EarMaster Challenge

I have now been using EarMaster for a total of 38 hours and the improvements are amazing!

I am no longer struggling with interval identification and have got over the hurdle of the minor 7th. I have completed all 37 exercises in the interval identification and have now returned to the beginning of the course to try and improve my results both in accuracy and in time. The programme gives a number of options for answer input and instead of simply pressing the button with the interval name on it I am attempting to place the notes on the stave. I am finding this considerably more difficult but I think that it will be the most effective way of improving my sight singing.

I mentioned before that I had also been using the interval singing option which is proving to be very helpful as well as the interval comparisson which I am finding surprisingly difficult but it is definately improving my ear.

Chord Identification, chord inversions and chord progressions are the latest addition to my challenge and are something that I have found very useful so far in improving my general musicianship. I am finding these much harder than the other lessons I have been doing as a lot of it is unfamiliar to me. I am definately improving but at a slower pace than in other lessons I have taken.

Rhythm reading is amazing and is possibly the most useful to me of all the lessons I have been doing. I have made a decision to stop at lesson 30 as after this I am finding it exceptionally difficult and I think the later exercises are not likely to be very useful in sight singing. However, I am sure that for a percussionist they would be very helpful. As with the interval identification I am now repeating lessons that I have already passed in the hope of further improvement.

As I have said before I am using graded exercises in an attempt to note any improvements. I was worried that although my ear was getting better that I would not yet see improvements when I put it into practice outside of the programme.
I have downloaded free e-book which is made up of about 400 sight reading exercices. http://www.lightandmatter.com/sight/sight.pdf
In the last couple of weeks I have tried some of the exercises but I am unable to upload the examples. As I suspected I am still struggling to put what I have learnt into context but I hope to overcome this in the next week.