Intonation Ear Trainer
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Develop you intonation by learning to pick the difference between notes that are less than a semitone apart. Start by picking if the second note is higher or lower than the first. As you get more right, the notes will get closer together.
Is the second note higher or lower than the first:
Options
Intonation Ear Trainer Information
The intonation ear trainer is designed to help develop your ear for intonation, or how well you can pick if a note is in tune. Two notes will be played that are 100% of a semitone apart. Pick if the second note is higher or lower than the first. As you get answers right, the notes will get closer together until they are almost identical. See how small an interval you can differentiate.
Options allow you to play the notes melodically, one after the other, or harmonically where the first note continues playing while the second note plays. You can also fix the first note to be a high, medium or low note or have the first note change for each test.
Try different tones for each of the first and second note to hear subtle differences in pitch when the notes have a diffrent tones.
I hope you find this useful and feel free to provide feedback in the comments.
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It would be cool if you included a graph for collective scores.
I think they already have a graph of your collective scores from the worst to best
What would be neat is if it kept a record of weather your incorrectly guessing low or high (sharp or flat) That was you can see if you have a tendency to off one way or the other.
it is really fun but hard
It was sooo easy
what was your best percentage?
3.7% Wow got really hard!
I got 2% and one of my classmates got 1.4% before!
I have gotten 0.9%
I GOT 0.1%!!!
I got to 3%, and then I was guessing 😀
I got 2.70% so hard
I got a 1.4% SOOO
7%, I listen to too much headphone stuff
7% I am the best in my said my teacher, but I listen to to much music and watch to many videos
Is a 15 semitone good ??
maybe, my highscore is 0.86
Thank you for this online ear trainer! I have just one question – is everything correct with the frequencies’ ratios? Because sometime it is easier to recognize smaller ratios than ones in the middle? And also my best percentage was 1,2 for melodic second note with changing option (and I was not guessing) – which is really small ratio between two notes for human ear (cca. 1/128 of tone), that is why I am asking if everything is correct.
Greetings
Hi Sted,
The code uses a Javascript library to play the audio that is detuned a percentage of a semitone. I believe this library is implemented by the browser your using so the accuracy of the pitch will be based on the accuracy that the browser has implemented the library with.
Also, It’s common to find higher pitches to be easier to pick the difference than lower pitches so if you may find it easier to pick the difference between notes at a higher pitch with a smaller percentage than at a lower pitch with a larger percentage.
Thank you for your reply.
I agree that it is easier to pick the difference at higher pitches, but still, really good human ear is capable of hearing from 5 cents and up ( 5% + >5% ) – when you hit lower differences it is supposed to be just a guess, every next step down ( < 5% ). But I hear it good and still quite clear from 5% to let's say 1,2% – the difference which I am not supposed to detect, or am I? 😉 That is why I am asking about precision of the ratios of the two sounds.
https://www.quora.com/What-is-the-lowest-difference-in-the-pitch-of-two-notes-that-the-human-ear-can-resolve
Greetings
That quora thread is based on the general population. With training, it is definitely possible to hear intervals more minute than 5 cents. Plus, every person is different. Some people are born with better than 2020 vision. It’s not impossible 🙂
When I started violin lessons in my 40’s, a 5 cent difference seemed negligible… totally acceptable intonation for my playing. Then I started noticing that being 5 cents off out of tune was starting to feel as bad as 25 cents sounded when I started. I listened back to old progress recordings I had made and was horrified with what I had THOUGHT sounded in tune. Nevertheless, my violin teacher still points out intonation issues that I don’t yet notice. I am hopeful that in five years I will be as horrified with recordings if my current playing as I am of my playing from five years ago,.. since such shock and horror are signs of actual progress.
I tried different browser (I am using firefox, tried on chrome too) and I also got lower than 5%. And many times I notices that when I made a mistake it became much easier to hear/recognize than the first time. I believe this is just the ear adopting to the smaller differences between two sounds. Or the sound percentage is not the same as written after the mistake.
Also a question: Let’s say my Javascript library is not so accurately implemented by my browser. How can I fix that?
I really like using this interval ear trainer but would really appreciate if I can use it very accurate and see how good my ears hear, not just to brag about the result 😉
Thank you and all the best!
Greetings
If the javascript library was not accurate there’s not really anything you could do to fix that.
One more thing: is it possible to remove/shorten/decrease volume of that ”beep” sound after the correct/false result? The thing is that the sound still rings when the new example is given and that kinda interrupts the concentration.
My vote: REMOVE it 😉 and maybe replace it with some visuals?
Greetings
It’s quite easier when you take only one note because you can feel it until the second note comes
I made scores from 1.7 to 2 with changing-melodic-waveorm-waveform then I did this crazy score with medium-melodic-triangle-triangle
https://ibb.co/grR8cK
here’s a screenshot of the score… So amazing
P.S.
If you believe I used a tool to tell me what to answer… Come on, should I have any interrest of lying on a website like this one just for making people say “OMG”?
It’s simply always useful to share feedbacks and scores…
Thank you!
If you have small hands it wouldn’t necessarily prevent you from becoming a fine pianist, but it may mean that you’ll never be able to play the opening bars of Rachmaninov’s 2nd piano concerto. What I’d like to know is whether or not one’s ability to accurately and consistently identify fine distinctions between pitches is limited by whatever natural aptitude we were or weren’t born with. Is it possible to get better at this kind of thing – or do we all have a built-in ceiling: like the size of one’s hands?
