Ear Training IX - 7th Chords in Root Position

This month’s ear training exercise turns away from melodic sequences and back to harmony. The exercise randomly plays 7th chord—major 7th, minor 7th, dominant 7th, half-diminished 7th, and diminished 7th—in root position and in a closed voicing. Compared to previous triad exercises, this exercise is complicated by a greater number of chordal qualities. The principal difficulty I have with this exercise, however, is identifying the root of fully diminished 7th chords. Here, even more than with diminished triads, I find the symmetrical structure of the chord makes identifying its root problematic. It is also worth noting that certain chords in certain registers of the guitar can be very uncomfortable if not impossible to execute. In these case I simply arpeggiate some portion of the chord.

You can see me play this exercise here and download the code for it here. To use the code, simply open the code in Supercollider, select the Language tab, and click ‘evaluate file’.