One of the most common questions we get here at Easy Ear Training is “I want to learn intervals but I don’t have an iPhone for your apps! What can I do?” Well, today we’re releasing a new option you can try: a free interval ear training MP3 pack. Grab your free download now!

Our best-selling interval training app, RelativePitch teaches all the intervals of the octave, by using two modes: Training and Testing. In Training Mode you can choose a lesson or a custom set of intervals, and then listen to examples of those intervals (on piano, guitar, violin, French horn or clarinet) with each one named out loud after it plays. By listening you gradually build up an appreciation of the sounds of the intervals and how they differ from each other. Then you can use Testing Mode to check if you’ve really got it.

This kind of interactive learning is the most effective, but we wanted to come up with something else for those who can’t use our iOS apps. Something that can work on any desktop computer or portable MP3 player. So today we’re giving away a downloadable set of training tracks. These will teach you 5 intervals: Unison, Semitone (minor second), Tone (major second), Minor Third and Major Third, in the ascending form. This is the same as our introductory interval training app and a great starting point for developing your relative pitch.

Download the pack:

Free Interval Ear Training MP3 Download Download Intro Pack (16MB zip)
(Right-click and ‘save as’)

How does it work?

The downloadable pack includes 5 MP3 files, each of which is about 3 minutes long. Each focuses on a different interval. Here are a couple of preview clips:

Once you’ve downloaded the tracks and added them to your favourite music player, listen to them regularly. Ear training is a skill which you want to practise every day to see real improvement. Maybe you can listen to these while eating breakfast each morning, or while walking to school, or on the drive home from work.

Listen Actively

We’ve talked a lot about active listening here on the site, and this is a good example of where it’s very valuable. By really paying attention while you listen to the tracks you’ll be able to appreciate the sounds of the instrument and how the notes relate to one another more perceptively than if you just listen in a casual way. Additionally, it’s important to pay attention to the spoken label for each interval, so you learn to associate the sound of the interval with its name.

Listen Casually

One of the benefits of the Training Mode of our apps is that it doesn’t actually require interaction. Many users also report success with listening casually, allowing their subconscious to take in the examples while their conscious mind is busy with something else. In fact, we even implemented an “auto stop” feature for users who were using Training Mode while drifting off to sleep and didn’t want it to run all night!

How to Learn Intervals

The ultimate guide to interval ear trainingIf you’re new to interval ear training and wondering what all this talk of “training”, “testing”, semitones and major thirds, “up” and “down” is all about, begin by reading our full free guide to interval ear training.

What’s Next?

That’s up to you! There are lots of next steps you can take from here, including:

  • More intervals (e.g. perfect fourths and fifths, major and minor sixths and sevenths etc.)
  • Descending and Harmonic forms
  • Various instruments (e.g. guitar)
  • Test tracks, which mix up the intervals and give you a chance to guess each one

You can download more free interval ear training MP3s from our interval exercises page, or explore full interval training modules over at Musical U.

Use this free download to get started with learning intervals today. Learn to recognise unison, semitone, tone, and major and minor thirds, in their ascending form. Read an in-depth guide on how to succeed with interval ear training, then take the next step with some more interval ear training exercises or a full training module. Develop your sense of relative pitch using intervals and you’ll soon be able to play by ear and improvise with ease!