Chord progression ear training tools?

[puddin tame]

So I really want to take my ear training to the next level and I've got some great resources to help me do that (mainly iPad apps, Karajan pro is awesome for intervals and recognising chord types) but I can't find anything really good for recognising chord progressions.

Does anyone know any good websites or apps or anything that will play a random chord progression and have you guess it? It's the one part of my playing that's stopping me from being able to just jump up with anyone and jam on any song at any time. I mean I could play them on bass or keyboard or whatever but its not the same as actually hearing a band playing it

 

[Fifield]

I'm using the android app of pitchimprover.com at the moment, would like to know if anyone has anything better as well.

 

[Fifield]

Apparently not

For the record, I think apps are great when you're on the move but nothing beats transcribing a progression yourself.

Something else I do. I have tonnes of aebersold real book backing tracks of standards etc. with just clear piano chords and bass parts. I pick a random track and try and work out the progression as best I can, and then check what I have against the score, then importantly, go back and listen to where I went wrong.

I find this to be good practice for transcribing from records where recordings can be fuzzy, and you have the score for comparison.

 

[the_stone]

Ear Trainer is a good app that'll play standard chord progressions. Other than that, the best way to improve your ear is just by playing along with recordings - on your bass or the piano.

 

[ics1974]

yep see if you can figure out the chord progressions from songs. Those programs are cheezy and you will get board pretty quick. In the real world you are going to have to figure it out with distortion pedals, and a full band playing so it's best to just jump in with both feet and learn from the actual song recordings you want to learn.

If you are not sure about the chord changes you can try what I do.
First only try figuring out what the root note of each chord change is until you have that down. Work at one chord at a time.
Next for each chord change test the major 3 and minor 3 to figure out if it's major or minor. Use your ears and you will know. Take notes if you have to.
Next add in the 5th and noodle around with the Root, 3rd (major or minor) and 5th for each chord change.
After that you can try extending each chord with the proper 7th and so on.
For me anyways the first step is always figuring out what the roots are and then figure out the 3rd's before trying other notes.

 

[Bassist4Eris]

I have found that the more I figure out songs by ear, the better my ear gets for this kind of thing, and I can hear more and more chord progressions just by listening.

 

[Existenc3]

There is an app for the iPhone called "Ch!Ear" that is all progressions. The free version comes with just basic I-II-IV-V chords that constantly change and in different keys too. It's really great, but also quite frustrating. I'm not sure how much it costs to get everything but it looks really comprehensive. It even goes into chord inversions.