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En français...
US & Canada site...
Discover
Pizzicato
at the music exhibition
MusikMesse 2010
Frankfurt, Germany
Booth D58, Hall 5.1
March 24 to 27
Click here for more
information...
              
Watch the video
demonstrations
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Learning
Music Is Fine. Practise Music Is Better!
If Pizzicato
teaches you music theory and music notation, there is still one
ingredient missing: apply the theory to music practise.
How do you learn
skills like singing in tune, recognizing intervals,
chords and scales, and playing
with high rhythmic precision?
We have
discovered a wonderful software to help you learn the practise of
music and we decided to present it as a partner and companion
software to Pizzicato. You can order it on our site, as a
downloaded software, on the main Pizzicato order page. Here is EarMaster...
| "Your program is awesome and I am
making great progress. I have been playing classical
guitar for almost 20 years now and I have tried other
perfect pitch programs and failed at them. Their concept
was always from the playing a cd and listening to it.
Your program is like having a teacher in front of me.
When I make a mistake, it fires it back at me and pushes
me to learn. Thanks again for your wonderful program, I
have been looking for something like this for years. I
will recommend this to all of my students and fellow
musicians." Mark
Millage, Classical guitar, Music teacher, Florida, USA
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EarMaster
5 - Interactive Ear Training Software
Improve
your number one musical resource - your ear!
EarMaster
is highly interactive.
It gives
you instant feedback on everything you do.
A lesson
will change every time you take it.
Complexity
will increase, as you make progress.
Develops
your ability to interact with other musicians.
What Is
Ear Training?
Have you ever
thought about what might be the difference between a good
musician and a REALLY good musician?
The answer is
very likely to be Ear Training!
Ear training is
the process of connecting theory (notes, intervals, chords, etc)
with music (the sounds we hear). The more you will exercise to
recognize this connection, the more you will appreciate playing
music, because you will learn to understand what you play.
We, the people
at EarMaster, have all experienced the difference ear training
makes on our musicianship. This is why we recommend it to you.
Many musicians
are not aware of the importance of ear training and have poor
aural skills because of a lack of practice.
Don't be one of
them, start training your ear!
Why Do I
Need Ear Training?
| Music
is all about hearing. Having good aural skills is a
fundamental aspect of being a good musician.
Understanding the sounds we hear is a necessity to
interact with other musicians, to reproduce melodies or
chord progressions, to improvise or even to tune your
instrument. A musical ear gives you a complete
insight in music. Think of the famous composer Ludwig
van Beethoven. His musical ear was so trained that he
managed to write some of his most famous symphonies while
being completely deaf, simply because he could hear the
music in his head and transcribe it. The ability to
compose music in your mind is just one of the many
skills you will obtain by improving your musical ear.
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 |
No wonder all
serious music schools and conservatories are devoting a great
part of their curriculum to Ear Training, often with the help of
interactive programs such as EarMaster, and have requiremtents in
aural skills for applying students.
Even if you are
not planning to enroll at a higher music education program,
practicing Ear Training is doing yourself a major favor, as it
will considerably widen your understanding and mastery of music
as a whole, and will simply help you become a better musician!
How Do I
Get Started?
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The traditional approach is to pay for
expensive private lessons, or perhaps to buy an ear
training course on audio CD. But now there is
a much better alternative: EarMaster!
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| "I've been
playing music for 35+ years and pitch recognition was
something I struggled with. After using EarMaster for
less than a month, I made more progress in this period of
time than the preceding 35+ years." Jim Cox, Amateur musician,
Houston, Texas
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EarMaster
5
Ear
training for all musicians
EarMaster will
challenge all trained and untrained ears! It is for all vocalists
and musicians playing guitar, piano, bass, drums, flute or any
other instrument.
