Getting my butt kicked! (Just whining in general . . . )

[bbillymac]

Hi all,

This is Bill in Indy and I'm going to whine for a bit, so break out the cheese if you got it. I was going along fine passing lessons right and left, then I hit the cliff. Minor and Major thirds - which is greater? Who knows? The difference between a Perfect 4th and a Perfect fifth and the occasional third? Your guess is as good as mine. Rhythm? Well, who knew I couldn't really count dotted quarter notes? Well, I couldn't. I knew my ear needed work, but I thought my rhythm was pretty solid. My how we can delude ourselvs! But the stats don't lie.
And so EarMaster is resizing my musical ego back down to a more proper size. From a 5th to a 2nd? At least. Thanks Earmaster! (I think. )

[Quentin]

Hi Bill,

If you have trouble with intervals, you might want to check our interval song chart: www.earmaster.com/intervalsongs/ . It's a list of tunes that you can use as a reference for each interval. It is helping a lot when you get stuck on some intervals.

As for the rhythm, I like to sing the rhythm in my head while I play it and follow the metronome with my foot. Maybe you could try that to see if it also helps you

[bbillymac]

Hi Quentin,

Thanks for the reply. I printed off the list of interval songs and I will try them. The rhythm lessons are helping tremendously. I'm reading better and more confidently already. I just could not believe I had a such a big, basic hole in my reading. I realize now when I came to a dotted quarter note, I stopped, memorized the section and moved on. I will soon/eventually be reading them in time. (Sorry I'm such a language geek, but the first sign you're not a native speaker snuck in, 'It is helping alot' should read 'It helps alot'.) Danish is such a cool sounding language, I wish I could speak it, but alas, I'm stuck with English and Spanish and a little German. (And a little music too!)

bill in indy

[Quentin]

HI Bill,

Sounds good.

Thanks for pointing out that language mistake. Sometimes you get confused when you are communicating in several languages all day (English, French and Danish in my case), and errors tend to sneak in if you are not careful .

I'm a native French speaker, have studied English at the university, but am using Danish as my everyday-life language. We communicate in both English and Danish at the EarMaster office, and get phone calls from all around the world. It's very exciting and inspiring, but it also tends to mess up your grammar :--D

[bparham79]

Hi Ear Master Community,

I was doing great on the rhythm imitations until the program jumped from one bar to two bars, which felt like a quantum leap for my brain.

And now, I'm stuck on two bar rhythm imitations in 4/4. I just can't seem to remember two whole bars of rhythmic variation.

That being said, is it cheating to transcribe the rhythms on paper?

Thanks,

-B

[Quentin]

Hi, your question was answered in the thread you created.

[bparham79]

Sorry, the previous post here was a mistake. Can you please delete it?

Good luck on your musical journeys Bill!

-B