Real Ear Trainer
Learn to hear like a musician.
Free, interactive ear training in your browser — lessons and scaffolded drills that build real listening skill. Or pair it with the iOS app to practice using your own music library.
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Read a lesson
Discover, feel, create, apply. Interactive lessons explain why music sounds the way it does.
Practice a drill
Hear it, name it. Visual training wheels fade as you level up — easy shows the keyboard, hard is audio-only.
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Per-skill accuracy, daily streak, 7-day activity. See exactly what you're improving at.
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The Curriculum
Pick a module to begin
Melody
Single notes and how they relate to a key
🎹
1.1 Finding the Notes That Belong
Discover which notes belong in a key by ear
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1.2 What is a Scale?
The pattern of notes that defines a key
🔢
1.3 The 7 Notes Have Roles
Meet the scale degrees 1-7 and their personalities
⚖️
1.4 Stable and Unstable
Feel which notes settle and which want to move
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1.5 The Full Map of a Key
See how calm/tense, stability, and scale degrees fit together as one map.
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1.6 The Pull of Resolution
The musical gravity that pulls 7 toward 1
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1.7 Creating Musical Phrases
Build melodies using stability patterns
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1.8 The Major Scale Formula
The major scale formula (also called the major key formula) is W-W-H-W-W-W-H — the whole- and half-step recipe behind every major key, with a worked C major example.
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1.9 The Minor Sound
What does minor sound like? The lowered third is what turns a happy major scale dark — hear major and minor side by side and learn to tell them apart by ear.
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1.10 Intervals — The Space Between
Name and feel the distance between notes
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1.11 Melodic Journeys
Compose melodies that tell a story
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1.12 Patterns in Songs
Recognize scale-degree patterns in songs you know
Harmony
Chords and how they create movement
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2.1 What Is a Chord?
Several notes played at the same time are called a chord. How triads are built, how many notes a chord needs, and where 2-note "chords" fit in.
😊
2.2 Happy and Sad
Discover why some chords sound happy and others sound sad.
👨👩👧👦
2.3 7 Chords That Belong
Every key has a family of 7 chords. Learn who's who.
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2.4 Tonic as Gravity
How the I chord pulls everything home
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2.5 The Heart of Music
Music's universal home → away → home story
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2.6 Home Base
The tonic (I) is where all music wants to return
⚡
2.7 The Cliffhanger
The dominant (V) creates irresistible tension that demands resolution. It is the musical cliffhanger that keeps us engaged.
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2.8 The Bridge
The subdominant (IV) creates gentle movement
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2.9 The Emotional Turn
The minor vi chord adds depth and surprise
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2.10 The Subtle Colors
The ii and iii chords add sophistication and nuance
⭐
2.11 The Hit-Making Patterns
Learn the chord progressions that power thousands of songs.
Rhythm
Music through time
💗
3.1 Finding the Pulse
The steady heartbeat under every song
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3.2 Beats and Measures
How many beats are in a measure? The top number of the time signature tells you — 4 beats in 4/4, 3 in 3/4. Learn beats and measures.
⏱️
3.3 Note Lengths & Durations
How long is each note? A clear guide to note lengths and durations — whole to sixteenth notes, how many beats each lasts, and how long a beat is in seconds.
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3.4 Syncopation
The off-beat magic that makes you dance
4️⃣
3.5 Time Signatures
Counting in groups of 4, 3, or 6
References
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4.1 Understanding Roman Numerals
How musicians describe chords across any key
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4.2 Understanding Musical Keys
What does it mean for a song to be 'in a key'?
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4.3 What Are Chords?
What is a chord? A chord is three or more notes played together — learn how chords and triads are built from a root, third, and fifth.
✨
4.4 Secondary Dominants
Slash chords like V/V and where they pull
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Also by Mayank
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