High School · Advanced High School · AURAL SKILLS
Chord Challenge
Hear the notes separately, then together. Identify the chord from its sound.
Set up your listening
Practice allows unlimited listening. Homework allows three plays per question. Each chord plays as an ascending arpeggio, then as a complete block chord.
Which chord do you hear?
Arpeggio · separate notesBlock chord · all notes together
Build your listening: levels add new chord types while retaining earlier ones. Half diminished means a minor seventh chord with a flattened fifth (m7♭5). Extended chords here are dominant 9ths, 11ths and 13ths, with a minor seventh and all lower extensions included. Real performance voicings often omit notes; this trainer plays the complete chord in root position.
Learning guide · need a hand?
Chord Challenge: a quick guide
Your goal
Listen to the chord and choose its type. Learn the sound of major and minor first, then explore more colorful chords.
Try an example
C–E–G is major. Lower E to E♭ and it becomes minor. Add B♭ to C–E–G and you get a dominant seventh chord.
Easy to mix up
A low chord is not automatically minor. The gaps between its notes decide the chord type, even when it starts on a different note.
A tip for your next go
Listen for the middle note of a major or minor triad—the third. Once you know those sounds, add diminished, augmented and seventh chords.