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Practise singing harmony: a chord progression under your voice and feedback on how you fit

PitchCraft's Sing to chords exercises play a chord progression on piano and bass in your key and tempo while you sing. The graph highlights the tones of the chord that is sounding, your voice is coloured by how it fits, and the report tells you how much of the time you sang chord tones, colour tones or notes outside the harmony. It works over built-in progressions and over your own separated songs, free, in your browser.

Sing to chords →

The progressions

The built-in set covers the harmony behind most songs you will ever sing:

  • Pop I–V–vi–IV, the progression behind countless hits.
  • The '50s progression I–vi–IV–V.
  • Three-chord songs on I, IV and V.
  • A jazz ii–V–I.
  • A 12-bar blues.
  • Two minor progressions.

Six exercises, from the root to free improvisation

Each progression can be practised six ways, in roughly increasing difficulty:

  • Find the chord tone: sing the root, the third or the fifth of each chord.
  • Arpeggio: outline each chord as it passes.
  • Held note: keep one note while the chords change and hear its colour shift.
  • Voice leading: move to the nearest chord tone at every change.
  • Target tone: land on a given tone exactly at each change.
  • Free improvisation: sing anything and let the report show how it sat.

What the graph shows

While the progression plays, the rows of the piano-roll that belong to the current chord light up, so you can see where there is room to sing before you sing it. Your own curve is drawn over them and coloured by its relation to the harmony: chord tone, colour tone such as a ninth or thirteenth, scale tone, or outside. The sounding chord and the next one are named in the header.

The harmonic report

After the take, the usual vocal report gains a harmonic-fit section: the share of time on chord tones, colour tones, scale tones and outside notes, your average tuning against the nearest chord tone, and the chord or tone that went worst. That last item is the one to loop next.

Over your own songs

Separate a song with chord detection switched on, mute the original vocal, and the same exercises run over the real band with the detected chords. This is how you work out a harmony part or a counter-melody for a song you actually perform.

Who this is for

Choir and ensemble singers who need to hold a line against other parts, backing vocalists working out harmonies, singer-songwriters who want to improvise over their own changes, and anyone training their harmonic ear. No theory is required to start: the graph shows the chord tones, and the names come with practice.

Frequently asked questions

Do I need to know music theory?

No. The graph highlights which notes belong to the chord, so you can find them by eye and by ear before you know what they are called. The report uses the names, and they become familiar quickly.

What is a chord tone and a colour tone?

Chord tones are the notes the chord is built from: the root, third, fifth and, where present, the seventh. Colour tones are the extensions, the ninth, eleventh and thirteenth, which fit the harmony but add tension. Scale tones belong to the key but not the chord; anything else counts as outside.

Can I choose the key and tempo?

Yes. Pick any key, or let the exercise sit inside your measured vocal range, and set the tempo to suit you.

Is it free?

Yes. The built-in progressions and all six exercises are free with no account. Running them over your own song uses AI stem separation, which has a free allowance of 3 songs per 7 days.

Can I practise a specific harmony part for my choir?

Separate the recording with chord detection, mute the vocal stem, and sing your part over the band with the chord tones highlighted. The held-note and voice-leading exercises are the ones that train holding a part against moving harmony.

Read next

Try it in your browser

No download and no account for the trainer. Allow the microphone and sing.

Sing to chords →

Also on Google Play for Android