Ear Training Resources

Here are some of the most useful ear training resources we’ve found online, particularly the ones which take some of the difficulty and frustration out of ear training. If you have any great resources to suggest, please let us know!

Jump to:

Top Ear Training Recommendations

Theta Music Trainer
Ear Training Games from Theta Music Trainer
Dave Conservatoire
Music Theory Videos by DaveConservatoire.org

Top Ear Training Websites

We’ve profiled several of the top ear training sites online, including:

Looking to play music ‘by ear’? You want our posts on Top Tech Play-by-Ear Tools and Top Online Play-by-Ear Courses.

Ear Training Resources List

Relative Pitch Ear Training

  • Vocalist: A great page, with particular focus on singing. Suggested exercises, links to online ear training resources, and pointers to books and software
  • TrainEar.com: A good free online trainer for relative pitch. Uses the ‘song association’ method to get you started recognising intervals. (Flash)
  • Teoria: Large number of online trainers for music theory and ear training. (Flash)
  • Auralia: Broad toolkit for relative pitch skills on Mac or Windows, from the makers of Sibelius (paid)
  • IWasDoingAllRight.com: Two great ear training apps for developing your ‘play by ear’ and sight-playing abilities. (Not to mention a terrific jazz blog too!)
  • ToneDeafTest.com: Worried you might be tone deaf? Take an online test and find out for sure.
  • Aimee Nolte Music: Great video tutorials and PDF guides to help you play and sing jazz.

Absolute Pitch Ear Training

  • We Hear and Play: A popular course for teaching young (3+ years) children to develop absolute pitch while playing musical games.
  • Pitch Paths: A (paid) self-study course for developing absolute pitch, using the song association method to get you started.

Rhythm Ear Training

  • Worldjazz: A set of lessons with many examples, to help you connect classical rhythm notation to the real-world sound of the beat. Sehr Toll!
  • LatinPercussion.com: Even if you’re not a percussion player, these free how-to videos are a fantastic way to do passive training. Watch, listen and pay attention!
  • PracticeSpot.com Rhythm Gym: Free online exercises for practicing reading rhythms. Check your ability with the sound files. For focused ear training, try transcribing the MIDI files and check against the written notation instead.

Audio EQ, Mixing and Mastering Ear Training

  • AudioCheck.net: Fantastic free online tests for a variety of ear training areas. Mainly focuses on audio topics, but covers some perfect pitch testing too.
  • Musician University: Online (paid) courses in a variety of audio engineering topics. Tried these? let us know what you thought!
  • REAPER: Excellent multi-track recording software for Windows and Mac OS X – perfect for experimenting with EQ and mixing techniques. Free, fully-featured trial version, and low price for the full license.
  • Hearing Test: An easy and well-designed online test of your hearing – Check how well your frequency sensitivity matches the expected curve! Definitely worth doing before you get stuck into frequency training.
  • Moulton Labs: Dave Moulton’s “Golden Ears” ear training course is the absolute standard for self-study audio engineer’s ear training. He has a large number of fascinating articles online which are certainly worth a read for anybody studying these topics.
  • Equalization Key Frequencies: A handy chart explaining why you might boost or cut different bands. Definitely worth a read to help you put meaning to frequency numbers, and you might pick up some handy mixing tips too!

Audio Effects Ear Training

  • Harmony Central: A superb resource for any number of ear training areas, with particularly great articles explaining the classic audio effects.
  • Mode Zero: An in-depth directory of guitar effects pedals with plenty of audio examples. Great for reference and to broaden your knowledge of what the classic effects can do!
  • Beat Portal: A series of articles about how to use standard audio effects, with lots of discussion about how their parameters effect the sound. Some great inspiration for your own experimentation and exercises here.
  • Audio Effects Explained With Monkeys: Well, if all the other explanations of what the effects are and how they sound don’t cut it, you can’t go wrong with monkeys.

Childhood Ear Training

  • Belly Itch:  A comprehensive and top-ranked blog for all things maternity.
  • Music Therapy Show:  A fantastic blog that discusses what music therapy is and how to use it in your life.
  • Rock Stars & Babies:  Website featuring incredible photography and blog posts of and about babies.
  • Folk Songs for Children: An About.com article with lyrics and sheet music links for lots of simple folk songs suitable for children.
  • Getting in Tune: A great free PDF booklet from Zero to Three, covering the role of music for children, from birth until three years old.
  • Making Music magazine: Making Music is a bi-monthly lifestyle magazine for recreational musicians. It’s full of tips, techniques, and resources for every instrument.
  • MyFunPianoStudio.com Teacher Resources: A great source of fun teaching resources for ear training in early music education.
  • The Plucky Pianista: Wonderfully enthusiastic, creative and sharp music teacher shares all.

Ear Training Organizations

Ear Training Blogs