EarMaster EarMaster 6 User manual
EarMaster
USER’S GUIDE
®
Ear training and sight-singing software
© Copyright 2012 EarMaster ApS
User’s guide
EarMaster 6
This user’s guide is an introduction to the main functionalities available in
EarMaster. You will find more details in the online help inside EarMaster.
Copyright © 2012 EarMaster ApS,
Egå Havvej 21, DK-8250 Egå, Denmark
Support and troubleshooting
If you need help on how to use or install EarMaster, please visit:
http://www.earmaster.com/support
This document is protected by copyright law. It may only be reproduced and
distributed in full without any edits or changes of any kind. This document may not be
reproduced or distributed in any partial form without prior written authorization of
EarMaster ApS.
Table of Contents
Table of Contents ........................................................................................... 3
Welcome to EarMaster 6 ................................................................................... 4
Installation Guide............................................................................................ 4
System Requirement ........................................................................................ 5
Chapter I - Getting Started ................................................................................ 5
How Course files work ................................................................................... 6
Home window ............................................................................................. 6
Training mode .......................................................................................... 6
Activity ................................................................................................... 7
Exercise Window .......................................................................................... 7
Exercise settings ....................................................................................... 8
Answer input ........................................................................................... 10
Chapter II - Setup and configuration ................................................................... 12
Preferences ............................................................................................ 12
Microphone Input Setup ............................................................................. 12
MIDI Input Setup....................................................................................... 13
Remote control ........................................................................................ 13
User properties ........................................................................................ 13
Chapter III - Using the Activities ........................................................................ 14
Interval Comparison .................................................................................. 14
Interval, Chord and Scale Identification ......................................................... 14
Interval Singing ........................................................................................ 14
Chord Progressions ................................................................................... 14
Melodic Dictation ..................................................................................... 14
Rhythmic Sight-Reading ............................................................................. 15
Rhythmic Dictation ................................................................................... 15
Rhythm Error Detection ............................................................................. 15
Rhythm Imitation ..................................................................................... 16
Melodic Sight-Singing................................................................................. 16
Melody Imitation ...................................................................................... 16
Chapter IV - Tips ............................................................................................ 17
Using Songs to Memorize Intervals ................................................................... 17
What are the Benefits of Ear Training? .............................................................. 18
EarMaster Training Tips ................................................................................ 18
Chapter V - FAQ & Troubleshooting .................................................................... 19
Chapter VI - Keyboard Shortcuts ........................................................................ 20
Exercise control ....................................................................................... 20
Options and functions ................................................................................ 20
Note input .............................................................................................. 21
Chapter VII - LICENSE AGREEMENT ...................................................................... 22
License agreement for EarMaster software ..................................................... 22
Credits ........................................................................................................ 23
Welcome to EarMaster 6
Congratulations! If you are reading this, you got your hands on the most user-friendly,
motivating, and efficient software title for ear training and sight-reading.
Packed with activities and features that will make your musical training both efficient and
entertaining, EarMaster will help you develop your aural and sight-reading skills
progressively to make you an even better musician! The 14 activities available in EarMaster
6 will train you to identify by ear, transcribe, and sing or play back intervals, scales, chords,
cadences, rhythms and melodies.
We hope you will enjoy sharpening your musical skills with EarMaster!
Installation Guide
To install EarMaster from a CD, please follow these simple steps:
Windows
1. Insert the EarMaster CD in your CD/DVD drive. If the setup program does not launch
automatically, select “Run” from the Start menu and type “d:setup.exe” where “d:” is
the letter of the CD/DVD drive (boxed version only)
2. When the installation program has started, you will be asked to enter your serial
number. You will find your serial number in the DVD case of the software or on the
manual, depending on the edition you have
3. Once the serial number has been validated, the installation begins. Follow the
on-screen instructions to proceed
4. Run EarMaster from your Program Files folder and click on “Activate now” to enter your
serial number and activate your license
Mac OS X
1. Insert the CD and wait for the contents to show (boxed version only)
2. Double-click the EarMaster icon to launch the installation and follow the on-screen
instructions
3. Run EarMaster from your Applications folder and click on “Activate now” to enter your
serial number and activate your license
Activating your EarMaster license
If your installation has not yet been activated, a prompt window will be displayed when you
start the program asking you to activate your license. Click on the activation button, fill in
your personal information, and launch the activation process to authorize the installation on
your computer.
Note: EarMaster can handle individual settings and results for an unlimited number of users
on one computer. The settings and results are stored under the current Windows/OS X user
account. Therefore, each user must have his/her own Windows/OS X account (i.e. own user
name) to do this.
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System Requirement
Minimum requirements:
Windows 8, 7, Vista or XP (32- & 64- bit versions supported)
Mac OSX 10.5 or newer (Intel only)
Internet connection for online activation
1024x768 minimum screen resolution
Soundcard
Recommended:
Soundcard with audio input (for microphone/instrument input)
2 GHz processor
2 GB Ram
Microphone
MIDI controller (Keyboard, percussion pad, etc.)
Headphone
Chapter I - Getting Started
EarMaster 6 offers 14 activities that will challenge your ear training and sight-reading skills
in an easy, motivating and efficient way. Each activity includes a large number of lessons
designed by experienced music educators. Those lessons are featured in two courses: the
EarMaster Standard Course, and the EarMaster Jazz Course.
