Ear training

In makam music, intervals differ by commas: a bakiye is 4 commas, a küçük mücenneb 5, a büyük mücenneb 8, a tanini 9 and an augmented second 12–13. Telling these differences apart by ear is essential both for playing the pitches in tune and for recognizing makams. On this page you practice by listening to intervals and makam scales played with the sound of the kanun and guessing what they are.

In Arel-Ezgi-Uzdilek theory, intervals are measured in commas: the octave is taken as divided into 53 equal parts, and one comma (the Holder comma) is about 22.6 cents. This 53-step scale approximates the theory's pitches, which rest on Pythagorean ratios; in performance, pitches may bend depending on the makam. A Western semitone falls between 4 and 5 commas, so the in-between notes of Turkish music cannot be played exactly on piano keys.

There are two kinds of exercises. In the interval exercise, two pitches are played one after the other and you choose the name of the interval. In the makam exercise, a scale is played first ascending, then descending, and you choose which makam it is. The easy level offers fewer choices; your number of correct answers and your longest streak are saved in this browser.

Some makams share the same scale, such as Uşşak and Beyatî, or Kürdi and Muhayyerkürdî; the difference between them lies in the seyir, that is, in how the melody moves through the scale. Since the exercise only plays the scale, makams with the same interval structure are never offered as choices in the same question.