Accurate identification and reproduction of musical intervals, scales, chords, rhythms, and other aspects of ear training often can require a great deal of practice. Exercises involving identification often require a knowledgable partner to play the questions and validate the answers. Software specialized for music theory can remove the need for a partner, customize the training to the users needs and accurately track scores and progress. University music departments often license popular commercial software for their students such as: EarMaster[1], Auralia[2] and MacGAMUT[3]; allowing them to track and manage student scores on a computer network. A variety of free software also exists both as browser based applications and downloadable executables. For example, GNU Solfege is a free and GPL open source software that can provide many comparable features to popular commercial products[4][5]. The majority of ear training software are MIDI based, allowing the user to customize the instruments that play and even accept input from MIDI compatible devices such as electronic keyboards. Teoria, MusicTheory and Good-Ear are notable websites that provide many browser based ear training tools that can be used without requiring users to download and run an executable [6][7][8]. TrainEar is a recent browser based ear trainer specifically for helping associate musical intervals to songs[9].
- ^ http://faculty.plattsburgh.edu/drew.waters/elementary120b_home.htm
- ^ http://www.easternct.edu/personal/faculty/swaminas/ECE%20512%20webpages%20for%20uploading/Shannon%20Stevenson%20Music%20Technology%20Final%20Website/Notation%20Software.htm
- ^ http://www.ruf.rice.edu/~gottsch/functional/
- ^ http://www.ulm.edu/~everett/auralskills.html
- ^ http://www.southernct.edu/music/links/
- ^ http://music.agnesscott.edu/theory.htm
- ^ http://www.mcneese.edu/theatre/index2.htm
- ^ http://uweb.txstate.edu/~ns13/courses/Theory_Resources.html
- ^ http://www.people.vcu.edu/~bhammel/theory/new_menu/resources/dictation.htm