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# 10.1 How to use trainers

Before you start to practise a drill you need to become familiar with the various possibilities available. On a website these are sometimes defined in a separate window/web-page called ‘Settings’ (or similar). Once you’ve located this page, and you are sure that the choices you have made will produce the drill that you require, you will have to make a realistic assessment of the level of difficulty that you can cope with. Don’t be over-ambitious! It is better to underestimate your proficiency to start with, otherwise you may well find the drills too difficult and you will soon lose heart.

Even when everything is set up, it might take a little time to become familiar with the way a drill works and how you should respond. Some drills where you are required to enter notes with pitch and rhythmic values on a stave need a little pre-practice. So be prepared to have one or two trial runs just to become ‘at home’ with the drill, before you start in earnest.

Note that the programs that make drills possible on websites are associated with Flash or Java. So you will need Adobe Flash Player and/or the Java Runtime Environment installed on your computer.

◄Contents►Next: 10.2 Where to find trainers and recommended reading

OpenLearn - An introduction to music theory
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