How to Identify A Chord by Ear?

To be a well-rounded musician, you need to be able to identify chords by ear. This means that when you hear a song, you can name or play its chords without looking at chord charts. While this may seem like a difficult task, it's actually something that can be learned with proper guidelines and a little bit of practice.

To identify a chord by ear, you must note two science-based facts that will guide you to train your ear the right way.

1. The human perception of chords is context-dependent. That means that the same chord sounds different when included in different songs that are built in different keys.
2. Two chords that include the same intervals can sound completely different to the human ear. That means. One can sound stable and the other unstable, one can sound happy and one can sound sad, even though the intervals are the same.

In this post, we'll discuss some scientifically backed tips for identifying chords by ear.  You will know why you have been struggling for many years and how to identify chords by ear. We'll also provide you with the right method to help you get better at recognizing chords in songs.

Zoom in and zoom out methods of identifying chords

There are two ways humans can recognize chords in a song. The first one is by recognizing the individual notes and harmonic intervals that make up the chord. For example, when a C major chord is played you can try to pick out each of the notes, C, E, and G. With a little knowledge of music theory you will know it is a C major chord.

The second way is by recognizing the overall sound or "feel" of the chord. Generally, each of the chords produces a sensation relative to the Tonal center. In the major keys, the 1st chord produces a sensation of resolution while the 5th chord creates a sensation of tension. Similarly, each chord produces its own specific sensation. So if you understand the sensation produced, you can intuitively know the chords very fast.

We call the 2 methods outlined above the "zoom in" method and the "zoom out" method respectively.

Zoom in method

The zoom-in method is typically applied in three ways.

• The Trial & Error Strategy.
• The Sing & Match Strategy.
• The Sing & Identify Strategy.

The Trial & Error Strategy

The trial and error strategy is the most common way people learn to identify chords. You simply listen to a chord progression and try to figure out each chord by playing around on your instrument, trying to find the chord that matches the one you hear in the progression. This method can be very inefficient and frustrating, especially if you're not sure about what you're doing.

The Sing & Match Strategy

A slightly more effective way to use the zoom-in method is by singing or humming the notes included in the chord progression. As you sing, pay attention to the notes that you're singing and try to find the note that match them on your instrument. This will help you to zero in on the correct notes included in each chord. This method is also inefficient and doesn't allow for real-time chord recognition. 

The Sing & Identify Strategy

This strategy is similar to the sing & match strategy, but in this case, you're simply trying to identify the scale degree of each note mentally, without the use of an instrument. If you’re a bit more experienced, as you listen to the chord progression, you can sing and identify each note by recognizing their “key’s color", and then you can easily identify what chord is played. 

Zoom out method

The zoom-out method is the most effective, fastest, and most convenient method to identify a chord by ear. This method requires that you consider each chord as a global unit without identifying each of the individual notes included in it.

 There are four basic skills that are useful in order to apply the zoom-out method effectively.

• Identifying the tonic note.
• Having a basic internalization of the key's colors.
• Distinguishing major chords from minor chords.
• Extracting the root note of a chord.

How to determine the key of a song?

In order to determine the key of a song, you need to find the tonic note of the key first. It is important to identify the tonic note of the piece of music to identify the chords by ear. This is because the tonic note gives us the point of reference to properly judge the feeling of the other chords.  If we misunderstand the tonic note, we have a distorted perception of the chords and we recognize them inaccurately.

In order to understand the tonic note, you need to understand the key colors first. The key colors are the unique tonal qualities of each note. Inside the tonality, each note (or scale degrees) assumes its own flavor and sensation. The sensation of the tonic note of the major key (also known as the 1st-degree note) always has a sensation of total resolution. It’s like the gravitational center of the musical piece. Every other note is attracted to it.

You can intuitively recognize the tonic note (thus determine the key of the song), by just paying attention to which note feels like the gravitational center (gives a sensation of total rest) in the musical piece.

What is the difference between minor and major chords?

The difference between minor and major chords is the third of the chord. In a major chord, the third note is two tones (2 whole steps) above the root note, while in a minor chord, the third note is one tone and a half (1.5 whole steps) above the root.

The best way to understand the difference between the minor and major chords is in the difference in sensation they create. While the major chord creates a happy emotion, the minor chord creates a sad emotion in us. Once we internalize this, we can intuitively differentiate between them.

It's also very important to understand that merely differentiating between the quality of a chord (major, minor, diminished, etc) is absolutely not enough to be able to recognize chord progressions by ear. Knowing whether a chord is major, minor, diminished, etc. will not tell you which chord it is, so you still won’t know which chord to play on your instrument or to transcribe on your chord chart. So practicing only on chord quality recognition exercises is really counterproductive and it’s a mistake that a lot of musicians make.

Learn to understand chord sequences

As we have made clear through this article, if you want to improve your sense of musicality, it is important to understand chord progressions by intuitively recognizing the sensation that each chord assumes in the context of the tonality. 

In order to become proficient at recognizing the tonal sensation of each chord (which is not its chord quality) there are many sub-skills that should be developed as well, but don’t make the mistake of practicing harmonic intervals, as many musicians are doing, cause this will not allow you to intuitively identify a chord progression by ear.

Examples and exercises for learning chords by ear

So far, we have given various types of examples and different approaches musicians take to learn to identify a chord by ear. And as you must have learned, the zoom-in methods are time-consuming and inconvenient. The right approach, that allows for instant, real-time recognition of chord progressions is the zoom-out method. So if you want to learn how to identify chords of a song and improve your chords recognition skill, you should focus on the exercise that helps you develop the individual sub-skills that you need to properly apply the zoom-out method.

Please refer to our free workshop for practical exercises related to developing the ability to recognize chords by ear. In the free 3-hour-long workshop, we give you step-by-step exercises for every skill level (beginner to advanced). You will get actionable content and proven exercises that you won’t find elsewhere. You will also:

• Learn our science-based approach that our students use to recognize chord progressions on the spot. 
• Preview our proven step-by-step method thousands of students have used to succesfully develop relative pitch. 
• Practice numerous exercises and discover the right way to recognize melodies and chords by ear. 
• Know all the ineffective exercises that should be avoided as they are the main cause of struggle and frustration for ear training students. 

Seats are limited. Register now and develop your inner sense of musicality.