UCLA Music Theory

I’m 25 years old and have been playing since I was about 6 years old. I’m self trained and only starting music theory by myself now. The app’s theory lectures have too many mistakes which are easy for me to pick up because of experience with the piano keyboard and keys. These would be detrimental for the absolute beginner. Missing incidentals, and incorrectly labeling key signatures, etc. Too many of them.

This app is a complete joke! I expected SO MUCH BETTER from a well known university music department. I am a graduate from a private music conservatory and I am aware that UCLA has a decent music department. So, I expected a music theory app that actually is LEGIT. I don’t even know where to start, because all of it is so bad. Did a REAL professional musician with a degree in music theory even check to see that this app has proper exercises that aren’t incorrect?? Heck, I also seriously hope that a professor from UCLA(or any other school) with a degree in music theory did not write any of these lessons, because if they ARE a professor of music theory from UCLA or other university, they should be very embarrassed!! For example, the chord progression dictations are ridiculous, and part writing rules are broken EVERYWHERE!!! Good LORD... My theory teacher would have KILLED us had we written such horrible progressions. A big fat F would be given. WHO WROTE THIS INCORRECT DRIVEL?? The melodic dictation is a mess as well. Never mind the rest of the app. I can’t even begin to write what’s wrong with all of it, because there is so much that is incorrectly written. The whole app should be dumped and a real music theory professor with actual skill should be hired to write the and develop the exercises for app use. Please take a good look at Musica Practica. That is a music theory ear training and comprehensive dictation computer program for music majors that is used by the best music conservatories and top university music departments as an aid to their ear training and music theory classes. That is how an app like this put out by a university should be like!! SHAME on the UCLA music department for letting this app go live. It’s a disgrace!! I am sorely disappointed because I was hoping for a quality app that would be a great review tool to keep my skills up. EPIC FAIL!!!

..right or wrong I would certainly keep promote the concepts brought forth in Theory of Harmony and the concise Structural Functions of Harmony, if for no other reason than to keep in the music student’s conscious, the unique pedagogical style that developed alongside the immense groundwork laid down by the master. Schoenberg, coming to the States only to find the level of music education rather poor and backwards pulled no punches in the preface to his last and possibly most important book, “Structural Functions of Harmony.” “Unfortunately the understanding of harmony by many students is superficial, and foreign to the procedures of great composers. This is caused by the general use of two obsolete teaching methods. One, consisting of writing parts above a figured bass, is much too easy a task; the other, harmonizing a given melody, is too difficult. Both are basically wrong.” and “Of course, part-leading must not be allowed to be a handicap to one who attempts these advanced studies. One who cannot control four parts with a certain ability either has not worked seriously or is entirely untalented and should give up music at once.” Schoenberg was trying to say that studying harmony without having a working knowledge of counterpoint (which is time, or rather harmony is the resulting sound of counterpoint over time), is a futile exercise. Don’t let his tremendous body of pedagogical work get lost in today’s world of “music theory in five minutes” nonsense. It’s difficult for a reason. Take this for example. Where does one find the so-called Neapolitan chord? Hmm? Very simple. It’s the submediant of the minor subdominant. Schoenberg built the UCLA school of music. Honor him by reading Structural Functions of Harmony. You’ll be forever glad you did. What does this review have to do with this app? I’ll let you decide for yourself. That’s what Schoenberg would have done.

DON’T get this app! I have been teaching piano for 35 yrs and thought this would help my students. Chords are not diatonic though they are portrayed that way. (No practical harmonic function for students.) Seventh chords are not played as broken chords first and not clear enough nor sustained long in enough for students to identify. Spelling errors, poor sight reading design...I could go on.

This app is awesome! I just had a question about it. Under the “melodic” option of “dictation”, the melodies played often times contain a B4, whereas the keyboard given only goes as low as middle C. Since I’m unable to play the B4, I get the round wrong. Is there a way to access the B4 that I’m not getting, or was there just a mishap with the keyboard? Thank you so much! Again, I love this app!

For the interval recognition, it would be nice to have ascending and descending options. The dictation doesn’t work well at all: the percentage correct feature says 0% if you make any error at all and it doesn’t give you the answer to compare to your input. The graphics and sounds are also not appealing at all. There are better music apps out there. (ReadRhythm for example is an amazing one, or Complete Ear Trainer)

The dictation feature is very cool. However, I wish it would give me the correct answer so that I can improve. Without that it is frustrating since I downloaded this app particularly because that is the area I struggle with. If there is a way to do this, please let me know and I will gladly rate 5 stars.

The rhythmic dictation section is buggy in that you have to restart the pattern once or twice to get it to actually play in time. (The click even starts out of time when you have the app running for a while) The melodic dictation part is also a problem because you can’t dictate notes below middle c. Maybe if the keys could scroll that could be a good fix for that issue? Otherwise, it’s a good app.

Things I love: -sight reading mode -both interval modes -triad quality mode -score tracking -the tests don't stay strictly in one key -the “press here to hear all the chords” page (make that easier to find!) Errors/Bugs: -Chord progression test plays major chords only instead of the diatonic chords (it plays a major II, III, VI instead of minor and even a major VII instead of a diminished) -rhythm dictation test reads some correct answers as wrong -melodic dictation test plays notes below the keyboard’s given range (the B below middle C for example). answers notating it an octave higher are not counted -seventh chord quality mode tells you whether you got a right or wrong answer but doesnt keep track of your score. you always get 0%. Suggestions: -practice mode for every test -every mode should have its own settings page -adjustable timer length for survival mode -adjustable key, pitch range, phrase length for melodic dictation -adjustable phrase length and the ability to choose what note types to practice in rhythm dictation -minor key chord progression mode -ability to customize what triads, seventh chords, intervals you want to practice I hope they fix all this stuff so I can come back back and change my rating to 5 stars.

This app has potential but it appears to be made by people that forgot what it was like when they started out. That and we can’t shut the music off! Nor can you talk to the developers. You cannot pick which clef you would like to work on. Summarized, just the ability to choose what you want would improve this app ten fold