How to Train Your Harmonic Ear by Singing (Piano Ear Training)

You can train your harmonic ear with just a piano and your voice by singing chord roots in the bass, singing the top note of each inversion, singing smooth voice leading between two chords, and improvising around each note of a held triad.

Video lesson by Jason Zac · Intermediate · 26 min

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This lesson from Jason Zac at Nathaniel School of Music shows how to train your harmonic ear, the part of your hearing that works out chords, progressions and the connections between notes played together. It is for pianists and singers who can already find a few chords and want to recognise them by ear. You only need a piano and your voice; the piano helps the voice, or the voice checks the piano.

1. Hunt for the bass: sing the chord roots

Play a C major triad (C E G) in the right hand and the root, C, in the left hand. Sing only the root. Then take a familiar progression such as I V vi IV in C major (C, G, Am, F) and play it several times. Once it feels comfortable, sing each root in turn: C, G, A, F. Choose a key that suits your voice.

The hard part is that the melody on top is catchier than the bass. Treat the melody as irrelevant while you listen, because you can really only focus on one thing at a time.

The ladder method

If you struggle to jump to the next root, climb to it stepwise. To get from C to G (a fifth up), sing C D E F G until it matches the bass. You can ladder down too, for example C B A G. Use this only as a starting crutch until your ear is comfortable with the bass register.

To check what you sang, a free tuner app on your phone can tell you the note. You do not need perfect pitch: you are simply singing back what you heard, and the bass note tells you the chord.

2. The swara approach for Indian classical musicians

Many Indian classical musicians find bass hunting tricky because their bass note, Sa, usually stays fixed and traditional music has no chord changes. Try thinking of the bass line as a melody and transcribing it with swaras as scale degrees. Remember that bass lines skip rather than move stepwise, because chord progressions jump while melodies tend to move by step.

3. Hear inversions through the top note

Take G minor (G Bb D) and play its inversions: G Bb D, Bb D G and D G Bb. Do not try to hear all three notes at once. Listen to the top note, which inversions bring to the surface, and sing it. Do not give yourself the answer straight away; wait and let the note come to you. Closing your eyes or moving your head can help. Play the chords as solid blocks, not one note at a time.

4. Voice leading between two chords

Combine two chords, for example G minor to C major, and sing the top line as you move between them:

• G to G: G is in both chords, so sing one steady note.
• Bb to C: Bb on top of G minor rises to C on top of C major.
• D to C: D on top of G minor falls to C.

You can wander around with the top notes but land back on the target note. This builds anticipation and is also a good way to compose melodies. The same idea works for E minor to C major: G on top of both, B to C, or E on top of both.

5. Float the notes of a triad

Play E minor in root position (E G B). First catch the low note: play the whole chord, then only E with your thumb, and sing it. Improvise a melody around E, going lower freely but not invading the middle note's space. For the middle note, G, there is little room, so sing just a couple of notes around it; adding F gives a beautiful Phrygian flavour. For the high note, B, explore creatively and return to B from time to time. Then invert the chord (G B E) and repeat for a completely new melodic context.

How to practise

1. Start with bass roots on a familiar progression.
2. Move on to top notes of inversions, then two-chord voice leading.
3. Finish with floating each triad note.

Be patient, be playful and do whatever works for you, however unorthodox it looks.

Questions about this lesson

Do I need perfect pitch to sing chord roots?

No. You are just singing back the bass note you heard, like singing a melody, and a free tuner app can tell you which note it was.

Why is it hard to hear the bass of a chord?

The melody on top is catchier and draws your attention. Practise treating the melody as irrelevant while you focus on the bass, because you can only really process one thing at a time.

How do inversions help ear training?

Each inversion places a different chord tone on top, where it is easiest to hear. Singing that top note lets you identify one note of the chord at a time.

I am trained in Indian classical music. How should I approach this?

Treat the bass line as a melody and transcribe it with swaras as scale degrees. Expect the bass to skip around, because chord roots jump rather than move stepwise.

Practise it

• SpanAn interval practice studio with separate Ear, Eyes, Hands and Voice drills.
• Chord TreesStart from a note and explore related chords, inversions and voicings.
• Piano classes at Nathaniel School of MusicLive online or in Bangalore, with a teacher.
• All free music apps40 practice tools for harmony, rhythm, ear training and more.

Related lessons

• How to Practice Piano Chords the Right Way (Theory, Technique and Ear)Pick one note, find every chord that contains it, and play each chord in an inversion that keeps that note on top with your right-hand pinky, the chord's root in the left hand, while you sing the top note and then the bass. This trains your theory, technique and ear together.
• Piano Ear Training for Beginners: 5 Levels to Build Your Melodic EarTo build your melodic ear on the piano, sing a short melody over a steady left-hand root and immediately play it back, working through five levels: three scale notes, the triad, triad inversions, the first five scale notes, and finally the minor versions of each.
• 12 Bar Blues Piano for Beginners (Sing and Play Along)The 12 bar blues uses only the I, IV and V major chords (C, F and G in the key of C), arranged in three four-bar lines: I-I-I-I, IV-IV-I-I and V-IV-I-I, with optional IV in bar 2 and a V turnaround in the final bar.
• One Mammoth Lesson: Major Scales in All 12 Keys, Circle of Fifths and Chord InversionsYou can practise chord inversions in all 12 keys by moving triads around the Circle of Fifths: go counterclockwise in authentic (V–I) cadences with your right hand climbing up the keyboard, then clockwise in plagal (IV–I) cadences with the chords descending, always keeping common notes and moving the others by the smallest step.