Comment by tarsinge

For years I made the error of learning music theory without enough ear training. You have to hear and feel the theory, it's not only intellectual.

Then I found 2 exercises are all I needed for playing and composing music by ear:

- Functional intervals / scale degrees: https://tonesavvy.com/music-practice-exercise/220/functional.... If you start tone deaf like me checked "Fixed Key", learn all the intervals, then restart with basic intervals without fixed key.

- Melodic dictation: the advanced version of the exercise above once you are comfortable with each interval: https://tonesavvy.com/music-practice-exercise/222/melodic-di...

Once you can do melodic dictation you will be able to easily decode anything you hear, and map it to theory.

Edit: chord identification (https://tonesavvy.com/music-practice-exercise/216/chord-iden...) is obviously important but by then identifying basic chords should be easy, so it's for a more advanced level.