Real Ear Trainer

Free ear training · in your browser

Hear it. Name it.

Train your ear the way musicians do: hear an interval, a chord, a cadence — and name it. Lessons show you why it sounds that way; drills take the hints away as your ear takes over.

Play a drill 30 seconds · no signup Get the iOS app Drill with your own music

How the drills work

Hints that fade as your ear takes over.

Every drill starts with training wheels. As you get answers right, they come off — until you’re naming what you hear with nothing but your ears.

Easy

See the keys, the numbers, the sound.
Medium

The keys light up. You connect the dots.
Hard

Just the sound — like hearing it in a song.

The lessons

Learn why music sounds the way it does.

Every lesson moves in the same four beats — so ideas stick as sounds, not as rules to memorise.

1 Discover Hear the idea before it has a name.
2 Feel Notice what it does to the music — tension, colour, pull.
3 Create Play it yourself on the keyboard or fretboard.
4 Apply Find it in real songs, then drill it until it’s automatic.

Start the first lesson New to ear training? Read the guide

36 drills

From “up or down?” to the Neapolitan chord.

Progress

Watch your ear get sharper.

Per-skill accuracy, a daily streak, and a week of practice at a glance — so you know exactly what you’re getting better at. Saved in your browser, no account needed.

Open your progress

iPhone & iPad

Train on the songs you love.

The Real Ear Trainer app brings the same drills to your own music library — so the sounds you learn to name are the ones you actually listen to.

Download on theApp Store

The curriculum

Pick a module to begin

Melody

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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

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

1.5 The Full Map of a Key

See how calm/tense, stability, and scale degrees fit together as one map.

1.6 The Pull of Resolution

The musical gravity that pulls 7 toward 1

1.7 Creating Musical Phrases

Build melodies using stability patterns

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.

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.

1.10 Intervals — The Space Between

Name and feel the distance between notes

1.11 Melodic Journeys

Compose melodies that tell a story

1.12 Patterns in Songs

Recognize scale-degree patterns in songs you know

Harmony

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Chords and how they create movement

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.

2.4 Tonic as Gravity

How the I chord pulls everything home

2.5 The Heart of Music

Music's universal home → away → home story

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.

The subdominant (IV) creates gentle movement

2.9 The Emotional Turn

The minor vi chord adds depth and surprise

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

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Music through time

3.1 Finding the Pulse

The steady heartbeat under every song

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.

3.4 Syncopation

The off-beat magic that makes you dance

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

4.2 Understanding Musical Keys

What does it mean for a song to be 'in a key'?

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

Real Sight Reader

Sight-read real piano repertoire — Bach, Chopin, Joplin and 5 more composers. The companion to ear training.

realsightreader.com →