FET (Functional Ear Trainer)

This is a functional ear trainer, meaning that it teaches you to identify degrees in a key.

Every level, a chord progression is played to identify a major/minor key, followed by random notes played harmonically. The degrees of these notes should be identified and selected.

Install TiMidity++ for required performance improvements when converting MIDI to other formats.

brew install timidity

apt install timidity

Add this line to your application's Gemfile:

gem 'fet'

And then execute:

$ bundle install

Or install it yourself as:

$ gem install fet

The UI currently supports listening exercises, where a chord progression is played to establish a key, followed by notes played harmonically. The degrees of these notes should be identified by selecting them in the UI.

The binary can be executed as follows:

fet play listening --degrees 1 --key-type major --next-on-correct --tempo 200 --limit-degrees b6 --limit-degrees 5

All flags are optional, and serve the following purposes:

When using the UI, the following keyboard shortcuts are defined to allow for mouse-free interaction:

The generators will currently create MIDI files. The correct answer is included in the filename.

For listening exercises, here is a potential list of generated MIDI files (for 2 degrees):

$ find .
...
./listening/major/DbM_b6(Bbb2)_5(Ab5).mid
./listening/major/BbM_7(A4)_2(C6).mid
./listening/major/EM_b6(C2)_3(G#2).mid
./listening/major/GbM_6(Eb4)_3(Bb5).mid
./listening/major/FM_6(D4)_3(A5).mid
...
./listening/minor/Dm_b7(C3)_1(D4).mid
./listening/minor/F#m_b2(G2)_3(A#4).mid
./listening/minor/G#m_b6(E1)_b2(A2).mid
./listening/minor/Dm_6(B0)_7(C#3).mid
./listening/minor/C#m_5(G#4)_6(A#4).mid
...

The file name contains all the information required for the answer. For example, EM_b6(C2)_3(G#2).mid:

EM: the chord progression is in E Major.

b6: the bottom note will be the b6 degree

(C2): the scientific pitch notation of which is C2

3: the next note from the bottom will be the 3 degree

(G#2): the scientific pitch notation of which is G#2

The singing exercises will generate all possible combinations for keys and degrees as follows:

$ find .
...
./singing/major/AM_1.mid
./singing/major/BbM_3.mid
./singing/major/CM_4.mid
./singing/major/CM_5.mid
./singing/major/BbM_2.mid
...
./singing/minor/Am_1.mid
./singing/minor/Bbm_3.mid
./singing/minor/Cm_4.mid
./singing/minor/G#m_4.mid
./singing/minor/F#m_1.mid
...

The file name contains all the information required for the answer. For example, BbM_3.mid:

BbM: the chord progression is in Bb Major.

3: you should sing the 3rd degree.

For single note listening exercises, the same note is played across all possible keys:

$ find .
...
./listening_single_note/major/CM_1.mid
./listening_single_note/major/BM_b2.mid
./listening_single_note/major/F#M_b5.mid
...
./listening_single_note/minor/Am_b3.mid
./listening_single_note/minor/G#m_3.mid
./listening_single_note/minor/Cm_1.mid
...

The file name contains all the information required for the answer. For example, G#m_3.mid:

G#m: the chord progression is in G# Minor.

3: the note that is played is the 3rd degree in this key.

Refer to the rdoc for detailed usage instructions and descriptions of commands.

After checking out the repo, run bin/setup to install dependencies. Then, run rake test to run the tests. You can also run bin/console for an interactive prompt that will allow you to experiment.

To install this gem onto your local machine, run bundle exec rake install. To release a new version, update the version number in version.rb, and then run bundle exec rake release, which will create a git tag for the version, push git commits and the created tag, and push the .gem file to rubygems.org.

Bug reports and pull requests are welcome on GitHub at https://github.com/DimitriosLisenko/fet.

The gem is available as open source under the terms of the MIT License.