Harmonic Ear Training: Recognize harmonic progressions

Being able to recognize harmonic progressions by ear is a dream for most musicians, and people try various approaches to achieve this goal - one of the most common is interval-based harmonic ear training (aka - harmonic intervals recognition exercises), but is this really the best way?

Let’s try to better understand what harmonic ear training is and find out if it’s something we should be focusing on during our practice time.

What is a harmonic progression?

This sounds like it could be some complex music theory, right? Well, you can relax - it’s essentially a fancy way of saying ‘chord progression’.

Within a diatonic scale or key (such as C major) we have a specific selection of notes.

We use these notes to build the chords or ‘triads’ (1 3 5 / C E G = C major triad).

As we move this ‘1 - 3 - 5’ shape up or down, the scale dictates the quality of each chord (major, minor, diminished).

Once we know our seven triads within the key, we can start building harmonic progressions.

So if someone asked you to play a I - V - vi - IV progression in C major, you would be able to use the table on the left to find each chord name and its quality, for example: ‘vi’ would be ‘A minor’.

Importance of harmonic recognition ear training

Harmonic progressions are essential for creating music, and being able to recognize them by ear would be of huge benefit.

There are a few different exercises that could be practiced to train harmonic recognition skills and we’ll look at the pros and cons of each during this article. Essentially, the goal of harmonic recognition exercises is to recognize which chords are played in a given harmonic progression.

This ability is vital for all musicians, as it not only allows us to instantly recognize chord progressions in real music by training our “harmonic ear”, but also helps to develop our “melodic ear” too - allowing us to truly express ourselves musically, and have a deeper musical dialogue with other players. Sounds good, right?

Harmony and melody always go together, they are inseparable - despite what you may have heard.

The harmonic progression of a song naturally implies the notes that could be included in the melody and how the melody should flow. Viceversa, any given melody can be beautifully accentuated or utterly ruined depending on the harmonic progression accompanying it.

Moreover, rigorous scientific studies have shown that our brain always perceives an harmonic context (i.e. a tonality, a chord progression movement, etc) even when an isolated melody is played. This means that melody and harmony are not separate things for our brains - further evidence that we shouldn’t study them separately (as most ear training methods, i.e. the interval method, mistakenly suggest). This allows us to take advantage of our mind’s inability to separate melody from harmony, instead of working against it. When used correctly this proves to be a serious advantage, and great musicians know this very well…

Common Harmonic progressions

Harmonic analysis training is one way of getting better at recognizing progressions, but why is it important to learn the most common harmonic progressions?

Well, the songs in most types of popular music consist of a small number of common chord progressions (or variations on them) - being able to recognize them makes learning or writing songs much more straightforward.

You may be surprised how many of your favorite songs follow the exact same progression - the comedy music group ‘Axis of Awesome’ demonstrate this in their ‘4 Chords’ song based on the ubiquitous I, V, vi, IV progression.

Any budding guitarists reading this will undoubtedly know the 12-bar blues, which uses the I, IV, and V, and jazz fans will be familiar with the II, V, I progression that’s prevalent in the genre.

By being able to recognize these common harmonic sequences by ear, you will become a far better musician, and every aspect of your composing/playing will benefit.

Unfortunately, people struggle to get results with typical harmonic progression ear training - which is often rooted in ineffective interval-based methods.

Harmonic Ear Training - Common Mistakes & How to Avoid Them

As we’ve seen harmonic ear training is very important for musicians. The question is: how should we be approaching harmonic recognition tasks?

It’s fairly clear that harmonic interval recognition ear training (or other interval-based exercises) are not an effective way to perform harmonic recognition exercises.

What is harmonic interval recognition? It’s an ear training exercise where an harmonic interval is played (2 notes are played simultaneously, instead of one after the other) and the musician is asked to recognize the interval between the notes.

But why is that approach ineffective and doesn’t allow musicians to be able to recognize harmonic progressions by ear quickly and effortlessly?

Well, there are several issues related to this approach but let’s simplify this at first:

When you think in interval terms (aka - distances between the notes) you’re using your brain more than your ears to recognize sounds!

