Hello. I created a web application that can be used to help practice the skill explained in Ear Training for Musical Creativity, lesson 10 “How to get oriented in the key of the music by ear.” I wanted something that was flexible and easy to use that allowed me to control which harmonic environments I wanted to concentrate on, and hide the answer unless I wanted to check myself. I found managing this manually with my existing music player was too much effort, so being a software engineer, I went ahead and wrote this application. I think it’s pretty helpful and I hope you do as well! I discussed making this available to everyone here at IFR with @ImproviseForReal and David gave me the go-ahead to do so.
The web application can be found here: Orient in the Key. I did not purchase a domain for this, so the URL is auto-generated by Amazon Web Services.
Disclaimer: This app is intended for students who have already purchased IFR Jam Tracks Level 1: Seven Worlds. The jam tracks are copyrighted by Improvise for Real, so please purchase the tracks at their website before using this player app. You will not need to do anything to load the tracks into the player app. They are already in there. Buying the tracks from Improvise for Real is just the right thing to do!
I’m trying this at my next practice! It looks really useful. Thanks a lot for your effort and for sharing. (And yes, I have purchased the tracks some time ago:-)
Wowowowow. Your app seems to work great. Using on my work laptop now (lol), but will see what happens when I try to download it (or the app link) from my iPhone. Will use much more on my iPhone. I think this will be really helpful to me. Thank you so much.
This is flipping awesome! Thank you so much! this works great I will get soooooo much use out of this! I was trying to pick with my eyes closed and then checking with my flute- now I carry a pitchpipe with me and can do it (almost) anywhere! Thank you for all of your hard work on this program- It makes this exercise so much easier to practice.
Tracyleigh
Let me add my thanks to @Michael for this great tool! One of our biggest projects on the horizon is to create an IFR player app as a window into all of the audio content of the program, with rich functionality like defining your own playlists, random play, etc. But all of that is quite far off, so I really appreciate Michael’s generosity in giving us this great step forward!
I’ve been using the website, and it works great! Saves me organising the tracks in a playlist and doing shuffle. If you’d like an idea for an slight modification/addition, you could add the ability to select the type of track as well, ie Meditative/Modern/Jazz. I like to choose a specific track type and randomise the key and harmonic environment, it depends on what kind of mood I’m in.
Thanks for doing this @Michael. And good new about an IFR app @ImproviseForReal, looking forward to it!!
Well, I don’t really need this as I can instantly recognise all the levels and keys without problem. I’ll give it a go on full random just for the fun of it though.
Later… damn! I need to work on this.
Thanks for doing this simple but incredibly useful app.
