Pitch, intervals, chords up to jazz voicings, tuning, singing back, quarter tones and the Arabic maqamat. Short runs, three chances, and a daily session of about four minutes.
Every game is the same shape: a short run, three chances, and a score that means only how carefully you listened just now. Sounds can always be replayed. Most games have ten levels; Maqam Map and Chord Colours have fifteen.
Two notes. Is the second one higher or lower?
Level 1 is an octave apart. By level 10 the notes are 15 cents apart. Start here.
Hear the gap between two notes, then tap the bar that tall.
Finish a run and Endless Drop opens: no last round, one band harder every five rounds.
Hear two notes or a chord, and pick its name.
From level 3 the name is given and you steer the note onto it yourself.
Two tones rub and wobble. Steer yours until the wobble stops, then hold still.
The wobble is the beating between the two tones. It slows as they come together.
Hear a note land somewhere new. Sing it back, or steer the ribbon.
The microphone is always your choice, and nothing it hears leaves the device.
Tuning finer than any piano key: which interval is out of tune?
Levels 1–5: the same interval plays twice, one slightly sharp, and the gap shrinks from 50 cents (a quarter tone) to 30. Levels 6–10: a maqam climbs with one note out of tune. Which step?
Every maqam is a path with a home. Name it from its path.
From level 6 there are no labels: steer the last note until it rests. Levels 11–15 use all 22 maqamat.
Hear a chord and name its colour.
Levels 1–10 go from major and minor triads to seven-note thirteenths. Levels 11–15 keep the chord and change the voicing: drop 2 and drop 3, shells, rootless voicings, fourths and upper structures, with the source named under every question.
Today's ear is three short games of four questions each, chosen from what you can already do: the skill furthest behind, one you have secured, and one a notch harder or not yet played. Then it says Done for today.
Today's challenge is one game with the same sounds for everyone that day. Your ear map shows the highest level you have played in each skill, on this device.
There is no streak to lose. The map counts the days you practised out of the last seven, and that is all.
After a miss, every game gives you the right answer. In most of them you also hear the difference: your answer first, then the right one, before the next question. Chord Colours spells both chords out side by side.
You always hear concert pitch, because that is what an ear trains on. In the games that write notes, the app then shows what those notes look like written for your own instrument.
Half-Flat trains the ear for the quarter tone. Maqam Map trains the maqam's home note. Their maqam levels name the reference tuning on screen — documented historical data, cross-checked against the Digital Arabic Maqām Archive — because regional practice varies.
The 22 maqamat themselves are in the same studio as the scales and the jazz material, notated with real quarter tones. Read the maqam reference, or see maqam and jazz in one studio.
In For Teachers, add a row, choose one of the eight games and its level, set the time for the week, and send the one link. On the student's phone or tablet the game opens at that level and waits for a tap before any sound starts. A player can also set a timer of two or ten minutes for a session; it ends gently at the end of a round and saves nothing.
No accounts, no analytics, no network calls. What the games remember — your best scores, your ear map and a record of your answers — stays on your own device, and you can switch it off or forget all of it. Sharing a result is a button you choose to press; nothing is ranked against anyone.
Yes. It has eight ear-training games: Higher or Lower, Drop, Name It, Lock-On, Echo, Half-Flat, Maqam Map and Chord Colours. They cover pitch direction down to 15 cents, intervals, chords from triads to jazz voicings, tuning until the beats stop, singing a note back, quarter tones and the Arabic maqamat. Today's ear is a short daily session of about four minutes.
Yes. All eight games are in the free part of The Whole Horn, with no account and no subscription. The app is free to download; the optional one-time Full Studio ($24.99) adds other material, not the games.
Yes. In For Teachers, a teacher picks the game and its level on a row of the week, sets the time, and sends one link. On the student's device the game opens at that level and waits for a tap before any sound plays.
Only Echo can use the microphone, and only if the player chooses it; the on-screen ribbon works without it. The sound is analysed on the device and nothing is recorded or sent. There are no accounts and no analytics, and best scores stay on the device.
Two of the eight. Half-Flat trains the ear to hear tuning finer than a piano key, starting at a quarter tone. Maqam Map trains the maqam's home note, and its top levels use all 22 maqamat. Their maqam levels name the reference tuning they use, because regional practice varies.
The games sit next to the scales, the long tones and the blues bass line, on iPhone, iPad and Android. The app's interface is in English.
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