The courses included in EarMaster are progressively building up in difficulty. The more you
progress, the more challenging the lessons will be. After each lesson, a general evaluation of
your answers will be displayed, and you will be given suggestions on what to do next: move
on to the next lesson, retake the lesson, or go back to the start of a lesson module.
Most of the lessons can be used by simply clicking on the visual interfaces (notation staff,
piano, keyboard, multiple-choice buttons), but the greatest advantage of EarMaster is that
it lets you use interactive input methods such as a microphone or a MIDI keyboard with the
activities.
EarMaster is structured around 2 main areas:
Home window: The window displayed when you start EarMaster. It is the place where you
will be able to specify the training mode and the activity you would like to use.
Exercise window: Where the actual training will take place.
To help you monitor your progress and analyze your strengths and weaknesses, EarMaster
offers a detailed statistics window where you will be able to review your results lesson by
lesson, day after day. Should you identify things that demand extra training (if you only get
40% success at recognizing diminished 5th intervals for example), you can easily configure
each activity in Customized training mode to focus on the items of your choice.
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How Course files work
What is a Course in EarMaster?
A course is a set of lessons compiled into a single file. EarMaster courses can be organized in
two ways:
- They can be a set of modules and/or lessons for a selection of separate activities, like the
EarMaster Standard Course and Jazz Course.
- Or they can be a set of modules and/or lessons mixing different activities.
Modules
Modules are an intermediary cluster of lessons within a course. Each module marks a step in
the progression of a course and is usually ending with a test lesson with stricter rules
compared to those of regular lessons.
Lessons
Lessons are defining the content of an exercise within an activity. Lessons are made with
various settings that change their properties from being simple practice exercises, to being
assignments or tests.
Adaptive questions
Most lessons include an 'adaptive questions' feature which analyzes your performance and
adapts the number of question to the needs of the users. If you are doing really well, the
lesson will stop early, if you are struggling a bit, it will be extended with additional
questions to make sure that you fully grasp the current topic.
Home window
The home window is divided into 2 main areas: Training mode and Activity.
To move on to EarMaster's exercise window and get started with your ear training and
sight-reading practice, you simply need to select a Training Mode (Standard Course, Jazz
Course, or Customized Exercise), and then an Activity. Once your choices are made, click
Begin.
Training mode
Standard Course
The Standard course is a set of progressive lessons covering all the activities available in
EarMaster. The difficulty increases as you move on to new lessons. This course is
recommended for musicians and music students of all levels. The difficulty ranges from
beginner to very advanced, so everybody will find material that covers his training needs.
Jazz course
The Jazz course is for more advanced users. It includes lessons specific to jazz music, such
as jazz chords or swing rhythms.
Customized exercise
In Customized exercise mode, you will be able to configure the activities extensively in
order to match specific requirements you may have. For instance, if you are having a hard
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time discriminating Perfect 5th from Perfect 4th intervals, you could create a customized
exercise including only those two intervals.
Open course...
Click on the folder icon to open an EarMaster Course file created by your teacher or
downloaded from the EarMaster website.
Activity
After selecting a training mode, you can select
the activity that you would like to train with.
There are 14 activities available in EarMaster 6
(see illustration).
Which activity to choose or prioritize is very
subjective and depends mostly on your current
skills, needs and training plan. However, if you
really don't know where to start, we could
suggest the following:
1. Beginners could choose the Interval
Comparison and Rhythm imitation activities
as a starting point.
2. After having completed a number of lessons
in those activities, you could also include
the Interval identification, Melody imitation
and Rhythmic Sight-Reading.
3. Later on, you could also include Chord
Identification, Scale Identification and
Rhythmic Dictation.
4. Finally, include the remaining activities to
your training routines.
Note: Perseverance and regularity are the key to success! Training intensively once in a
while will not work as well as training every day for 5-20 minutes. We recommend therefore
that you use some or all of the activities that you are working with for a few minutes every
day. Believe us, this is the best way to set your aural skills in overboost mode!
Exercise Window
The Exercise Window of EarMaster is the area where your ear training and sight-singing
practice is done. The layout and content of the window will change depending on the
activity you have selected and the answer input methods you are using.
The main structure of the Exercise window is as follows (from top to bottom):
1. Home button (takes you back to the Home Window), Toolbar, zooming tool and Help
button.
2. Instructions bar, which displays questions, instructions on how to use the current
activity, and evaluations of your answers.
3. Control buttons (New question, Play Answer, Evaluate, Stop, etc.) to operate the
activity.
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4. Visual interfaces (staff, piano, guitar, solfege keyboard, etc.): the interfaces di splayed
depend on the current activity and answer input methods you have selected in the
Answer Input menu.
Exercise settings
In the Exercise settings menu, you will find a list of settings for the activity currently in use.
These settings control how the activity is working. The content of the Exercise Settings
menu changes for each activity. For example, some options that are only relevant for
rhythmic disciplines will be hidden in harmonic disciplines, and replaced by other settings
that apply to exercises that involve chords. Below is a description of some of the options
available in the Exercise Settings menu:
Auto new question
Get a New question automatically after a question has been answered. The delay can be set
in seconds. You can set that option to be only active when you answered correctly, so that
you may review your mistakes before obtaining a new question.
Auto replay question
Repeats a question with an interval until it has been answered.
Play question limit
Set how many times a question can be played.
Answer time limit
This limits the available time to answer a question.
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