The “Intervals” unit trains you in the ability of recognizing and naming the pitch relationship between two tones. Thus it is advisable that you begin ear training by working with this unit first.

The unit consists of:
- an information section featuring an overview of intervals as well as various sound and melody examples,
- a section of pre-exercises with freely adjustable training possibilities designed to prepare the user for the graded exercises, along with a section of exercises for hearing larger intervals (up to the double octave) and a playing exercise for reinforcing basic knowledge about intervals,
- two graded exercises which are the core of this unit and which are designed to ascertain and evaluate the performance level you have attained.
In the first graded exercise, all intervals which are to be recognized are only presented as two tones  one after the other (in succession). In the second graded exercise, the interval notes are presented  at the same time (simultaneously). This is why the order of tasks within these exercises differs respectively.
For further information and exercise recommendations, please click here on Intervals.

Scales

The Scales unit is designed to improve your ability to recognize and name successions of tones. This should provide you with the most important foundations needed to hear melodic relationships.
The most important scales (all the way from the pentatonic scale and the blues scale to ecclesiastical modes and modal jazz scales) are presented in varying levels of difficulty.
- In the Information section, all the scales which occur in the exercises are shown in notation, played as sound examples and explained.
- The pre-exercises emphasize the characteristics pertaining to each scale’s specific succession of intervals (minor, major and augmented seconds) as well as the resulting tonal relationships which result for the listener. This is complemented with the presentation of successions of five or eight tones, and the listener is asked to choose and click on the succession which was heard.
- In the playing exercise, the scales used in “Computerkolleg Musik” are emulated by the user who is given the opportunity to play them by ear on the mouse piano or on an external MIDI instrument. Errors are shown and analyzed. An additional exercise trains hearing half tones and whole tones.
- In the graded exercises the most important scales are presented as listening material. In three independent sections, major/minor scales, modal scales (ecclesiastical modes) as well as other scales are presented with gradually increasing level of difficulty. All entries made by the user are graded, and the grading goes into the final certificate.

Rhythms

The Rhythms unit trains the discrimination of elementary as well as more complex rhythmic successions in diverse metrical contexts.
In every form and style of music, rhythm is one of the most important formative elements, and is thus particularly important for the musical ear. The importance as well as the difficulty of rhythmical listening exercises are often underestimated—the rhythmical dimension is most important for recognizing melodies, for example. Thus it is recommendable that you intensively study and practice this section of “Computerkolleg Musik”. The pre-exercises, as well, should be taken into account by all means.

The Rhythms unit comprises several complementary training sections:
- an Information section which explains all the most important note values and which includes a short test.
- several pre-exercises designed to familiarize you with hearing rhythms. These include the exercises See five  - hear one and Hear five – see one, the pre-exercise song rhythms (in which the rhythms of various well-known folk and pop songs are to be recognized), and the playing exercise, in which rhythms are played by ear following an example.
- In the graded exercise, the rhythms which are to be recognized are grouped by means of patterns. The exercises are presented in various (initially only selected) meters, and their difficulty increases automatically. As opposed to the pre-exercise, where it was possible but not obligatory to be graded, now the listening performance is graded and determines the evaluation which goes into the final certificate.

Chords

The Chords unit is designed to increase your ability to distinguish important types of chords, inversions and top-note positions, as well as to recognize tones in a harmonic context. It contains three- and four-voice chord examples as well as five-voiced jazz chords.
The pre-exercise corresponds to the graded exercises chord types, inversions and top-notes. Triads and seventh chords are presented in narrow and wide spacing, and you are asked to name them. You can determine the choice of chords and the type of exercise. In the playing exercise, you are given the task of recognizing chords and playing them by ear on a keyboard (mouse piano or MIDI keyboard). Monophonic instruments can also be used for completing the tasks, since the chord notes can also be played/entered in succession.
In this unit’s graded exercises there are four exercises which all differ in their make-up. The first exercise deals with chord types, inversions and top-note positions, and the second one dealing with added notes combines hearing chords and intervals. In the third exercise chord progressions, the task consists in distinguishing a series of triads in several inversions. In the fourth graded exercise, five-part jazz chords are played, and the listener is asked to distinguish them from among several written-out chords to choose from.

Cadences

The Cadences unit is designed with the goal of helping you distinguish the harmonic structure of chord progressions.
The information section explains important cadential structures, functional relationships and definitions. Furthermore, the opportunity is given to play cadences in chords to click on and jazz chords to click on easily with the mouse.

In the pre-exercises, one out of several simple cadences is heard or shown, and you are prompted to choose the correct designation. Furthermore, you will also have the opportunity of familiarizing yourself with the tasks which will appear in the graded exercises, and to prepare yourself for them by freely choosing the settings for the materials.
The graded exercise presents classical cadences and jazz cadences. You hear a cadence, and you are asked to line up a series of chord symbols via mouse click which are supposed to correspond to what you heard. You can choose freely between degree symbols (Roman numerals) and functional symbols for harmonic analysis. For jazz cadences, the well-known typical chord symbols in jazz are used.

Melodies

The main goal of the Computerkolleg Musik unit entitled melodies is to differentiate melodic phrases from one another by ear, to remember them and to write them down in notation. In order to achieve this, a specially designed mode of entering / typing in a melody via mouseclick is applied. An analysis component which comes with the program compares the entered melody with its model, determines where the errors lie and evaluates the quality of the “playing”. The unit includes the first bars of well-known folk songs, works from the classical repertoire and typical pop/rock/jazz melodies.
Furthermore, twelve-tone themes and randomly generated melodies are also offered for listening and imitating.
The pre-exercises are specifically designed with beginners in mind, or for enabling you to get used to the feel and sound of the exercises to come. The pre-exercises section contains the task See four, hear one, which means that four motifs (random melodies or portions of a twelve-tone row) are shown on the screen, one of which is heard and should be recognized (clicked on). The playing exercise trains playing folk song melodies by ear, with the help of a simple accompanying part which helps you check/monitor your playing. This pre-exercise unit also contains a task which specifically prepares you for the graded exercise. None of the pre-exercises is graded for the final score.

The graded exercise evaluates your performance in the form in which it will appear on the final certificate. The individual tasks (folk songs, classical themes, rock/pop/jazz) must all be completed. Only the two portions random melodies and/or twelve-tone rows can be chosen alternatively, since the scores from these two tasks are averaged for the final grade.