Ear Training Game: Daily Melody Challenge
This ear training game is a daily challenge for your ears: every day there is a short 5-note melody, the same for everyone, and you have 6 tries to work out which notes it uses and in what order. If you have played the guess-the-word-of-the-day games, like Wordle, you will recognize the colored hints after each guess. Here the clues come from sound (and the game has no connection to those word games).
How to use it
- Tap Play melody. Listen as many times as you want: replays never count as a guess.
- Build your guess on the 8-note keyboard. Every key plays its note when you click it, so you can compare it with the melody before choosing. On a computer, press 1 to 8 or the letters C D E F G A B (the high C is 8).
- With all 5 notes in place, tap Submit or press Enter. To fix a note first, use Delete or Backspace. Play my guess plays back the notes you picked.
- Read the colors: green ✓ is the right note in the right spot, yellow ↔ is a note from the melody that belongs somewhere else, and gray ✗ is a note that is not in the melody at all. The keys keep their colors so you don't reuse notes you have ruled out.
- When you finish, check your stats, share your result as colored squares (without giving away the notes) and come back tomorrow. To keep playing today, switch to Free practice, which picks new random melodies without touching your streak.
Help and explanations
Everything runs in your browser, free and with no sign-up, on a phone or a computer. The notes stay in the C major scale, from C4 to C5, like the eight white keys in the middle of a piano, and the piano sound is generated on your device. Results, your day streak and your stats are stored only in your browser: nothing is sent to a server.
Why guessing melodies trains your ear
Almost nobody is born naming notes. What you train is relative pitch: hearing whether a melody went up or down, and whether it moved by a step or jumped. That is the skill behind playing songs by ear, singing in tune with a band and remembering a tune after hearing it a few times. In music lessons the classic exercise for it is melodic dictation: the teacher plays a phrase and the student writes down the notes. This game is a short melodic dictation with colored clues.
Because you can play every key and compare it with the melody, each round mixes memory (holding 5 notes in your head) and comparison (finding the key that sounds the same). Over time you start to recognize the most common paths in the scale, like Do Re Mi going up or Sol Fa Mi coming down, which is exactly what solfège teaches. A few minutes every day beat one long session once in a while, and the day streak helps you build the habit.
How the colors work when a note repeats
The melody may use the same note twice. First, the right notes in the right spots turn green; then each note left over in the melody can turn one matching note in your guess yellow. If the melody has a single E and you placed two E's in wrong spots, one turns yellow and the other gray. If one of your two E's is already in the right spot, it turns green and the other turns gray, because the melody's only E has already been counted.
For anyone who has trouble telling colors apart, every square also shows a symbol: ✓ right spot, ↔ wrong spot and ✗ not in the melody. Screen readers announce the result of each guess, and the whole game works from a computer keyboard.
Easy level, free practice and day streak
On the Easy level (under Settings) the daily melody has 4 notes, with its own stats and streak: good for kids, beginners or as a warm-up. Free practice picks a new melody every round, as often as you like, without counting in your stats.
The challenge changes at midnight in your time zone, and its number counts the days since October 22, 2026, challenge #1. Your current streak adds up the days in a row you solved it; miss a day or use up all 6 tries and it goes back to zero, but your best streak is kept. The distribution shows how many tries you usually need, a handy way to watch your ear improve.
Tips
- Start with the first note: play the keys until one sounds like the start of the melody. It becomes your anchor for the rest.
- Listen for the shape: does the melody go up, go down or repeat? Trace the contour in the air with your hand while it plays.
- Sing the melody softly before you build your guess: singing helps your memory and makes comparing with the keys easier.
- Make yellow work for you: a note in the wrong spot usually belongs in a nearby position that fits the contour you heard.
Frequently asked questions
Do I need to read music or have perfect pitch?
No. Every key plays its sound when you click it, so you can find the notes by comparing. The game trains relative pitch, which anyone can develop with practice.
Is the melody the same for everyone?
Yes. It is picked from the date, so everyone who plays on the same day hears the same notes. That is why the shared result only shows colors: it doesn't spoil the puzzle for anyone.
When does the next challenge come out?
At midnight in your device's time zone. The countdown sits below your stats, and if the page is open when the day changes, the new challenge loads on its own.
What happens when the same note appears twice?
First the right notes in the right spots turn green. Then each note left over in the melody turns at most one matching note in your guess yellow; any extra copies turn gray.
How does the day streak work?
Every day you solve the challenge adds 1 to your current streak. If you use up all 6 tries or skip a day, it goes back to zero. Your best streak keeps the longest run you have had.
Where are my results saved?
Only in your device's browser, with no account and no server. If you clear your browser data or play on another phone, the stats start from zero there.
Can I play more than once a day?
The daily challenge counts once. To keep training, use Free practice: it picks a new melody every round and never touches your streak.