Ear Trainer

Identify intervals, triads, and 7th chords with real instruments and notation playback.

About Ear Trainer

Train your ears to name what you hear

Ear Trainer plays intervals, triads, or seventh chords and you identify them. Choose the section you want to work on, whether intervals go up, down, or both, and whether chords are played one note at a time or all together. Five instrument sounds help you hear chords the way they appear in real music, not only on piano.

Ear training improves your intonation, your ability to play in tune with a section, and your confidence when you have to find your first note. Players who can hear a major third or a perfect fifth can adjust to fit the chord instead of only following a tuner.

How to practice

  1. 01Start with a few very different intervals, such as a major 3rd, perfect 5th, and octave, before adding more.
  2. 02Sing or hum the interval back before you answer.
  3. 03Use a reference song for each interval at first, then try to hear the interval directly.
  4. 04Practice ascending first, then descending, then harmonic (both notes together).
  5. 05For chords, listen to the third: it decides major versus minor.

Intervals are measured in half steps

An interval is the distance between two pitches. Its size is counted in half steps (semitones): a minor 3rd is three half steps, a major 3rd is four. Triads stack two thirds on top of each other. Major is a major 3rd plus a minor 3rd, and minor is the reverse.

Seventh chords add another third on top of a triad. The dominant 7th, a major triad with a minor 7th, is the chord that pulls strongest back to home.

Who it's for

Middle and high school musicians building aural skills, students preparing for theory classes or auditions with an ear-training part, and any player who wants to tune chords better in ensemble.

Read more

Ear trainingRecognizing intervals by earHow to learn intervals with reference songs, then move past them to hearing each interval directly.Ear trainingHearing the difference between major, minor, and diminished chordsWhat gives each triad its sound, and how to tell them apart in the band's own chords.Ear trainingSeventh chords: dominant, major, minor, and diminishedHow seventh chords are built, what each type sounds like, and how to tell them apart by ear.Ear trainingFully diminished 7th chords: how they are built and where they goThe symmetrical chord made of stacked minor 3rds: how to spell it, why there are only three, and how it resolves.Band skillsPlaying in tune: hearing "beats" and matching pitchWhat out of tune sounds like, how to tell if you are sharp or flat, and how to match pitch with your section.