Ear training helps you connect a sound you hear with a note, rhythm, or chord you can recognize and play.

In this lesson, we’ll start with the most basic part of that process: matching a pitch. From there, we’ll look at intervals, keys, chords, transcription, and rhythm as different ways to strengthen what you hear.

What is ear training?

Ear training is the practice of recognizing and reproducing musical sounds. That might mean matching one note, hearing the distance between two notes, recognizing a rhythm, or figuring out chords from a recording.

Music theory and fretboard knowledge can help you name and confirm what you hear, but the starting point is listening closely enough to reproduce the sound.

1) Learn to match a pitch

A pitch is the highness or lowness of a note. Pitch matching means hearing one note and reproducing that same pitch with your voice or instrument.

A tuner gives you a visual version of this process by showing whether your note is too high, too low, or matched. Ear training develops the same comparison through listening.

If you can sing it, you can play it

Play one note on the guitar and let it ring. Then try to sing or hum the same pitch. Adjust your voice higher or lower until the two sounds seem to blend together.

Then reverse the process. Hear or sing a note first and search for that pitch on the guitar.

Try this: Choose three different notes on the guitar. For each one, listen first, sing or hum it back, then play the note again to check yourself. After that, sing one of the notes from memory and try to find it on the guitar.

2) Identify intervals

An interval is the distance between two notes. In the previous interval lesson, you saw how these relationships look on the fretboard. Now use them as listening exercises.

Play a root note followed by one interval. Listen to how far the second note seems to move from the first, then sing the two notes back before playing them again.

C to Db – minor 2nd (a half step above)

C to D – Major 2nd (a whole step above)

C to Eb – minor 3rd (a whole step and a half above)

C to E – Major 3rd (2 whole steps above)

C to F – Perfect 4th (2 whole steps and a half above)

C to F# – Augmented 4th (3 whole steps above)

C to G – Perfect 5th (3 whole steps and a half above)

C to Ab- minor 6th (4 whole steps above)

C to A –  Major 6th (4 whole steps and a half above)

C to Bb – minor 7th (5 whole steps above)

C to B –  Major 7th (5 whole steps and a half above)

For an in depth explanation on this concept, check out how to play intervals on guitar.

Keep in mind that these intervals can also move down from a previous note. Try playing through these intervals and hear what they sound like. 

By relating these intervals to songs that come to mind it can help you to remember them. It can take time to get these sounds in your ear but they can help to find the notes of a melody much quicker and accurately.

Try this: Start with only a few intervals, such as the minor 3rd, Major 3rd, Perfect 5th, and octave. Play each interval from the same root, sing it back, and compare how the distance and sound change.

Then play two notes and ask yourself one simple question before naming the interval: did the second note move higher or lower, and did it sound relatively close or far away?

3) Finding your key signatures

Once you can pick out several notes from a melody, those notes may give you clues about the key. Compare what you’ve found with familiar Major or minor scales and listen for which note feels like the musical home.

For example, if the notes you were able to pick out by matching them on your instrument were Db, C, Bb, Ab, then you can start to assume that you’re playing in a flat key. They could be the 4th, 3rd, 2nd, and 1st degree of Ab Major.

This is where knowing your key signatures (what notes belong to a certain scale) come in handy. Finding out the key of a song gives you a guideline as to what notes to play when learning melodies, riffs or any other parts of a song.

4) Apply chord theory

The same listening process can help with chords. Start by listening for the bass note, then use your knowledge of related chords as a starting point for testing possible Major, minor, or diminished chord qualities.

Play the chord with the recording and let your ear confirm whether it fits.

Learning your diatonic chords

Diatonic chords are chords that naturally occur from each degree of a scale. For example, if we build triad chords starting on each degree of a Major scale, the 1st, 4th, and 5th degree would be Major chords. In the key of C, they would be C Major, F Major, and G Major. 

The 2nd, 3rd, and 6th degree would be minor chords. In the key of C, they would be D minor, E minor, and A minor. The 7th degree would be a diminished chord or B diminished in the key of C Major. You can check out this chart on related chords.

By understanding the concept of diatonic chords, it will be easier to identify related chords when playing in any given key.

5) Writing down what you hear (aka transcribing)

Writing down what you hear can help you slow the process down and see the musical relationships more clearly. Start with a very short melody, riff, or rhythm.

Listen, sing or clap it back, find it on your instrument, then write down what you discovered in notation or tab if that is useful to you.

You may also want to check out these 3 simple steps to write your ideas on sheet music.

My Music Composition Notebook is designed to help you capture your musical ideas, featuring printable sheet music tailored for different instruments.

It also includes easy-to-follow guides and references to help you understand essential music concepts and symbols, such as note names on the staff, time and key signatures, note values, and the circle of fifths.

👉 Get it here!

6) Train your ear for rhythm

Ear training also includes rhythm. Choose a short rhythmic idea and clap it back before worrying about the pitches.

Once you can reproduce the rhythm, identifying the pulse and time signature can help you organize what you’re hearing.

To learn more about this, check out this simple guide to understanding time signatures.

I recommend starting with something really simple and gradually challenge yourself to more difficult rhythms. Again, you don’t always have to write things down to effectively develop ear training but it helps you to remember information later on as well as verify that you’re correctly matching a rhythm.

Try this: Choose a short rhythm from a song you know. Listen once or twice, pause the recording, and clap the rhythm back. Then play along with the recording to check whether your timing matches.

Wrapping up

Ear training starts with learning to hold a sound in your mind long enough to reproduce it.

Begin with one pitch. Listen, sing it back, and find it on the guitar. Then compare simple intervals and rhythms so you become more aware of how one sound moves to the next.

As those basic listening skills improve, key signatures, chord theory, and transcription give you more tools for understanding larger pieces of music by ear.

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Original photo by Kelly Sikkema on Unsplash