“Well duh, our brains are responsible for recognizing everything!”

Yes, but you get our point.

When you look at colors and shapes, you’re not consciously thinking about it - it's as though your eyes just do the work instantly. This is how we should approach music and identify harmonic progressions. Oh, and if you think such a skill is only reserved for 'perfect-pitch savants' you're mistaken, we mere mortals can achieve this too - in fact, we’ve seen it become a reality for many of our students and utilizing the ‘zoom out’ method properly is one of the key elements to this.

What’s the ZOOM OUT method?

The ZOOM OUT method allows you to instinctively know where a chord lives within the key, without needing to use awkward techniques to get there, such as searching for the right notes on your instrument, or recognizing harmonic intervals one by one until you finally understood the chord.

The ZOOM OUT method consists of listening to the chord as a whole (instead of focusing on the individual notes that make it up) and recognizing it by the unique sensation it assumes within the key.

Let’s make it clearer: Musical pieces are always played in one key, we have 7 chords within the key. One chord per each degree of the scale. Each one of these 7 chords has a very specific feeling (tension, resolution, happiness, sadness, etc.) great musicians managed to internalize these sensations so that they can recognize them effortlessly.

The good news is that everyone can develop this skill, no matter your age, or current level!

But you need an ear training approach that gets you there. This means keeping away from harmonic interval ear training, which overcomplicates your perception of the music, and impedes your ability to understand and interact with it intuitively.

Ah…and to those of you that are thinking: “what happens if a song has multiple keys, key shifts, etc?” If it’s music there is always a musical key established at any given time. It’s just a slightly more complicated process - but the ZOOM OUT method is still the best way to go in those situations. Of course, in those more complex contexts there are several precautions to be taken into account, but let’s start with simple things at first. You can’t learn to run without being able to walk!

Harmonic ear training exercises

We all know there are many tools online for chord quality recognition exercises that basically play chords in isolation (without a key being established) and ask you to recognize whether the chord is major, minor, maj 7th, dominant 7th, etc.

You may have used these, and got quite good at the exercises, but ask yourself:

• How much have they improved your harmonic recognition in real musical situations?
• Can you hear a song and instantly know the chord progression?
• Do you intuitively feel what is happening harmonically in a piece of music?
• Is your brain doing endless theoretical calculations instead of recognizing chords intuitively, just like you recognize colors?
• Do you always need your instrument at hand to figure out the chords?

It’s clear that chord quality ear training exercises don’t utilize the ZOOM OUT method, for the simple reason that they don’t establish a key. So yes! You might be able to tell whether a chord is major or minor, but you won’t know which exact chord is playing, so it’s pretty useless in a real musical situation..

Harmonic dictation

Harmonic dictation training is the practice of listening to a harmonic dictation and writing down the parts of each instrument that is playing.

This exercise is mostly used in classical music courses.

2 parts harmonic dictation

The simplest version of this exercise is where 2 melodic lines are playing simultaneously. In most cases, the best way to face this simple variation of the exercise is to consider the 2 parts as separate elements and treat them as a simple melodic dictation exercise. Most of the time it’s better to not think of them as chords. Of course, a strong ability and confidence in melodic dictation is needed to perform this harmonic dictation exercise (and others too).

3 or more parts harmonic dictation

A more complex harmonic dictation exercise is where 3 or more melodic lines are playing simultaneously. When 3 or more notes are played simultaneously it makes sense to start thinking in terms of chords and apply the zoom out method - especially if one of those parts is a bassline.

Basslines, have a strong harmonic impact and help emphasize the overall sound of the chord. This also helps in applying the zoom out method as the sensation of the chord is accentuated.

Often, in harmonic dictation exercises (classical music ones in particular) the chords aren’t played as fully distinct blocks but the use of counterpoint makes them smoothly connected - this can make chord recognition more tricky. In such cases, it’s often a good idea to mix the zoom out method with a “melodic dictation” alike approach (as explained above), allowing you to focus on a specific instrument, when you need it - increasing speed and accuracy.

