To train your ear, open the Ear trainer, pick Notes, Intervals or Chords, and press Start. A note, interval or chord plays and you name it on the keys. Each level adds one or two new answers, a round passes at 80% right, and the trainer suggests the next level. Practise about eight minutes a day, the goal the trainer sets, and stay on a level until it passes. The Ear trainer is free, runs in your browser and needs no account.

What does ear training train?

Ear training is learning to name what you hear. The Ear trainer covers the three skills most musicians use:

• Notes: hearing one note and knowing which of the twelve it is.
• Intervals: the distance between two notes, from a minor 2nd up to the octave. This is relative pitch, the skill behind playing by ear and working out a melody.
• Chords: what kind of chord is playing. Major, minor, diminished, augmented, sus2 and sus4, then major 7, dominant 7, minor 7, half-diminished and diminished 7.

These pay off everywhere: working out a hook you heard, writing a bass line under it, telling a minor 7 from a dominant 7 in a sample, or finding the key of a song without a tool.

How to use the Ear trainer

1. Open the Ear trainer and pick a skill at the top: Notes, Intervals or Chords.
2. The level you are on shows in the bar. Before a notes round, the screen lists the level's notes: press each one to hear it. A new note carries a dot.
3. Press Start, or Space. The first question plays.
4. Answer on the keys under the screen: the piano for notes, the named keys for intervals and chords. From your computer keyboard, the home row answers notes (A is C) and the number row answers intervals and chords.
5. Press Play again (or Space) to hear a question again before you answer.
6. A wrong answer plays what you pressed, then the right one, and lights both on the small piano, so you hear and see the difference. Press Next to carry on.
7. At the end you see your score and what you missed. Press Next level once you pass, or Again to retry.

The level name in the bar opens the whole course for that skill, grouped by unit. Passed levels have a tick and your best score. You can pick any level; the course only suggests an order.

How do the levels build?

Each skill is a short course, and each level adds one or two answers to the ones you already know. You never face twelve new things at once.

A level is 10 questions, or 15 once it has more than seven answers, and passes at 80%. Each unit ends in a checkpoint of 20 questions that passes at 90%. The last checkpoint of each skill is 30 questions in any octave on mixed sounds. For notes, it is called Checkpoint: perfect pitch.

Within a round, every answer of the level comes up at least once. The new answers and the ones you miss most often come up more, and nothing comes up three times in a row. Your weak spots get the most practice without you keeping track of them.

Which skill should you start with?

The trainer opens on Notes, at Middle C. Naming a note with nothing to compare it to is absolute pitch, and it is the hardest of the three for most people. In settings (the sliders button), Hear C before each note plays a middle C before every question, so you name each note against C. That is relative pitch, and a far easier way in. Turn it off once a level feels easy.

If your goal is playing by ear or writing melodies, spend most of your time on Intervals. If you produce or play chords, add Chords early. The trainer keeps your place in each skill, so you can switch between them freely.

A practice routine that works

The trainer's daily goal is eight minutes, shown as a ring in the bar. Short daily sessions work better than one long session a week.

• Every day, about eight minutes. Two or three rounds usually fill the ring.
• Stay on a level until it passes, then press Next level. If it passed with several misses, play it once more before you move on.
• When a level gets easy, make it harder. Pick another sound in settings (piano, electric piano, guitar, organ, synth, pad and more), or turn off Hear C before each note.
• When a level feels impossible, step back. Pick the level before it from the menu, pass it again, then return. On a notes level, press the new note and its neighbours on the start screen a few times before the round.
• Sing it before you answer. Hum the note or the interval, then press the key. It ties what you hear to your voice. The Singing coach trains the same link from the other side.
• Mix skills across the week. Notes one day, intervals the next, chords at the weekend.

What does progress look like?

The stats button in the bar shows three numbers:

• Today: minutes practised against the eight-minute goal.
• Streak: days in a row with practice.
• Mastery: your share right over the last 30 days for the skill you are on.

Under them, each note, interval or chord has its own card with its share right this month and a line of how it went day by day. Hover the line to see one day.

A typical path: the first levels pass in a round or two. Then a level stalls on a pair that sounds alike, such as the 4th and the 5th, or the minor 7 and the half-diminished. Those cards sit lower than the rest, and the trainer already asks them more often. Keep the daily habit and their lines climb. When every card in a unit is high, the checkpoint passes too.

Your levels, best scores and stats stay in the browser you practise in, so keep using the same one.

Use your ear on your own music

A trained ear makes every other step faster: hearing the chords of a reference track, turning them into MIDI, checking a topline against the key, or giving useful notes on a mix. For the theory behind the intervals and chords, see music theory fundamentals.

The Ear trainer is included with Aden. When you write and record, sign up at aden.space to keep your tracks, their versions and the feedback on them in one place. The other free tools are listed in free music tools for producers.

FAQ

Is there a free ear training app?

Yes. Aden's Ear trainer is free, runs in your browser and needs no account. It trains notes, intervals and chords in short levels, keeps a daily goal and a streak, and shows how each answer is going over the month.

How long does ear training take?

It depends on the skill and how often you practise. Most people pass the first levels of each skill within a few sessions. Naming every interval and every chord on any sound, in any octave, takes months of short daily practice, not days. Eight minutes every day moves faster than an hour once a week.

Should I learn intervals or chords first?

Start with intervals if you want to play melodies by ear or transcribe. Chords are built from intervals, so they get easier once the 3rds and the 5th are solid. If you mostly produce or accompany, practise both in the same week: the trainer keeps your level in each skill.

Can you learn perfect pitch as an adult?

Naming notes with no reference is hard for most adults, and how far people get varies a lot. Relative pitch, naming a note against one you already know, is learnable by anyone and is what most music needs. Start the notes course with Hear C before each note on, and turn it off when you are ready to try without it.

How many minutes a day should I practise ear training?

The Ear trainer sets eight minutes a day. That is two or three rounds, short enough to keep up every day. If you have more time, add a second short session later rather than one long one.

Does the Ear trainer save my progress?

Yes, in your browser. Your levels, best scores and daily stats are kept there without an account. Clearing your browser data, or practising in another browser, starts over.