Functional Ear Trainer vs Ear Training University

Have you (or maybe one of your friends) ever wanted to learn to transcribe or play music by ear? It is so important for a musician to know what you are hearing. A good musical ear helps when you are composing, improvising, transcribing melodies, or playing with others. Most likely you have already tried different programs to learn to recognize intervals or even to acquire perfect pitch. However, although such programs develop your ear, but can you actually play any melody you hear as soon as you listen to it? Imagine you could understand music... It is like when somebody is talking to you, you not only hear pleasant sounds, but you recognize words and their meaning. One day I came across Alain Benbassat's program called "Functional Ear Trainer" and have been using it ever since. It is based on Alain's method to learn to recognize tones. The main difference between the Functional Ear Trainer and other methods is that it teaches you to distinguish between tones in the context of a particular musical key. You begin to recognize the role (or function) of each tone in this key, which is incredibly similar to its role in other keys of the same scale. And it is *guaranteed* anyone can gradually develop this skill. It does not matter: - who you are - an absolute beginner in music or a virtuoso professional musician; - how old you are - a 3 yo kid or a 90+ adult; - what musical instrument you play (you don't even have to play one). The only requirement is to practice for 10 minutes a day. I was so excited about this ear trainer that I have developed a mobile app based on the Alain Benbassat method. I hope you will find it useful.

The goal of Relative Pitch ear training is to learn to follow the flow of music, *effortlessly* by ear. The Ear Training University (ETU) app was carefully designed to take all the guess work out of how to learn this skill. Whether you’re a complete beginner in ear training or have done ear training before, ETU’s approach is sure to find any weaknesses your ears may have and systematically build your sense of Relative Pitch from the ground up. Rather than presenting a “Grab Bag” of drills, we have designed a series of lessons that teach you how to do ear training the right way. These lessons include both video instruction and interactive drills. Most of the settings --including tempo changes-- are already programmed into the drills to keep things interesting and challenging. All you need to do is follow along! Progress is easy to visualize simply by viewing the Lesson Cards which keep track of your stats, for example: when you started a lesson, the percentage completed, when you last visited a lesson and when you completed it. You can enter your music teacher’s email address and they will receive progress reports every time you complete an activity as well! The videos explain how to properly do the drills which include listening drills, singing drills and spelling drills. They will encourage you along the way! The best way to learn Relative Pitch is to do both singing drills and listening drills. Singing is active learning. Listening is passive. Learn first by singing and then test your knowledge by listening. ETU’s interactive drills make learning Relative Pitch with this method easy and doable for everyone! (We realize that watching videos is not for everyone. However, if you only watch one video, watch “The Discernment Drill – The Key to Discerning Harmonic Relationships!” This video discusses one type of interactive drill called "The Discernment Drill." This drill really opens up the ear so that it can perceive harmonic intervals and chords *instantly* even when played lightning-fast during Speed Rounds.) Features: ⁃ Interval training drills (up, down, harmonic), both Singing and Listening Drills. - Professionally recorded voice-over cues for drills. - Interval and Chord Spelling drills. ⁃ Chord Identification drills (arpeggios and harmonic) ⁃ Chord Inversion drills (harmonic and arpeggiated) ⁃ Give your responses with on-screen piano keyboard or large easy to push buttons. ⁃ Change instruments at any time during drills ⁃ Interval singing and chord singing drills ⁃ Setup your correct vocal range ⁃ Slow self-paced drills and “Speed Rounds” which test whether you’re ready to move on! ⁃ Video instruction ⁃ Teacher Reports (these reports even include spelling test questions and the student’s responses) Please check in with us frequently as we have a lot of new content planned for ETU. We’re excited to bring you this app and will be updating frequently!