Think you can detect slight differences between similar melodic ideas? Try this free test online:
Musical Perception Test (at Delosis.com)
It is a research project for volunteers and you're invited to participate! There are two tests that take about ten minutes each to complete. Test subjects listen to two melodies and then decide whether they are exactly the same or just slightly different.
The catch: you only get to hear each pair once. There are 30 pairs in each test.
Yours truly got 28 of 30 correct on the first test and 30 of 30 on the second one. Can you tell what the difference is between the two tests? Can you do better than me? (Yes, I only took it once...)
If so, feel free to leave a gloating (but friendly) comment here.
(Via this interesting ScienceDaily article on tone deafness.)
Sunday, August 26, 2007
Test Your Musical Perception
Monday, May 7, 2007
Ear Trainer for Intervals, Chords, Melodies
A reader left a comment on my recent "online ear-trainer" post, suggesting another site with free ear-training software. (Now this is what blogging is all about! It’s great to get suggestions from readers about what else is out there…because I certainly don’t know about it all.)
This ear-trainer program features a special random melody generator for those of you who want to try call-and-response. Try sitting at your instrument (if you can near the computer) and see if you can play back the melody. The site also features exercises involving intervals, chords, rhythm changes, etc. Check it out!
Saturday, May 5, 2007
Ear-Trainer for Intervals
I found this free applet (called "Big Ears") for online ear-training over at the well tempered blog.
The neat thing about this is you can select (or de-select) which intervals you want to hear. This makes it versatile for all levels of musicianship.
Students: I’ll attempt to suggest how to tailor the settings by your lesson book level:
If your lesson book is Level 1 or lower, try selecting these intervals only: P1 (unison), M2 (2nd), M3 (3rd).
Level 2: Add P4, P5 (fourth and fifth), P8 (octave). "P" stands for perfect interval.
Level 3: Add M6 (sixth) and M7 (seventh).
Level 4 and above: You already have all of the major intervals. Now add the minor intervals (m[#]) one by one until you feel comfortable with the new addition. After that try all of the intervals that are bigger than the octave (m9, M9, m10, M10, P11).
Have fun. Also, if you've ever wished you could play two notes on a keyboard and have a program tell you what the interval is, you can find that here (it's on the same site as "Big Ears").
Tuesday, February 27, 2007
Musical Tests at 8notes.com
Want to test your knowledge of notes, intervals, keys, and triads? Check out the musical tests at www.8notes.com. (Note: Only the "musical tests" work; the "musical games" part of the site is currently offline as of the date of this post.) There are also some ear training tests as well (the program will play intervals, scales, and chords and then you try to identify them by ear).
These are great for any age group, but some of the ear training tests can be quite difficult (especially challenging is the scale ear trainer -- trying to identify the different scalar modes by ear was hard even for me!). One good thing is you can change the settings on each game to make them easier or harder. Younger kids with less than 2 years of piano lesson experience will probably have the best luck with the notes and interval tests. The other tests require a bit more advanced musical knowledge.
8notes.com is also a neat site to surf for free sheet music and even online lessons.
PARENTS: I had the best luck using the Internet Explorer browser, equipped with the Flash plug-in.
Wednesday, February 21, 2007
Children's Music Games by Morton Subotnick
Here's some great online fun for youngsters:
Children's Music Games by Morton Subotnick
These musical games are perfect for any children (suitable for all ages) and they all work online for free. Parents: You might want to check the system requirements to make sure these will work on your computer. If you really like these, cd-roms are offered on the website.
There is a "musical sketch pad" and "rhythm band" for experimenting with composition, and there are other neat puzzles and games too.
I had the most fun playing around with the sketch pads. You can simply "draw" shapes and hear them played back, so no knowledge of musical notation is required. You can also transform your compositions: reverse them, turn them upside down, stretch them, make variations, etc. It's really lots of fun!
Morton Subotnick is a contemporary composer who specializes in computer and electronic music.
