Ear Training
A trained ear is the foundation for transcribing songs, improvising, and singing in tune. A few minutes a day slowly connects the sounds you hear to note names and chords.
Hear two notes and name the interval between them.
Sounds are synthesized on the fly (triangle wave). If you can't tell, hit Replay a few more times. Get steady on the “Common” level before switching to “All” — ears need to build up gradually, just like your hands.
Five ways to practice
- Interval training: hear two notes and judge how far apart they are (minor 3rd, major 3rd, perfect 4th, perfect 5th, octave…). Start with “one after another” for a melodic feel, then switch to “together” to train your harmonic ear.
- Chord quality: hear a chord's color and tell whether it's major, minor, dominant-7th, or major-7th. Major is “bright,” minor is “dark,” dominant-7th “wants to move forward,” major-7th is “floating and gentle” — listen enough and the picture forms.
- Progression listening: hear a 4-bar chord progression and recognize which “go-to progression” it is — is the opening bright or dark, where does the bass move? This is the first step of transcribing songs; once you answer, you can head straight to the progression library to play along.
- Scale-degree listening: first hear a cadence to establish the key, then hear a note — and judge which degree it is in the key (do re mi…). You're not training “perfect pitch” but a sense of each note's function within the key, which is the ear that actually helps with improvising and transcribing. Difficulty ranges from the tonic-triad tones 1·3·5, to all 7 diatonic degrees, to versions with chromatic notes.
- Single-note singback: a note plays, you hum it back first, then the name is revealed so you can check — building a steady pitch reference.
💡 Tip: start with “common intervals” and “common chords,” and only switch to “all” once your accuracy holds steady above 80%. Pairing this with the circle of fifths to understand interval relationships will speed up your progress.
How to remember intervals: use familiar songs as anchors
The classic ear-training trick: tie each interval to the first two notes of a song you can sing. When you hear an interval, first think “which song's opening does this sound like” — match it and you can name it. Most of the anchor songs below are in our song library; click through to see the chord moves and play along.
| Interval (semitones) | Anchor song · opening | How to sing it |
|---|---|---|
| Minor 2nd (1) | Ode to Joy | “mi–mi–fa”: the second step mi→fa is it — right next to each other, a little cramped. |
| Major 2nd (2) | Sakura (さくら) | “sa–ku–ra”: A→B, a whole step; the do→re in “Frère Jacques” is it too. |
| Minor 3rd (3) | Greensleeves | The opening la→do leaps up — wistful by nature. |
| Major 3rd (4) | When the Saints Go Marching In | “Oh when” do→mi, bright and sunny (same as the start of “Kumbaya”). |
| Perfect 4th (5) | Amazing Grace | “A-ma” sol→do — reach up a bit and you're home (same as the start of “Auld Lang Syne”). |
| Tritone (6) | The Simpsons theme | “The Simp-sons” — edgy and unstable; just remember that uneasy feeling itself. |
| Perfect 5th (7) | Twinkle, Twinkle, Little Star | “Twin-kle, twin-kle” do→sol — the most stable leap there is. |
| Minor 6th (8) | “Love Story” movie theme | “Where do I” mi→do upward; if you blank, use its inversion — flip it an octave and it's a major 3rd. |
| Major 6th (9) | Farewell (Song Bie) | The sol→mi leap on the opening line — it's right there the moment you start. |
| Minor 7th (10) | “Somewhere” (West Side Story) | “There's a” big leap; or think of it as a whole step short of an octave. |
| Major 7th (11) | — (remember it by approaching the octave) | Just a half step below the octave, itching to resolve up — “almost home” is the major 7th. |
| Perfect octave (12) | Somewhere Over the Rainbow | “Some-where” jumps a full octave — same note name, higher up. |
💡 Anchors are scaffolding, not the destination: at first it's “hear it → recall the song → name it,” but with practice it becomes “hear it → know it,” and that middle step drops away on its own. Descending intervals get their own anchors (for example, the mi→re at the start of “Mary Had a Little Lamb” is a descending major 2nd) — but get the ascending ones solid first.