A
complete ear training package
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EarMaster includes exercises in
identifying intervals, chords, chord inversions, chord
progressions, scales and modes. You will also find
exercises in transcribing melodies and rhythms and in
sight-reading or imitation of rhythms. The broad range of
exercise areas covers all your needs for training pitch,
harmonies and rhythms! All together the exercises areas
will help you enhance your musicality and improve your
playing. |
Your own
personal teacher
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EarMaster includes two advanced Tutors
that will guide you and increase the level of complexity
as you improve your ear. The Standard Tutor has 440
lessons ranging from beginners to advanced users. The
Jazz tutor has 211 lessons with swing rhythms and jazz
chords. You can take a lesson again and again, because it
will change every time you take it. |
Powerful
tool for advanced users
 |
You can
customize EarMaster more than any other ear training
tool! There are a lot of settings for the user interface
and for the way you use EarMaster. While you work with a
lesson you can change clefs, time limits, input methods,
tempo, sounds, etc. EarMaster also allows you to use your
MIDI instrument to insert tones and rhythms, or as a
remote control! There are also keyboard shortcuts to all
features. A great feature is that you can make your own
custom tuned string instrument for inserting and
displaying the tones on the screen. Even left handed
string instruments are possible. |
Customized
exercises
 |
In the
customized mode you are in control of the exercises and
you can configure them to do exactly what you want! You
can customize pitch ranges, keys and meters, how the
chord or interval should be placed in the keys, how
intervals and chords are played, and you can specify
exactly what intervals, chords and rhythm values to work
with, and much more. You can of course also define your
own customized chords, scales and chord progressions. |
Instant
feedback
 |
EarMaster
gives instant audiovisual feedback on everything you do!
The tones you enter are transcribed simultaneously on the
staff and on the on-screen instruments. When you submit
your answer, EarMaster will tell if your answer is wrong.
Your answer and the correct answer will be shown on the
staff and instruments, and you can hear both
individually. This is a very effective learning process
where you learn from your errors and improve your ear
faster than with any other training method. |
Guitar,
piano, bass, violin, cello, ...
 |
Make
ear training a musical project by relating it to an
instrument you play! EarMaster is designed for musicians
playing almost any instrument. You can interact with
EarMaster in a multitude of ways. EarMaster supports
onscreen piano, guitar, bass, violin, cello, banjo and
any other customized string instrument! Using General
MIDI, you can utilize all of the 128 instruments and
sounds. EarMaster also comes with real-time Sound2MIDI
technology that allows you to sing and clap your answer
using a microphone - and to play your answer on your
favorite instrument! You can also use the onscreen staff,
multiple-choice, or use MIDI input from keyboards and
other MIDI-devices. |
Detailed
statistics on your progress
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You can monitor your progress by viewing
the detailed statistics about your performance! Has your
ear improved at identifying the minor 7th chord? What
progress have you made in the past two weeks? Are you
answering faster? How much time did you spend on ear
training during the past month? EarMaster will provide
all this information for you. |
Pass
your ear training exams
 |
Do you need to pass an ear training exam
in a near future? EarMaster allows you to test your self
at home in similar conditions as an actual ear training
exam! Any tutor lesson or customized exercise can be
turned into a strict and merciless test! Did you miss
identifying the chord? Too bad, because I will not play
it again! And I need your answer in 10 seconds! |
Easy to
use for beginners
|
EarMaster is very suitable for beginners.
It is intuitive and has a user-friendly interface. Even
kids can use it! The program starts with an ear training
wizard that will explain the exercises and training modes
for you. EarMaster suggests you to let the standard tutor
instruct you and let him guide you through the lessons.
EarMaster also includes a quick music theory introduction
and comprehensive help available anywhere in the program. |
| "I have been
blown away by your EarMaster. I am at the University of
Newcastle Conservatorium of Music, Australia and have
found that using this software has improved my Aural
capabilities enormously. Each point covered by EarMaster
is exactly the areas in which we are working. I find
EarMaster really easy to use. Thank you for turning what
can be a very tedious subject into one that is extremely
enjoyable." Jan
Boyle, University of Newcastle Conservatorium of Music,
Australia
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Exercise
Areas In EarMaster
We propose you
two different versions of EarMaster. Here are the exercise areas
that you will find in the two versions:
Descriptions
of the proposed exercise areas
EarMaster offers
advanced ear training and covers all significant areas in
intervals, scales, chords, rhythms and melodies. Each exercise
will improve different areas of your musical ear! Using EarMaster
will refine all important areas of your musical ear. You will
develop greater musicality, better musical confidence and
experience real enjoyment of music.
Intervals
Once you get the
hang of intervals, it will be easier to transcribe songs, compose
songs or tuning your guitar. If you are a singer it will improve
your ability to sing in tune and to phrase flawlessly. Whatever
instrument you play, EarMaster will help you figure out the
melody of a song based on the intervals: “Oh, that’s
just a perfect fourth followed by a minor third.” EarMaster
features two exercises that will help you do just that.
Interval singing
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EarMaster will play a tone and ask you to
sing or play an interval above or below this tone.
