Ear training

Related: Guitar & piano chords · Music notation guide · Music styles guide · Modes & composition · Music theory tools · BPM delay calculator

Ear training in the browser. Sounds are synthesised on your device when you press a button (turn your volume to a comfortable level first). Nothing is uploaded; progress is stored in this browser only if it allows storage.

Your progress

How the exercises work

• Intervals: two notes, played one after the other (rising or falling) or together. Name the distance. Level 1 uses a few wide, distinct intervals; level 4 uses all of them including the tritone.
• Chord quality: major, minor, diminished, augmented, seventh chords and suspended chords, played as a block or broken up.
• Scales and modes: the scale is played up one octave from a random starting note.
• Progressions: a short progression in a random key; name it by Roman numerals (capital = major, small = minor).
• Rhythm: you hear a one-bar pattern in 4/4 after a count-in; tap it back. Your first tap is treated as the start of the pattern, so only the timing between taps counts.
• Perfect pitch: one note; name it. This is hard and may not be trainable for everyone; use it for fun. Changing the reference pitch changes what an "A" sounds like.
• Melodic dictation: you first hear the tonic, then a short melody from the major scale or natural minor; enter it as scale-degree numbers (1 = tonic).
• Daily set: ten mixed questions at level 2. The set is the same for everyone on the same calendar day (it is generated from the date), so you can compare notes with friends.
• Wrong and revealed answers are not scored twice; "Reveal" counts as a skipped question.

Interval memory aids

A common way to learn intervals is to link each one to the first two notes of a tune you know well. Only well-known traditional or classical tunes are used here, named by title only; check each on a keyboard, because a memory aid is only as good as your memory of the tune. Where no good public-domain tune comes to mind, a plain description is given instead.

Chord colours: major sounds bright and settled; minor sounds darker; diminished is tense and compact; augmented is open and unsettled; dominant 7th wants to resolve; major 7th sounds smooth and dreamy; sus2 and sus4 sound open and unresolved.