Path

What to study before Functional ear training

Hearing which degree a chord occupies in the key, not only what quality it has. Below, the concepts that come before, in the order in which one explains the next. Signed in, you see the same path minus what you already hold: your path.

Properties of sound
The four properties every musical sound has at once: duration, intensity, pitch and timbre.
Level 0has practice
Note
The seven pitch names, and the sign that puts one of them on the page.
Level 1
Tone and semitone
The smallest distance Western music uses, and the whole tone built from two of them.
Level 1has practicelesson Notes have names, and the names have a rule (First steps in theory)
Interval
The distance between two sounds, counted by note names, melodic or harmonic, simple or compound.
Level 1lesson The distance between two notes (First steps in theory)
Interval quality
Perfect, major, minor, augmented and diminished: what separates two intervals that share a number.
Level 1has practicelesson The distance between two notes (First steps in theory)
Triads
Three-note chords stacked in thirds, and the four qualities that result.
Level 2has practicelesson Three notes, four chords (First steps in theory)
Interval recognition
Identifying by ear the distance between two notes, the skill everything else in aural training rests on.
Level 2lesson The colour of a distance (Ear and genres)
Chord quality recognition
Hearing a chord's quality without counting its notes: major, minor, diminished, augmented.
Level 3lesson The colour of a chord (Ear and genres)
Major scale
Seven degrees built on a fixed sequence of tones and semitones, and the reference everything else is measured against.
Level 1has practicelesson The major scale, from any note (First steps in theory)
Diatonic harmony
The chords that arise from stacking thirds on each degree of a scale, and why each quality lands where it does.
Level 3has practicelesson The seven chords of a key (First steps in theory)
Harmonic function
The role each degree plays — tonic, subdominant, or dominant — and the tension that moves one to the next.
Level 4lesson Seven chords, three roles (Functional harmony for people who play)
Functional ear training
Hearing which degree a chord occupies in the key, not only what quality it has.
Level 4lesson Hearing the place (Ear and genres)