Games for Ear Training and Music Theory

Mixing the sound of a band is a vital part of both recording and live performance. Channel Scramble will make you faster and more accurate at noticing small changes in the mix of a song, as well as picking out individual instrument parts. You will also hear more clearly the sounds of individual instruments in different genres and styles.

When you hear a live performance, can you quickly pick out which instruments are playing at any given time? Band Match will sharpen your ear for instrumentation as it challenges you to identify the instruments playing in a sound clip. You may also pick up some ideas for new sounds as you hear some of the more unusual and exotic instruments.

A wide range of effects are used in just about all styles of music, both in the studio and on stage. You will benefit greatly from having a good ear for effects and an understanding of how they can be used to enhance your instrument tone and the overall sound of a band. Flash Effects is the first in our series of enjoyable and challenging flashcard games.

Along with Speed Pitch and Dango Brothers, this game will sharpen your sense of pitch and tuning. The object is simple - listen to two tones and identify which has the higher pitch - but that doesn't mean it's easy! Pitch Compare uses a wider range of instruments than our other pitch games and even advanced musicians may find the higher levels challenging.

Musicians often need to distinguish between subtle differences in pitch, and should also notice when someone is playing or singing out of tune. In particular, guitarists and other string players must often tune 'on the fly', making quick corrections to their tuning in the middle of a performance. Dango Brothers will help sharpen your ear for tuning and pitch.

Match the rhythm you hear to its notation and solve the puzzle! Even if you don't read music, all musicians benefit greatly from a basic understanding of rhythm notation. Rhythms are made up of short phrases that combine to make longer ones. No matter what your level, Rhythm Puzzles will help you quickly recognize short rhythm patterns by ear.

The ability to recognize common rhythm patterns - both by sight and by ear - is a key musical skill. With enough practice, you will eventually be able to 'chunk' small rhythm patterns into larger ones more or less automatically. Our new game Flash Rhythms will give you a thorough grounding in the most widely used rhythm patterns.

The ability to clap back the rhythm of a melody you've just heard is one of the most basic rhythm skills. It is also one of the keys to developing audiation (hearing or recalling music in your mind that is no longer physically playing). Rhythm Repeat uses clapback exercises to sharpen your sense of rhythm and strengthen your musical memory.

When working on music reading skills, it is often best to focus on just one element at a time. This game isolates the rhythmic aspect of sight-reading, training you to quickly recognize and play back rhythms in standard music notation. It will develop your ability to 'look ahead' a few beats while you are playing in order to see and prepare for what is coming.

Do you know what it means to play with a 'shuffle feel' or in a 'funky 16-beat' rhythmic style? It is common for musicians use terms like these to indicate the rhythmic style of the song, especially in jazz and pop/rock music. This game will give you practice at recognizing drum patterns in various rhythm styles.

In order to understand and play back the music you hear, you must first find the key or tonic center of the music. This is true for playing back melodies by ear, as well as for finding the chords in a song. Tonic Finder will train you to recognize the relationships between tones and chords that determine which tone is the all-important tonic or 'resting tone'.

The Circle of Fifths is an important concept in music theory. A thorough knowledge of the circle will help you understand how keys (and chords) are related to each other. You will memorize relative major/minor keys, key signatures and chordal relationships. You will also hear how a chord progression of descending 5ths sounds in different musical styles.

One of the keys to recognizing melodies by ear is to be so familiar with the major and minor scales that you can sing any degree of the scale without having to stop and think. Vocal Degrees will help you 'internalize' these scale degree sounds by playing a set of chords and then prompting you to sing a particular scale degree in that key.

Once you've reached the upper levels of Paddle Tones and Tone Drops, it's time to expand your scale degree recognition skills with Flash Tones. This game uses a wider range of tones and instrument sounds, and moves at a faster pace. You'll also get practice in recognizing scale degrees from common diatonic modes and in switching between tone names and scale degrees.

Intervals form the foundation for almost everything in music, and learning to identify intervals by ear is one of the key goals of ear training. Have fun with this engaging game that will take the mystery out of recognizing and naming the distance between two tones. Knowing your intervals will dramatically improve your ability to improvise and play by ear!

Once you can identify individual scale tones by ear, the next step is to practice aural recognition of simple melodic intervals such as seconds and thirds in a particular key. Most melodic movement from one tone to another is either stepwise (seconds) or in intervals of a third. Two Tones (Major) will train you to quickly recognize these common tone pairs.

This game is the minor key equivalent of Two Tones (Major) and will help you quickly identify melodic intervals within the context of a minor key. You will get practice in all intervals, especially the seconds and thirds which comprise most melodic movement. We recommend the Two Tones games for anyone who is new to aural recognition of intervals.

The ability to recognize intervals by sight when they appear in standard music notation (and to spell them properly) is an important part of music theory. Flash Notation (Intervals) will boost your music reading skills and help you to quickly identify all of the intervals when notated on a staff in various keys and with different starting tones.

When you hear a simple melody, can you immediately play it back on your instrument? Parrot Phrases is a 'call and response' game where you listen to a melodic phrase and then 'parrot' it back using a virtual guitar or piano. The phrases start simple and gradually build in speed and complexity. See how accurately you can play what you hear!

Before you can start to identify chord progressions by ear, you must first understand individual chords. In tonal music, each chord plays a particular role, and has a relationship with every other chord. These roles and relationships change depending on the key. In Chord Drops, you will use these roles and relationships to quickly recognize chords by ear.

Once you've worked out the key to a song, figuring out the chords and basic harmony is fairly straightforward, provided you understand the various roles (tonic, dominant, etc.) that each chord can play and are able to identify them by ear. Flash Chords will challenge your chord recognition skills with tight time limits and a wide range of instrument sounds.

When you hear a chord in a song, can you tell right away if it's major, minor or dominant? The ability to quickly determine chord quality is a valuable skill that will help you greatly when learning new music by ear. Flash Chords (Quality) begins with simple triads and takes you progressively through aural recognition of seventh chords in various inversions.

When reading music in standard notation, it is important to be able to quickly grasp the underlying harmony of a piece. This game will train you to quickly recognize common chords when reading through a musical score. You will also get valuable practice in chord spelling and in associating chord names with their roman numerals in different keys.

When you see a chord name such as Amaj7 or Gm7(b5), can you quickly name the tones that make up the chord? This process is called 'spelling' a chord, and is an important part of music theory that helps you build arpeggios quickly. Our new game Chord Spells will give you extensive - and FUN - training in the practice of Chord Spelling!

The process of figuring out a chord by ear is can be a bit like opening a combination lock - you need to determine a few different things such as the chord's function (is it the I, IV, V or some other chord), its quality and type (major, minor, seventh, etc.), and its inversion (which tone is in the bass). Put these all together and see if you can unlock the chords!

Would you like to be able to quickly figure out the chords to any song? This game will train your ear to identify the common chord patterns that make up most rock and pop songs. By knowing these patterns and knowing where the chords are going, you will be able to play sessions and gigs with much more ease and confidence.

Just as they do in melodies, patterns also play an important role in chord progressions. In any given key, there are certain chords that tend to appear together. The trick to playing chords for a song by ear is to be able to quickly spot these patterns when you hear them. This game will train your ear to recognize common chord patterns (including inversions) when played in 3-part harmony.

This game focuses exclusively on chord patterns in minor keys. Listen closely to the sound of different chord sequences, starting with simple pairs of chords and moving progressively to four-chord patterns. All of the exercises use triads in various inversions, played in 3-part harmony. With practice, you will be able instantly recognize these chord patterns when you hear them.