First time doing this. I found this quite interesting… Although the synthesized sounds are not very “musical” IMHO. I’ve trained my relative pitch since I was 5 years old – starting with the French method of Solfege. I could hear differences in the pitches fairly well down to 1.35% of a semitone. Now I’m 47. I wonder how well I would have done in high school. I’m going to invite some musical and tech friends to try this. Thanks!
2.7%… this gets hard! But I agree… with electronic noises like this, overtones can be misleading… depends on what audio you’re listening to as well… speakers, headphones, in-ears… I even heard more or less subtleties when I cupped my ear or not!
I got a 2.3% but did it again and got a 1.2%. Pretty hard ngl
It is hard to know what to put
got a 100
i got 15% and this game makes my head hurt
sometimes it was confuseing me because some sounded the same
Square did help me to get to 1,05, but Im a classical musician, cellist
The game was fun.
This is a great activity/tool! As someone who uses this in an educational setting, it would be great if there was a mode or setting where instead of the % difference getting smaller each correct answer, you could set it at a certain % or % range and only do those ones. The tiny % ones are super challenging, but are too hard for middle school aged kids just trying to learn for the first time.
Keep up the great work!
I GOT 2.3 AND IM A 6TH GRADER!!!!! BEST IN MY CLASS!!!
I can hear the difference in tone/pitch for all of them, but sometimes I can’t tell if the second note is higher or lower. Can someone explain what the problem is here? Its strange because hearing a difference means I’m not tone deaf, but then I can’t tell which is higher sometimes.
Just a small point: It should say “you’re out.”
I tried me best and also, it was a blast for me
i got 17%
i got 4%
a group of my friends and me got 3.3% the lowest
i have gotten a 5%
8% İs a good or enough level?
It’s not bad for a beginner. Try to get a higher next time.
“You’re Out” not “Your Out”
i used headphone and it was better
Fun
I got a 7%
I’ve been using this as occasional ear training for a couple of months now and have been able to improve. Around two months ago, my score ranged from 5-2.3% and I got below 2% only a couple times, and now I usually get around 3-1.5% and got 0.73% just now.
For reference, I’m a college student and play a string instrument competitively. It’s interesting how much the scores vary… I’ll be able to hear 1.7-1% differences clearly one minute and then struggle to differentiate between 3% differences the next. Once in a while, I get a 7% or 10% wrong too
i got a 100 lets gooooo
I’m 31yo, musician (guitar), trained, and few earing issues as most gigging musicians, using average headphones, firefox browser.
That was really fun, even tho a bit ear breaking even at low volume, I found the progression really interesting. I first took the test with default settings, getting a 8% than, after reading the comments, I got caught by the game high score aspect and decided to test once all waveform and the two mode. Here’s what I got:
hamronic:
7% of a semitone – sine
5% of a semitone – square
4.3% of a semitone – saw
4% of a semitone – tri
then back to the sine using the melodic mode:
1.6% of a semitone – tri
1.5% of a semitone – saw
1.05% of a semitone – square
4.3% of a semitone – sine
I found it interesting that there’s an overall progression, I didn’t tried them multiple times, only once each, but I’ll maybe do them once a day for few days and post my results as answers of this post if there’s any change.
Does this method can really improve my earing or is it just my ear adapting during the test but without “longterm benefit” ? Does this earing improvment can be really used in real life situations ? Am I earing better or just developing strategies that fits the purpose of this quizz ? For instance, at first, it was like when I tune a guitar, and so spotting lower second pitch was way easier than spotting higher pitch, then I refined a bit that strategy, using my hand and creating a “lower note expectation” for the second note, trying to ear if the note eared meet the expected note in my head. But once in the 1% range, there’s some I could definitely pinpoint as the answers but some that relied mostly on “gut feeling”. This quizz lead to interesting questions to me.
Well done for the gamification of this test btw, I would push the cursor even further, gamifying stuffs like this can be great.
1.6% Changing, Melodic, Waveform sine, Waveform sine, headphones
I have a fair degree of tinnitus, which may have affected my results, but they were pretty much what I expected. I’m a long-time Barbershop quartet singer, where precise tuning in just intonation is critical to producing the characteristic expanded sound. There are physical limits to how well one may do, but practice and exercising can improve one’s skills. Most of us have never reached our own limit.
I tried a second run in harmonic mode, thinking that I would do even better, as I’m used to fine tuning inside a chord, but was shocked to find that I scored 13%! I found the “beat” to be very strong, much stronger than I’m used to hearing and it made me lose touch with my anchor from the first note. Most interesting. I’ll need to come back when I have more time and play with this a bit.
One last thing: Please, PLEASE, PLEASE! It’s “You’re out,” not, “Your out”. Thanks
I have trouble in harmonic mode after about 30% I just hear beats.
o.1%
I go to Middle School and play the flute, not the guitar. But this “game” is very fun and my high score 3.7%. Kudos to who programmed this though, it’s flawless!
The sounds where very close and similar in tone and pitch.
Fun game. I’ll share a tip that helped me lower my score significantly – you need to do what I call a “full mental reset” for each pair of notes. So if, for example, the computer plays 500 Hz then 520 Hz, and then the next pair is 400 Hz then 410 Hz, if you don’t do a “full mental reset,” you kind of still have the memory of those higher notes from the previous pair, and 410 Hz is definitely lower than 500 or 520, so it sounds “lower.” You need to wipe that 500/520 note pair completely out of your memory and firmly establish the 400 as your reference. Sometimes I needed to hit Replay a couple times to make sure I had fully reset, but being consciously aware of the need to reset my reference and purge the prior notes really helped.
Thank very much.
This site and exercices are most usefull.
If this was an app for android I would certainly purchesed it. (think about it)
Congrats, and keep up the good work.