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Mac Magazin/MacEasy 19
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Mac Magazin and MacEasy Magazine CD - Issue 19.iso
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Musik & Kunst
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Ear Workout 2.1
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1996-01-15
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Ear Workout 2.1
Ben Crowell
e-mail (after 2/96):
ben_crowell@fullcoll.edu
Ear Workout is a program meant to help you improve your musical
hearing skills. It currently has three workouts:
- recognizing intervals
- recognizing chords
- singing intervals
This is free software. Please do not disseminate it without the source
code and documentation.
Getting started:
----------------
When the program first comes up, it offers you a choice of
workouts. When you're done with a workout, you can click on its
close box and select a new workout from the Workouts menu.
How to use the Recognizing Intervals workout:
---------------------------------------------
The computer plays an interval, and you click on the button
to say what you think it was. If you were wrong, it indicates what
the interval really was by blanking out all the incorrect buttons.
There are various hints available by clicking on the buttons on the
right. You can use the check boxes to control which intervals
can be played.
How to use the Chords workout:
------------------------------
The computer plays a chord, and you click on a button
or several buttons to indicate your guess. You must click
on one of the buttons in the left column (the groups labeled
"triads" and "seventh chords") to indicate the basic chord
quality. If you think notes have been added or omitted, click
on one or more of the buttons in the next column ("added and
omitted notes"). Now click on "OK". Once you have guessed
your first chord, another window will pop up showing the
actual notes that were in the previous chord. You can control
the difficulty either by clicking on the "+" and "-" buttons,
or by using the check boxes to enable or disable various types
of chords and added notes.
The "nifty chord number" displayed in the right-hand
window is simply a label I've assigned to distinguish different
chord types. I consider chords to be the same if they differ
only by transposition or voicing. By this definition, there
are 19 3-note chords and 43 4-note chords. The numbers may help
you by showing when chords that appear to be different are
really the same, and by making a seemingly infinite number of
chords into a finite list. There is an appendix at the end of
this documentation defining my chords numbers.
The definition of chord types given in the previous
paragraph is also how the computer decides if your answer
is right. For example, the computer would allow you to
describe a chord containing the notes C E G A as either a
m7 chord (Am7) or a 6 chord (C6).
How to use the Singing Intervals workout:
-----------------------------------------
The computer plays a note, then suggests an
interval to sing. For example, if it says "descending 5,"
you should try to sing the note a perfect fifth below the
note it played. When you are ready to sing your note, click
the "Sing" button. The standard Macintosh sound recording
dialog box pops up. The easiest way to do it is this:
(1) start singing your note; (2) click on Record while still
holding your note; (3) after a short time (half a second is
plenty), click again on Record (equivalent to clicking on the
Stop button, and avoids moving the mouse). The computer tells
you what note you sang. You can try as many times as you like.
When you are ready to try singing another interval, click
on "Go On."
Please note that this workout is a new feature, and it
doesn't work perfectly. I have found that it works best with
whistling. With singing, it sometimes mistakes the note
you sang for the second overtone, which lies an octave plus
a fifth above the actual note. For example, if you sing C
it may mistake it for G.
Also, I have not tested how accurately it can really
measure your intonation. So don't let it crush your ego if
it says you are singing sharp or flat -- it may be that the
program is just not that precise!
I hope to improve this workout in the near future, if
work and family permit. If you would like to get the updated
version, please send me your e-mail address, and I'll let you
know when it's ready.
Known bugs:
-----------
The program crashes if you launch it again from the
finder while it's already running.
If there is a horrible error (such as running out of
memory), the program does not give you a dialog box.
It writes an error message to a file called "errors."
The volume control works, but not really the way
it should. You can't increase the volume.
