Moving From Ear Training Apps to Real Music

Table of Contents

• Introduction
• The big idea
• Melody
• Chords
• One tiny session to try today
• Want more?

Introduction

Ear training apps can be very helpful, but being good at an app isn’t the goal. Real progress happens when you carry that experience and skill into actual songs. This post distills the main ideas from my latest video into a simple plan you can use today.

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The big idea

Real music should be part of your ear-training routine from the beginning. Use the app to learn clear, contextual feelings of notes and chords (anchored to a tonic), then apply them immediately to songs you love. Apps are just the training room. Real music is all that really matters in the end.

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Melody

What makes real music harder?

• Changing harmony shifts how each scale degree feels in subtle but important ways.
• Arbitrary instrumentation (voices, guitars, synths, layers) can fool you if all your training is done in apps with limited sounds.
• Mindset is different: the way you listen when training in an app is not necessarily the same as when listening to real music.

The solution

1. Master the pure feeling-states of scale degrees against the drone in Sonofield.
   • If you can’t recognize them in the training room, you won’t recognize them in the wild.
2. Work with real songs right away—listening, labeling, and singing.
   • Over time, your brain learns to hear through the arrangement and find the degree clearly, even as harmony moves.

Try this: Listen with labels

Goal: Link what you hear to actual degrees in real time.
Setup: Pick a simple song (children’s songs, pop, country, etc.) and find the key.

Steps:

1. Sing the tonic to lock in the key.
2. Transcribe a short phrase.
3. Work out the scale degrees (e.g., “3-4-3-2-3-1”).
4. Play the phrase again and listen while thinking of the numbers as the notes pass.
   • Check: Do the degree labels ‘click’ with the feelings you experience? If not, sing the phrase slowly against a drone to gain clarity. Go back to the song when ready.

Try this: Produce melodies consciously

Goal: Keep degree awareness while improvising.
Setup: Use a drone or simple backing track.

Steps:

1. Improvise slowly. Don’t play a note until you know which degree it will be.
2. Focus on the feeling-state of each note you play in relation to the tonic, even as the chords change.
   • If you get confused, play the tonic to recalibrate and come back to where you were.
3. Don’t be fancy. The goal is ear training, not performance.
   Check: Is there a match between the degrees you’re thinking, feeling, and seeing on your instrument? If not, simplify and meet your ears where they’re at.

Try this: Hold one degree while harmony changes

Goal: Hear how arrangement and chords “shade” a single note.
Setup: Any song where you know the key.

Steps:

1. Choose a degree (e.g., 2).
2. Sing or play that same degree through an entire verse/chorus while the music moves.
3. Stay focused on the feeling-state of your degree and notice how it subtly shifts in response to the changing harmony and arrangement. Check: Can you keep focus on the degree without getting lost? If not, pause the music and recalibrate by singing the degree against a tonic drone before trying again.

Tips

• Keep the melody in the foreground of your mind; let everything else fall back.
• Aim for immediate recognition, not interval math or resolution tricks.
• Ignore absolute pitch; track the feeling-state of the degree relative to the tonic.

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Chords

What makes real music harder?

• Instrumentation: Chords are spread across the band, not plunked on a single instrument.
• Voicings & inversions: Any given chord can be rendered in many ways that you may not be familiar with.
• Distractions: Drums, melodies, moving bass—nothing stands still.

The solution

1. In the app or on your instrument, learn chord qualities (major, minor, sus, 7ths…) as unique feeling-states.
2. Learn the feeling-states of chord numbers (I, ii, IV, bVII, etc.) so you can hear root degrees in a key.
3. In real songs, listen for the holistic vertical quality of each moment—let the whole arrangement fuse into one chord sensation—then label it as a combination of number and quality (e.g., IVmaj7)

Try this: Transcribe songs & analyze mistakes

Goal: Identify chords in real songs.
Setup: Find a playlist of harmonically simple music (pop, folk, country, etc.).

Steps:

1. Work out the chords of the verse/chorus using the feeling-states learned during training.
2. For the chords you can’t get instinctively, use any means necessary (app training, music theory, bass notes, transcription apps, etc.).
   • If you are truly stumped, try looking up the chords online.
3. Write down the progression in numeral format for clarity (e.g., Imaj7–vi–IVsus2–V9).
4. Listen back to the song with this knowledge in mind so that your brain can make links between sound, feeling, and label.
5. Repeat for the next songs in the playlist. Quantity is important here.

Try this: Stay conscious when you play

Goal: Apply accurate chord labels to the music you play.
Setup: Choose a song or chord progression you know.

Steps:

1. Identify the key and label the chords using roman numerals.
2. Say out loud: “I (major) … vi (minor) … II (minor) …” as you play.
3. Notice how the quality and the number each carry a feeling.
   • The end result is a single sensation for each chord which is the combination of both aspects.
4. Occasionally alter one element at a time, comparing and contrasting the way it feels. For example:
   1. Change a single chord to another of the same quality but different number (e.g., ii becomes iii or vi).
   2. Change the quality of a single chord while maintaining the same root note (e.g., IV becomes iv or IV7)
   3. Change the inversion of a single chord while keeping the same quality and root note (e.g., Em becomes Em/G or Em/B)
5. This provides your mind with the information it needs to learn what is important and what can be ignored.

Reality check

• The possibility space of harmony is massive. Use theory to narrow your options (common progressions, diatonic sets, bass clues).
• You won’t catch every voicing by ear at first. Start with quality + number; refine details later.

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One tiny session to try today

• App: Sing the degrees of a major (or minor) scale in Sonofield against the drone in Free Play.
• Song: Listen to a simple song and take note of your instinctive guesses for each melody note.
• Check: Find the key and sing the melody against a tonic drone. Determine the degrees.
• Confirm: Listen to the song again with correct scale degrees in mind. Sing along until you feel everything click.

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Want more?

If you want to master the feeling-first approach I’ve outlined here, download the Sonofield app for free and start your journey on The Path. Learning to play music by ear in this way is both very useful and deeply satisfying. I’m sure you’ll dig it!

Talk soon,
Max 🌞