• Skip to primary navigation
  • Skip to main content
  • Skip to primary sidebar

Corpus Christi Watershed

“What earlier generations held as sacred, remains sacred and great for us too…” Pope Benedict XVI (7 July 2007)

  • Our Team
  • Catholic Hymnal
  • Jogues Missal
  • Site Map
  • Donate
Views from the Choir Loft

Solfege? There’s an app for that.

Veronica Brandt · February 28, 2015

Ear HERE WAS A BOY WHO DELIGHTED in correcting his mother’s piano students as they were working on identifying intervals. He never studied as such, but the regular exposure to other people practising seeped into his head.

It isn’t so much a matter of natural born talent or hard work as a case of regular practice. A little bit each day is the way to plant the new patterns in your brain.

Now, not everyone can arrange for a stream of school students to come around every afternoon for piano lessons, so how can the average aspiring sight reader get this regular practice?

Just go online.

Theta Music Trainer is a collection of games identifying scales, intervals, chords, pitches (or tones) and even the sounds of different instruments.

The games look like child’s play, but the skills are way beyond what I covered at school. Paddle Tones and Tone Drops are good for picking out notes. Dango Brothers is good for matching pitch. There’s even a game where you sing into a microphone to match pitch. I bet you can think of someone you would like to work on that game!

The games can be played at random, or you can opt in to “courses” which bundle 30 groups of 5 games to give about 15 minutes of practice every day for a month. Each level you complete counts towards a colored “belt”. Yes, you can get a black belt in Music Theory!

Signing up for a free account gives you access to the first three levels of each game, which is pretty useful in itself. Full access to Theta music trainer comes with a price tag. The individual account is a bit more than your average smartphone app, but if you have a few other people interested (like a choir) consider splitting a Studio account between you.

Playing the cute colorful games at Theta helps you get a taste of what ear training is all about. For a more serious survey of software available see Ear-training online.

I hope you find something useful. Excuse me, I have to go work on my green belt.

Opinions by blog authors do not necessarily represent the views of Corpus Christi Watershed.

Filed Under: Articles Last Updated: January 1, 2020

Subscribe to the CCW Mailing List

Avatar

About Veronica Brandt

Veronica Brandt holds a Bachelor Degree in Electrical Engineering. She lives near Sydney, Australia, with her husband and six children.—(Read full biography).

Primary Sidebar

Corpus Christi Watershed

Quick Thoughts

Can You Spare 33 Seconds?

Here’s an audio excerpt (33 seconds) of a setting for Kyrie VIII which was recorded live last Sunday at our parish in Los Angeles. The setting (“Missa de Angelis”) is by composer Richard Rice, and you can download the free PDF if you click here and scroll to the bottom. I think Richard’s composition is marvelous. I missed a few notes on the organ, but I’ll get them right next time.

—Jeff Ostrowski
5 April 2021 • When Girls Sing

Covid restrictions here in California are still extremely severe—switching “two weeks to flatten the curve” into “two years to flatten the curve.” Since 2020, we’ve had police breaking into our church to check if everyone is wearing a mask…even when only 5-6 people are present! But we were allowed to have a small percentage of our singers back on Easter Sunday, and here is their live recording of the ancient Catholic hymn for Eastertide: Ad Cenam Agni Providi. The girls were so very excited to sing again—you can hear it in their voices!

—Jeff Ostrowski
29 March 2021 • FEEDBACK

“E.S.” in North Dakota writes: “I just wanted to take a moment to say THANK YOU for all the hard work you have put—and continue to put—into your wonderful website. In the past two years, my parish has moved from a little house basement into a brand new church and gone from a few families receiving Low Masses twice a month to several families (and many individuals) receiving Mass every Sunday, two Saturdays a month, and every Holy Day. Our priest has been incorporating more and more High Masses and various ceremonies into our lives, which has made my job as a huge newbie choir master very trying and complicated. CCWatershed has been an invaluable resource in helping me get on my feet and know what to do!!! Thank you more than I can express! May God bless you abundantly and assist you in your work and daily lives!”

—Jeff Ostrowski

Random Quote

“Iconographic tradition has theologically interpreted the manger and the swaddling cloths in terms of the theology of the Fathers. The child stiffly wrapped in bandages is seen as prefiguring the hour of his death: from the outset, he is the sacrificial victim, as we shall see more closely when we examine the reference to the first-born. The manger, then, was seen as a kind of altar.”

— Pope Benedict XVI (2012)

Recent Posts

  • Did Solesmes Abbey Drink The 1960s Kool-Aid?
  • Fr. Thomas Reese • “Young People Should Not Be Allowed To Attend” Latin Mass
  • 10 Examples • “Diversity of Musical Styles” (Latin Mass)
  • Can You Spare 33 Seconds?
  • “The Great Reset” • For Your Choir?

Copyright © 2021 Corpus Christi Watershed · Charles Garnier on Genesis Framework · WordPress · Log in

Corpus Christi Watershed is a 501(c)3 public charity dedicated to exploring and embodying as our calling the relationship of religion, culture, and the arts. This non-profit organization employs the creative media in service of theology, the Church, and Christian culture for the enrichment and enjoyment of the public.