Example: A tone (D) will be played and EarMaster will
say: “Sing the perfect fifth above D.” You can
also use this exercise to learn to spell intervals. If
you answer the question by using one of EarMaster’s
other answering methods, then this exercise becomes an
“Interval spelling” exercise. |
Interval
identification
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EarMaster plays a harmonic or melodic
interval; you identify it by its name or transcribe the
tones on the piano, guitar or notesheet. |
Interval
comparison
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EarMaster will play two intervals; you
answer which one is larger. This exercise does not
require any knowledge about music theory. It is therefore
an excellent starting point for beginners. |
Scales
and modes
With EarMaster
you learn to identify scales (major, minor, blues, bebop, etc.)
and church modes (Dorian, Phrygian, etc.)
Scale
identification
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EarMaster will play a scale or mode; you
then identify it by name or insert the tones on the
piano, guitar or staff. Scales are an essential tool when
you want to improvise or when writing melody lines. |
Chords
Recognizing
chords and harmonies is an essential aspect of being able to
interact while playing with other musicians. It is also an
important aspect of being able to transcribe songs and to compose
music. Being able to improvise and to play music by ear also
requires knowledge in the functions and structures of chords.
Combining harmonies and chords in music requires that you can
hear and feel the quality of chords, and that you are familiar
with their function within a given key. EarMaster features three
exercises that will help you improve these skills.
Chord
identification
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EarMaster plays a harmonic or melodic
chord; you identify it by its name or transcribe the
tones on the piano, guitar or the note sheet. |
Chord-inversion
identification
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This exercise works just like the chord
identification exercise, but here the chords are
inverted. Understanding chord inversions helps you to
move around your fretboard or piano more efficiently in
the combination of the chords. Being familiar with this
approach makes composing and playing easier. |
Chord progression
identification
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EarMaster will play a chord progression
(e.g., II mi7 - V 7 - I maj); you then identify it by
name or choose the step and quality for each chord.
Becoming acquainted with different types of progressions
will make you a more stable musician. When composing, it
will help you to know what possible ways to develop the
song you are working on. And when playing, you can more
easily tell in which direction the song is going -this is
very comfortable if you are involved in a jam session. |
Rhythms
Modern music
increasingly requires a musician to possess good rhythmic
understanding. A good sense of rhythmic variations, the ability
to feel a tempo, being able to grasp rhythmic figures, and the
ability to keep a tempo are important for any musician. It is not
enough to be able to read or hear individual note values; you
must also identify a rhythm as a series of rhythmic patterns.
EarMaster features four exercises that teach you to read and
identify rhythms.
Rhythmic
dictation
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EarMaster plays a rhythm; you transcribe
it. |
Rhythm reading
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Here EarMaster will play a rhythm score.
You will then clap the rhythm following the metronome.
Clap your hands in front of the microphone, tap the
rhythm on the space bar, or play it on your MIDI
instrument. This exercise is helpful in many ways; it of
course improves your sight reading skills. You also
develop your familiarity with rhythmical patterns and,
very importantly, you will improve your time sense. |
Rhythm imitation
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EarMaster will play a rhythm and you have
to clap the rhythm to the beat of the metronome. Clap
your hands in front of your microphone, tap the rhythm on
the space bar or play it on your MIDI instrument. This
exercise will further develop what the two previous
rhythm-exercises dealt with – only this exercise
really emphasizes the musical approach, in that it is you
who play – with no visual guidance. |
Rhythm correction
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In this exercise EarMaster will play a
rhythm score and then play the same rhythm -but with a
few changes. Your task is to identify these changes. Your
ability to grasp rhythmical variations and other type of
progressions in musical patterns and figures is the focus
here. |
Melodies
Finally, the
question of the eternally desirable perfect pitch. Can you
transcribe a tune when you hear it? Can you start of singing your
starting line without a cue from your pianist or guitar player?
Or can you identify the very important note in the chorus that
everybody else in the band is playing?
Melody dictation
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EarMaster will here play a melodic phrase.
You can then transcribe it on the staff, on guitar
tablature, or on the piano. Step by step, you come closer
to perfect pitch. And closer to the optimal utilization
of your musicality. |
| "Your software has helped my
hearing progress astronomically faster than the
traditional 'find your partner' approach. I am very hard
on myself I push myself as an athlete in training might,
and your software keeps up with my pace quite well. I
have grown in leaps and bounds thanks to the tool you
have graciously provided. I say graciously, because the
fee is nominal in comparison to the returns." Shahzad Ismaily, Professional
musician,
Bass and electronics, Brooklyn, New York
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Order EarMaster now
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