EarToner

EarToner is ear training application to help you learn to identify various musical sounds.

EarToner is designed to be easy to use and quick to setup.

I originally wrote a rough version for myself just for identifying intervals. When I mentioned it to other musical friends they were very interested in using it also. I thought I would just formalize it a little more and release it for free on the internet to whoever wants to use it.

Requirements:

￭ Java 1.5

Here are some key features of "EarToner":

￭ number of items played - currently the scoring only indicates how many correct guesses you've made and how many guesses you've made total. ￭ playback mode - click on the buttons and have it play the interval/chord (currently only has a testing mode, so clicking on the buttons is considered a guess at the last interval played) ￭ documentation - info on working with the various modules and what their settings can do.

￭ all intervals from a minor second up to a perfect 15th (two octaves) in half step increments. ￭ direction of intervals (only play up or down, or both randomly) ￭ set tonic - this helps newer ears learning to hear just a few intervals in from single reference point. ￭ allowable range - keeps the notes within a certain number of octaves above and below middle C so it doesn't get too ridiculous. ￭ ability to play the intervals separately or together. ￭ number of intervals - I found that after awhile I could start hearing intervals pretty close to 100&pct of the time, so I thought I'd add an extra twist, in the spirit of most college ear training classes' requirement for dictation. This helps to develop an intervallic memory of sorts. EarToner will play a certain number of pitches, and you must identify the interval between them in the proper order. ￭ note duration

Chords:￭ ￭ chords able to be tested on Major Triad, Minor Triad, Augmented Triad, Diminished Triad, Major 7th, Dominant 7th, Minor 7th, Minor-Major 7th (1, b3, 5, 7), Half-Diminished 7th (1, b3, b5, b7), Full-Diminished 7th (1, b3, b5, bb7), Augmented-Major 7th (1, 3, #5, 7) and Augmented 7th (1, 3, #5, b7). ￭ inversions - ability to select which inversions of chords as well as the chords you wanted to be trained on. ￭ allowable range - keeps the notes within a certain number of octaves above and below middle C so it doesn't get too ridiculous. ￭ set tonic - probably if someone is going to want it for intervals, they're going to want it for chords too. ￭ arppeggiation of chord - seems handy for hearing all of the intervals in the chord when trying to learn new chords.

￭ scales able to be tested on Major (Ionian), Natural Minor (Aeolian), Harmonic Minor, Melodic Minor, Dorian, Phrygian, Lydian, Mixolydian, Locrian, Whole Tone, Chromatic, Major Pentatonic, Minor Pentatonic, Blues, Diminished Whole/Half, Diminished Half/Whole. ￭ allowable range - keeps the notes within a certain number of octaves above and below middle C so it doesn't get too ridiculous. ￭ set tonic - same as above.

￭ Playing of two notes to identify whether the second note is sharp, flat or in tune ￭ Variable length of notes in time. ￭ Variable offset of the second note from the first note, from being played at the same time to playing immediately after the first note. ￭ Ability to select different sound (MIDI patch) for the second note ￭ User selectable maximum detuning, so the second note can be out of tune from the first one as far as a whole step (good for young ears learning to identify lower and higher). ￭ Changeable granularity for the second note, so the detuning of the second note can be anywhere from 1/64th of a whole step all the way up to a whole step ￭ set tonic - same as other modules ￭ interval - separate the two notes by a set interval. Good for string players and others that need to learn to tune in 4ths, 5ths, etc. ￭ direction - for using an interval other than unison allows the second note to be above, below or randomly selected by EarToner.