Free online chord ear trainer

Telling chord types apart by ear helps you follow songs, improvise, and work out music without sheet music. This trainer plays a chord and asks you to name its quality, building that skill rep by rep.

Here’s how it works, what chord quality means, and how to train it.

How to use it

Press play to hear a chord, then pick its type from the buttons — major, minor, diminished, augmented, or one of the sevenths. You’ll get instant feedback, the next chord plays, and your score tracks your progress. Replay as needed.

What chord quality means

A chord’s quality is the pattern of intervals stacked on its root, and it’s what gives the chord its character. Major sounds bright, minor sounds darker, diminished sounds tense, and the sevenths add colour on top. The quality sounds the same in any key, so you can learn it by ear.

How to improve

• Start by telling major from minor, the most useful distinction, then add the others.
• Listen for the overall colour — bright, dark, tense — before trying to name it exactly.
• Short, frequent sessions beat occasional long ones for ear training.

FAQ

Which chords does it test? Major, minor, diminished, augmented, and the dominant, major, and minor sevenths.

What’s the difference between major and minor? The third. A minor chord lowers it a half step compared with major, which is what makes it sound darker.

Do I need to know music theory first? No. You can learn the sounds here and pick up the names as you go.