Singing is pretty confronting. Karaoke is usually in places where alcohol is sold. People need their self-consciousness dulled before they brave singing in front of others. Shows like American Idol where people are mocked by mean Englishman shattering their singing delusions do not really help either.
My singing skills were always poor despite a professional career as a performing saxophonist. When it came to aural training, hearing pitches, chords etc and then naming them or writing them down I was never particularly good. The issue for me was that I did not really know how to practice aural skills effectively. There were some tapes I used (yep, I am that old) but I still didn’t manage to get my aural skills to the elite level of my fellow musicians.
Luckily today there are some great apps that solve these problems and even provide feedback from you singing using computer “pitch detection.” These three apps would work well together to help any beginner or intermediate music learner improve their singing and aural skills.
Learning to sing for beginners: Singtrue
Platform: iOS only
SingTrue is the model of simple app design. It uses encouraging feedback systems and graduated learning that is metered out from most basic onward. The app is focused on musical pitch, the high and low sounds that form musical notes. There are 3 areas of the app, hearing, singing and the mind. The hearing section focuses on what is called aural skills, the ability to hear a sound or group of sounds and then sing or name them.
Sing True begins by having you sing the first note you can comfortably sing and then uses that to detect how high or low your voice, a particularly intelligent design feature. It then moves you through simple pitch identification drills such as identifying if one sound is higher or lower than another.
When the app asks you to sing it uses a little visual target to help you find if you are sharp or flat. The app also makes you practice singing long notes, filling out a wheel with your sung note to force you to focus on your breathing. The app gradually introduces Solfege, the do re mi syllables that represent the notes of the scale.
The app has stringent requirements on letting you progress to the next exercise. This makes it satisfying when it flashes “level up” messages when you succeed. When you complete a level, it sends you to a screen where you can share your results. This “brag button” might be helpful for students to notify their teacher of progress.
http://singtrue.co/
Ear training app: Perfect Ear
Platform: iOS and Android
SingTrue guides you from an assumed place of knowing nothing. In contrast, Perfect Ear seems to be for those with more musical experience. It is a one stop shop for musical theory, ear training, staff reading and singing with accuracy feedback. There are multiple sections on intervals, chords, scales, or rhythms that all include exercises in identification, imitation, reading, writing, and performing. The app lets you set a range for how accurately you are to sing each pitch with visual feedback. It is also one of the most accurate tools for providing feedback on how accurately you tap a rhythm.
You can follow the sequence laid out by the app or program your own exercises but only if you buy the premium version. This is a great tool for music learners looking to focus on specific areas of the musicianship. It is one of the most comprehensive apps for music learning I have seen. For $4 for the premium version it is an absolute steal.
https://www.perfectear.app/
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