# Practice without or away from your piano

Short sessions on a phone, with no piano, no MIDI keyboard and no sign-up: the naming quiz, ear training and the Listen and repeat game.

## Quick sessions in spare minutes

The quizzes need no instrument, no MIDI setup and no account. You open a link and answer by tapping, with nothing to connect first. One question takes one tap, so a few minutes in a queue or on the bus gets you through a handful.

Every exercise has its own link, so the drill you like can sit in a bookmark.

## On a phone

The drills are laid out for a narrow screen and answered by touch. Add PianoKitty to the home screen and it opens like an app, with its own icon and no address bar. The [mobile page](https://pianokitty.com/features/mobile) shows how on Android and iPhone.

You still need an internet connection: the icon opens the website, and the website does not work offline.

On Android, a MIDI keyboard connects through a USB OTG adapter. No browser on iPhone or iPad supports Web MIDI, so the graded piano drills cannot hear you there. The [browser page](https://pianokitty.com/features/browser) lists the workarounds.

## Name chords, notes and keys

The [naming quiz](https://pianokitty.com/features/naming) has six kinds of question: chord name, notes, key signature, scale degree, Roman numerals and function. It teaches theory without an instrument: which notes make a chord, what a key signature contains, where a chord sits in its key.

Show the question as notes on a staff and the same quiz trains note reading. Choose **Naming** under Activity in [Preferences](https://pianokitty.com/preferences).

![Naming mode on a phone: a chord name and a row of answer buttons.](https://pianokitty.com/features/en/mobile/naming.webp)

## Train your ear

In [ear training](https://pianokitty.com/features/ear-training) the app plays a chord and shows only a question mark, and you pick its name from the buttons. You can replay it as often as you like and nothing is timed. Headphones help on the bus.

With a MIDI keyboard connected, the setting **Accept MIDI keyboard answer** lets you play the chord back instead.

![Ear training on a phone: the question mark and a column of chord-name buttons.](https://pianokitty.com/features/en/ear-training/mobile.webp)

## Listen and repeat a melody

[Listen and repeat](https://pianokitty.com/repeat) is a memory game. The app plays a melody, you play it back, and every correct round adds one note. Its on-screen keyboard works by tapping or clicking, so a phone is enough, and a MIDI keyboard is optional. More in [the game’s feature page](https://pianokitty.com/features/listen-repeat).

The setting **Play by ear — hide the keys the app plays** removes the visual cue, so you pick the melody out by ear. It scores double.

## What needs a keyboard and what does not

Works with no piano and no MIDI keyboard:

- the naming quiz, all six kinds;
- ear training, answered with the buttons;
- Listen and repeat, on its on-screen keyboard;
- flash cards on the practice screen: press `Space` or tap the chord to reveal its notes, and again for the next chord. Nothing is graded (see [random chords](https://pianokitty.com/features/random-chords)).

Needs a MIDI keyboard:

- grading of the piano drills. The keyboard on the practice screen only shows the answer, and you cannot play on it;
- the [level assessment](https://pianokitty.com/features/find-your-level), which listens to the chords you play.

## Open one on your phone

- Try it: [Name the chord](https://pianokitty.com/app?activity=naming&subject=chords&ct=0,1,6,7,8&bn=0,2,4,5,7,9,11&inv=0): Triads and seventh chords on white-key roots. Tap the answer.
- Try it: [Name it from the staff](https://pianokitty.com/app?activity=naming&subject=chords&ct=0,1,6,7,8&bn=0,2,4,5,7,9,11&inv=0&nd=staff): Read the notes, pick the chord.
- Try it: [Major or minor?](https://pianokitty.com/app?activity=ear&subject=chords&ct=0,1&bn=0,5,7&inv=0): Listen, then tap the name.
- Try it: [Listen and repeat](https://pianokitty.com/repeat): The melody game, on its on-screen keyboard.
- Try it: [Flash cards](https://pianokitty.com/app?subject=chords&ct=0,1&bn=0,2,4,5,7,9,11&inv=0): Triads on white-key roots. Reveal the notes, then move on.

Related: [Practice away from the piano](https://pianokitty.com/features/practice-anywhere.md), [The naming quiz](https://pianokitty.com/features/naming.md), [Listen and repeat](https://pianokitty.com/features/listen-repeat.md)

Source: https://pianokitty.com/features/no-piano