What’s your strategy on Route IV? Other workout are definitely improving more. But I’m not so certain what I should pay more attention. Do you memorize the “feeling” of relationships between numbers like “V-I”
I have memorized the feeling of V-I, but not so much the others. I look for patterns, ie. which chords are the same, and which do I need to tell the difference between. I mostly listen to the type of chord to help with the process of elimination. Then I sing the bass notes in my head to see if it fits. But I will admit, I do use the cheat bass lines a lot if I'm not sure, but only after I've made my best guess. (By the way, I'm assuming you're talking about Route VI, and there isn't another game called Route IV).
Yes, if you memorize the feeling of I-IV, I-V and are able to differentiate maj/min/dim route IV is much easier. With this technique I maxed out the human-made levels (up to 160) in a few months.
An alternate, more advanced approach to all of the chord games (chord inversions, chord names, or chord progressions) is to listen to each interval that makes up the chord and analyze it. This is more efficient and useful, though much harder to develop. @Dima G and @Mark Tomato Alley are at extremely high levels of mastery in the Olympics (basically chord skills testing) and they both advocate this approach. The concept is that you can sing the individual chord tones and then analyze them.
@Dima G would you suggest to a person who struggle with the exercise ignore it, how would one go about learning inversions other way? I'm asking this because I'm struggling with the exercise and turned it off from daily workouts
@Question Toothbrush I just wouldn't practice it. What I would practice is when hearing a chord, trying to sing all the chord tones that go into it and identifying the root. Then you can figure out which voice is on top and which one is on the bottom. But it's way easier to do in a context of a song. In a context of a song you wouldn't just identify the inversions based on each chord. Like I mentioned previously, you'll hear the bass go to the third degree of the scale, but the chord sounds like a I chord, and not like a iii chord, so it means it's a I in the first inversion. It matters a lot what chord it is functionally within a progression.
I think chord crush goes into chord inversions within progressions, but only after all the diatonic chords are covered and even some of the secondary dominants. So I'd say, don't be too worried about inversions till you can reliably identify chords within simple pop songs. After that study the most common inversions and why they are used (to facilitate voice leading in the bass most likely). For example — I V6 vi progression, the V6 is the first inversion of a V chord, so the bass will move smoother like do-ti-la instead of do-sol-la. Way more context and more practical this way.
It's difficult for me too. I'm making steady progress by listening to the chord and singing the tonic. Then listening to the chord and singing the highest pitch. Then singing the highest pitch followed by the tonic, or sometimes it feels more natural to sing all the chord tones and figure out the relationship of the highest pitch to the tonic. I also find it easier to hear the the Rhodes piano instrument. Keep working at it, it gets easier.
Sometimes I get the sound to work, and sometimes not. It’s really frustrating as it totally prevents me from training regularly. Any advice. I have an iPhone
Here’s a glitch I see on my iPad, and maybe this will help some folks.
When I am playing games that requrire a sing back (Melody Jay, Sofegiator, etc), when I get into the game and it asks if I would allow microphone, I click “allow.” IF I have my AirPods in, I literally have to take them out of my ears and re-connect them - otherwise it reverts back to the iPad speaker and usually can’t pic up the mic.
@Andrew Shewaga - in many of the games (like Route VI) in the lower right hand corner of the playing field, there is a scale icon. When you answer a question, you can click the scale (or click the letter “C” on your keyboard) it will freeze the game and allow you to hear all of the options. In the case of Route VI, it allows you to hear each chord progression answer so you can compare how they sound to one another. In other games like Chordelius, it will let you hear each chord, and I believe it arpeggiates each chord as well. Same for Inversionist.
Jul 27, 09:15