An interval is the difference in pitch between two notes. In Western music the smallest interval between two notes is one semitone, while a perfect octave is and interval of twelve semitones. Learning intervals is incredibly useful; if you have a melody in your head and you want to pick it out on a piano keyboard, it is vital to know the intervals between the notes you are imagining.
If you can recognise the distance between two notes without touching your instrument, music opens up in remarkable ways. You stop guessing at melodies, chord voicings start to make sense, and singing in tune feels natural instead of lucky. That listening super-power is built on one skill: knowing your intervals.
You hear two notes, then pick the correct interval name. Begin with friendly steps, such as unison or a major second, and add trickier leaps once your ears have settled in. A week of steady practice and you will find yourself humming along to songs and landing on the right notes more often than not.
Two different intervals play back-to-back. Your job is simply to say which one is larger. It teaches the “size” of musical space, the same way your eyes can judge whether one object is closer than another. That instinct becomes invaluable when you try to pull a melody out of a dense chord.
Now the screen calls out an interval and you have to play it on the onscreen keyboard or any MIDI controller you have nearby. It is where ear and muscle memory shake hands.
Two notes pop up on a staff. Identify the gap between them and you have linked sheet music to sound in your head. Sight-reading stops feeling like code and starts feeling like hearing the tune before your fingers touch the strings or keys.
Click the Personalize button and a panel appears with every option you could want. Highlight just three intervals if you are brand-new, or turn on the full set once you feel confident. Slide between Ascending, Descending, Harmonic, or Mix to keep your ears guessing, choose the octave range that sounds comfortable, and tweak tempo or volume so nothing feels rushed or too quiet. These tiny adjustments keep the drills in that sweet spot where you are challenged but never overwhelmed.
Five minutes of focused drilling is the perfect pre-game stretch before you dive into ToneGym’s interval-based games:
The games turn practice into a friendly competition with yourself. Watch your scores climb and you will see exactly how the warm-up translates to real-time performance.
Join ToneGym today and unlock the full ear-training program that sharpens your listening, speeds up your playing, and lifts your musicianship to the next level.