I know it's been a little quiet around here lately, but that's because I've been using my free time to work on a new version of the ear training tool. It's mostly the same application that you're familiar with, however I'm now going to do the controls in HTML and just the staff and piano part in Java (and the midi sequencer, of course). Why the change? Well, the Java GUI has become too much of a pain when it comes to adding new features and moving things around. There have been plenty of mornings where I try to sneak in 15-20 minutes before work and I end up wasting the entire time wrestling with the layout. The change to HTML should make feature/layout changes MUCH easier.

Here are some of the features I hope to add to the new ear trainer over the next month or two:

• Ability to set the root note for all exercises
• Auto-timing feature that prevents the need to manually set and adjust the loop time and results-display time
• Everything can be modulated rather than just random melodies
• You can change from piano to any standard midi instrument
• Pre-set exercises that you can load with a single click
• Random melody exercises over chord accompaniment. I haven't started this yet, but it promises to be one of the coolest new features. In addition to standard chord progressions and melodies, I hope to come up with some inside-outside exercises that will train your ear to hear outside lines