Name the chord.
Interval ear training teaches you distances. Chord identification teaches you shapes. A major chord is a feeling before it is a label. Learn to hear the quality instantly — bright, dark, tense, suspended, lush — and the name follows.
Major third = bright. Minor third = dark. This single interval — one semitone difference — is the most important distinction in all of tonal harmony. Train yourself to hear this first. Everything else builds on it.
Perfect fifth = stable. Diminished fifth = tense. Augmented fifth = floating. Once you can hear major vs minor, listen to whether the top of the chord feels grounded, compressed, or stretched.
A seventh chord has four notes instead of three. Major 7th = lush, dreamy. Minor 7th = mellow. Dominant 7th (major triad + minor 7th) = bluesy, pulling. The extra note adds color without changing the fundamental quality.
Block chords (all notes at once) test your ability to hear quality as a texture. Arpeggiated chords (notes one at a time) let you trace the intervals. Train both. Real music uses both.
Both have a perfect fifth. The only difference is the third. Major = 4 semitones. Minor = 3. Listen for brightness vs darkness.
Both have a minor third. Diminished lowers the fifth too. It sounds compressed, unstable — like the chord is collapsing inward.
Both have a major third. Augmented raises the fifth. It sounds stretched, unresolved — like the chord is reaching for something.
Neither has a third, so neither is major or minor. Sus2 sounds open and spacious. Sus4 sounds expectant — it wants to resolve down to the third.
Same triad (major). Different seventh. Maj7 sounds dreamy and complete. Dom7 sounds bluesy and restless — that minor seventh creates pull.
Same minor third and minor seventh. Min7 has a perfect fifth (stable). Min7b5 has a diminished fifth (tense). Listen to whether the chord feels settled or anxious.