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J K
Oct 02, 22:44 in ToneGym Cafe

Is there a non-stupid way to play notationist?

I figured I could type in the notes on my computer keyboard - which apparently you can but it doesn't let you type 'c' to register the note c. Ok, fine. Makes sense, it's arbitrarily setup to mirror a piano, fair enough. I hate computer/piano key mirrors cause the muscle memory is all wrong but it's a solid idea, maybe I can play with my MIDI keyboard!

You can use the an external MIDI device - awesome. Except, hilariously, there's no way to play flats. If I play an Eb on my MIDI keyboard, it's not counted - because it's ABOVE the E key, not below it, so obviously it's a D# now.

I would love to play this game but translating the note I recognize to a screen click slows me down a ton and is not a useful skill to build - that's not what I come here for.

Has anyone found a way around this?

1 props

Ivan Maloletkin
Oct 03, 03:08

im pretty sure that you can like press a low key, i forgot which one though.

0 props

Nick W
Oct 03, 11:04

Yeah to play the flats you have to press the B (B3) below the C at the same time as you press the black key... Which isn't a great solution.
Buuut, you will start moving onto chords etc after the individual notes, and I would say the goal of the game isn't to aid sight reading for playing piano, it's identifying notes or interval or chord by name. So using the mouse makes more sense, especially as you progress

0 props

ToneGym
Oct 01 in ToneGym Olympics

Inversions Champ Winner, Sep. 28th - Oct. 1st:

1st: @John Huang 51 pts
2nd: @Beto Ojeda 43 pts
3rd: @Mark Tomato Alley 33 pts

See complete standings:
https://www.tonegym.co/contest/view?id=BBNM2YEARGI

7 props

Kathy Anderson
Oct 01

Congratulations!!

0 props

Logan Castleton
Oct 02, 20:30

nicely done

0 props

ToneGym
Oct 01 in ToneGym Official

@Phil Killingley won the Championship. Congrats for winning!

11 props

Phil Killingley
Oct 01

Thanks @Henry Do - you pushed it to the wire there - great race agreed!

0 props

Kathy Anderson
Oct 01

Congratulations!!

1 props

Logan Castleton
Oct 02, 20:30

congrats!

0 props

ToneGym
Oct 02, 11:38 in ToneGym Official

Congrats @Chris von Recklinghausen for winning the Silver Ears Award!

6 props

Logan Castleton
Oct 02, 20:30

nice!

0 props

Michael Möllerfeld
Sep 26 in ToneGym Cafe

I am stuck at Departurer in distinguishing M21 from m21. Does anyone have a hint / technique for me, how to overcome this? I think, I have to find a different approach. Thanks a lot!

4 props

Ken Wilkens
Sep 27

I use song references to hear intervals. For m7 I hear “Tonight” from West Side Story (There’s a place for us). I also have a reference song for the M7 (actually from the musical Damn Yankees) - also agree - the M7 has a lot more tension.

3 props

Cuantas Vacas
Sep 27

To me, it feels much like m7-M7, maybe a bit less dissonant

3 props

Michael Möllerfeld (author)
Oct 02, 16:27

for me it seems that my frequency distance distinguishing somewhere there gets to its end. I don't hear more tension with m and M (like I did at octaves below). But I will try. Maybe the further I go the more unserious and the more lazy I become...

0 props

ToneGym
Oct 02 in ToneGym Cafe

A gripping cultural deep-dive into how rock and roll's rebellious spirit shaped, and was shaped by, a generation of legends 🎸🕰️

Did Smoking Kill Rock and Roll? The Nirvana Smoking Controversy

Music-History

6 min

Rick Beato

2 props

ToneGym
Sep 25 in ToneGym Official

Congrats @Kewei Lyu for winning the Golden Ears Award!

16 props

Colin Aiken
Sep 29

Fantastic!

0 props

Kewei Lyu
Oct 01

Thank you guys !

0 props

Kathy Anderson
Oct 01

Congratulations!! Great job!!

0 props

ToneGym
Sep 23 in ToneGym Official

ToneGym Hero: Pavol Brezina

Pianist, university lecturer, and self-confessed technical problem-solver with a soft spot for Hans Zimmer's Time, Pavol Brezina never set out to teach people how to listen. He was just someone for whom music had always been part of life, with a curiosity that grew from enjoying sound to wanting to know how it's shaped and how it carries ideas and emotion.

That led to years studying music, sound and acoustics, then teaching those subjects at university, and to a daily ToneGym routine he now brings into the classroom, before discovering that listening is a skill that can be systematically trained. @Pavol Brezina is this month's ToneGym Hero!

Read the full article here: https://www.tonegym.co/blog/item?id=pavol-brezina

9 props

Beto Ojeda
Sep 29

It's great to learn a little more about your background in music, Pavol! I share your admiration for H. Zimmer. Great interview—congratulations!

3 props

Pavol Brezina
Oct 01

Thank you

1 props

ToneGym
Sep 30 in ToneGym Official

Congrats @Benjamin Buckley for winning the Silver Ears Award!

10 props

Colin Aiken
Sep 30

Congrats!

1 props

Kathy Anderson
Oct 01

Congratulations!!

1 props

ToneGym
Sep 29 in Basic Music Theory

Congrats @Henry Do for completing the 'Music Theory Basics' program!

5 props

Colin Aiken
Sep 30

Good work!

1 props

Kathy Anderson
Oct 01

.congratulations!!!

1 props

Tori Kamal
Sep 27 in Basic Music Theory

After months of failing over and over, I finally beat the 1st level of Inversionist!

For those like me that struggle with this exercise, here's what it took for me to finally beat it:
• Listen to the ToneGym playback multiple times.
• Find the base chord on the piano in the same general range as the ToneGym playback.
• Move back and forth between inversions on the piano.
• Key step: Now play it back on the piano as an arpeggio. Playing as a chord didn't cut it for me, but for some reason playing as an arpeggio allowed me finally hear where the inversion was.

Good luck, folks, and let me know if this helped any of yall, or if you have any other tips!

6 props

Kinsey Nietzsche
Sep 28

… and then the minor chords appeared, and my progress slowed again 😅

1 props

J K
Sep 28

I've been relying on my intuition for the most part. It's a lot harder for me to focus on the right answer than it is to just assign a feeling to each sound and take my best guess.

The root sounds settled and final, the 1st sound wonky or off somehow, the 2nd sounds like the root but with a touch more bite or air to it?

Maybe there's a better way, I just started but that's what's worked for me so far!

1 props

Tori Kamal (author)
Sep 29

@Kinsey Nietzsche way to stick with it though!
@J K I think just doing what works for each of our individual brains the best is the way to go!

0 props

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