Ear Training

Identifying the Root of a Chord by Ear

Goal: Find the root note of any chord you're hearing.

Step 1 — Hum a chord tone Listen to the chord and hum whatever note feels stable or prominent to you.

Step 2 — Test it as the root (the 1) Hum a 5→1 "Amen" cadence, treating your note as the 1. If it resolves naturally and sounds correct, you've found the root.

Step 3 — Test it as the 5 If the Amen cadence sounded wrong, treat your note as the 5 instead. Hum the Amen cadence with your note as the 5, resolving up to the 1. If it sounds correct, the note you resolve to is your root.

Step 4 — Test it as the 3 If neither test worked, your note is likely the 3rd. Use the "Be Our Guest" melody — that opening phrase lands on 3 → 5 → 1 on "Be — Our — Guest." Sing that melody starting from your note. The pitch you land on at "Guest" is your root.

Quick reference:

• Source
• Random chord generator— great for practicing

Identifying the key of the song

By melody

• Find a note that sounds in the key, and improvise with notes around it. Be aware of which notes sound correct, and fit those notes into a scale.

  • ex. If you played a note that sounds good, then determine that you can go up half a step, the initial note you played is either a 3 or a 7 (since half step movements only happen twice in a key)
  • note: it's generally easier to take note of which key we are in by focusing on those half step movements, since:
    • half-step movements only happen twice in a key
    • we can hear that if the lower note is stable and the higher note is unstable, then we have a 3-4; and if the lower note is unstable and the higher note is stable, then we have a 7-1.

• note: if you hear a bass note that is the 7th of the key, it is very likely that what's playing is a 5 chord with 3 in the bass

By chords

1. Listen to the tonic chord, determine if major or minor (if major, it can be either 1,4 or 5. If minor, 2, 3, or 6)

• most likely, if major, it’s either 1 or 5, and if minor, it’s either 6 or 2. Since they are most common, assume it’s 1 or 6

2. Run a major scale off of the assumed key. If it sounds good, you’ve found it

• ex. if we have identified an Am chord and our assumption is that it’s the vi, then we would play a C major scale to test our assumption.

Identifying notes in a chord by ear

1. Play a chord, all notes at the same time. start simple, basic triads on higher strings
2. try and pick out what note each string plays.
3. Confirm your assumptions

Once you've gotten the hang of that, start adding complexities

• extended chords
• lower strings
• inversions
• spread voicings (eg. 1-5-3 instead of 1-3-5)