Find the Tonic
Almost every piece of music has one note that sounds like the end of a sentence. Find that note by ear and you have the key of the song, which is the first thing you need before any other listening skill does you any good.
- 3 candidate notes
- the fifth is the decoy
- no key is given
at which level
- Beginner
- Any instrument
- Singing helps
A short phrase sets up a key, then single notes follow one by one. Pick the one that sounds like home.
What it asks
A short phrase plays, two or three chords that set up a key. Then you hear single notes one at a time, each with a letter on screen, and you pick the one the phrase was heading toward. Nothing tells you the key beforehand. Your ear decides where home is.
The question pool
Three candidate notes to start, and you can raise that later. The tonic is always among them, and the other notes come from the same key. The fifth shows up most often as a decoy, because it sits so comfortably that plenty of people land on it. Later questions drop the cadence and use a vamp that keeps circling one chord, so there is no resolution to lean on and the pull has to come from the note itself.
How you answer
Buttons marked A, B and C, in the order the notes were played. Replay the phrase as often as you want before you commit.
When the round ends
Ten questions, twenty, or no limit at all. Short sessions work well here, because once the phrases start sounding alike your ear stops weighing them and starts pattern matching.
When you get it wrong
The phrase plays once more and resolves to the tonic this time, with that key lit on the keyboard. Hearing the landing is what teaches it. Reading which letter was correct teaches almost nothing.