Ear Training Game Included in Free Piano Lessons Site Increases Student's Ability to Play By Ear
Music students taking piano lessons have a new opportunity to learn to play by ear. A software game titled "Ear Training 101", released by Music Unlimited Inc, an online piano lessons site, is unmatched in its ability to teach students to hear melodies and transfer them onto the piano by ear.
Jacksonville, OR (PRWEB) June 11, 2009 -- "Ear Training 101", released by Music Unlimited Inc., an online piano lessons website, is unmatched in its ability to teach piano lesson students to hear melodies and transfer them onto the piano by ear. The game works off of the tried and true adage: practice makes perfect. Music Unlimited Inc. CEO, David Sprunger, piano teacher, author of many of the free piano lessons and executive producer of this game, says that many music students taking piano lessons have benefitted greatly from time spent with "Ear Training 101".
The piano lessons game has a wide range of difficulty, and with 22 skill levels, anyone from a first year piano lesson student, to a "Master Musician" can take something away from this training software.
The basic premise is simple: The computer will play one note, which is highlighted on the piano lesson student's screen, followed by a second note. Because the 2nd note is not shown on the screen, the student must use their ear to click on the correct note. In the first level, the notes won't get farther apart than a whole note, but in the higher levels, any note on the screen is fair game.
The piano lesson student's score is tracked by measuring two things: the percent of answers that are correct, as well as the time it takes to complete the level. Sprunger says that he added the timer because "In a real life situation, you must be able to act almost instinctively, picking out correct notes without stopping to think." There's even a handy reader board to keep track of your best scores.
The game also includes two modes: Interval and Chord. In Interval mode, the notes are played one after the other, with the piano lesson student distinguishing the second note by ear. In chord mode, a second challenge is added: both notes are played at the same time. This teaches students who are taking traditional piano lessons the valuable skill of picking out chords by ear. In this mode, you are given the choice of picking out the lower or higher note.
A box in the upper-right hand corner of the screen holds some pretty important instructions from Sprunger, including an explanation of perfect pitch (and why it's not as good as everyone thinks), as well as an admonition as to why every student taking piano lessons must master the technique of Playing By Ear.
Perfect pitch, Sprunger says is "The ability to produce or identify a tone perfectly on key without any reference to an outside source". The problem with this, he says, is that pianists with perfect pitch almost always hear notes in tune with the International Standard, A440. Since many instruments and choirs are never perfectly in tune, someone with "Perfect Pitch" could actually be out of tune with the other members of their band or choir! The solution to this, Sprunger says, is developing something called "Relative Pitch" which he defines as "the ability to recognize a note perfectly in tune relative to another note". This, he says, is what his Ear Training 101 teaches.
With a fun setup, and an easy user interface, not to mention an incredible ability to train your ears to the delicate task of playing by ear, Sprunger's game, Ear Training 101, is an excellent choice for any student of the piano.
In addition, the company has posted an in-depth free piano lessons website online.
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