Hear modes, on demand
Drill the colours that separate Dorian from Mixolydian from Phrygian. Free Practice covers the major scale modes - the foundation of modal hearing. With PRO, the same module unlocks melodic minor modes, harmonic minor modes, symmetric scales, and bebop scales.
Free to start. No card required. PRO unlocks advanced content.
A gamified ear training app, built by a professional jazz pianist
Earonman trains your ear from your first interval up to advanced jazz harmony. Real grand piano sound, structured curriculum, no ads. Web in any browser, native iOS, Android landing soon. Free to start, no card required.
The feature,
explained clearly
The Scales module in Earonman Practice Mode is a custom mode drill. You pick which scales to include and Earonman plays them for you to identify by ear. No daily cooldown. Free Practice covers the major scale modes; PRO unlocks melodic minor modes, harmonic minor modes, symmetric scales, and bebop scales inside the same module.
Major scale modes (Free)
Ionian, Dorian, Phrygian, Lydian, Mixolydian, Aeolian, Locrian. The seven diatonic modes at the core of every Western harmonic vocabulary - all free in Practice Mode.
Melodic and harmonic minor modes (PRO)
Lydian dominant, altered (super Locrian), Lydian augmented, Phrygian dominant, and the rest. The jazz vocabulary that lives on top of melodic and harmonic minor - unlocked with PRO.
Symmetric and bebop scales (PRO)
Whole tone, diminished (half-whole, whole-half), chromatic, plus the three bebop scales with their characteristic chromatic passing tones. PRO library.
Custom mode picker
Tick exactly which modes to include. Drill just the church modes for a week. Or just the modes that share a key signature. Filter as granular as you want.
Notation on the web
On the web, each scale is shown on a real notation staff alongside the audio - useful for connecting sound to scale spelling.
Three steps.
Repeated until it sticks.
Open the Scales module
Practice Mode > Scales. Setup screen lets you tick which modes and scales to train.
Hear the scale
A scale plays. Replay as many times as you need.
Name the mode, see the structure
Tap your answer. Earonman tells you immediately if it is right, shows the scale spelled out, the parent scale, and which characteristic tones make it sound the way it does.
Skills you walk away with
Scale recognition is the third layer of relative pitch, sitting above intervals and chords. For improvisers and composers, it is the layer that turns hearing chord changes into hearing what scale fits over each chord.
Hear modal colour
Dorian has a distinct mood. Lydian has a distinct mood. Phrygian has a distinct mood. After enough reps, you stop counting and just hear the colour.
Tell apart modes that share notes
D Dorian and C major share the same notes but feel completely different over their respective tonics. Targeted drilling builds the ear that hears the difference.
Identify altered dominant scales
The altered scale (7th mode of melodic minor) is the sound of every advanced jazz dominant. Recognising it on the fly transforms how you hear progressions.
Hear less-common modes in real music
Phrygian dominant in flamenco and metal. Lydian #2 in film scoring. Whole tone in Debussy. Once you can hear these, you start noticing them everywhere.
Connect scales to chord types
A minor 7 chord wants Dorian. A dominant 7 chord wants Mixolydian (or altered, or Lydian dominant). Scale recognition closes the loop between chord and improvisation choice.
Improvise from internal sound
Once a scale is in your ears, you can improvise from it without thinking. The scale becomes a colour you reach for, not a pattern you calculate.
Daily reps.
Compound results.
Scale recognition is the slowest of the three foundational skills to develop because the differences between modes are subtler than intervals or chords. Daily reps over months are the price of admission.
Mode colour takes time to internalise
The brain needs many repetitions over weeks to tag each mode with its distinctive feel. There is no shortcut. Daily 5-10 minutes works.
Modal sound has to be heard, not analysed
Counting half steps does not help in real music. Daily reps shift mode recognition from a calculation to an intuition.
Scales connect harmony to improvisation
If you want to improvise, scale recognition is the bridge between hearing what chord is happening and knowing what notes to play.
Many composers undertrain this
Composers and producers often have great chord ears but never deliberately drill modes. Daily scale practice unlocks a new layer of compositional vocabulary.
Not just jazz musicians
Scale recognition is for any musician who improvises, composes, or wants to hear modal colour in real music.
Jazz improvisers
Hear Dorian vs Mixolydian vs altered on the fly. Choose the right scale for each chord by ear, not by formula.
Modal jazz pianists
Maiden Voyage, So What, Impressions - these tunes live on modal vocabulary. Hearing modes makes them playable.
Film and game composers
Lydian for wonder. Phrygian for tension. Whole tone for dreamy ambiguity. Diminished for spy films. Recognise the colour, deploy it intentionally.
Pop and rock producers
Modal interchange (borrowing chords from parallel modes) defines so much modern pop. Hearing the borrowed mode makes production decisions clearer.
Folk and world musicians
Klezmer uses Phrygian dominant. Flamenco uses harmonic minor modes. Balkan music uses unusual mode combinations. Recognising them connects you to those traditions.
Classical theory students
Conservatoire exams test mode identification. Practice Mode is free unlimited drill that scales to any difficulty.
Free forever.
PRO when you want more.
Real free tier, not a trial. Practice Mode is open to everyone with a usable foundation library across Intervals, Chords, Scales, and Jazz Voicings - no daily cooldown.
Built so any serious musician can train their ears forever, free.
- Basic intervals, triads & major/minor scales
- Jazz Voicings game mode
- Practice Mode: free training for core intervals, triads, 7ths, major scale modes and basic jazz voicings
- 3 exercises per 8-hour window
- Basic stats and achievement badges
Or €59.99/year (~€5/mo, save 28%)
- Unlimited exercises (no cooldown)
- All intervals, chord types and scales (incl. 7ths, altered, modes)
- 6 advanced quest modes: Slashmaster, Functioneer, Harmonic Quest, Guido, Hybrid Lab, Polychordist
- Open Mic: answer by singing or playing into your microphone (mobile app)
- Practice Mode: full library of intervals, chord types, scales and voicing categories
- Advanced stats: per-quest-type analytics & session breakdowns
- Weekly Leagues with full history
- Full achievement & badge system
- All 8 instrument sounds (Rhodes, strings, harp, e-guitar, flute, clarinet, French horn)
- Priority support
Cancel anytime. No charge during PRO trial. Card only required at trial start.
What makes this
different
Free church modes
All seven major scale modes - Ionian, Dorian, Phrygian, Lydian, Mixolydian, Aeolian, Locrian - drillable on the Free plan with no daily cooldown.
Full library with PRO
Same Scales module just expands: melodic minor modes (Lydian dominant, altered, Lydian augmented), harmonic minor modes (Phrygian dominant, Lydian #2), symmetric scales (whole tone, diminished), and the bebop scales.
Bebop scales as a separate category
The eight-note bebop scales (with chromatic passing tones) are trained as their own family, because they sound and function differently from seven-note scales.
Custom mode picker
Tick exactly which modes to include in a session. Narrow to one mode for focused work, or include the whole modal family for mixed practice.
“Earonman is an amazing new tool for musicians of all levels who want to sharpen their ears at home or while travelling. It has been created by a gifted and deeply passionate pianist Tomas, who is open to listen to any of your comments and will surely be expanding the already well-designed program with great material!”
