melodic and rhythmic dictate exercise input extremely cumbersome

chameleon · Post by **chameleon** » Oct 25, 2020 3:18 am

Hey earmaster team,
just a little feedback on your otherwise extremely awesome product:
I find the melodic and rhythmic dictate exercises to be extremely important, but I cannot get myself to do them, because writing the notation in earmaster takes too long.
I have been working with MuseScore a lot and I can type musical notation about a hundred times faster in there, and I suggest you could use a similar system with hotkeys for different note lenghts and pauses instead of having to click everything a million times and having to move your cursor over the whole screen all the time. it's really painfully slow and not efficient to practice like this.
Best regards,
Franz

Quentin · Post by **Quentin** » Oct 26, 2020 1:40 am

Hi Franz,

Thanks for your feedback. We are aware of the problem and have plans to revise the way note input works so that it is easier and faster to work with. Until then, please notice that there are already shortcuts to input notes. To see the list of shortcuts, open the HELP menu of EarMaster.

chameleon · Post by **chameleon** » Oct 27, 2020 4:39 am

Hello Quentin,
it doesn't show any shortcuts for me, but googling for earmaster shortcuts since creating my last post, I realized this may be due shortcuts being unabavailable on mac ergo I am screwed because I would have really needed this exercise to prepare for an exam.

Is there a reason for not allowing user to change shortcuts in the settings menu?

All the best,
Franz

Quentin · Post by **Quentin** » Oct 28, 2020 1:15 am

Hi,

Maybe you didn't look the right place. They should be there on Mac:

chameleon · Post by **chameleon** » Oct 28, 2020 3:34 am

Thanks for the link, sadly they don't work for me, because there is no number pad on macbook pro. Wouldn't it be easier to allow users to set shortcuts themselves?

Quentin · Post by **Quentin** » Oct 28, 2020 4:26 am

Absolutely, but I remember that we discussed this internally and had to conclude that it wasn't technically feasible for us to enable user-defined shortcuts in EarMaster.

We have plans to add shortcuts that don't require a numeric pad. This would indeed be extremely useful.

chameleon · Post by **chameleon** » Nov 01, 2020 5:46 am

In the meantime, I found out, that Mac OS theoretically allows you to add and change all shortcuts also in 3rd party apps in your preferences->keyboard menu (https://support.apple.com/guide/mac-help/create-keyboard-shortcuts-for-apps-mchlp2271/10.14/mac/10.14), I tried it with serveral other and it works, but sadly and frustratingly, not with Earmaster, so for some reason your devs must have decided to block this feature, which would have made it possibly for us macbook pro chumps (hey, I sure I cannot be the ONLY musician to use a macbook pro

) to actually reassign those unuseable shortcuts ourselves, without you having to add another sub-menu for shortcut settings to earmaster.
Is there some hope for me?

Quentin · Post by **Quentin** » Nov 02, 2020 2:03 am

This limitation is not by design but because it isn't supported by our development tool, unfortunately. The next update of EarMaster will include shortcuts for laptop keyboards, so it will be much easier to use the melodic dictation exercises.

CharluEtienno · Post by **CharluEtienno** » Nov 07, 2023 3:51 pm

I have the exact same concerns with the notation input system. For me it is the biggest flaw of EarMaster and reviewing the input system would be extremely beneficial for the software and for the people using it. Addopting a more traditional hotkey based input system (like MuseScore for exemple) would make it easier to focus on the ear training part of these exercises and would give the users knowledge they can then translate to most notation software.

I understand that this system is optimal for the mobile app versions, but as a computer user, these flaws keep me on the lookout for EarMaster alternatives and I feel I will never be fully satisfied with the program until these problems are adressed.

Quentin · Post by **Quentin** » Nov 13, 2023 1:29 am

Hi,

We are refactoring the dictation exercise as we speak, so you can look forward to a much better note input mechanism in an upcoming EarMaster update!

CharluEtienno · Post by **CharluEtienno** » Nov 14, 2023 9:39 am

That's really great to ear, I will be looking forward to it. Part of me was frustrated because EarMaster was almost perfect otherwise, but now I'm relieved. Thank you for the reply