In the Basic Ear Training for Songwriters lesson, we covered beginner chord sounds by working with major and minor chords, and learning to identify them by ear.
For this intermediate lesson, we’re adding some more complex chords to the mix.
These are self-paced listening exercises that I use with my coaching students who’re aiming to improve their songwriting skills. Using these styles of extended chords can be a great way to spice up your songs, if things are feeling a little repetitive.
The nice thing about suspended chords is that they can function similarly to non-suspended chords in a standard chord progression, but they’re just different enough to mix it up a little and spice things up.
Directions for these exercises: scroll down to "How to use these exercises"
Lessons: Learning to hear suspended 2nd and 4th chords
Level 5a: Suspended 2nd chord inversions
Level 6a: Suspended 4th chord inversions
Quiz: Suspended 2nd and 4th chords
In this quiz, you’ll be asked to Identify all suspended 2nd and suspended 4th chords, plus their inversions, by ear.
Lessons: Learning to hear dominant 7th suspended 4th chords
Level 7a: Dominant 7th sus 4 chord inversions
Quiz: all Intermediate ear training chords
In this quiz, you’ll be asked to Identify sus 2nd, sus 4th, and dominent 7th sus 4th chords, and all their inversions, all by ear.
Putting it all together
Once you’ve mastered all of the above, let’s add back in the chords from the beginner ear training series. Here’s a complete list of all the different chords you’ll be asked to identify by ear, in the next exercise:
Major
Minor
Dominent 7th
Augmented
Diminished
Suspended 2nd
Suspended 4th
Dominent 7th sus 4th
Plus all inversions!
Beginner and Intermediate Chords Quiz
You’re at the pro level when you can identify each type of chord consistently by ear using this quiz, in under 10 seconds, with at least an 80% success rate.
More free theory and ear training resources
Once you've completed all of these different exercises (it’ll take a while to lock these in), you’re well on your way to adding some exciting new chord types and sounds into your songwriting.
musictheory.net is a great free web resource for all basic music theory and ear training skills. It’s the equivalent of what you’d get in the first year-ish of a music school degree, but for free!
Happy ear training!
