Learn the Fun Way with Hofnote

We, at Hofnote, give you a brilliant way to practise your aural skills.

Why?

Because we want students to enter their examinations feeling more confident.

But that is not all: Good aural skills also reflect in your playing and enjoyment of music. And we want to help people understand what they hear and enjoy music.

Musicians learn aural skills from all kinds of experience with music and from their teachers. But as the saying goes...” practice makes perfect!” and Hofnote aim to let students practise a bit more.

What is Aural?

Aural training is essential for developing a feeling for and understanding of music. It develops the link between the technical and intuitive sides of music. There are two aspects to it:

The ability to hear and visualise the detail while listening to music, making the link from intuitive to technical. For example, listening to music and being aware of the time signature, beat and tonal qualities such as the type of scale and nature of chords.
The ability to imagine sound when seeing written music, making the link from the technical to the intuitive. This develops skills such as sight reading and sight singing.

Some musicians may incline more to intuition, and others to a more technical understanding. However, by being able to relate the two, musicians are more able to communicate and build a vocabulary which informs their performance. The links between technical and intuitive may be easier for some musicians than for others, but the Hofnote training system makes it easy for students to work at their own pace to consolidate their skills.

How?

Hofnote provide exercises for you to use for practise.

Where we can, we give you instant feedback on how you are doing, and a chance to learn if you got the answer wrong.

These exercises play a piece of music and then ask you to select the right answer or sing the part.

We are not able to score your singing responses because microphones vary too much in quality.

If you would like to try some demos go to the Courses and Demos tab at the top.

Where?

Once you are enrolled onto a Hofnote course you can use any computer connected to the Internet to log in and do your exercises.

When?

You can use Hofnote as much and as often as you want within the registration access time.

Who ?

Your teacher will be able to see how you are getting on if you decide to link your enrolment to them.

How accurate is Hofnote?

We are constantly upgrading the exercises, and put a premium on maintaining accuracy. Hofnote also have the site audited externally. This was the auditor’s report after reviewing all the exercises..

“Audit results from Anthony Whittaker, Pianist, Teacher, Examiner and Adjudicator. Hofnote is a clearly thought-out and invaluable learning experience for music students of all ages and abilities. With the help of this site, instrumentalists and singers should be much better prepared for the aural test section of their examination. Good aural skills go beyond the exam room though. Hofnote will also help you to develop as a musician too!”

Anthony Whittaker, Pianist, Teacher, Examiner and Adjudicator.

Can music make you smarter?

Author Philip Sheppard reveals the secret power of music in your child’s development. He is Professor of Cello at the Royal Academy of Music, London as well as a senior lecturer in Principles of Education.

Below is an extract from his book, ‘Music Makes your Child Smarter’…

Active participation in music assists all forms of personal growth, both mental and physical. It builds many skills essential for everyday life and can aid mental development and learning processes. In fact, it appears that music can encourage the brain physically to alter its very structure as it grows. Involvement in music helps all ages define their own identities, and music can create associations between groups and helps to forge links between people. In other words, music helps children to build essential social skills. Music can create great feelings of self-worth - being creative in an artistic discipline can have a profound effect on the way children perceive themselves, and can even benefit health.

Music can change the shape of your brain

Regular participation in musical activities stimulates the development of the brain and improves mental functions. The very plasticity of the brain, the way it shapes itself, can be positively affected by repeated musical activities. The conduit of information between the two brain hemispheres, the corpus callosum, grows larger as a result of being musically stimulated, and the pathways of communication between areas of the brain are more comprehensively connected together.

Musical activity aids the creation of new synaptic pathways, enabling multi-tasking and general creative thought, and it promotes cognitive development and helps abstract thought processes.