Song For My Father – George Benson

Heartily sick of Ear Training and such, I just got down to working on the tunes for Sunday’s rehearsal – just the two of us – me on guitar and Flo on Sax Pretty familiar with most of the set list but just realised I hadn’t played Horace Silver’s Song For My Father for yonks.

Searched for it on YouTube and found George Benson in fine form. Cracking stuff!

http://www.youtube.com/v/LUcFkHMHu5A&hl=en&fs=1

Getting Started With Auralia Ear Training

Well, I have been playing with RisingSoftware’s Auralia Ear Training Program for an hour or so now and I thought I’d publish my first impressions – a complete review will be published in the Ear Training section of Advanced Guitar Player so take these comments with a pinch of salt (I use the blog to work on ideas before I put them on the main site!)

I decided to begin the Level One Jazz Ear Training Course – for Intermediate Students with an interest in Improvisation – and see where things took me.

The first section of the Jazz Course was pretty straightforward – Recognising all of the Intervals in a Major Scale if I remember rightly. ie. Unison, Major Second, Major Third, Perfect Fourth, Perfect Fifth, Major Sixth, Major Seventh, Perfect Octave. No funny stuff here. The intervals were all ascending and you just have to click on the button to name them (or you can use a keyboard or guitar fretboard if you prefer to signal the notes). Very easy! Feeling pretty good about things.

Part Two. . . Scale Recognition is a completely different kettle of fish, though! The section opens with an explanation of every scale imaginable – major, natural, harmonic, melodic, blues scale, diminished and a very long list of etceteras. Each scale is notated and there’s a play button so that you can list to how it sounds. To be pefectly honest, I rushed through this so the cropper I came when I got to the exercises was probably my own stupid fault.

So what happened? The program played a scale and I had to choose which one it was out of about 20 possibilities. No Way José! I wasn’t primed so I found the task much too difficult.

However, this made exit the Jazz Course and start to mess around with the rest of the program . . . I went directly to the Scale Recognition  Exercise. This began by having to choose between two scales – Major and Natural (aeolian) Minor, I think – and gradually added different scales. In about 10 minutes I was choosing comfortably between Major, Natural, Harmonic and Melodic Minors. So with a bit of practice I’ll be able to do the Jazz Course Exercise in a couple of days. Pretty nifty, methinks!

 

Auralia and Musition Review Invitation

Well, I have to say I’m quite chuffed with the way things are going . . . A couple of days ago I got an email from RisingSoftware the publishers of Auralia Ear Training software and Musition Music Theory software.

I’d heard of both programs but as I’d been concentrating on my own projects, working my way through David Lucas Burge’s excellent Relative Pitch course and sporadically dipping into EarMaster Pro, I hadn’t got round to downloading the Trial Versions of the programs.

All that changed this morning, I’ve downloaded Auralia, filled in all my details, registered on the RisingSoftware website and am ready to get cracking. I have to say that my initial impressions are very positive. The set up process is very smooth and the program allows you to work through individual exercises or choose a course – if I have a criticism of Ear Training software in general, it’s the lack of guidance provided that irks me most. The majority of musician/students need to be told what they need to study, so I’m optimistic about Auralia from the word go.

Anyway, here’s there introductory video to give you a basic idea and watch this space for further comments from me as I work my way through the program!!

 

http://www.youtube.com/v/XqZKjFCDolo&hl=en&fs=1&hd=1

EarMaster Pro – Interval Comparison Exercise

This Video shows how the Interval Comparison Exercise works on EarMaster Pro 5,

As I said in my last post, I had no problems until I got to Exercise 13 – the first 12 exercises cover major and minor seconds and thirds, perfect fourths and diminished and perfect fifths and all you have to do is decide which sequence of two notes (A or B) involves the greater interval.

This is incredibly easy if the first note in each sequence of the same. For example, identifying that the difference between Eb and Bb (Perfect Fifth) is greater than the difference between Eb and Ab (Perfect Fourth) is pretty straightforward – you’re not being asked to identify the notes or name the interval or anything complicated like that.

However, when I got to Exercise 13, I had real problems at first (admittedly, it was 1 o’clock in the morning and I’d been working on evaluating Ear Training software since lunch, so my ears were pretty overloaded). This exercise covered ascending major and minor seconds but the starting not varied with each sequence, so A might be F#-G (minor second) and B might Bb-C (major second).

I found this exercise much more challenging and had to repeat it two or three times until I was getting more than 90% correct  (the program lets you continue with less but I like to do things properly). The important thing is that the exercise was a really great example of Ear Training. I was tired and unfamiliar with the task so I had to train myself to concentrate more and perceive the differences – EarMaster Pro definitely gets a big thumbs up from me here.

Anyway, here’s the video and don’t forget to DOWNLOAD YOUR FREE COPY OF EARMASTER PRO 5

http://www.youtube.com/v/bmEsnLVb8_g&hl=en&fs=1

 

I’ll keep you up to date with more thoughts as I work my way through the Interval Comparison Exercise.

 

Testing Testing Testing – More Thoughts on EarMaster Pro

I’ve juat decided to give the Evaluation Copy of Ear Master Pro a run for its money and the first exercise I tried was Interval Comparison – I thought the program was a bit limited for the first twelve exercises – harmonic and melodic intervals with a common note – the question you have to answer is ‘Which Interval Is Greater? – pretty easy if there’s a note in common!!!

However, Exercise 13 ups the ante and you have to compare major and minor thirds without a reference note. It should be easy but the programs just suggested I repeat the exercise – I only got 74%correct GRRRRRRRRRRRRRR!

I¡m quite impressed, though – so I think the program’s worth spending some time with!

 

CLICK HERE FOR A FREE TRIAL COPY OF EAR MASTER PRO

Ear Master Pro – Groovy Ear Training Software

Another Groovy Presentation of Ear Master Pro

CLICK HERE FOR A FREE TRIAL COPY OF EAR MASTER PRO

And make sure you check out the Ear Training Project on Advanced Guitar Player

http://www.youtube.com/v/tD_llnwjQfQ&hl=en&fs=1

Ear Master Pro – Overview

As part of the Ear Training Project on Advanced Guitar Player, I plan to include software reviews – Despite my doubts about how effectively you can use a program to train your ear (it’s often not that the program is at fault, but actually having a teacher provides the necessary motivation), Ear Master Pro seems to me to be leagues ahead of the competition, Check out this video overview and CLICK HERE FOR A FREE TRIAL COPY OF EAR MASTER PRO

 

http://www.youtube.com/v/sHhVwnvoMP4&hl=en&fs=1

My Little Suede Shoes

I’ve just started work on My Little Suede Shoes by Charlie Parker – I’ll be loading up Guitar Pro Tabs

to Advanced Guitar Player in the couple of days!

 

Here’s a bit of 1950s inspiration from Sonny Stitt and Jay Jay Johnson towhet your appetite!

 

http://www.youtube.com/v/8FxBSbooMms&hl=en&fs=1

 

Ear Training Course – From Major To Minor

I’ve almost finished the Lesson Notes for the first section of the Ear Training Course – still pretty rough and only dealing with the C Major Scale so far.

 

Good News is . . . I’ve programmed about five lessons on the C Minor Natural Scale so the second phase of the Guitar Ear Training Course is starting to take shape.

Great song: PlimSoul-TexasFloodSample by

I found this song and think you should give it a listen: PlimSoul-TexasFloodSample by :

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