If you'd like to help:
----------------------
All comments and suggestions are welcome, but I'd
especially appreciate:
- help with improving the volume control
- suggestions for good workouts having to do with
rhythm (but I am not that interested in creating
workouts simply to test one's reading abilities)
- suggestions from professional music educators on
strategies for ear training
- information on whether there is a more widely
accepted system of chord numbers than my own
"nifty chord numbers"
- reports of problems running the software on
other mac hardware (I have an LCIII)
Have fun!
Ben Crowell
------------------------------------------------------
Appendix: Nifty Chord Numbers
The "dissonance" is not really so much a measure of the chord's
dissonance as of how unusual it would be in jazz styles.
The program uses these numbers to help it determine how
often to play a given chord on a given difficulty level.
The "notes" column gives one possible voicing of the chord,
labeling each note by how many half-steps it is above the
lowest one (which is not necessarily the root -- I've
actually chosen the closest possible voicings).
--- three-note chords:
nifty
chord diss-
number onance notes description
1 1 0 4 7 M
2 1 0 3 7 m
3 2 0 3 6 dim
4 3 0 2 6 7 (no 5)
5 3 0 3 5 7 (no 3)
6 3 0 2 5 m7 (no 5)
7 4 0 2 7 sus4
8 4 0 4 5 maj7 (no 3)
9 4 0 1 5 maj7 (no 5)
10 5 0 4 8 +
11 5 0 4 6 b5
12 5 0 3 4 m add #11 (no 1)
13 5 0 2 4 M add 9 (no 5)
14 5 0 1 4 m maj 7 (no 5)
15 6 0 5 6 M add b9 (no 3)
16 6 0 1 6 M add #11 (no 3)
17 6 0 2 3 m add 9 (no 5)
18 6 0 1 3 M add 11 (no 1)
19 8 0 1 2 sus4 add #11 (no 1)
--- four-note chords:
nifty
chord diss-
number onance notes description
1 1 0 3 6 8 7
2 2 0 3 5 8 m7
3 3 0 1 5 8 maj7
4 3 0 2 4 7 M add 9
5 4 0 3 6 9 dim7
6 4 0 2 5 8 half-dim
7 4 0 2 4 8 7+5
8 4 0 3 5 7 m add 11
9 4 0 2 5 7 7sus4
10 5 0 2 6 8 7b5
11 5 0 1 4 8 m maj 7
12 5 0 4 5 7 M add 11
13 5 0 2 3 7 m add 9
14 5 0 2 4 6 7 add 9 (no 5)
15 6 0 4 6 7 M add #11
16 6 0 3 6 7 m add #11
17 6 0 1 3 7 m add b9
18 6 0 3 5 6 dim add 11
19 6 0 2 4 5 m7 add 9 (no 5)
20 6 0 2 3 5 7 add 6 (no 3)
21 6 0 1 3 5 maj7 add 9 (no 5)
22 7 0 3 4 8 Mb6
23 7 0 2 6 7 7 add 11 (no 5)
24 7 0 3 4 7 M add #9
25 7 0 1 4 7 M add b9
26 7 0 2 5 6 7 add #9 (no 5)
27 7 0 1 5 6 maj7 add 11 (no 5)
28 7 0 1 3 4 m maj 7 add 9 (no 5)
29 8 0 1 5 7 b5 maj7
30 8 0 3 4 6 b5 add #9
31 8 0 1 4 6 b5 add b9
32 8 0 2 3 6 dim add 9
33 8 0 1 3 6 dim add b9
34 8 0 1 4 5 maj7 add #9 (no 5)
35 9 0 3 4 5 7 maj 7 (no 3)
36 9 0 1 2 5 m7 maj 7 (no 5)
37 10 0 1 6 7 M add b9 add #11 (no 3)
38 10 0 1 2 7 sus4 add #11
39 10 0 4 5 6 b5 add 11
40 10 0 1 2 6 7 maj 7 (no 5)
41 10 0 2 3 4 m add 11 add #11 (no 1)
42 10 0 1 2 4 M add b9 add 9 (no 5)
43 11 0 1 2 3 m add b9 add 9 (no 5)