Author: Hans

Available for Online Lessons

I am now accepting students who are looking to improve their ear and their musical imaginations. Online lessons incorporate ear training with developing your personal style in improvisation, composition, and song writing. As with all my work, I always infuse a spirit of play into every challenge I offer private students. Beginning with and honoring […]

Ear Training With Easy Melodies

I have composed many melodies to help with teaching and learning ear training. One of the foundational elements of Kodály pedagogy is the notion of teaching patterns from songs that you know, songs that you can sing easily. While in Kodály, these songs are generally folks songs to support learning the musical mother tongue, I […]

How To Avoid One of The Most Common Ear Training Mistakes (How to Tone Hole Ep. 13)

https://youtu.be/IXPjoOlGVHw Many music students make the same mistake: they confuse the first three notes of the scale (do-re-mi) with the notes of the first CHORD of the scale (do-mi-so). In this video, take away three simple exercises and some strategies for overcoming this common pitfall and solidifying the foundations of an unshakeable ear.  

How to Easily Hear Melodies Made of Steps (How to Tone Hole Ep. 12)

https://youtu.be/n8bj8kKtNog Learn how to instantly hear and understand melodies that move up and down by step, so called “conjunct motion” or “step-wise motion”. Almost all melodies you’re going to encounter consist of a large proportion of step-wise motion, and being able to track the simple ups and downs is a key skill in ear training. […]

Tone Hole Version 1.1 Is Now Available!

I’ve added some easy-to-understand feedback at the end of each level so you’ll have a good idea of whether to move to the next level, repeat a level, or gear down on an easier level.  After hearing from a bunch of you comments like “I’m not sure whether I should repeat a level or move […]

How to Find “do” in Music (How to Tone Hole ep. 11)

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=_STSZefIlNg Part Three of a Series: Four progressive exercises to solidify your ability to hear “do” in any musical situation. Your ability to hear all the tones in the major scale hangs on your ability to hear and then identify the sound of “do”: the “one”, the “tonic”, the “sun” in the musical solar system. […]

How to Find “do” in Music (How to Tone Hole ep. 9)

https://youtu.be/IKgflbDsNnA Learn how to find the main note in any piece of music using these easy, medium, and hard techniques… some played inside Tone Hole (the musical tone matching game) and some practiced outside in the real world! Hear how half-steps and whole-steps combine to give you the feeling of “do”!

Game Testing & Ear Play Workshop

Here comes Summer, and I’m putting everything I’ve got into giving you fun ways to improve your musical ear.  Part of that means getting feedback. Your feedback. Whether you are new to ear training or an old hand, or a music educator, I know there’s a lot to get out of Tone Hole and other […]

How to Train to Win at Ear Training Games (How to Tone Hole ep. 8)

https://youtu.be/VLxDrC-h5zs Learn how to practice conjuring tones out of your imagination in the latest update of Tone Hole (v. 1.0.7) by practicing singing within “training mode”. This is a way of using the Tone Hole game to prompt you to sing notes connected to your current game level to solidfy the connection between your musical […]