Lesson 1: C, G

Now, it’s time to dive into your ear training. We are going to start with just 2 notes.

Music is sound and our ear training courses emphasizes connecting your ear directly to the sound of the music, without getting distracted by abstract music theory.

Musicians from all over the world, playing very different instruments use our ear training apps. Therefore the apps are built to play the notes as they appear on the piano. Alto sax players will have to transpose. Don’t worry about the theory of transposing right now. Just use the simple formula “three semi tones down” to get the note name on the saxophone.

Now let’s jump into our first two note dictation. The notes on the piano – and therefore in the Melody App – are C and G. These will be A and E on your alto saxophone.

Secondly to insure your success in this course, keep in mind the following important points:

1. You can use the Scaffolding to help transition into new layers of musical complexity and then remove it as you progress. Please refer to the scaffolding screen cast in the Course Preliminaries section if you need more information.

2. Start with the metronome at 50 bpm, and then slowly speed it up as you progress in accuracy. Do at least 10 dictations in a row correctly, before increasing the metronome speed by 3bpm-4bmp. Please refer to the Musical Gym screen cast in the Course Preliminaries section if you need more information.