Free online tool
Interval Ear Training
Interval ear training online: hear an interval, name it and see it on the staff. Thirteen intervals, three levels, ascending, descending or together.
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About the Interval Ear Trainer
The Interval Ear Trainer is a free browser tool for interval ear training. You hear two notes, name the interval between them, and see it written on the staff. It covers thirteen intervals across three levels, and each one can be played ascending, descending or with both notes together. It runs in the web browser with no sign-up and nothing to install.
Interval ear training means recognising the distance between two pitches by sound, without measuring it on paper. Musicians need this for sight-singing, taking dictation, tuning to another player and working out a tune by ear. This page explains how to use the trainer, what each level covers, and why some pairs of intervals are easy to confuse. It works alongside the interval worksheets, which handle spelling and notation.
How to use the Interval Ear Trainer
- Choose a Level: Easy, Medium or Hard. Start with Easy.
- Choose how the interval is Played: Ascending, Descending or Together.
- Press ▶ Play interval and listen. Press it again to hear the same interval as often as you need.
- Say the name of the interval out loud, then click the name you heard.
- Read the answer: the correct interval name, and the two notes written on the staff.
- If you got it wrong, play the same interval again before you move on.
- Press Next interval for a new one. The line under the buttons keeps your score for the session.
Level and direction are the two settings that matter most. Change only one at a time, so you can tell which change made the task harder.
Start with the Easy level and ascending intervals, then move up once your answers come quickly. Short, frequent sessions work better than occasional long ones. Aim for about ten minutes and try to build a streak rather than a total.
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Pick one reference tune for each interval and use the same one every time. For example, the first two notes of Twinkle, Twinkle, Little Star are a perfect 5th.
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When you miss an interval, play it again before moving on, and say its name out loud.
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Once you are steady ascending, try descending. The minor 6th and major 6th are often easier to tell apart descending than ascending.
How do you train your ear for intervals?#
Interval ear training means practising until you can name musical distances by sound, without working them out on paper. For intervals, the goal is to hear the distance between two notes and name it before the second note has finished sounding.
Working an interval out on paper is a useful skill. You count the letter names, count the semitones and check the quality. It only becomes useful in practice, though, when you do it by ear. Sight-singing, dictation and tuning all depend on naming a distance you have heard, not one you have measured.
Pick one reference tune for each interval and keep using it. The first two notes of Twinkle, Twinkle, Little Star are a perfect 5th, Here Comes the Bride a perfect 4th, Somewhere Over the Rainbow an octave, and The Simpsons theme a tritone. The tune matters less than using the same one every time.
Work ascending first, because that is how intervals are taught and notated. Move to descending once you are steady, since falling intervals are harder to name and turn up in bass lines. “Together” plays both notes at once, which leaves only the quality of the sound. It transfers most directly to hearing chords.
Short sessions work better than long ones. Ten minutes aiming for a streak does more than an hour once a week.
What does each level of the interval trainer cover?#
The trainer practises recognising intervals by sound, which a printed worksheet cannot do. Use the trainer for recognition and the worksheets for spelling and notation. They are two halves of the same skill. Spelling follows the letter-name rule, so a tritone above C is written F♯, not G♭, because the interval spans four letter names.
Easy has four intervals that sound nothing like each other: unison, major 3rd, perfect 5th and octave. Mistaking one for another is almost impossible, so you build the habit of answering quickly. Medium adds the major 2nd, perfect 4th, major 6th and major 7th. These are the remaining intervals of the major scale, so you have already heard them in ordinary melodies. Hard uses all thirteen intervals, including every minor interval and the tritone. This is where the real work is, because it introduces the four pairs learners most often confuse:
| Pair | What separates them |
|---|---|
| Minor 3rd / Major 3rd | One semitone. The minor sounds closed and inward, the major open. If you can hear the difference between a minor and a major chord, you can already hear this. |
| Perfect 4th / Perfect 5th | Both are stable and hollow. The 4th feels like it wants to resolve; the 5th feels finished. |
| Minor 6th / Major 6th | The hardest pair in the set. Most people find these easier descending than ascending. |
| Minor 7th / Major 7th | The minor 7th is the relaxed one; the major 7th leans hard on the octave above it. |
| Tritone | Six semitones, exactly half an octave, and the only interval that sounds the same inverted. Unmistakable once heard a few times. |