Count the Notes
Counting is the first thing your ear can do with a chord, and it works before you know any chord names at all. Two notes, three, four, five. Get that number right and you have already narrowed the chord down to a short list.
- 2 to 5 notes
- no chord names needed
- every note played back
at which level
- Beginner
- Any instrument
A chord plays and you say how many notes are in it, two up to five. You never name the chord, so this works before you know a single chord symbol.
What it asks
A chord sounds and you say how many notes are in it. That is the whole question. It stays useful long after day one, because a close voicing with five notes can pass for three if you are not listening for the layers.
The question pool
Two notes are intervals. Three are triads and sus chords, four are seventh and add9 chords, and five brings in the extensions. Switch the counts on and off yourself. Two against four is the wide, friendly pair to start with, and two against three is where it starts to hurt.
How you answer
Four buttons: 2, 3, 4, 5. The chord plays twice before the buttons unlock, so the second listen is already built in.
When the round ends
Ten questions, twenty, or no limit at all. No streak to protect.
When you get it wrong
The chord is played back note by note while a counter ticks along and the keys light up one at a time. That playback is the lesson. During the listening phase the keyboard stays dark, since a lit key would hand you the answer.
Keep going
Everything in ear training
- Higher or Lower
- Major or Minor
- Resolve or Hang
- Count the Notes