Scales & Modes vs Functional Ear Trainer

Scales & Modes is an interactive visual and audio reference for the diatonic scales and modes that are fundamental in music theory. View major and minor modes on the musical staff, see fingerings for both keyboard and guitar, and listen to the scales note by note, in any key. Violin and bass guitar fingerings are also available as an in app purchase add on. Diatonic musical scales and modes are one of the fundamental concepts of Western music theory. But the large number of scales makes learning and remembering them difficult. Scales & Modes is a handy mobile reference guide for viewing and listening to a large number scales and modes, including all the modes of the major, natural minor, and harmonic minor scales. Select a root note and a scale to display the notes of the scale on the musical staff, and click “Play Scale” to listen. Select the Keyboard or Guitar tabs (or Violin and Bass after an in app purchase) to view fingering diagrams for the scale on those instruments, and press the info button to see more detail about constructing the scale.

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.