Free tools

Interval Ear Trainer


Two notes, three choices, ten questions. It starts friendly and tightens up as you go — by the end you're splitting neighbours. New questions every single run.

You'll hear two notes, bottom note first. Name the distance between them — that distance is the interval, and hearing it is the whole trick to playing what's in your head.

Notes

Mid-range notes, easiest on the ear.

Intervals

Semitone, tone, both 3rds, the 4th, the 5th and the octave — a bassist's bread and butter.

Fresh questions every time — no two runs match.

Question 1 of 10

Listen…

1 2 3 answer · R replays the notes · Enter next

Your score

How to use it

Press start and listen. Two notes play on a piano-ish voice, always bottom note first, and three interval names appear — one of them is the truth. Replay as many times as you like; this is practice, not an exam. At the end you get a score and, more usefully, a note on which intervals your ear already owns and which ones need the work.

It sharpens as you go. The first questions keep the choices far apart — a semitone against a perfect 5th is chalk and cheese. By question ten the wrong answers are the right answer's next-door neighbours, which is where real ears are made. And every run deals fresh questions, fresh starting notes and fresh options, so there's nothing to memorise — only listening.

Drop it into the basement. The bass register toggle plays the same quiz down where the basslines live, low E and up. Everything is harder to tell apart down there — which is exactly why it's worth training. Clear the starter seven on piano range first, then step down and feel the difference. The second toggle adds the tritone, the sixths and the sevenths for the full twelve.

Steal the song trick. The fastest way to name an interval is to hang a tune on it, and Pete's lessons have been doing exactly that all along: the Jaws semitone, major 2nds in “Strangers in the Night”, minor 3rds in “Mad World”, major 3rds in “Summertime” and the Star Wars perfect 4th. Miss a question and the trainer hands you the matching song — and the matching lesson — on the spot.

Practice tip

Sing before you name. When the two notes land, hum the bottom one, then step your voice up to the top one — slowly, like climbing stairs in the dark. An interval your voice can find is an interval your ear has genuinely got, and that's the version that shows up on the fretboard when you need it.

New to intervals altogether? Start with Pete's lesson on the 12-tone chromatic scale — the ruler every one of these distances is measured on.

Keep it in your pocket

The Interval Ear Trainer installs as an app: its own icon on your home screen, full-screen with no browser around it, and — once installed — it works with no signal at all. Ten questions on the bus, in the practice room, in the dressing room: your ear doesn't need the internet.

To install: look for “Install” or “Add to Home Screen” in your browser’s menu.

Named it by ear? Now find it on the neck

An interval you can name is an interval you can play on purpose — and turning heard distances into fingered ones is exactly what the lessons are for.

Also in the free tools: the tuner, the metronome and the Groove Trainer.