Ear Training Studio

Common questions

Is this a real perfect pitch test?

It practices the skill perfect pitch describes: naming a note heard on its own, with no reference note played before it. Choose Notes, press Play and pick one of the twelve note names; any octave of the note counts, because the answer is the name. The score is a practice result for this session on this device, not a measure of innate perfect pitch and not a hearing test, and what you hear also depends on your speakers or headphones. Hear A4 under Settings plays the reference note only when you press it; hearing it before a question turns note naming into a comparison with A.

Can non-musicians try this perfect pitch test?

Yes, but the Notes exercise asks you to recognize letter names: C, D, E, F, G, A and B, plus sharps and flats when All twelve is selected. Start with Naturals only, press Play to hear the tone, then Reveal to see its name. A non-musician can practice those associations here; the test does not assess pitch recognition without knowing any note names.

What is the difference between absolute and relative pitch practice?

Notes asks you to name a single pitch without playing a reference first. Intervals asks for the distance between two pitches, which is relative pitch. Chords asks for major, minor, diminished or augmented quality, another relative listening task; it does not ask you to name the chord root or all its absolute note names. Hear A4 provides a reference if you want one, but using it changes note naming into comparison practice.

How do I make note naming more challenging?

Choose Notes with All twelve, then widen Lowest note and Highest note under Settings to include several octaves, within C2 to C7. You can change Waveform to compare practice across different synthesized sounds. The answer remains the pitch class, without an octave requirement. There is no universal hardest level or score threshold for perfect pitch.

How does the seed work?

Every session is dealt from a seed, a whole number from 0 to 999999999, together with the exercise, the range, the notes asked or the direction, and the number of questions. The same seed with the same settings plays the same prompts in the same order in any browser, so you can repeat a session to see whether your score changes. Press Replay this seed when a session ends, Replay on any session in the history, or type a seed under Settings and press Start with this seed. The reference and the waveform change only the sound, never the prompts.

Why does a revealed answer not count?

Reveal shows the answer when you would rather see it than guess. A revealed question is marked revealed: it is never counted as right, and it is left out of the unassisted score, which is your right answers out of right plus wrong. The revealed count sits beside it, so a session with 5 right, 1 wrong and 1 revealed shows Unassisted 5 of 6, 83.3% and Revealed 1, not counted. Once a question is revealed it cannot be answered.

How are the notes tuned?

In twelve-tone equal temperament from A4, the A above middle C, at 440 Hz unless you change it: each semitone multiplies the frequency by 2^(1/12). Middle C, C4, is 261.63 Hz and G4 is 392.00 Hz, so a perfect fifth is a ratio of 2^(7/12), about 1.498. The reference can be set anywhere from 400 to 480 Hz, such as 442 or 415, and new prompts use that tuning; at 442 Hz, C4 is 262.81 Hz. The browser generates each tone as a sine, triangle, square or sawtooth wave, so no recording is downloaded.

Which intervals and chords are included?

Intervals: all twelve from a minor second (m2, 1 semitone) to a perfect octave (P8, 12 semitones), with the tritone (TT, 6) between the perfect fourth and the perfect fifth. Chords: the four basic triads in root position, major (4 + 3 semitones), minor (3 + 4), diminished (3 + 3) and augmented (4 + 4). Both can be played rising, falling or with the notes together, and every prompt fits inside the range you pick, which needs at least 12 semitones for intervals, 8 for chords and 11 for notes.

Can I practice only the white-key notes?

Yes. With Notes chosen, set Notes asked to Naturals only, and the page plays and offers only C, D, E, F, G, A and B. All twelve is the default. Sessions can be 10, 20 or 40 questions long.

Where is my score saved?

In this browser only. Your settings, the session in progress and up to 30 finished sessions are kept in its local storage, and nothing you answer is sent anywhere. A session with at least one answer or reveal goes into the history when it finishes, when you end it, or when you start another session or change a setting that starts one. Clear history removes the list, and Start over forgets everything this tool stored.

Why is there no sound?

The tones need the browser's Web Audio engine, which starts on your first press of Play. If nothing plays, check that the tab and the device are not muted; the page says so when the browser refuses or holds back sound. Sound also stops when you switch to another tab, and Repeat plays the prompt again when you come back.

Does the test use songs, instruments or my singing voice?

It plays synthesized sine, triangle, square or sawtooth tones. It has no piano, guitar or violin recordings, song recognition, microphone recording or singing-pitch analysis. The note frequencies are shown after an answer or Reveal. Reference A4, Hz changes tuning for open questions and requires Play again; new closed answers save their tuning, and Repeat uses it when available. In Notes, answers are note names rather than typed frequency guesses; Intervals uses interval names and Chords uses chord qualities.