Apps for Singing, Sight Reading, Ear-Training, Music Theory and Rhythm

Just a thought that the randomisation, note and octave selection features of MelodyBud make for a pretty good (free if you already have it) ear training app.

vdk_john · June 2023

@MobileMusic said:

@pedro said:
My nephew was playing with a little app called chet the other day. It’s just a little game, but for ear training it can be fun, you have to identify notes, intervals, chords, etc, to progress. Oh and it’s free.

Yes, Chet and Ella from the same dev were already included in my Free Apps list.

I'm really enjoying Chet, it's amazing! Much more than a game now (I realise I'm replying to an old thread, but the list is still quite relevant)

https://apps.apple.com/us/app/chet-ear-training/id1405525467

Also, speaking of gamified ones, there is also this one inspired by wordle: https://keydle.playlumi.com/

Bruques · June 2023

I use earpeggio every day. Free. Randomized ear training exercises work perfectly. https://apps.apple.com/gb/app/earpeggio/id884775105

Bruques · June 2023

@Blipsford_Baubie said:
I still have quite a way to go theory-wise, but looking ahead on some of these apps, or even looking on the web, I never see the subject of chord melodies being addressed.

I’m guessing this is because it’s a creative and subjective process and there’s alternatives when it comes to harmonization?

I’d like to know up to what level of harmonization I need to solidify for me to determine on my own which inversions will work and what notes may be omitted for basic chord melodies. It’s easy to learn the inversions, but I assume with chord progressions, you need to think ahead for the resulting resolution, or modulation, ect. I know this will differ whether you’re considering keyboard finger positioning or guitar fretboard, but I’m more concerned with composition right now.

I’m open to text book suggestion as well. Thanks.

I was inclined to reply because I love the subject of harmonization but then I immediately realized there's no short answer
So much of this is idiomatic, IE relative to your taste and style for a start. Pop stuff is incredibly conservative and very few options are ever used, whereas jazz or even metal use almost limitless options. If you're doing anything jazz-informed which includes all kinds of soulful dance musics, then the brown Mark Levine book is the bible, and the reharmony chapters go quite deep.

Whose songs for you are melodically strong in this regard though?

If you pick a few songs that you think are exemplary with this aspect of melody in relation to chords, then analyze what are the dominating melody notes relative to the particular chord at any given moment,,,, it may tell you a lot about why you like it.

I say dominating because there is often over a particular chord, one particular note that the composer is making the feature note hanging over the chord feeling, even if the melody moves through other notes, this one main note. Depending on the mood/emotion aimed for that note can be anything at all, these are our choices.

You don't have to worry too much about where you are going because, the action of going there you can finesse many times over, it's not so difficult to intuitively experiment with a couple of short passing notes that get you from one melody note over one chord, to some other note over some other chord

For me I like Stevie Wonder, and Wayne Shorter and in both cases there's a mix and matching (balancing?) of oddly beautiful choices and very standard consonant choices. Sometimes the most beautiful note to play over a chord is the weird one (a la certain Thom Yorke songs), including the alterations (a sharp 4, or a flat 9, not to be geeky but it really is the beautiful choice sometimes) other times not so much and you just want the root note of the chord to also be the melody note and that just feels best at that moment.

There is no wrong or right as you no doubt know, only a way of describing what other people did that we've already decided we like.

A key idea though is to at the very very least be making use of the options offered by the whole extended chords-as-scales, (root, 3rd, 5th, 7th, 9th, 11th, 13th) over any individual chord at any moment (and even beyond those 7 to include the other 5 alterations). So over any chord at all there are at least those 7 choices, and well, because nothing is wrong, then all 12 notes actually, though we may not be adventurous enough to use such weird choices unless we find an explanation/rule/example from an artist we adore

Blipsford_Baubie · June 2023

Thank you for responding @Bruques

Poppadocrock · June 2023

Tonality has ear training, music dictionary, and an encyclopedia of scales and chords.

Chet is cool.

Piano Tutor
Notes trainer
Music tutor plus
Aural Whiz
Hook Theory - 2 apps but also online
ToneGym - online theory tools

YouTube has so many great videos, you can find pdfs of charts, books, etc…
There’s tons of material out there plus your local library probably has digital/physical music mags and books

mojozart · November 2023

Politonus I II and III

https://apps.apple.com/app/politonus-i-ear-training/id1273898936

I think it's also worth mentioning Building Blocks from Audible Genius (makers of Syntorial)

And, hey, Duolingo has a music course

https://blog.duolingo.com/music-course/

Loopy Pro: Create music, your way.

Apps for Singing, Sight Reading, Ear-Training, Music Theory and Rhythm

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