Play Music on the Fly with your Ears!
PlayByEar is the best app to learn music aurally! Kelly demonstrates this skill on her livestreams and I was amazed that even with songs she hasn't heard before, she was able to identify the chord progression and melody notes within a couple of seconds!
Not only does her app give you 52 listening exercises, but it explains the theory behind each one.
She breaks the exercises into categories such as intervals, scales, melody and pitch, chords, and progressions and within each one there are beginner, intermediate, and advanced exercises.
It is important to note that there are fundamental differences between each level of difficulty. For example, if you are drilling intervals, the differences between them wouldn't just be a change in tempo, but include diverse subcategories that test your intervals in impactful ways.
For me, I love practicing the step vs leap exercise because these interval patterns are guaranteed to occur in any song and mastering them makes it easier to differentiate when you hear the melody going up by seconds or thirds.
Furthermore, the melodies and pitch exercises help you practice recognizing a sequence of intervals which is beneficial because you can hear how each interval sounds based off other scale degrees that are not the first scale degree. So instead of drilling an interval that is always based off the first scale degree, you can hear how an interval sounds based off the second or third scale degree.
I am a musician and music teacher with music theory knowledge that is quite advanced so I can confirm these exercises are the best way to develop your ear.
If you drill these exercises every day, I can say with full confidence that you will improve immensely in your ability to play music by ear.
Just watch her livestreams and you'll see the end result of using this app in real time.
14. april 2026
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