Ear Training
Ear training for intervals and chords: hear two notes or a chord on the piano, name it, and watch your accuracy for each interval and chord quality grow.
Direction
Intervals in play
Chord qualities in play
Playback
Keys: Space plays the next one, R replays, 1 to 9 and 0 pick the answers in order.
Your accuracy per item
| Item | Right | Asked | Accuracy |
|---|
How to use ear training
This ear training tool plays two notes or a chord on the piano and asks you to name the interval or the chord quality, then tracks your score, streak and accuracy for every item, so you can see which sounds you still mix up. Pick Intervals or Chords at the top and press Play. Listen, then tap the answer. Right answers turn green; a wrong answer turns red and the right one turns green, and the display names the notes you heard, spelled properly (C Eb G, not C D# G). Press Next for the next one and Replay to hear the current one again.
Press Choose what plays to set up the drill. For intervals, choose the direction (ascending, descending, harmonic, or a mix) and which intervals are in play. For chords, choose the qualities and whether the chord is followed by its notes one by one. Start with two or three items and add more once they feel easy.
The display keeps your score for this session, your current streak and your best streak. Open Your accuracy per item to see how often you get each interval or chord right; it is saved on this device between visits. Keys: Space plays the next one, R replays, 1 to 9 and 0 pick the answers in the order shown.
Interval training: the intervals in semitones
An interval is the distance between two notes, counted in semitones (one piano key to the very next, black or white). This table lists the intervals the trainer uses, with an example on C.
| Semitones | Interval | Example from C4 |
|---|---|---|
| 1 | Minor 2nd | C to C# |
| 2 | Major 2nd | C to D |
| 3 | Minor 3rd | C to D#/Eb |
| 4 | Major 3rd | C to E |
| 5 | Perfect 4th | C to F |
| 6 | Tritone | C to F# |
| 7 | Perfect 5th | C to G |
| 8 | Minor 6th | C to G#/Ab |
| 9 | Major 6th | C to A |
| 10 | Minor 7th | C to A#/Bb |
| 11 | Major 7th | C to B |
| 12 | Octave | C to C |
A good way in: sing the notes in between. If you can sing up the scale from the low note and land on the high one on the third step, the interval is a 3rd. Then decide whether it is major or minor by how wide it feels.
Ascending, descending and harmonic
An ascending interval plays the low note first, a descending one the high note first, and a harmonic interval plays both together. In interval ear training, the same interval can feel very different in each direction, so train them separately before you mix them. Harmonic intervals are the step toward hearing chords: you judge the sound of two notes blending, not a movement.
Chord ear training: qualities by ear
A chord's quality is the pattern of intervals above its root, whatever the root is. The trainer plays each quality on a random root, so you learn the sound of the pattern, not one chord. Here they are built on C:
| Quality | Symbol on C | Notes | Built from the root |
|---|---|---|---|
| Major | C | C E G | major 3rd, perfect 5th |
| Minor | Cm | C Eb G | minor 3rd, perfect 5th |
| Diminished | Cdim | C Eb Gb | minor 3rd, tritone |
| Augmented | Caug | C E G# | major 3rd, minor 6th |
| Dominant 7th | C7 | C E G Bb | major triad plus minor 7th |
| Major 7th | Cmaj7 | C E G B | major triad plus major 7th |
| Minor 7th | Cm7 | C Eb G Bb | minor triad plus minor 7th |
Major against minor is the first pair to learn: only the middle note moves, by one semitone. Diminished and augmented both sound unsettled; listen for whether the top note sits below or above where the 5th would be. To see any chord on the keys, use the chord finder or play it on the online piano.
Ear training and relative pitch
Everything here trains relative pitch: naming notes and chords from their relationship to each other. That is different from perfect pitch, naming a single note with no reference, which you can try on the perfect pitch test. If telling two close notes apart is the hard part, start with the tone deaf test, which measures how small a pitch difference you can hear.
More for singers: Vocal Range Test · Pitch Detector · Perfect Pitch Test · Tone Deaf Test · Note Reading
Questions
What is ear training?
Ear training is practice at recognizing what you hear: intervals, chords, scales and rhythms. This page trains intervals (two notes) and chord qualities, with a score for each item so you can see which ones need more work.
Is this a relative pitch test?
Yes. Naming intervals and chord qualities tests relative pitch, because you judge notes by their distance from each other, not by their absolute pitch. Your per-item accuracy shows how your relative pitch is doing.
Which intervals should I learn first?
Start with a few that sound clearly different, such as the major 3rd, perfect 5th and octave, all ascending. Add the rest, then descending and harmonic intervals, once your accuracy on the first set stays high.
Why does the root change every time?
So you learn the sound of the interval or chord quality, not the pitch of one example. A major 3rd from C and a major 3rd from F are the same interval.