Relative Pitch, Ear Training iPhone App Options

[maharzan]

So, even after playing for 16+ years and not having the ability to find out chords of a song or even transcribe faster, I decided to train my ear. Yes! you just won't believe, I can't even tune a damn guitar at least not perfectly. I have a really bad ear and I was bad at listening exams as well. But never too late, I can find out chords and transcribe but have to listen to like 1000 times and I have really hard time if there are a LOT of instruments going around at the same time.

Nevertheless, I looked and searched over the internet for training my ear. I am choosy. I looked at least around 10 sites and applications that claimed to be perfect for some. I tested them but didn't really like the approach. Some has piano interface some had notations and you could virtually see whats being played.. too bad if you are looking. Then, I wanted to move away from my computer as its too distracting and thought why not use an iPhone App?

So, I searched around for a bit and test some 5-6 free apps. Most of them had the same problem too poor interface and something was just not right.

Application -

I finally tested an app called Relative Pitch Lite free version. This doesn't have a great interface (that I mostly look for) but it does the job. I worked on it for a day and I was already inspired and decided to get the full version - Relative Pitch.


Cost -

$7.99 (yea a bit expensive for an iPhone app)


Pros -

I have always loved simple and easy to use things. Apart all sites/softwares I saw this one was the simplest just like a classic amp. Simple and straight forward. You have a Training and a Testing modules. So basically, you train first and then you have to take a test before proceeding. Training is just right because you just get one pitch at a time along with root note. So, its not hurrying the process as other softwares did. Another best part of it is, it plays the 2 notes say Tone and another pitch and then there is a sec gap and also speaks what the difference is, say a Semi Tone. So, you could just put your phone down or if you want to look you can as nothing goes in the screen, you just hear the tone and another pitch. You can guess and then after a sec, you can check if you are right. You can do this just by hearing. Now that what I call Ear Training. After you take a test and pass, next lesson is unlocked, more options. You can now listen to more sounds and tell the notes.. and you progress until you complete all. You know what the best thing about this app is? I can now stop playing games while I am in restroom and then train my ear. Time well spent.

Cons -

I haven't gone through everything yet but I haven't seen chord training yet, just intervals. Another drawback I experienced today morning is that it somehow lost sound and I had to restart my iPhone before I could get back. I saw this was #1 question on its FAQs. Pretty bad. For the price, I would have loved to get all in one package with chords and transcribing examples. But thats a long way to go. I guess, I have well invested to fix my long time faulty ear.


Ear Training doesn't come in a day. People spend years and they can't even perfect it. I am not expecting that either. I will be spending few minutes a day and hopefully figure out which note is which and be able to transcribe easily and also improvise on the fly in few months or by a year. Sometimes, you have a tune in your head and you just can't put it in your hands. I am hoping to overcome this.

Here are more details on the app.

And here is a YouTube video about it if you would like to try.

Cheers!!!

You are at GuitarMasterClass.net

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This post has been edited by maharzan: Jul 29 2010, 02:58 PM