Auralia 4 Professional Ear Training Software

I use this program and musician for college. The program is ok in concept. However alot of the excercises are extremely unresponsive and there is a huge amount of lag within these programs. The software sometimes will play the wrong nots associated with the excercises which is terrible for ear training. I've been playing and learning music and theory for almost 20 years. I have found that a good book and an actual instrument is much more helpful in ear training. If you have a midi keyboard I would use that. This program does not have anything special or really that beneficial that you couldn't learn on your own with some practice and time. Honestly you will spend more time trying to get this program to work with you than you will on training your ears and that's very dissapointing because it could honestly be very good. Even when you know how to use and navigate the software it will fight you. Not user friendly and does not "teach" you very much other than using repetition which you can do at home for free.

What a great product! This should help anyone wanting to strengthen their listening skills.

I am a violinist who wanted some ear training. I bought this and it's awful. I'm only on the first part and it's been all definitions, a few samles of notes to help you understand what they're talking about (most information I already know having taking music theory in school) and then a test. No way you can get through the tests if you don't have someone outside from this course helping you. Or if you are lucky enough to be able to play by ear....but then would you need ear training?Don't buy this unless you're a student and your teacher tells you to buy it!I hate it!

This is primarily a response to the current 1-star review.Auralia is used by many of the world's top music schools and programs. Some people will need more outside help than others to understand how to approach what they are hearing and how to improve their ear. If a person has never even tried to figure out music by ear on their own (which is the truly best way of training their ear, IMO) then this might be a bit challenging, but definitely not impossible to learn from.If you start at the very beginning of each section in Auralia, anyone can learn from it. For example the first interval training section simply has you begin to distinguish if the notes go up or down, then compare intervals to see "which is larger, A or B?". Almost anyone can do this successfully if they have some prior instrument playing experience and even better if their note reading ability is adequate. This structured step-by-step program really works. Also the "courses" mode has built-in lessons with reading that accompany the training. Having a teacher who understands what they are doing is always better (just like the other reviewer says) to just reading a guide, watching YouTube videos, or just figuring it out for oneself. But the courses do cover the correct concepts very well and serve as excellent review, even with a teacher's guidance. The program also covers additional topics such as rhythmic dictation, extended/jazz harmony, sight-singing and more.Giving a great program like this a bad review because you find it hard isn't really fair because it DOES work.I have used it myself in college and I also use it for my students.Basically, Auralia is VERY good program, contrary to the other review... and probably the best way to practice ear training out there.The companion theory software, Musition, is also excellent and I recommend buying the more cost-effective Auralia/Musition bundle.