I am trying to configure EarMaster so that it plays a short melody and I play it back on my midi keyboard. I tried to set this with the one-by-one input but right now nothing is working -- none of my inputs are registering correctly, even when I know they are correct. For example, I have set the exercise setting so that it only gives me three note melodies in C major and has an limit of a major second. So, this is just the given note and one up or back -- super simple. Still, it's not registering that I have correctly entered it. It's not working either when I use the midi keyboard for input or the mouse. What's wrong?
I really want to use the keyboard in a "call and response" type of pattern -- seems like this would be great practice in playing jazz -- but it's not working.
Thanks
Dale
Problems with Melody Dictation Input
Moderator: Quentin
Hi Dale,
A couple of questions to find out hat may be going wrong:
1) Is MIDI In activated as answer input (MIDI icon at the bottom right of the window), and is the green dot flashing when you play tones on your MIDI keyboard?
2) If you want to play back the melody, you should unselect the one-by-one option.
3) Have you selected your MIDI keyboard as MIDI In device in the EarMaster preferences/Program settings?
A couple of questions to find out hat may be going wrong:
1) Is MIDI In activated as answer input (MIDI icon at the bottom right of the window), and is the green dot flashing when you play tones on your MIDI keyboard?
2) If you want to play back the melody, you should unselect the one-by-one option.
3) Have you selected your MIDI keyboard as MIDI In device in the EarMaster preferences/Program settings?
- Because in Music, We're All Ears... -
Playing back a melody
Hi --
Thanks for the response. The midi setups (suggestion #1 and #3) are definitely okay. I did unset the one-by-one and that helped. I find the documentation on the one-by-one very confusing -- seems contradictory to the current behavior -- but looks like I am past that point.
The real confusion for me is after EarMaster played the octaves, it put the first note on the staff and then played my little melody, and then I played the little melody back. The problem -- as I finally figured out -- was that this initial note it put on the staff it considered as part of my response even it didn't sound and I didn't put it there. But, the program always thought it was my response, weird. This is why I couldn't get any of melodies right. I did a huge amount of fiddling with the various options and was able to turn off the display of the original note, and then was able to play back the melody as it sounded and got the question correct. I'd definitely recommend some program improvements here -- it's hugely confusing and if I didn't have decent background in midi and didn't work in computers for a living, I doubt I could have figured this out.
I am still not completely where I want to be -- but am getting pretty close.
The next big problem that I discovered is how remote control works to play a new question (that's the only remote control option I've experimented with). Originally, I tried playing the default C1 on the midi keyboard, but thought that wasn't realistic -- if I were in a live jazz call-and-response type of performance, I wouldn't be continually playing low C to get a new melody. Having this as an option is fine, but just not realistic for what I was looking for. Then, I tried the sustain pedal -- and this was tons of fun. Turns out I have RD700GX and the sustain pedal is a continuous controller -- meaning that there's probably 127 (or maybe 127*127) different midi events generated from the up position to the down position. Hmmm .... don't think EarMaster was ready for such excitement! So, I hooked up a simple on-off pedal to the RD700GX FC1 pedal, which is set as controller 67. This was almost better -- except that each down generated a midi event and each up generated another midi event. The intuitive use of this function is to push the pedal down and release it to get a new question, but this asked for two questions immediately after each other -- again confusing EarMaster. I tried to push down -- answer one question -- release -- answer anohter -- and repeat -- but this just required too much mental concentration when I needed to be thinking about the melody itself. So, I abandoned the idea of a remote control method of giving me a new question. Side note -- using the mouse the ask for another question -- definitely possible -- but again takes my mind off concentrating on the melody and takes my hands out of keyboard position -- both of which ruin the concentration so essential to performing well as this melody repetition exercise.
So, finally, I tweaked several of the Exercise Settings to see how I could make it so that I got a new question as soon I completed (or mistaked) on the first -- and to set it up in some pattern so there would be some rhythmic consistency -- meaning that I didn't need to randomly wait a random amount of time (again distracting my mind from the melody; this time wondering when my seconds would be up). I am not quite there yet -- some of the options seems to work differently depending on what other options you picked -- so would appreciate any better description of how those Exercise Settings work (the manual doesn't say much at all) -- or if you could just tell me what settings would make the following happen, that would be great also.
Here's what I want:
1. I start the exercise -- using mouse is fine just to start.
2. Earmaster plays the introductory note or chord (really, don't need both notes on the octave -- and would be nice to turn off the introductory note all together -- this could work nicely if I just stayed in a single key).
3. I try to play it back (at this point, not using rhythms -- just notes) and then after I attempt the play the melody (correctly or not), it will let me know if I got it right or wrong and then give me a new melody, a new question. (No repeats ...) It seems the program is set to to this by setting "new question" to "correct number of notes" (even if not exact notes -- correct number and pitch).
I almost have this set but there are still some pauses and sometimes it seems to go to the next question when I do it right, but still waits when I do it wrong.
What are the right settings for this?
