'Ideally, Do you have to be able to tell each chord's function simultaneously? otherwise you can't tell if it's D minor or F Major I think.'
Not sure I understand your question, since the key is given to you before the chords are played.
regarding a 'ii-V-I or IV-V-I': a ii and a IV sound completely different regardless if they are inverted or not. one is major and the other is minor. that's about as fundamentally different as you can get with chords
if you can't immediately tell the difference between a major and minor chord you should work on that before working on identifying specific progressions. a chord has the same overall 'quality' regardless of its inversion
You seem to know which notes are the same, so try to focus on what's different. When you make a mistake, you can press the c key on a computer or the button with the scales on the bottom right corner, that allows you to compare the answers.
As for your question, you technically do need to know all the chords before selecting an answer, but you can replay the chord progression by pressing the button with the volume icon.
Since this game is testing your knowledge on chord progressions in a key, it is easier to think of this game as asking you:
What are the chords relative to the key given?
Sure, lowercase letters do mean minor chords, but if you don't understand the relationship between each chord and the tonic chord (key), any other memorisation methods defeat the purpose of the game.
So yes, you do need to know the chords simultaneously... but think of it more as identifying a group of chords rather than three unrelated chords.
I think that exercise should always play the proper bass line, at least at lower levels, not just have a limited amount of items you can do that. You need it to memorize what roots correspond to other notes in all diatonic chords, that's the most important step. Tackling inversions is secondary.
Overall, I think it best to try to sing those chord tones of a chord and try to figure out what they are in a major scale. That way you'll be able to visualize (or pre-hear) chords might better. It's not an easy skill to acquire and one that will take months if not years, but in the end it will result in a much faster intuitive identification of chords. When the route IV plays a 4 chord progression, try to sing a melody of four note over it. Then transcribe this melody and see what major scale chord degree it uses. Then see what chords those might be in. Over time you’ll be able to do that faster and also have an immediate understanding like: “oh, it sounds like I sang a third of a chord, and it’s a sol (5th scale degree), and it also sounds minor so it gotta be a iii chord” etc.
Some people do it purely by the feel of the chord, but I strongly believe that being able to dissect the individual notes is something that will spike up that intuition for the feel of the chord too. It's like a super precise interface through which fast decisions can be made, similar to how we process regular languages.
When playing Notationist, I would like to use the letter keys in my computer keyboard, instead of the on-screen buttons, but it doesn't seem to work. Is it my setup or is it just not there?
And, ideally, I'd like to use the keys on my Yamaha keyboard with Notationist. Is it possible?
Sorry if this has been asked before, but is there a way to connect MIDI to games like Notationist? I've allowed MIDI input in Chrome but am still not getting an input in the game
Unless your MIDI device is from 1961, I'd say it should be working fine inside Chrome and ToneGym... I would open a ticket at Help Center (mic icon at the upper menu) and ask the devs for instructions or info about the compatibility of your device. It's in Notationist, in fact, where a keyboard is most helpful, and by extension in the whole Sight-Reading Practice and Competition area!
