Chord recognition training is practice at hearing several notes sounded at once and identifying the chord's quality (the chord's character — Major / Minor / 7th, and so on) by ear alone. Hearing chords is the foundation for understanding harmony, and the basis of ear-copying, composing, and ensemble playing.
This page is a manual for choosing the settings. Each setting is designed around established methods from music education. For each setting that calls for a decision, we give the recommended choice, what it is for, and what it trains — with the evidence behind it. If you arrived from a "?" in the settings screen, scroll to the option you need.
Training Mode
Normal is enough to start. Use Custom only to target specific chords, and reach for "Review When You Forget" and "Weak-Point Focus" once your results accumulate.
This setting decides the policy by which chords are chosen for you. There are four modes.
The other two — "Review When You Forget" and "Weak-Point Focus" — pay off once your performance data accumulates. They work the same way across every training, so they appear inline below.
"Review When You Forget" mode (spaced repetition)
Spaced repetition means an item you have already studied comes back just as you are about to forget it. The more reliably you answer something, the longer the gap before it returns; the items you miss come back sooner. It rests on the idea that recall is more durable when you space the reviews out rather than cramming the same item back-to-back.
This mode suits you once the pool of items has grown and you start noticing that things you once knew have slipped. The app handles the scheduling automatically, so you do not have to track what needs reviewing. It rewards short, daily sessions more than occasional long ones.
When in doubt, reach for it in the "maintenance" phase, after you have worked through the items once. Use the normal mode to build the foundation when everything is new, then let spaced repetition move that knowledge into long-term memory — a comfortable two-step approach. The benefit of spacing reviews for long-term retention was synthesized at scale by Cepeda et al. (2006), and the finding that the act of retrieval itself strengthens memory comes from Roediger & Karpicke (2006).
Weak-Point Focus Mode
Weak-point focus looks at your answer history, identifies the items with the lowest accuracy, and serves those to you more often. Instead of spending time on what you already answer reliably, it concentrates practice on exactly the places you keep missing. The app picks the targets automatically from your own results.
This mode suits the stage where your overall accuracy is climbing but a specific few items still trip you up every time. Because it keeps returning to your weak spots, it feels harder — and that controlled extra effort is precisely where the learning happens (the principle of desirable difficulties). It needs enough answer history before candidates appear, so play the normal mode for a while first.
When in doubt, drop in for a few concentrated sessions whenever you plateau at a given level and feel you "keep losing the same handful of items right before it would stabilize." Once the weak spots clear, return to the normal mode to keep your overall balance. Deliberately making yourself retrieve the items you tend to miss — the "testing effect" — was shown by Roediger & Karpicke (2006) to strongly benefit later retention.
The four modes exist to concentrate practice on the chords you currently need. The quiz format itself — recalling the answer rather than listening passively — strengthens memory more than re-listening (the testing effect). "Review When You Forget" and "Weak-Point Focus" automate this using your performance data.
Ref.: Roediger & Karpicke (2006) [1]
Difficulty
When unsure, start at Basic Triads. Step up one level once you reliably hold 80%+ at the current one.
Sets the range of chord types you'll be asked about (shown in Standard mode). Following an order also used at music conservatories, the pool widens step by step: triads → 7th chords → tensions.
The fewer chord types you handle at once, the less your ear must process, and the more reliably you fix the cues for telling them apart. Securing a narrow range before widening it gets you there faster than tackling everything at once. The tiers follow cognitive-load theory: keeping processing demands low early in a new skill aids learning.
Ref.: Sweller (1988) [2]
Playback Mode
Learn a new chord in Arpeggiated, switch to Block as you get comfortable, and finish with Random.
Decides how the chord is sounded. The same chord can be easier or harder to identify depending on how it's played.
The aim is to hear the chord itself without leaning on one presentation. Arpeggiated lets you analyze the structure note by note, while Block trains instant judgment on the chord's mass of sound, close to real music. Varying how it's played stops you depending on a single cue and builds the ability to identify chords however they're voiced.
Question Type
Leave it on Chord Quality to start. Once quality recognition is stable, progress to Bass Note, then Inversion.
Decides what you are asked to answer. Even for the same chord, what gets asked changes which listening skill you build.
Progressing through question types builds chord-hearing skill element by element. Telling quality (bright/dark, tension) apart first, then the lowest note, then the inversion, develops an ear that hears chord structure from several angles. This follows the established ear-training progression of learning quality and inversions in turn.
Ref.: Karpinski (2000) [4]
Root Mode
Default to "Random across all keys" (the app's recommendation). Fix the root only temporarily, as an absolute beginner who wants to isolate the chord-type difference.
Decides how the chord's root (the foundational lowest reference note) is chosen each time. You pick "Random across all keys" or "Fixed root."
Random across all keys is the default so you build the ability to hear the chord's shape itself without leaning on one pitch height. Mixing different keys (interleaving) retains better than blocking the same condition, as meta-analysis shows. Real music appears in every key, so this builds a realistic ear.
Ref.: Brunmair & Richter (2019) [3]
Inversions
Leave it off at first. Add inversions only once your quality recognition is stable; mixing them in before the foundation is set tends to cause confusion.
Controls whether inversions — forms with a changed lowest note — appear. For example, C Major (C-E-G) is root position; E-G-C (lowest note E) is the first inversion and G-C-E (lowest note G) the second. The notes are the same, but which one sits at the bottom shifts the chord's center of gravity. Choosing Bass Note or Inversion as the question type enables this automatically.
Inversions are added later so you first secure the chord's sound in root position, then bring in the new cue of a changed lowest note. Inversions are everywhere in real music and unavoidable, but they stick better once the foundation is set. Learning quality and then inversions in turn is an established ear-training progression.
Ref.: Karpinski (2000) [4]
Octave
Leave it on Middle (C4). Once stable there, try the low and high registers too, building an ear that isn't swayed by register.
Sets the register (pitch height) at which chords are played: Low (C3), Middle (C4), or High (C5). In the low register chord tones bunch together and are harder to separate; in the high register the notes spread apart and sound clearer but thinner. Middle (C4) sits between them and is the best-balanced register for chord recognition.
Starting in the middle register keeps the ear's processing load low by using the range where chord tones are easiest to separate. Reducing needless difficulty early lets you focus on the chord-type difference itself; you widen to other registers later to hear chords at any height. This follows cognitive-load theory: keeping the load lower early aids learning.
Ref.: Sweller (1988) [2]
- Roediger, H. L., & Karpicke, J. D. (2006). Test-enhanced learning: Taking memory tests improves long-term retention. Psychological Science, 17(3), 249–255.
- Sweller, J. (1988). Cognitive load during problem solving: Effects on learning. Cognitive Science, 12(2), 257–285.
- Brunmair, M., & Richter, T. (2019). Similarity matters: A meta-analysis of interleaved learning and its moderators. Psychological Bulletin, 145(11), 1029–1052.
- Karpinski, G. S. (2000). Aural Skills Acquisition: The Development of Listening, Reading, and Performing Skills in College-Level Musicians. Oxford University Press.