Thanks
Dale
Thanks for the response. The midi setups (suggestion #1 and #3) are definitely okay. I did unset the one-by-one and that helped. I find the documentation on the one-by-one very confusing -- seems contradictory to the current behavior -- but looks like I am past that point.
The real confusion for me is after EarMaster played the octaves, it put the first note on the staff and then played my little melody, and then I played the little melody back. The problem -- as I finally figured out -- was that this initial note it put on the staff it considered as part of my response even it didn't sound and I didn't put it there. But, the program always thought it was my response, weird. This is why I couldn't get any of melodies right. I did a huge amount of fiddling with the various options and was able to turn off the display of the original note, and then was able to play back the melody as it sounded and got the question correct. I'd definitely recommend some program improvements here -- it's hugely confusing and if I didn't have decent background in midi and didn't work in computers for a living, I doubt I could have figured this out.
I am still not completely where I want to be -- but am getting pretty close.
The next big problem that I discovered is how remote control works to play a new question (that's the only remote control option I've experimented with). Originally, I tried playing the default C1 on the midi keyboard, but thought that wasn't realistic -- if I were in a live jazz call-and-response type of performance, I wouldn't be continually playing low C to get a new melody. Having this as an option is fine, but just not realistic for what I was looking for. Then, I tried the sustain pedal -- and this was tons of fun. Turns out I have RD700GX and the sustain pedal is a continuous controller -- meaning that there's probably 127 (or maybe 127*127) different midi events generated from the up position to the down position. Hmmm .... don't think EarMaster was ready for such excitement! So, I hooked up a simple on-off pedal to the RD700GX FC1 pedal, which is set as controller 67. This was almost better -- except that each down generated a midi event and each up generated another midi event. The intuitive use of this function is to push the pedal down and release it to get a new question, but this asked for two questions immediately after each other -- again confusing EarMaster. I tried to push down -- answer one question -- release -- answer anohter -- and repeat -- but this just required too much mental concentration when I needed to be thinking about the melody itself. So, I abandoned the idea of a remote control method of giving me a new question. Side note -- using the mouse the ask for another question -- definitely possible -- but again takes my mind off concentrating on the melody and takes my hands out of keyboard position -- both of which ruin the concentration so essential to performing well as this melody repetition exercise.
So, finally, I tweaked several of the Exercise Settings to see how I could make it so that I got a new question as soon I completed (or mistaked) on the first -- and to set it up in some pattern so there would be some rhythmic consistency -- meaning that I didn't need to randomly wait a random amount of time (again distracting my mind from the melody; this time wondering when my seconds would be up). I am not quite there yet -- some of the options seems to work differently depending on what other options you picked -- so would appreciate any better description of how those Exercise Settings work (the manual doesn't say much at all) -- or if you could just tell me what settings would make the following happen, that would be great also.
Here's what I want:
1. I start the exercise -- using mouse is fine just to start.
2. Earmaster plays the introductory note or chord (really, don't need both notes on the octave -- and would be nice to turn off the introductory note all together -- this could work nicely if I just stayed in a single key).
3. I try to play it back (at this point, not using rhythms -- just notes) and then after I attempt the play the melody (correctly or not), it will let me know if I got it right or wrong and then give me a new melody, a new question. (No repeats ...) It seems the program is set to to this by setting "new question" to "correct number of notes" (even if not exact notes -- correct number and pitch).
I almost have this set but there are still some pauses and sometimes it seems to go to the next question when I do it right, but still waits when I do it wrong.
What are the right settings for this?
Thanks
Dale
Hi Dale,
In the Exercise set up window, under "Options" you can toggle off the "Play tonic of Key" option, or ask EarMaster to play a chord instead of an octave for instance.
Then, under Key and Root Movement>Advanced>Edit..., you will find options regarding what keys to include in the exercise (you can for example choose to only get questions in C/Am).
Finally,once you are inside the exercise, you can set the question timing under the Exercise Settings menu:
* Auto New Question = choose Always, and set the delay that you would like.
* Auto Show Answer = Correct number of tones (It is actually defined in the Exercise Set up window that I referred to in the start of my reply).
I have notified the devs about your feedback on remote control and the first tone duplicating itself with MIDI input, and I am sure this will be adressed either in an update, or in the next version of the program, depending on how deep these functions are rooted into the code
In the Exercise set up window, under "Options" you can toggle off the "Play tonic of Key" option, or ask EarMaster to play a chord instead of an octave for instance.
Then, under Key and Root Movement>Advanced>Edit..., you will find options regarding what keys to include in the exercise (you can for example choose to only get questions in C/Am).
Finally,once you are inside the exercise, you can set the question timing under the Exercise Settings menu:
* Auto New Question = choose Always, and set the delay that you would like.
* Auto Show Answer = Correct number of tones (It is actually defined in the Exercise Set up window that I referred to in the start of my reply).
I have notified the devs about your feedback on remote control and the first tone duplicating itself with MIDI input, and I am sure this will be adressed either in an update, or in the next version of the program, depending on how deep these functions are rooted into the code
- Because in Music, We're All Ears... -