Cadence Ear Trainer

What a cadence is

A cadence is the harmonic punctuation at the end of a musical phrase — the chords that tell your ear whether the sentence has ended, paused, or been interrupted. Because it only means anything relative to a key, every round begins by rolling the tonic chord as a key reference. Listen to that first, then judge the ending against it.

A cadence is also a phrase ending, which is why the default is not two bare chords: an eight-bar phrase walks in, breathes, and lands. Learning where the music breathes is the real skill, so use Phrase length to hear the cadence in context and only strip it back to two chords when you want the naked test.

The three game modes

• Name it. The whole phrase plays, cadence included. Say what it was. Labelling after the fact.
• What comes next? The phrase stops on the penultimate chord. Say what the cadence will be before you hear it — then the ending plays so you find out immediately. Prediction is a different, more musical skill than labelling.
• Which closes more? Two complete phrases in the same key, each with a different ending. Pick the one that closes harder. No names needed — just finality.

Levels and adaptive weighting

• Levels starts you on authentic against plagal against half. Get 8 of the last 10 right and the next level unlocks: deceptive, then imperfect authentic, then Phrygian half with mixed keys.
• Free pick hands the answer pool back to you. Touching a pool checkbox or a preset switches to Free pick automatically.
• Drill weighting — Adaptive shows you more of what you keep getting wrong: a cadence you always miss comes up roughly three to four times as often as one you always get, and a fresh miss gets an extra push for the next few rounds. Even gives every cadence in the pool the same odds.

The six cadences

• Perfect authentic V – I (minor: V – i). Both chords in root position and the tonic in the top voice. Fully closed — a full stop.
• Imperfect authentic V – I but inverted (V – I6, V6 – I) or with the 3rd or 5th in the top voice. It arrives home, yet stays slightly open — a comma rather than a full stop.
• Plagal IV – I (minor: iv – i). The “amen” cadence. There is no leading tone pulling home, so it settles gently instead of snapping shut.
• Half ends on V — commonly I – V, ii – V or IV – V. Unfinished, hanging in mid-air: a question, not an answer.
• Deceptive (interrupted) V – vi in major, V – VI in minor. The ear is set up for I and gets vi instead — major turns to minor, the phrase swerves and stays unresolved.
• Phrygian half iv6 – V, minor keys only. A half cadence whose bass slides down a half step onto V. Archaic and suspended.

Minor is its own set

Minor is not major with a sad face on it. Switch Key mode to Minor only and the answer buttons relabel themselves to the minor numerals — V – i, iv – i, V – VI, iv6 – V — and the written explanations change with them. The minor set has its own progressions: ii°6 into V, the flat-VI swerve that rises a half step instead of a whole one, the plagal iv – i with no leading tone anywhere, and the Phrygian bass falling le–sol. Mixed shuffles both, which is where the numerals stop helping and the sound has to do the work.

Mouse and touch

• Start round plays the key reference, then the phrase. Once a round is running the same button becomes Replay phrase and repeats it without the key reference.
• Key reference rolls the tonic chord on its own, any time, so you can re-orient mid-round.
• Tap any answer button in the grid to commit. The button you chose is marked ✓ or ✗, and if you were wrong the true answer is outlined with a dotted border and a hollow tick.
• After a wrong answer, Compare plays what you chose and then the correct one, back to back in the same key, with both numeral pairs on screen. This is the fastest way to learn the difference.
• Next round draws a fresh cadence in a fresh random key.
• Answer pool checkboxes decide which cadences can come up — the grid only ever shows what is in the pool, so there are never dead buttons. Presets jump straight to a sensible set. Two cadences is the minimum.
• Key mode chooses major-only, minor-only or mixed keys. Phrygian half exists only in minor, so ticking it switches you to mixed keys; choosing major-only removes it from the pool again.
• Phrase length is how much music you get: Cadence only is the bare two chords, 4 bars adds two chords of run-up, 8 bars plays a whole antecedent phrase that walks in and lands on the cadence.
• Timed sprint gives you 60 seconds and advances by itself after each answer. Your best sprint is kept for the session.
• Where you slip names the actual mistake — “Plagal heard as Perfect authentic ×3” — so you know which pair to drill, not just that you are at 71%.
• Reset clears score, streak, level, sprint best and both breakdowns, and restores every setting.

Keyboard

• Click the widget once so it has focus, then: Space start or replay the phrase.
• Enter next round (once you have answered).
• 1–6 answer with that button of the grid — the small number in the corner of each button is its key. In Which closes more? only 1 and 2 are live.
• K key reference · C compare (after a wrong answer).
• L cycle phrase length · M cycle game mode · S toggle the sprint.
• Every control is reachable with Tab. While the volume slider has focus the arrow keys belong to the slider and are not intercepted.

Tips

Tip 1 — sing the top voice. Authentic versus imperfect is decided almost entirely by the melody note at the end. If the last top note is the tonic and the bass is the root, it is perfect; if the top lands on the 3rd or 5th, or the bass is not the root, it is imperfect. Hum the last note, then hum the key reference: same note means perfect.

Tip 2 — split the job in two. First ask only “did it finish or not?” Half and deceptive do not finish; authentic and plagal do. Then, inside each pair, ask “was there a leading-tone pull?” Plagal has none, so it sounds soft; deceptive has the pull but lands on the wrong chord, which is why it startles. Levels drip-feed exactly this order.

Tip 3 — predict before you label. Once naming is comfortable, switch to What comes next?. Hearing the penultimate chord and knowing where it must go is what actually lets you sight-read, accompany and improvise; naming a cadence after the fact is only the exam version of that skill.