This free VR app for Meta Quest trains your musical ear
Berklee College of Music has developed a free VR game for Meta Quest to help you train your musical ear.
Berklee Online has released a free VR ear-training game in the Meta Horizon Store. The VR app "Berklee Online Ear Trainer" is designed to help musicians train their ears to better recognize and reproduce musical concepts such as pitch, rhythm, and harmony.
The VR Ear Training offers three different game modes: Rhythm, Harmony, and Scales. In Rhythm mode, you are given two virtual drumsticks and must play predetermined rhythms on a drum surface. Harmony mode requires you to identify intervals, triads and seventh chords, while Scales mode requires you to identify individual notes within a scale.
According to Michael Moyes, chief operating officer of Berklee Online, the goal of the app is to prove that everyone is capable of developing their musical ear. Virtual reality should help make the training more playful and immersive.
For those who do not own Meta Quest 3, Quest 3S or Quest 2, Berklee Online also plans to release a 2D version of the app for iOS, Google and Android in early 2025.
Former Rock Band developer involved
The idea for the VR auditory trainer was born in 2021 when COO Michael Moyes took a VR class at MIT. The concept was developed and refined in collaboration with Berklee graduate Marshall Chadbourne and a former developer at Harmonix (including Rock Band).
Gilson Schachnik, the director of aural training at Berklee, compares aural training to learning a language. Like learning a language, it involves recognizing and processing sounds. The playful approach of the VR app can help turn what is often perceived as a tedious exercise into a fun activity.
The VR app is Berklee Online's first step into virtual reality. Additional projects are in the works, including VR composition lessons with a virtual Beethoven and the ability to conduct a virtual orchestra, similar to Maestro.
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