Ear training
Ear-training questions written fresh for your level: name intervals, chord qualities, cadences, and scale degrees, tap or clap a rhythm back, play a melody back on the keyboard, write down a melody or a bass line you hear, and name the chords of a pop or jazz tune. Levels 1 and 2 of every exercise are free, no account needed.
About ear training
Where do the questions come from?
Your device writes each one when you ask for it, from level tables we wrote ourselves: which intervals, chords, cadences, scale degrees, rhythms, and melodies each level uses. They follow no exam board’s syllabus, although the skills are the ones most listening tests ask for.
Why is there no sound when I answer?
Because the question is still in your ear. A chime right after you answer would land on top of the sound you are trying to remember, so the answer is marked on the screen instead, and you can play the right answer and your own beside each other.
How does clapping a rhythm back work?
The microphone’s sound is analyzed on your own device to find when each clap began. It is never uploaded or kept. Tapping the screen, pressing a key, or playing a MIDI keyboard work too. Your timing is compared with your own steady pulse, so a slightly faster or slower tempo is not held against you.
How is a dictation checked?
When every beat is written, your notes are compared with the melody in order, so one note left out does not make every later note wrong. You are told how many pitches and how many note values you wrote right, never a score, and each wrong note is marked on your staff with a sentence saying how it differs. A note counts only when it is spelled as the key spells it: F♯ written as G♭ sounds the same but is marked wrong, because reading and writing music is what the exercise trains.
How is a chord progression checked?
When every chord has a bass note and a numeral, each chord is compared with the answer on two counts: the bass must be the right note in the right octave, and the numeral must be the right chord in the right position. You are told how many of each you wrote right, never a score, with a sentence about the first thing that differs. Numerals are checked as written: I6 for I is wrong, because it is the same chord with a different note in the bass.
How are the changes of a tune checked?
When every chord after the first has a numeral, each is compared with the answer. You are told how many you named right, never a score, with a sentence about the first thing that differs: a chord that does a different job in the key, a root that sits somewhere else, or the same root with another kind of chord. A tritone substitute may be named either way, as subV7 or as ♭II7, because they are the same chord. The chords sound as a pianist would play them, a bass note with the third and seventh above it, and the chord symbols are told after you check.
Is anything saved?
In the other kinds of exercise, no question and no answer is saved. The number of questions you answer and the time you spend count toward your practice record, and the level you choose for each exercise is remembered on your account. For intervals and chords, how often each was asked, how often you missed it and the review schedule that follows (including when it is next due) are also saved, so your review queue can bring them back — never the sound or your individual answers.
Which levels are free?
Levels 1 and 2 of every exercise are open to everyone, with or without an account. The higher levels are part of Pro.