# AI Wiki - Music - Ear Training ## Overview Ear training is learning to recognise musical elements (pitches, intervals, chords, rhythms, progressions) **by ear alone**, and to connect what you hear to what you play. It's the link between theory on paper and music in the air: knowing that a song goes I–V–vi–IV is theory; hearing it go there on the radio is ear training. This article is the hub for the ear-training section of the wiki. It covers what the skill is, why it pays off for a guitarist or pianist, a learning path and weekly routine, and the tools. Each sub-skill has its own article, listed in the skill map below. ## Relative pitch is the goal - **Relative pitch**: identifying notes and chords *in relation to* a reference (a tonic, a previous note). Trainable by anyone, and what almost every working musician relies on. - **Perfect (absolute) pitch**: naming a note with no reference at all. Rare, mostly developed in early childhood, and not needed to play by ear. Relative pitch is what lets you hear "that's the fifth degree of the key" or "that chord is the IV". Everything below trains it. See [[AI Wiki - Music - Relative and Perfect Pitch]]. ## Why it matters for guitar and piano players - **Learn songs without tabs or sheet music**, and catch the many tabs online that are wrong. - **Play what you hear in your head** when [[AI Wiki - Music - Chord Tones and Improvisation|improvising]] or writing, instead of noodling through shapes. - **Make theory audible**: [[AI Wiki - Music - Intervals]], [[AI Wiki - Music - Triads]] and [[AI Wiki - Music - Common Chord Progressions]] stop being formulas and become sounds you recognise. - **Play with others**: follow changes in a jam, hear when you're out of tune or off the beat. - **Practise better**: hear your own mistakes (buzzing notes, uneven rhythm, a wrong chord quality) without a teacher. Fretted and keyboard instruments make it easy to *not* listen: you can play the right fret or key without hearing the note in your head first. Ear training closes that gap. ## The skill map Each area has its own article; one-line summaries: | Skill | What it trains | Article | |---|---|---| | Intervals | Naming the distance between two notes, melodic and harmonic | [[AI Wiki - Music - Interval Recognition]] | | Chord qualities | Telling major, minor, diminished, augmented, and the seventh chords apart | [[AI Wiki - Music - Chord Quality Recognition]] | | Scale degrees | Hearing each note's role in the key (tonic, third, fifth…), the most musical approach | [[AI Wiki - Music - Functional Ear Training]] | | Progressions | Recognising I, IV, V, vi and common progressions in real songs | [[AI Wiki - Music - Chord Progression Recognition]] | | Singing | Solfège (do-re-mi) and pitch matching: the voice as the bridge between ear and instrument | [[AI Wiki - Music - Solfege and Singing]] | | Rhythm | Hearing and writing rhythms, subdivisions, time signatures | [[AI Wiki - Music - Rhythmic Ear Training]] | | Transcription | Working out melodies, bass lines, chords and solos from recordings | [[AI Wiki - Music - Transcription and Playing by Ear]] | | Absolute vs relative | What perfect pitch is, whether it's learnable, why relative pitch matters more | [[AI Wiki - Music - Relative and Perfect Pitch]] | ## A suggested learning path Short daily sessions beat long weekly ones. Each stage takes a few weeks; move on when you get about 80–90% right. **Stage 1: foundations** - Match pitch: play a note, sing it, check. - Find the tonic of a song (the note that sounds like "home"). Hum it over the whole song. - Major vs minor chords, heard as bright vs dark. - Ascending perfect fourth, perfect fifth and octave. The two triads differ by one note, the third: ```keyboard labels: intervals range: C4-B4 --- chord: C --- chord: Cm ``` **Stage 2: inside the key** - Scale degrees 1, 3 and 5 against a drone or a [[AI Wiki - Music - Cadences|cadence]], then all seven degrees of the [[AI Wiki - Music - Major Scale|major scale]]. This is the core of [[AI Wiki - Music - Functional Ear Training]]. - All ascending intervals within the octave. - I, IV and V in a major key: hear when the chord changes, and to which. ```keyboard scale: C major labels: degrees range: C4-C5 ``` **Stage 3: more colours** - Descending and harmonic intervals. - vi and ii joining I, IV, V; the four-chord [[AI Wiki - Music - Pop Music|pop]] progression. - Dominant 7, major 7 and minor 7 chord qualities (see [[AI Wiki - Music - Seventh Chords]]). - First transcriptions: nursery tunes, then simple riffs and bass lines. The I–V–vi–IV in G, the progression to learn to spot first: ```chord G 320003 210003 --- D xx0232 xx0132 --- Em 022000 023000 --- C x32010 x32010 ``` **Stage 4: real music** - Whole songs by ear (chords and melody), minor keys, borrowed chords. - Rhythmic dictation and [[AI Wiki - Music - Rhythm and Time Signatures|syncopation]]. - Short solos and licks, transcribed and played along with the record. ## A weekly routine (10–15 minutes a day) | Day | Focus (10–15 min) | |---|---| | Mon | Intervals in an app (5 min) + sing the intervals you missed | | Tue | Scale degrees with a functional ear trainer | | Wed | Chord qualities (major/minor, then sevenths) | | Thu | Progressions: identify I/IV/V/vi in two songs you know | | Fri | Rhythm: clap and write two short rhythms | | Sat | Transcription: one phrase of a song (melody, riff or bass line) | | Sun | Play by ear for fun: pick a tune you can hum and find it on guitar or piano | Fold it into instrument practice too: before [[AI Wiki - Music - Strumming Patterns|strumming]] a chord, sing its root; before playing a melody note, hum it; say the scale degree of the note you land on in a solo. How these minutes fit into a full guitar and piano session is in [[AI Wiki - Music - Practice Routines and Planning]]. ## Tools and apps - **musictheory.net exercises** (free, web): interval, chord, scale, note and keyboard ear-training drills, customisable. The same site's Tenuto app packages them for iOS. - **teoria.com** (free, web): ear-training and dictation exercises, including rhythmic dictation and harmonic progressions. - **Functional Ear Trainer** (free with in-app purchases, iOS and Android): based on Alain Benbassat's method; a cadence establishes the key, then you identify the scale degree of a note. About 10 minutes a day is the recommended dose. - **JustinGuitar Ear Training** (free): a guitar-oriented ear-training course in grades, plus a reference page of songs for each interval. - **Other well-known options**: EarMaster (comprehensive, paid), ToneGym (gamified, freemium). - **Your instrument + a drone**: a sustained tonic (a drone track or an open string) to sing scale degrees against. Free, and the most musical exercise of all. - **Slow-down software** for transcription: a player that slows audio without changing pitch and loops a section (dedicated apps such as Transcribe!, or the speed setting in most players). ## Common mistakes - **Only drilling apps**: isolated intervals are useful, but the payoff comes from hearing them in songs. Mix app drills with real music. - **Never singing**: the voice forces you to hear a pitch internally before producing it. Sing, even quietly. - **Skipping the tonic**: hearing everything relative to "home" is easier and more musical than naming isolated intervals. - **Sessions too long**: the ear fatigues quickly. Ten focused minutes daily beat an hour on Sunday. - **Waiting until you're "ready" to transcribe**: start with tiny, easy phrases now. ## Key Points - Ear training builds relative pitch: recognising pitches, intervals, chords, progressions and rhythms in relation to a reference. - It makes theory audible and lets a guitarist or pianist learn songs, improvise and write by ear. - Path: tonic, major/minor, P4/P5/P8 → scale degrees and I-IV-V → sevenths, vi and ii, first transcriptions → whole songs. - 10–15 minutes daily, mixing app drills, singing and real songs. - Free tools: musictheory.net, teoria.com, Functional Ear Trainer, JustinGuitar's ear-training course. ## Open Questions - **Answered** ([[AI Wiki - Music - Music Learning Apps and Tools|Music Learning Apps and Tools]]): Which app fits Sébastien's routine best: Functional Ear Trainer for degrees, or musictheory.net for intervals and chords? Both, for different jobs: Functional Ear Trainer (free, Android) as the daily phone drill for scale degrees, musictheory.net (free web; its app is iOS-only) for intervals and chord quality during desktop sessions, each logged as its own exercise note. - How to track ear-training progress alongside guitar and piano practice? ## References - Ear training — Wikipedia: https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Ear_training - Exercises (ear training) — musictheory.net: https://www.musictheory.net/exercises - Exercises — teoria.com: https://www.teoria.com/en/exercises/ - Functional Ear Trainer — App Store: https://apps.apple.com/app/id1088761926 - Ear Training Reference (songs for intervals) — JustinGuitar: https://www.justinguitar.com/modules/ear-training-reference ## Related - [[AI Wiki - Music - Interval Recognition]] - [[AI Wiki - Music - Chord Quality Recognition]] - [[AI Wiki - Music - Functional Ear Training]] - [[AI Wiki - Music - Chord Progression Recognition]] - [[AI Wiki - Music - Solfege and Singing]] - [[AI Wiki - Music - Rhythmic Ear Training]] - [[AI Wiki - Music - Transcription and Playing by Ear]] - [[AI Wiki - Music - Relative and Perfect Pitch]] - [[AI Wiki - Music - Intervals]] - [[AI Wiki - Music - Triads]] - [[AI Wiki - Music - Seventh Chords]] - [[AI Wiki - Music - Common Chord Progressions]] - [[AI Wiki - Music - Reading Standard Notation]] - [[AI Wiki - Music - Arpeggios]] - [[AI Wiki - Music - Diatonic Chords and Roman Numerals]] - [[AI Wiki - Music - Keys and Key Signatures]] - [[AI Wiki - Music - Modes]] - [[AI Wiki - Music - Relative and Parallel Keys]] - [[AI Wiki - Music - Practice Routines and Planning]]