I Thought It Went Up

Another subscription

One of the things I’ve discovered since I started learning music is how easy it is to end up with a collection of subscriptions. There always seems to be another app that promises to help with rhythm, sight reading, ear training, theory, singing, or some other piece of the puzzle. Some of them are very good, but as a senior on a pension, subscriptions do not automatically make the “need” list.

More importantly, I wasn’t just looking for a more sophisticated way to be told I was wrong. I wanted a tool that would notice the mix-ups I kept repeating and help me work on those.

Why bother?

It is a fair question. I play ukulele. I already have chord sheets. Why sit around naming intervals?

One reason is that many of the song sheets I find online do not sound the way I hear the song in my head. I follow the page, play the chord it tells me to play, and feel that little jar that says, “I thought it went UP there, not down.” Now I am not sure whether I am remembering it wrong, whether the sheet has simplified something, or whether it is just a different arrangement. I do not want to argue with a PDF every time I sit down. I want to trust what I hear well enough to say, no, that is not the chord I am expecting, and then have some idea where to look next.

The longer-term goal is a tad more ambitious. I would like to play by ear. Not as a party trick, but so I do not need the chord sheet at all if I already know the song.

That is why ear training matters to me, even for ukulele. Chord sheets are useful, but they can be simplified, written in a different key, or reflect somebody else’s arrangement. If I can hear the difference between major and minor, recognize where “home” is, or notice that I am hearing a familiar I–IV–V progression, I do not have to take every chart on the internet at its word.

Paper vs. ear

I am starting to understand more theory, at least on paper. Thanks to Music Student 101 for a lot of that. I know what a major third is, what the V chord is, what a cadence is supposed to do, and why certain notes or chords seem to pull toward others.

Knowing those things intellectually and being able to recognize them by ear turns out to be a completely different skill. I can name a major third when someone points one out to me. I want to hear one and know what it is without someone labeling it first.

I also do not want to spend ten minutes answering questions and finish with a score of 7 out of 10 without really knowing what those three wrong answers had in common. The score is not the interesting part.

So I put an Ear Trainer on the site. It works with intervals, chords, scale degrees, melodies, and progressions. If the same two things keep getting mixed up, it can offer a short focus workout on that pair. Being told I was wrong was not especially useful. Being told I keep making the same mix-up is.

See without leaking

Because this is dotBeat, there is a visual too. I was careful not to make it give away the answer. A display that leaks the pitch is just a quiz with the answers printed on the paper, which is very comforting and completely useless.

While the sound is playing, the display shows the timing and grouping of what you are hearing without revealing the pitch relationship. Once you have answered, the same display can show more of what was actually happening. I often understand music better when I can connect what I am hearing with something I can also see. I just needed the picture to stay quiet until I had already answered.

Built from the problem outward

I am not pretending this replaces every commercial ear-training program. I am still learning this myself. I wanted something I could use without another subscription, and something that would tell me more than “wrong answer” when my ear was not hearing what I thought it was hearing.

That is really how dotBeat has grown. I run into a problem first, try to solve it for myself, and then share the result in case somebody else is running into the same thing. The Ear Trainer is probably the clearest example of that so far.

If you have ever played a chart, felt that little jar, and wanted your ears to catch up with the song you already know, the trainer is there. If your ears are also running a little behind the reading, you are in good company. Mine still are.