I was drawn to the ear training course for several reasons. Firstly, like many others, I saw the phenomenal videos of his son demonstrating feats of the ear that were previously unimaginable to me. Secondly, this has been a long standing desire from my part to progress in this area.
So what works and what doesn't? I've completed 44 lessons at a 97.6 percent average, so I feel I'm in a good position to comment now. I bought the course about six weeks ago and am looking forward to working more.
What works:
1. It is systematic and well organised into categories, subcategories, chapters and levels of difficulty. I like that you can practice, and then be rated with a test. It gives a sense of achievement and accountability.
2. Chapters are (mostly) well explained with videos.
3. Clearly a lot of thought has been taken into what needs to be studied, when and how. You might ask, why not take an app which does the same thing? Well, here everything is properly laid out and organised in way that gradually introduces new concepts and levels of difficulty. Phone apps and similar programs do not tend to offer a course that can be worked through over time.
4. You can practice and redo tests as many times as you like. This is a key point. I found that I both needed time on the more difficult chapters, and that I felt like reviewing certain tests weeks later, even though I had scored well in them. It was vital for me that I could keep the work fresh, and return to any chapter at a later date.
5. The course contains a vast array of different ear training concepts. This includes, intervals, chords, modes, rhythm, scales and many more. There are more to come also in future releases.
6. It is challenging. I have covered some ideas in this course that are completely new to me.
7. It is improving my ear. Here there is no doubt.
8. You can do the course on your phone. This is a big plus when you are out and about.
What could be improved:
1. My biggest gripe was that for chapters with more than one answer (the rhythm chapter for example), if you click on a wrong answer it immediately starts the next question. Sometimes by mistake you end up clicking two or sometimes three wrong answers, thinking that you are still answering the previous question.
2. Everything is online. Those days when the internet is slow, you sometimes have to wait an age before the answer comes. It would be nice to have some offline content at least.
3. Surprisingly there are no videos for some of the more challenging sections. The minor section in tonal progressions could have used one. The chapter went from relatively easy to quite challenging without any indication. A short video would have been perfect.
Summary:
All in all, this course is definitely worth getting. The price is steep, it must be said, but there are discount offers throughout the month. Regardless, it is worth it. I've yet to find a systematic approach like this that is clearly so well thought out.
My final point would be a warning. Do not let this be the end of your practice. This is imperative. Use these exercises to work out your weaknesses. Invent your own exercises, find new ones elsewhere for the areas you need. It shouldn't stop here. This course is not going to be the end of your ear training by a long way. It can get you reasonably far, but there will always be more to do, even if it means reworking through chapters of this course itself. Furthermore, there are quite a few video ear training exercises on the Beato channel which do not appear on the course. Go find them. They are great.
