I remember in my college aural training class having to memorize intervals based on familiar songs, i.e. perfect fourth is "Here Comes The Bride." Well, as I have been noticing lately all the tunes that I grew up knowing and recognizing for this purpose are no longer well known by the current generation of elementary and high school students. Luckily the folks over at EarMaster have created an online page full of interval examples from more modern songs that many of today's students will actually know (am I really so old that no one recognizes the Star Trek theme for the minor seventh any more?).

Aural Training Made Easy

The list of songs that the EarMaster Interval Song Examples Chart provides is actually quite extensive, the only problem I have with it is that to play the songs you have to visit YouTube, which in most schools these days is blocked by the district's Internet firewall software. They also provide an on screen demo of each interval, complete with visuals of the piano keyboard, a guitar fretboard, and standard notation. The demo even plays the interval (up or down) so the student can at least hear the interval even if they can't access the video in class. For simple, easy mental hooks to help kids remember aural intervals be sure to give it a look.

For more detailed aural training practice you can always take a look at the full version of EarMaster Pro (read my review of EarMaster Pro here or my newer review of EarMaster Pro 6 here). Other alternatives include training software like Auralia which also does a very respectable job. Of the two I like the EarMaster Pro software better just because of the interface, but individual students may have different opinions depending on how much exposure they have had to it.