Want to practice recognizing tones (naming them), but don’t have someone to feed you notes?
Here’s a third-best way to do that, which is kinda OK if you’re stuck for a practice partner. Or don’t have music tracks that do it.
Use https://random-music-generators.herokuapp.com/melody which is a random music generator. It’s better than you think, but still it’s computer generated so not high fidelity, not nuanced, not lots of things. But, still OK in a pinch.
Here’s how I occasionally use this online music generator:
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I set it to the melody generator (it also does chord progressions and rhythms)
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I pick one of my presets of 2 or 3 or 4 notes in the melody sequence. You really need to create a preset since the default gives you way too many notes, and it’s a pain to set all the parameters each time you want to generate music. (You need to sign up in order to create presets, but it’s free)
My presets right now use key of C, 2 octave range from G midi 55 to G midi 79, 4/4 time, quarter notes, 45 bpm. And my different presets have 2 notes, 4 notes, or 6 notes.
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I generate the melodies (note sequences) - I set it to generate 20 Melodies at a time. Then I randomly pick one of the 20 and let it play a few times. (The list of the generated melodies tell you the note names, but just don’t look there, or use a piece of paper to cover over that part)
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Then – and I think this is the important part - I sing the melody a few times till I have it solid.
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Then I play a C tonic on the piano (since my presets are all for key of C) and I sing the melody over that tonic. I listen to the sounds - and slowly try to get the feeling of each successive note over the tonic.
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Then I try naming the notes in numbers. When I think I have it right, I check the tool. The tool tells you the note names (Ab, G, Db, F) but of course you’re trying to get the feeling for each note number. So do a quick translate.
I can’t say I do this a lot. Still working on the Singing the Numbers 1 & 2 tracks. But I might be using it more in a few months.
Some of you might be at the point where this is a lot more useful right now, as long as you use it for what it is – the third-best way to do it.
