Interval trainer
About this app
Hear and identify musical intervals, then sing them into a microphone and receive pitch feedback measured in cents.
What an interval is
An interval is the distance between two notes, counted in semitones. From the unison (0) to the octave (12) every interval has a name: minor and major seconds, thirds, sixths and sevenths, the perfect fourth, fifth and octave, plus the tritone at 6 semitones. Each interval corresponds to an approximate frequency ratio, such as 2:1 for the octave, 3:2 for the fifth or 5:4 for the major third. Ear training means learning to recognise these distances by sound and to sing them accurately.
What you see
A 3D pitch ladder shows both notes as glowing spheres: the higher the pitch, the higher the sphere. You choose a category (all, consonances, minor vs. major or random), a root and whether the notes sound one after the other or together. After playback you guess with a button or reveal straight away; the answer gives the name, semitone count, just ratio and the two note names. A counter keeps track of right and wrong answers.
Singing it back
In the microphone panel the upper note of the last interval becomes your target. The app tracks your pitch with autocorrelation, a marker follows your voice on the ladder, and the readout shows the deviation in cents (100 cents make one semitone). Start with consonances such as the fifth and octave, then move on to “minor vs. major”, where thirds, sixths and sevenths differ by only one semitone.
Frequently asked questions
- How do you learn to recognise intervals by ear?
- Short, regular sessions work best: hear two notes, name the interval and check the answer. Many people start with clearly distinct intervals such as the octave, fifth and fourth before adding minor and major thirds, sixths and sevenths. Singing the intervals back strengthens the skill, because you have to produce the distance yourself.
- How many semitones are in a perfect fifth?
- A perfect fifth spans 7 semitones, for example from C to G. Its just frequency ratio is 3:2. In equal temperament it measures 700 cents, just under 2 cents narrower than the pure fifth at about 702 cents.
- What is a cent in music?
- A cent is one hundredth of an equal-tempered semitone, so an octave contains 1200 cents. Cents are used to measure small pitch differences, for instance how far a sung note is from its target. Deviations of only a few cents are hard for most listeners to hear.
- What can I do in this app?
- You play intervals from unison to octave over a chosen or random root, one note after the other or together, then guess and reveal them. With the microphone switched on you sing the upper note and see your deviation in cents in real time.
Subject: Jazz harmony
More from Jazz harmony
- Chord builder
- Bebop scale
- Blues forms
- Coltrane changes
- Frequency spiral
- II–V–I generator
- Sing the line: solfège
- Modal interchange
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