An important step in ear training is to distinguish between notes that right next to each other. The musical term for these notes are chromatic notes. Once you can work with notes that are separated by two or more steps, than you can tackle chromatic notes. Let’s say that chromatic notes are at an intermediate level of the ear training journey.

I am going to share with you my favorite routine for starting to practice chromatic notes. It uses the Arpeggio App, using a major 7^th (maj7) and a minor 7^th (7) of the same chord. These two arpeggios will be exactly the same except for one note – and the the note that is different is a chromatic difference.

For example in we use the Cmaj7 and the C7th chords, the C major 7^th arpeggio has a C, E, G, B and another C, while the C7 arpeggio has a C, E, G, Bb and another C.

As always start when you start working on a new variable, keep it simple, using the easiest patterns and slow speeds. Then as you internalize the difference in sounds, you can begin to slowly add more speed and/or more complex patterns. Going slowly and being accurate accelerates your your progress.

Once you have mastered the difference between the major 7^th arpeggio and the minor 7^th, you can work through the following arpeggios as well to really solidify your chromatic ear training:

C 7 and C 6 (the difference being a Bb in the 7th chord and a A in the 6^th chord)

C maj and C min (the difference being a E in the major chord and a Eb in the minor)

Check out the screen cast below to see how to set it up: