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Chord Ear Trainer

Hear a chord, name its quality. Twelve rounds, random keys, instant feedback - start with triads, graduate to sevenths. The harmony half of ear training.

Difficulty

Major, minor, diminished, augmented - the four triad colors.

The eight qualities at a glance

Major

bright, resolved, "happy"

Minor

darker, "sad"

Diminished

tense, unstable, wants to move

Augmented

dreamlike, floating, unresolved

Major 7th

lush, jazzy, settled

Dominant 7th

bluesy, pulls toward resolution

Minor 7th

mellow, soulful

Half-diminished (m7♭5)

dark and suspended, jazz ii chord in minor

Want to explore each color at your own pace before quizzing? The chord player plays any quality in any key, and chord progressions puts them in context. The full curriculum lives in the ear training guide.

Chord Ear Training FAQ

What is chord ear training?

Learning to name a chord's quality - major, minor, diminished, seventh types - purely by sound. It is the harmony half of ear training: interval recognition handles melody, chord-quality recognition lets you follow and transcribe progressions, hear changes coming in a jam, and understand why a song feels the way it does.

What order should I learn chord qualities?

Major vs minor first - the fundamental bright/dark distinction. Add diminished (tension) and augmented (floating strangeness) to finish the triads. Then sevenths: dominant 7th (the blues chord), minor 7th, major 7th, and finally half-diminished. Each stage on this trainer maps to that path: drill Triads above 90% before switching the tier to Sevenths.

How is this different from interval training?

Intervals are two notes - a distance. Chords are three or four sounding together - a color. The skills reinforce each other (a major triad is a major 3rd stacked under a minor 3rd), and most ear-training curricula run both in parallel: intervals for melody, qualities for harmony. Our interval trainer covers the other half.

Why do the chords play in different keys each time?

Random roots force you to hear the quality itself rather than memorizing absolute pitches - the whole point of relative pitch. A major chord in E must sound "major" to you the same way one in B♭ does. If the moving root throws you at first, that is the skill forming.

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