Don’t fall into the trap of focusing on harmonic or melodic intervals in order to accomplish harmonic dictation - this approach just isn’t intuitive or speedy enough to accomplish any relevant musical task. A tonal approach is absolutely vital if you want to come out of harmonic dictation exercises alive!

Harmonic progressions recognition (chord progressions recognition)

Harmonic progressions recognition exercises differ from harmonic dictation exercises as the chords are played as distinct blocks here, in most cases you will hear a progression played on a piano.

Typically in harmonic progressions recognition the musician does not have to write down each individual part on the staff but is only asked to write down the chords using roman numerals, meaning these exercises don’t require classical notation skills and can be practiced by anyone.

So this exercise is especially important for any musicians interested in modern music (pop, rock, folk, jazz, etc).

Wouldn’t it be great to hear a song and be able to recognize and play the chords on the fly? Guess what…harmonic progressions recognition exercises are what you should focus on to develop this skill.

Perhaps after fumbling around for a couple of minutes looking for the right chords through trial and error, you could get there, but this is slow and awkward - especially if you’re playing in a group.

So what's the key to reducing what seems like a mountain of possible chords, into something much more manageable that you can recognize quickly and effortlessly?

The key is the key! If you can use your ear to establish a tonal center then you have a solid reference point - from here every chord within the key will have a distinct color that you can recognize if you practice proper context-based ear training. This is how the ZOOM OUT method works!

A very important side note though is that there are a multitude of skills necessary for applying the zoom out method and recognizing chord progressions by ear - each of us is better at some, and weaker at others.

For example, tonic recognition and retention skills are absolutely essential for recognizing chord progressions (as well as performing many other tasks too), unfortunately this aspect is almost always neglected. Finding out which skills you need to work on is essential, and knowing how to effectively work on them will save so much time in the long run.

Want to learn to identify harmonic progressions by ear? - we can help you

We struggled for years trying to accurately recognize chord progressions by ear. It can be frustrating working on developing a skill for so long without seeing much improvement. If you’re putting the time and effort in and not seeing results then the issue is not with you - it’s with the methods and strategies you are adopting. This realization was one of the driving forces behind the creation of Use Your Ear.

We’ve been fine-tuning our method for years - and it shows! Our students see incredible progress when adopting these techniques and nothing makes us happier than seeing musicians reaching their full potential. By following a proper ear training strategy skills like recognizing melodies and chord progressions by ear (without the help of any instruments) could be developed by anyone, no matter their age or current level.

Relative Pitch Video-Course

The concepts used to create our unique method are based on scientific research conducted by leaders in the field. We carefully crafted this step-by-step course that can be tailored to any level - so whether you’re a total beginner or a seasoned musician, you will find our relative pitch video course adequately challenging and rewarding. You are going to avoid all the struggle and frustration caused by traditional ear training techniques that have been tormenting musicians for decades. You’ll finally internalize all the cognitive processes necessary to master musical pitch.

After completing this course you will not only be recognizing chords and progressions more easily but also melodies in REAL music (not just during your practice sessions).

This will improve your musicality too and make your playing feel more intuitive. All this without the need for tedious interval recognition exercises.

Free Use Your Ear Workshop

If you want to get a better idea of what we do before you commit, why not enroll in our free workshop?

A total of 3 hours of material covering the fundamental aspects of our methodology as well as some exclusive ear training exercises you can add to your routine - all absolutely free!

You’ll gain insight into the concepts behind our groundbreaking method, as well as expert advice on where you have been going wrong and what you should practice based on your current level.

On top of all that, you get two free gifts just for participating - it doesn’t get better than that!

Individual online lessons

Some people prefer the benefits of learning 1-on-1, and we totally get that.

So, if you need some extra advice or want real-time feedback, nothing beats a session with one of our tutors - all are experts in the UYE methodology and are happy to guide you toward reaching your musical goals. They will test your skills, assess your current level, then provide you with extremely clear instruction tailored to your specific situation and sticking points.

How our students quickly learn to recognize harmonic progressions by ear

Check out how our students go from zero to recognizing chord progressions by ear in a few months, following the Use Your Ear method.