Music-Making Improves Through Use of Ear Training Software

Creating music is a very personal talent, a skill that requires most of what it means to be a human being. The performer’s hands, fingers, arms and eyes are used to provide the reading and interpretive abilities, eye-hand coordination, and physical conditioning needed in the music-making process.

In many of those efforts, the performer’s face, hands, fingers, arms and lungs are also critical components. All must work in conjunction for the musician to be able to perform and perform well. An impediment or limitation in one will diminish the performer’s ability and the music. A singer can’t sing at his or her best with a runny nose. Like an athlete, a musician practices or participates in rehearsal to improve human components so they can be better at their craft. One of the many human pieces that all performers use every musical moment is their ears.

Improving how well a musician’s ears contribute to their music- making is often not directly addressed during their practices or rehearsals. Through performing music, the ears improve their ability to distinguish notes or chords that are out of tune, what the interval designated by the notes on the written page will sound like, and what needs to happen physically to perform the correct notes with proper intonation. Training one’s ears to hear those musical aspects is part of performing the piece being worked on. Music is better when it’s in tune. This critical part is one of the few in music that can be improved through the direct use of technology – Ear Training Software.

Like most software platforms now, there are dozens of choices when selecting an Ear Training Software to use with your students. And like most software, it does not work if the students do not use it, don’t know how to use it, don’t find using it worthwhile, and don’t have convenient access to it. Providing access is now much easier as most students constantly have access to a device and adequate WiFi – at least in school.

More and more products are universally available on cloudbased platforms so that they can be used at any time from just about any location. Equally, students are more tech-savvy than their predecessors and as long as the software functions in a logical and intuitive manner, they will be able to operate it properly. So, the challenge that remains to be overcome is making sure the students find it worthwhile.

Before selecting a platform, compose a list of what you want your students to learn from it, such as intervals, chords, theory, functional pitch. Once you do that, return to it after the next few rehearsals or lessons you have and reconsider what’s on it and in what order.

Once you are comfortable and confident that this is what your Ear Training Software expectations are, then you can start the search for the right program to meet your needs. Be aware that some companies offer solutions that will meet just some of your needs and some will try to meet them all. As a general rule, software that tries to do everything is really good at nothing. You may need to drop a few of your needs to select software that will do your first three or five priorities really well. Or you may need to have two programs (if you can budget for it) that work in conjunction with each other. Some platforms offer ear training as a part of a larger offering that may include composition, scales, rudiments, arpeggios, or solo preparation.

Requiring your students to use the provided ear training software can be as easy as including it in your grading for each student. Having each student produce some documentation or proof that they spent time using the software or achieved some level of competence or completed a task would make sure that the majority of your students ‘did the work.’ But requiring students is not the same as making their use of the software worthwhile. To do that, the training needs to have multiple skill levels. Your students have different levels of skill in this based on their talents, their experience, their previous efforts, and even how they create music. Having your seniors and your freshmen work on the same skill level will frustrate all of them; the seniors because it is too easy and the freshmen because it is too hard.

Such levels will provide each student with the challenge needed to not only make sure they want to invest their time in improving, but see the improvements being made. Relating their ear training efforts to their music will add to their assurance that the time they are investing in completing each level and moving forward is benefiting both their music and their contribution to their ensemble.

Highlighting student accomplishments during rehearsal, noting how you are hearing their improvement in performing since starting the software’s use, and even using the software itself during rehearsal to bring attention to a melodic or harmonic section of the music being worked on can all support your students in their ear training efforts. Make sure your software has multiple levels, each with a series of achievable goals, each leading to the next, with entry at each level.

Like all technology now, ear training software is constantly being improved and updated. But the core of what was used in the mid-80s in the Apple IIe computer labels of the time or the mid-90s labs full of Dells or Compaqs or Mac Power PCs remain the same today. Accessible; Usable; Adjustable; Worthwhile. Some of the top names as of this date include Perfect Ear, Ear Master, Functional Ear Training, ToneScholar, Tenuto and Complete Ear Training.

If your students are younger and more into gaming, some programs emphasize that including SoundGym. And there are free options as well. But even if your selection only covers a few of your ear training priorities, as long as the students use it and find it worthwhile (grading not withstanding), the effort and expense will have been well spent.

Steffen Parker is a retired music educator, event organizer, maple sugar maker, and Information Technology specialist from Vermont who serves as the Performing Arts/Technology representative on the NFHS High School Today Publications Committee. He received the NFHS Citation Award in 2017 and the Ellen McCulloch- Lovell Award in Arts Education in 2021.