Program Notes
For the music student who's been meaning to practice ear training every morning for two years and managed it on three of them.
"Aural training is the most important thing."
Robert Schumann · 1850
the daily gap
Every music student knows ear training matters. Almost no one practices it daily. Nobody schedules ten minutes for solfège the way they schedule scales or repertoire.
The result shows up later. You can't pick up a tune by ear without sitting at the piano. Sight-reading is fine, sight-singing isn't.
So Aubel ties the practice to things you already do every day. The morning alarm. The phone you reach for the second you put it down. Both work the same way: solve a few exercises and the lock comes off. By the time you're brushing your teeth, you've already named four intervals.
A trained ear shrinks the gap between what you imagine and what you play.
four kinds of student
No ear training experience yet. You couldn't say whether you just heard a Major 3rd or a Perfect 4th. Aubel begins with the easy intervals and builds from there.
Learning music with some theory background. The intention to drill ear training is there; the daily follow-through is the problem. Aubel fills the gap between lessons.
Previous formal training or self-study, maybe rusty. You picked up the piano again after a decade away — the fingers came back faster than the ear.
Professional or advanced musician. You know the material; daily reps keep your ear sharp. Pretest in and skip what you've already nailed.
the choices that shaped the app
Why $4.99.
It's roughly what similar apps charge. Tenuto, the most-recommended ear-trainer in the same space, has held $4.99 for years. Cheap enough to try without thinking, enough to keep this thing maintained.
Android, eventually.
Android is on the roadmap, just not at launch. The morning alarm and the Screen Time shield both rely on iPhone-only features, so the Android version has to be rebuilt from scratch. iPhone first while that work gets underway.
Why an alarm and Screen Time.
Two ways to make the practice happen. The morning alarm catches you at the start of the day. The Screen Time shield catches you when you next pick up your phone. Both go away the same way: you actually do the exercise. Notifications and reminders are easy to swipe past. These aren't.
the roadmap, in three parts
At launch
Coming up
Later
where to send a note
If something's broken or if you have a feature request, send a note. The support page has the address.
