Interval Ear Training That Sticks
Interval ear training is learning to recognise the distance between two notes by sound alone: a major third, a perfect fifth, a tritone. It is the bedrock of playing by ear, because every melody is a chain of intervals and every chord is intervals stacked together. Train your ear to name them and you can start figuring out music you have only heard.
Train your ear, then prove it with your hands
Hear an interval, play it back, get scored instantly. No download, no signup. MIDI keyboard or microphone.
▶ Try ChordRunner Free Free in the browser - hear it, then play it back.Reference songs versus real recall
Most interval lessons start by pegging each interval to a song: the perfect fifth of Twinkle Twinkle, the minor third of Greensleeves. That is a fine way in, and it gets you naming intervals quickly. But leaning on reference tunes forever has a ceiling, because you are translating through a memory instead of hearing the interval directly. The goal is to skip the middle step and simply know the sound, which comes from reproducing intervals yourself, over and over.
Try it: hear an interval, name it
Press play, listen, then pick the interval. Sound needs a tap first (browsers block autoplay).
A training loop that sticks
The quiz above tests recognition, picking the right name. That is a good warm-up, but the deeper skill is recall: hearing an interval and producing it yourself. When you can sing or play back what you heard, the interval has truly moved into your ear, and that is the version that helps you learn a song or improvise a line. Work a few intervals at a time, add a new one only when the current set is easy, and always finish by playing them, not just labelling them. It builds directly on the theory of intervals.
From intervals to chord quality
Interval hearing is the gateway to hearing chords. A major chord is a major third stacked under a minor third; a minor chord flips them. So the moment you can tell a major third from a minor third by ear, you can start telling major from minor chords, which is chord quality ear training. The two skills reinforce each other, and both feed straight into chord recognition on your instrument.
Practise intervals by ear in the game
The browser quiz is recognition; ChordRunner's Ear Training is recall. You hear an interval or chord and play it back on your MIDI keyboard or into your microphone, and the game scores whether you matched it. That extra step, your own hands reproducing the sound, is what turns passive recognition into the ear-to-hand link real musicianship needs. Free in the browser, nothing to install.
Common questions
What is interval ear training?
Interval ear training is learning to recognise the distance between two notes by sound alone, a major third, a perfect fifth, and so on. It is the foundation of playing by ear, because melodies are chains of intervals and chords are intervals stacked, so naming what you hear starts here.
Do I need perfect pitch for interval ear training?
No. Interval training builds relative pitch, hearing how two notes relate, which anyone can learn through repetition. Perfect pitch, naming a note with no reference, is rare and not required. Relative pitch is the skill that actually helps you learn songs and improvise.
What is the best way to practise intervals by ear?
Hear the interval, then play it back on your instrument rather than picking from a list. Reproducing it forces real recall and links your ear to your hands. Anchoring each interval to a familiar song helps at first, but playing it back is what makes it stick.
How does ChordRunner train intervals by ear?
In Ear Training you hear an interval or chord and play it back on your MIDI keyboard or through your microphone, and the game scores whether you matched it. That active hear-it-then-play-it loop trains recall on a real instrument, not just recognition.