Functional Ear Trainer 4+

Has a sensible programme of increasingly difficult challenges that have improved my pitch discrimination and solfege naming.

Gives a useful view of errors in the form of the proportion of trials that you get wrong on each note and what you mistakenly chose instead. I.e., you can use this information to guide future trials. There is also an option to make custom challenges, e.g. with a high density of notes that you find hard. It would be useful if this information were used automatically….eg, to create a higher proportion of tricky notes on the next session or a stand-alone custom challenge.

The notes seem to be chosen randomly, without replacement, which stamps out the expectation of particular notes based on what you’ve had so far.

There are choices in ways that the solfege names are represented on the keys. I found the default hard to get on with because ♯ (sharp) is represented as # (hash) and ♭ (flat) is represented as b (the letter). This means that you end up with keys that look like words, eg ‘Lab ’. I’ve changed the view to the Do, Di system (wouldn’t this be a better default?)

The thing that makes this app different from the rest is that it understands that our challenge with music is to hear notes and intervals WITHIN a tonality. But that is also our benefit - we hear notes because of their sympathy or not with the key and their proximity to a note which is sympathetic. I am obsessed with the idea that everyone can learn when asked EXACTLY the right question. This app will ask you that question. And you can customise it so it is extremely targeted. Well done user - you found the needle in the haystack!

I’ve tried ear training with apps before, not having put a mountain of effort in, but experiencing frustration when I’ve, after making seemingly solid progress, mistaken a perfect 5th for a major second or visa versa. And the more obscure intervals I might get a handle on during a session, but the feel wouldn’t crystallise between sessions.

The big difference with this app is the contextual mechanism it coaches you to employ, walking up or down the scale of the current ket to the nearest tonic. It’s simple, but for me has made a huge difference, to whereby having used the app for three days I’m correctly identifying obvious and a fair few of the more obscure intervals across sessions with good (not yet flawless) accuracy. And it doesn’t feel like I’m stumbling around in the dark!

All that and this app is free and well developed. There are a few glitches with the sound every so often when it’s like the processor wants to take a split-second nap, but other than that, it’s perfect.

Many thanks!