MusicaNeo
Michele Schottenbauer Postmodern Composer and Music Educator

Introducing New Multimedia Ear Training Materials!

09.07.2014 Article

Learning ear training is enhanced through detailed multimedia materials.

A new set of ear training materials is available from the composer M. Schottenbauer on MusicaNeo. The series breaks down ear training in a new way, including the skills of interval recognition, harmonic overtone series awareness, tone quality, tuning and intonation, and identifying musical mistakes. The first installments in this series are currently available on MusicaNeo.


Ear Training: Intervals

Focusing on the topic which is traditionally taught as "ear training," this multimedia set focuses on interval recognition.  Materials include audio files and scores with written intervals. Level 1 contains intervals from Unison to P8, and Level 2 contains intervals from P8 to P15.

 

Ear Training: Harmonic Overtone Series

Harmonics are a difficult concept for some students to understand, due to the math and science concepts involved.  This multimedia set contains a combination of scientific instruction, written music, and audio recordings which teach the basic concepts associated with the harmonic overtone series.

 

Ear Training: Tuning & Intonation

Most elementary bands and youth symphonies produce out-of-tune cacophony for months, if not years of study. Is there a simpler, quicker way of encouraging in-tune performance?  This multimedia training set aims to provide a better understanding of the concept of tuning, intonation, and auditory "beats," with a series of computer-generated audio files, plus scores with written exercises and written instruction on the topic.

 

Ear Training: Tone Quality

In the beginning, music students struggle to read notes on a page. Listening to tone quality is a "meta-awareness" which must be built over time. The ability of a trained music educator to identify tone quality problems, such as "droopy" note endings and "wavy" tone, may seem almost mystical to elementary students. This training program takes the mystery out of tone quality assessment, by training students upfront to discern the difference between good and bad tone quality. Students are provided with a written training program, accompanied by short audio samples of ideal and problematic tone for a variety of common band and orchestral instruments. The first installment of the series is available from MusicaNeo, and expansion levels with new sound samples are expected to be published by 2015. 

 

Ear Training: Identifying Musical Mistakes

Ear training is an often ignored component of music education, particularly for piano. This series of exercises is intended to provide basic training and support for individual and group music lessons, by focusing on the skill of comparing a written score to an audio file. Students are asked to circle the mistakes, which may include pitch, intonation, rhythm, articulation, or style.  The series titles use the following coding:  NUMBER = Number of musical instruments, LETTER = Difficulty. The series, available from MusicaNeo, will be expanded over the next 2 years to include popular works for orchestra and band.

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