Uke Improv

Ukulele ear training

Listen, answer and check. Each question plays again as many times as you like.

Score0/0correct
Streak0in a row
Best0in a row
Mode
Intervals
How they sound

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Two notes: name the distance between them.

Ukulele ear training

Improvising is playing what you hear inside, and that can be trained. Uke Improv's ear training plays ukulele sounds and asks what you heard, in three modes: intervals, major vs. minor and harmonic function.

Intervals: two notes, one after the other or together, and you name the distance between them. Start with the basics (minor third, major third, fourth, fifth and octave) rising. An old trick helps: link each interval to the opening of a song you know. Once you get them almost every time, move on to falling intervals and then to notes played together, which is how they appear in chords.

Major vs. minor: the chord plays as an arpeggio and then together. Major sounds open and minor sounds darker; the only difference is the third. The full level adds diminished, tense and unstable, and augmented, which sounds suspended.

Function: a cadence (I, IV, V7 and I) sets the key and then a chord from the key plays. You name its degree. It is the most useful drill for playing by ear, because most songs use the same degrees: recognizing the IV or the vi by sound is recognizing the song.

A simple plan: in week one, basic intervals rising; in week two, falling; in week three, major vs. minor; in week four, function in the key of C. Ten minutes a day beats an hour a week. Your score and best streak in each mode are saved, and with an account they sync across devices.

Open source (MIT) · GitHub