Ear training, a little every day
Earstep plays a sound on a grand piano and you name it: intervals, chords, scales, modes and notes. When you answer, the sound draws itself the way a harmonograph would, so you see what you just heard.
14 of 56 levels are free, and you don’t need an account.
Pick a ratio to hear it and see its figure
This is level 3 of rising intervals, “Thirds, fourth and fifth”, on the same piano as the app. Press play, then pick the interval you heard.
A harmonograph hangs a pen from two pendulums. Set them swinging at an interval’s frequency ratio and the ratio draws itself. The octave and the fifth, the intervals heard as most stable, have the simplest ratios and the simplest figures. Earstep draws every interval this way, so your eyes back up your ears.
2:1
The upper note swings exactly twice for each swing of the lower one. The pen keeps meeting its own line, so the figure is a single clean loop.
On a piano: exactly 2:1.
3:2
Three swings against two. Still simple, and still closed: the ratio behind the Earstep mark.
On a piano: 2 cents narrower than 3:2.
4:3
Four against three. Stack a fourth on a fifth and you get an octave: 4/3 times 3/2 is 2.
On a piano: 2 cents wider than 4:3.
5:4
Five against four. The loops multiply, and the piano’s third sits much further from its ratio than the fifth does.
On a piano: 14 cents wider than 5:4.
16:15
The half step: sixteen swings against fifteen. The pen crosses itself again and again, the classic dissonance.
On a piano: 12 cents narrower than 16:15.
45:32
Half an octave, the one interval with no simple ratio. Even 45:32 fills the plate, and the piano’s tritone, the square root of two, would never close at all.
On a piano: exactly half an octave, 600 cents.
Sources: Harmonograph, Lissajous curve, Five-limit tuning, Equal temperament and Consonance and dissonance on Wikipedia. The cents come from the app’s own interval table.
Slide to change how fast one pendulum swings against the other. Between intervals the pen scribbles. On an interval’s ratio the swings fall into step and the figure closes.
4:3
Perfect fourth
498 cents. On a piano it’s 2 cents wider than 4:3.
What you train
Each track starts with two or three sounds that are easy to tell apart and grows from there. A level opens when you pass the one before it, at 75 to 85 percent depending on how many answers it has.
Hear the distance between two notes, rising, falling and together.
Two notes, the second higher.
7 levels, from “Third or fifth” to “Every interval”. 2 free.
Two notes, the second lower.
7 levels, from “Third or fifth” to “Every interval”. 1 free.
Two notes at once.
7 levels, from “Third or fifth” to “Every interval”. 1 free.
Tell chord qualities apart, then inversions and seventh chords.
Major, minor, augmented, diminished and suspended.
4 levels, from “Major or minor” to “Suspended chords too”. 2 free.
Which note of the chord is in the bass.
4 levels, from “Major chord inversions” to “Diminished inversions too”. 1 free.
The six common seventh chords.
5 levels, from “Dominant or major seventh” to “Every seventh chord”. 1 free.
Recognize a scale or mode from its run up to the octave.
Major, the three minors, pentatonics, blues and more.
5 levels, from “Major or natural minor” to “Every scale”. 2 free.
The seven modes of the major scale.
5 levels, from “Dorian or Aeolian” to “All seven modes”. 1 free.
Name notes against a reference note, and train absolute pitch.
Hear a named note, then name the next one.
6 levels, from “Do, mi and sol” to “Every note”. 2 free.
Name a note with no reference at all.
6 levels, from “C or F♯” to “Every note”. 1 free.
It trains naming notes without a reference. It doesn’t promise perfect pitch.
Every sound has its own schedule. Get it right and it comes back after 1, 3, 7, 14 and 30 days. Miss it and it comes back within 10 minutes.
Once you’ve named a sound right on 3 separate days, it’s inked into your notebook. Your streak counts the days in a row you practice, and the daily goal is 15 sounds.
Every sound in Earstep is rendered from Salamander Grand Piano, a Yamaha C5 sampled by Alexander Holm. Each note is measured and retuned to equal temperament at A4 = 440 Hz, all within 0.8 cents, and every clip is matched in loudness, so no answer gives itself away by being louder.
Pricing
$0
$39.99 a year
7 days free first. Cancel anytime in your App Store or Google Play settings.
Or $79.99 once, with nothing to renew.
Prices in US dollars. The App Store and Google Play show your local price before you buy.
Guides to intervals, chords, scales and pitch, each with sounds to play and a drill to try on the page.
No. You answer with names, like major third or Dorian, and the note drills put the note names on a dial. Each answer comes with what was played, in note names, if you want to learn them.
Earstep has a track for naming single notes with no reference note. It trains that skill. It doesn’t promise you’ll develop perfect pitch.
No. Everything works without one, and your progress stays on your phone. Sign in with email, Apple or Google only if you want the same progress on more than one device.
No. You answer by tapping, and Earstep never asks for microphone access. It has no ads and no analytics.
Yes. Sound plays with the iPhone silent switch on. Music from other apps pauses while you practice and can carry on afterwards.
Pro opens all 56 levels. The yearly plan starts with 7 free days and renews at $39.99 a year until you cancel in your App Store or Google Play subscription settings, at least a day before it renews. Lifetime is $79.99 once and never renews.