Auralia

Most people avoid learning how to play a musical instrument for the same reason: they say they are tone deaf. A professional musician would argue that there is no such thing as being tone deaf. The fact that you can recognize a person's voice over the phone is all the proof you need. Recognizing individual musical notes is a different matter, but it is not impossible. You just need to train your ear to identify chords, pitches, intervals and so on. This can be done, in a very efficient manner, with Auralia. It provides detailed courses and training exercises, which are neatly organized on a user friendly interface.

If your Internet connection is not fast enough, it will take a bit longer to download the software, because its setup file is 51 and a half MB. After downloading the package, you will have to go through a simple installation process, so it will not take much longer until you can use the software. You should also know that Auralia is available for Windows and Mac OS X platforms.

Auralia includes 41 training topics and you can find them on the main interface. They are divided in separate groups, making it easy to find what you are looking for. You can find topics on intervals and scales, chords, rhythms, harmony and form, as well as pitch and melody. Before you pick a topic, you should consider accessing the software's courses. You may select one of many courses, on a separate window and go through the courses with Next and Previous buttons.

During a course, you will find examples, in the form of a musical score and you may click it to hear what you have learned. In other cases, you will be presented with certain exercises. If you don't need to go through any courses, you can just select one of the training topics, on the main window. The software lets you select a syllabus, from a drop menu, to filter its topics, according to your needs. You may select music theory, a band or a jazz syllabus and much more. Once selected, the training topics which are not relevant to your training will be disabled.

There are different types of exercises to find. After listening to a sound, you will have to perform certain actions, depending on the exercise. You may have to select a correct answer or click a button, at precise moments, according to the pulses you hear. Auralia provides various administration options as well. You may create classes, assign teachers, make different settings to individual training exercises or courses and much more. Each user must create his or her own account and password, before using the program. When creating a user, you may select a class and a voice type, such as soprano, alto, tenor or bass.