Nothing fancy. This will take less than 3 minutes. Correct answers will be posted here at 5pm on Wednesday Nov 25.

* There are three parts to this ear test. All notes and all chords are restricted to notes inclusive of one octave below middle C and one octave above middle C, i.e., from C below middle C to C above middle C.

* Each part is marked by a quick glissando for your convenience, and each note or chord is preceded by a series of middle C notes for reference.

Part 1: There are 5 single notes. No black keys for this part. Identify the note.

Part 2: There are 5 three-note chords (major, minor or diminished only). Identify the three-note chord.

Part 3: There are 5 three-note 7th chords (such as A7, G7, etc), with the 5th omitted. Identify the three-note 7th chord.

Good luck.

Here is the Test

This is posted in the Adult Beginners Forum and the Pianist Corner Forum only.


* It's more instructive to *not* look at other people's replies until after you try the test and post your results, so that you don't get influenced by others' choices.

* Use this format to post your answers:

______________________
Part 1:
1)
2)
3)
4)
5)
______________________
Part 2:
1)
2)
3)
4)
5)
______________________
Part 3:
1)
2)
3)
4)
5)
______________________

This kind of stuff is fun. I found during music school that the pianists and violinists were the very best at ear training, perhaps because of our use of chords in our daily playing. I gave myself two hearings, just as our ear training teacher used to give us in tests. I'm certain of my single tones, but my chord recognition has gone downhill with disuse. Does anyone know of some good website or perhaps pay program that one can use for ear training (ideally not MIDI-based)?

______________________
Part 1:
1) D below middle C
2) B above middle C
3) G below middle C
4) A above middle C
5) Middle C
______________________
Part 2:
1) V
2) ii
3) V
4) viio
5) i
______________________
Part 3:
1) vii7o/
2) ii7
3) V7
4) IV7
5) V7
______________________

I got part 1 with the same results as MarkH. My chord recognition generally isn't that great, unfortunately. I'm interested in resources for working on that too.

part 1
D
B
G
A
C
part 2
D major
D minor
A major
B diminished
C minor
part 3
A7
B7
D7
C7
G7

Quite a nice test to do, I like the glisses to reset the brain. I started to do a test from some thread on this forum last night but the electronic sounds were so annoying that piked half way through, so yours is pleasant. I am a sucker for quizes, so thank you

I listened to the gliss at the beginning, and said to myself "This is harder than I was expecting!"

Is this an "open fallboard" quiz?

Part 1:
[1] D below midC
[2] B
[3] G below midC
[4] A
[5] C

Part 2:
[1] D
[2] d minor
[3] A
[4] B dim
[5] c minor

Part 3:
[1] A7
[2] B7
[3] D7
[4] C7
[5] G7

Tomorrow at 5pm, I'll post the correct answers. It's good for beginners to take this test so that you may begin to think in terms of sounds and how notes and chords differ from each other. I'm finding that one can learn to hear the different shades of sound, and it isn't as terribly difficult as I once thought.

Answers are below.

What I have learned from this little exercise (this is one guy's opinion) is that it is possible for *anyone* to get the right answer if they try enough number of times. This isn't necessarily bad. The difference between a good ear and a bad ear is in how quickly one gets the right notes or chords.... you play the note, you make your best guess at the piano... you try lower or higher and you eventually get it. Of course this test gave you some clues and was limited in scope and type of notes and chords, but that's the idea: Divide and conquer.

With practice, I believe, anyone can learn to play by ear and recognize notes and chords.

Hats offf to those two who got it right: Canonie and Currawong.


Part 1:
[1] D below midC
[2] B above
[3] G below midC
[4] A above
[5] C middle

Part 2:
[1] D
[2] d minor
[3] A
[4] B dim
[5] c minor

Part 3:
[1] A7
[2] B7
[3] D7
[4] C7
[5] G7

It's hard for me to judge the value or difficulty of this type of test, as my absolute pitch immediately tells me what note or chord is being played...

In fact, I find the C4 that's hammered in-between samples, irritating, because I could just as well do without it.

Anyway, wishing everyone a good weekend,
Mark
P.S.: the C#4 in the A maj chord (3rd chord in 2nd test) sounded awfully sharp to me.