Ear, rhythm, voice
The three branches of the learning path compared: what each one trains, the order things unlock in, and where you need a microphone.
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Once you've got "First Steps" behind you, three branches open up at once: Ear Training, Rhythm and Voice. They run alongside each other — each with its own units, its own progress and its own order. This page shows you what to expect in each one, so you know where you want to start.
You can work on all three in parallel, skip one entirely or switch whenever you like. Only within a branch does the order matter. You need a microphone for Voice and nothing else — in Ear Training and Rhythm you never have to sing a single note. Ear Training does need sound, though: cori explicitly recommends "headphones in a quiet spot" there.
Ear Training — "Train your ear with listening games"
The most finely graded branch: 12 units with 37 steps. Each step plays you something and you pick from two to four answers. You can replay every task as often as you like before you commit.
The order deliberately goes from broad to fine:
| # | Unit | What you learn |
|---|---|---|
| 1 | First Sounds | Same or different? Up or down? Which note is higher? |
| 2 | Steps & Jumps | Comparing and naming intervals — from the obvious octave to a hair's-breadth step-versus-jump |
| 3 | Tension & Rest | Does a phrase end closed or open? |
| 4 | Find the Root | Hearing out the resting tone of a key, then root · third · fifth |
| 5 | The Scale Family | Naming the five notes of the pentatonic scale |
| 6 | All Seven | The complete major scale |
| 7 | Anywhere | The same scale degrees in every key and across two octaves |
| 8 | Chord Colours | Major against minor, broken chords, tension against rest |
| 9 | Expert Ear | Minor colours |
| 10 | Major or minor? | Minor against major second and third — just a semitone apart |
| 11 | Play by Ear | Hearing a melody and tapping it back, plus guessing famous tunes |
| 12 | Ear Gym | An endless drill with no end and no test |
The thread running through it all is the root: first you only hear differences, then you learn to name notes relative to the root — exactly the skill that helps with sight-singing in a choir.
Rhythm — "Tap rhythms, no singing needed"
The biggest branch: 12 units with 53 steps, built like a ladder. Each unit adds one or two new note values and drills them in several styles of play:
- Pulse — tap along on every beat and lock into the steady pulse
- Echo — "Listen to the rhythm, then tap it back"
- Read — the notes scroll towards a line and you tap each one as it lands
- Spot — "Read three bars and tap the one you heard."
- Dictation — rebuild the rhythm you heard from note values
- Sight-read — no scrolling guide: just the notation and you
The order: Quarters & halves → Tap with the music → Listen and tap back → Double up (eighths) → Long and short (the gallop) → Fast feet (sixteenths) → Off the beat (syncopation) → Three's company (triplets) → Rhythm mastery → Time Signatures (3/4 and 2/4) → Compound Time (6/8) → Rhythm Gym.
If your taps feel right but still land wrong, it's almost always down to the delay in your audio output — especially with Bluetooth headphones. That's what the Tap calibration at the very top of the branch is for: tap along for about seven seconds and cori works out your personal offset. See Calibrating your vocal range and rhythm.
Voice — "Strengthen your singing voice"
The shortest branch: 3 units with 8 steps. Here cori listens in through the microphone and continuously compares your pitch with the target notes. All exercises are automatically transposed into your measured vocal range, so you never sing in a register that doesn't suit you.
- Steady voice — holding a note, first briefly, then medium, then long
- Find the next note — one step up, then do-re-do, then do-re-mi-re-do
- Sing the jumps — third and fifth leaps
Pitch detection runs entirely locally — in the browser or in the app. For these exercises cori uploads no recording and stores none. All that's analysed is which pitch is sounding right now; what's left of it is your score. For children's choirs that means: not a single note leaves the device.
The two endless drills
At the end of Ear Training and Rhythm there's one step each with no end: the Ear Gym ("Keep naming notes in any key, building your best streak. Stop whenever you like.") and the Rhythm Gym ("An endless reading workout with the full rhythm vocabulary."). You can play them over and over, they have no test, and they run until you tap "Done". cori remembers your best streak as you go.
Which branch first?
- You sing in a choir and lose the note on your entry? Ear Training — that's where you learn to hear notes in relation to the root instead of guessing them.
- You fall out of step rhythmically, or read music hesitantly? Rhythm. With 53 steps it's the biggest branch — but also the one with the smallest jumps from one step to the next.
- You want to work on tone and stamina? Voice. Only eight steps, but every one of them is worth repeating — here it's less about unlocking things than about singing regularly.
If you can't decide: a few minutes of Ear Training a day is what pays off fastest and most noticeably in the choir — all you need is to put your headphones on, and you don't have to sing for it.
What's next?
- The overall structure: The learning path
- What happens in a round: How a practice round works
- Skipping units you already know: Skipping units
- Setting up microphone and timing: Calibrating your vocal range and rhythm
- Microphone playing up? The microphone isn't working
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