Play By Ear is a call-and-response ear training application for Android devices that helps you develop the ability to hear pitches and play them back on your instrument by ear. The call-and-response nature of Play By Ear allows you to click a single button to generate continuous ear training exercises, freeing up your hands so you can play the ear training exercises back on your instrument. Using your instrument to play the notes allows you to practice ear training in a method that most closely matches how you'll actually play music. Download Play By Ear from the Android Market.
ANDROID EAR TRAINER FEATURES
- Hands-free, continuous ear training
- Interval exercises
- Chord exercises
- Random melody exercises
- Scale pattern melody exercises
- Jazz lick melody exercises
- Melodic and harmonic note sequences
- Ascending and descending note sequences
- Customizable tempo
- Ability to show or hide the first note of each ear training exercise
- C, Bb, Eb, F, G, and D key centers to match your instrument
Note: Unlike my iPhone app, the Android version does not have pitch recognition.
HOW IT WORKS
The Play by Ear Android ear training application will play an interval, chord, or melody exercise, depending on the highlighted button at the top of the screen.
Listen to the exercise and when it completes, try to play it back on your instrument. After a few seconds, the ear training application will display the correct notes on a staff.
If it's running in auto play mode, the next ear training exercise will play automatically.
DEMONSTRATION VIDEO
Here's a brief video that shows the various features of the Play By Ear ear training application for Android devices. In addition to seeing the features in action, you'll also hear me as I try to play back each of the ear training exercises on my trumpet.
TIPS AND SUGGESTIONS
- Use the SETTINGS page to set options for each exercise type, the tempo, and key center for your instrument.
- When starting out, it might be easiest to work with 2-note melodies or a small group of intervals.
- It's easier to play long melodies when they're in recognizable patterns like the scale and jazz lick options.
- If you can't keep up with the exercise pace, visit SETTINGS->GLOBAL to increase the auto play delay, or turn auto play off.
QUESTIONS AND FEEDBACK
If you have an questions about using the Play By Ear Android ear training application, or if you'd just like to send some feedback, please send me a message.
