Ear Training
Hear an interval or a chord and name it by ear. Pick a mode and a level, press play, and build your ear-score — accuracy and streaks, tracked honestly. No signup, all in your browser.
Tip: replay as often as you like before answering. Changing mode or level resets your score.
How ear training works
Ear training is the skill of recognising what you hear — the distance between two notes (an interval) and the quality of a stack of notes (a chord). It is what lets musicians play by ear, transcribe a song, sing in tune and improvise. Like any skill it grows with short, regular practice: a few focused minutes a day beats an occasional marathon.
Start in Intervals mode on Easy — just a handful of very distinct intervals. A reliable trick is to anchor each interval to a song you know: a perfect fifth opens Twinkle, Twinkle, a perfect fourth opens Here Comes the Bride, a major sixth opens My Bonnie. As your accuracy climbs, move to Medium and Hard, and try Descending and Harmonic playback, which sound quite different from ascending. Then switch to Chords to hear major versus minor, and the colours the sevenths add.
Where to go next
Pair ear work with the theory behind it: see intervals laid out in the intervals chart, build the chords you are hearing in the chord finder, and connect keys and their chords on the circle of fifths. Training your ear for pitch? Check your own with the chromatic tuner.
Frequently asked questions
What is ear training?
Ear training is practising to recognise musical elements by ear — here, the intervals between two notes and the quality of chords. Over time it lets you identify what you hear, play by ear, transcribe music and improvise with more confidence.
How do I use this ear trainer?
Choose intervals or chords and a difficulty level, then press Play to hear the sound from a random root. Click the name you think it is. The tool tells you if you were right, tracks your accuracy and streak, and plays the next question when you press Next.
How can I get better at recognising intervals?
Start on Easy with a handful of distinct intervals and associate each with a familiar song — a perfect fifth is the start of Twinkle Twinkle, a perfect fourth is Here Comes the Bride. Practise a few minutes daily and add harder intervals as your accuracy climbs.
Is the ear training tool free?
Yes, completely free with no signup and no ads. Everything runs in your browser using the Web Audio API.
Train your timing too
A good ear needs a good sense of time. Rhythm Challenge measures yours to the millisecond.