your pianist or guitar player? Or can you identify the very important note in the chorus that everybody else in the band is playing?

Melody dictation

EarMaster will here play a melodic phrase. You can then transcribe it on the staff, on guitar tablature, or on the piano. Step by step, you come closer to perfect pitch. And closer to the optimal utilization of your musicality.

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