iTheory: Music Theory And Ear Training With Your iPod by Graham English

iTheory: Music Theory And Ear Training With Your iPod

March 3, 2007

iTheory is a free ear training tool for your iPod. It took me a couple of tries to get it installed correctly, but it works great. The interface isn’t as clean as I would like. You have to scroll past hundreds of notes before you get to the iTheory main menu. But once I got there, it worked like a charm.

Basically, you just copy the text files to your iPod’s notes folder and copy the MP3s to your music library. Then, in the iPod’s notes menu, you navigate to the main iTheory note and you can test intervals, scales, chords, and absolute pitch.

I think I’m going to hack into mine and personalize it a bit more. It’s really cool how you can reference audio in a note. I wish I knew before that you can do that. My mind is racing with ideas to use this trick.

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14 comments on “iTheory: Music Theory And Ear Training With Your iPod”

- Beth said:
- Mar 12th, 2007 at 2:58 pm
It’s a nightmare installing it!

- Graham English said:
- Mar 12th, 2007 at 5:36 pm
What kind of problems did you have? It’s pretty much drag and drop. You just have to drag the notes to the right place - inside the notes folder. The audio is a simple import - just like you would any music in your library.

If you need help, let me know.

- Dag Ove said:
- Apr 11th, 2007 at 7:02 pm
Hi!
Where can I download the iTheory files. It seems like they have been removed for some reason.

You’re writing:
“Itâ€™s really cool how you can reference audio in a note. I wish I knew before that you can do that. My mind is racing with ideas to use this trick.”

How do you do that? Could you explain the trick?
Cheers
Dag Ove

- Graham English said:
- Apr 11th, 2007 at 7:25 pm
Looks like he removed it. Weak.

Here’s example code:

<a href="ipod:music?song=NAME_OF_MUSIC_FILE&NowPlaying=false" >NAME_OF_LINK</a>

I’m not exactly sure about the NowPlaying tag. But if you load that up into your iPod notes, it should work.

- Dag Ove said:
- Apr 11th, 2007 at 7:35 pm
Thanks, Graham!
Too bad that the files are removed. And it’s kind of strange that the author just put a telephone number on his site - this is 2007. I’m from Norway…!
I’ll check out the trick. Perhaps it’s even possible to use this for video or pictures too? Could you recommend a web site with this kind of information?

It’s kind of late now…! Musicicians (!)

Cheers
Dag Ove

- Graham English said:
- Apr 11th, 2007 at 7:44 pm
I’m thinking you’re right. You can probably use this for a lot of things. I don’t have time right now, but I’m going to look into it more. It could make the iPod a powerful learning center. Think about it, songwriting tutorials complete with examples!

If I find any more info, I’ll let you know.

- Dag Ove said:
- Apr 11th, 2007 at 7:49 pm
Exactly! I’m going to explore that field. It is very interesting.

I just found a link that cover some of it. Here:
http://www.macdevcenter.com/pub/a/mac/2006/11/28/building-interactive-ipod-experiences.html?page=2

- Caroline said:
- May 16th, 2007 at 8:34 am
Hello
IÂ´m a Brazilian music student, and IÂ´m searching for that ITheory, can you help me?
I looked up on the site, but thereÂ´s just a fone number… And I canÂ´t call from here, is not cheap. Do you know if thereÂ´s a way to find it somewhere else on internet? Or something similar?
Thank you, and sorry about my English!!!
Carol

- Graham English said:
- May 16th, 2007 at 10:20 am
I haven’t seen it anywhere else on the internet. I looks like he wants to license it, i.e. make money from it. No more free iTheory unfortunately.

- Caroline said:
- May 16th, 2007 at 1:11 pm
ThatÂ´s bad. Well, thanks anyway. And congratulations for your work.
Carol

- Bob said:
- Jul 18th, 2007 at 11:45 am
Does anyone know where the download files are? They were removed and will be made commercial… but if someone has the files, I would like to get them for free before it is made illegal to download.

- e-sound said:
- Nov 4th, 2007 at 12:26 pm
iTheory appears to be back up. The questions is “is it helpful”? Does it actually improved your ear?

- Graham English said:
- Nov 6th, 2007 at 9:26 pm
It’s an ear training testing app. Like most ear training drills and exercises, it helps if you use it.

- Susan Brooks said:
- Nov 12th, 2007 at 4:36 pm
iTheory was developed by my niece at Duke University. It will be available for purchase in the near future. Thanks for your kind comments.

Graham English