Chord Inversion Ear Trainer

by

Major
Root Position Major
1st Inversion Major
2nd Inversion

Minor
Root Position Minor
1st Inversion Minor
2nd Inversion

Diminished
Root Position Diminished
1st Inversion Diminished
2nd Inversion

Augmented

---

Chords

Chord Inversion Ear Trainer

Here is a chord inversion ear trainer that will develop your ability to pick not only a chord type but also its inversion. A chord inversion is determined by which chord tone is the lowest note. A root position chord has the root note as the lowest, a 1st inversion chord has the 3rd as the lowest and a 2nd inversion chord has the 5th as the lowest note.

Unlike when using say the chord ear trainer it is not enough to simply identify the overall quality of the chord but you will need to start to hear the individual notes that make up the chord in order to determine which tone is the lowest. I personally find this a lot harder than say the chord ear trainer or the interval ear trainer in harmonic mode.

The app tests all inversions of major, minor, diminished and augmented chords. Note that for augmented chords, you do not need to pick an inversion, but simply that the chord is augmented. This is because the equal distance intervals that comprise the chord are such that any augmented chord can be viewed as an augmented chord with a different root note in a different inversion. Each of these chord types and inversions can be turned on or off to test any combination at a time. If your finding this hard, you can for example start by simply testing between the three inversion of the major chord and have the root note fixed and this starts to become easier then.

Options can be set to allow each chord inversion can be played over one or multiple octaves and in open or close spacing. In a close spacing chord, each note of the chord is adjacent to each other (such as C E G in C major). In an open spacing chord, adjacent notes of the chord may not be the next note in the chord. Ill try to illustrate this as follows:

C Major Root Position: 

C Major Scale:      C D E F G A B C D E F G A B C 
Close C Maj Chord:  C   E   G
Open C Maj Chord:   C       G         E

Note that each chord has all the notes of the chord in it, it is simply whether these notes are adjacent or if there is spacing between them.

By providing these options, the app can be set so that for each chord type/inversion and root note, the app may combine the notes of the chord in a number of ways making the testing harder.

I hope you find the app useful and feel free to leave feedback in the comments.

by