About Tone Trainer

Tone Trainer coaches the four Mandarin tones with live pitch feedback: the 4 tones on 20 common syllables, then all 16 tone-pair combinations as real two-syllable words. Your microphone listens, your pitch curve is drawn over the target curve, and one named hint at a time tells you exactly what to fix.

How it works

• Your browser samples the microphone and measures your pitch with autocorrelation, a standard signal-processing method: it finds how often your voice waveform repeats. No model is downloaded, and no audio is sent anywhere.
• For each syllable, the app normalises your pitch contour to your own range and compares its SHAPE to the target tone shape: high and flat, rising, dipping, or falling. You are judged on shape, not on how high or low your voice is.
• Press Check my tone after saying the syllable. If the shape matches, you score. If not, you get one named hint, such as: Tone 2 should rise, yours fell at the end: start low and climb.
• Hear the target plays the target shape as a gliding tone so you can hear the shape before you say it.
• Tone pairs unlock at 50 points. The app splits your utterance at the gap between syllables and checks each half against its target tone.
• Pitch tracking approximates tones. Background noise, a quiet voice, a creaky voice, or a cold can confuse it. If a native speaker says your tones sound right, trust them over the app.
• Native-speaker review sought: we are seeking review of this app by native Mandarin speakers and Mandarin teachers, in parallel with its release. Review is not a gate: the app is live while review is sought, and corrections will be folded in as they arrive.

The four tones

• Tone 1, high and flat (55): sing one steady high note. Example: mā, 妈, mother.
• Tone 2, rising (35): start low and climb, like asking a question. Example: má, 麻, hemp; numb.
• Tone 3, dipping (214): drop low in the middle, then come back up, like a valley. Example: mǎ, 马, horse.
• Tone 4, falling (51): start high and drop fast, like a firm command. Example: mà, 骂, to scold.

The same syllable with a different tone is a different word. That is why tones matter: say the wrong tone and you may say a different word entirely.

Tone sandhi: when tones change in real speech

In connected speech, some tones change. The best-known case is two third tones in a row: the first one is pronounced as a second tone. So 你好 (nǐhǎo, hello) is pronounced níhǎo in real speech, even though its citation tones are 3-3. Tone Trainer teaches citation tones and flags the 你好 case explicitly, because drilling the citation shape first is the standard way to learn. A teacher or native speaker can show you when to apply the change.

Learn more

These links open other websites in a new tab. Tone Trainer isn't affiliated with any of them and sends them nothing.

Privacy

• Your voice never leaves your device. It is analysed in your browser frame by frame and immediately discarded. Nothing is recorded, uploaded or shared.
• No accounts, ads, cookies, analytics or trackers. The app loads nothing from other websites: the code is served from this site, and a security policy blocks connections anywhere else.
• Stored on your device only: which items you've tried, your points, badges, practice days and settings, and whether you've seen the welcome message, in your browser's local storage. Clear it any time in Settings → Clear progress, or with the Offline proof → Delete all my data button, or by clearing this site's data in your browser.
• Offline copy: after your first visit, your browser keeps a copy of the app so it works offline. Clearing site data removes it.
• The microphone is only on while you're practising. It turns off when you go back to the tone list, press “Turn off”, or switch to another tab.
• Hosting: like any website, the server that delivers the app's files may keep standard technical logs (such as IP addresses) of those downloads. The app itself sends nothing.
• Reference links go to other websites, which have their own privacy policies.

Disclaimer

• Tone Trainer is a home practice tool, not a teacher, therapist or safety device. Everything runs on your device: no video, audio or images are sent anywhere. Feedback is automatic and can be wrong. For real instruction, learn from a qualified Mandarin teacher or a native-speaker community, linked on the Resources page.
• Pitch tracking approximates tones. Regional variation exists: speakers from different parts of the Mandarin-speaking world realise tones differently, and the app's target shapes describe standard (Putonghua) citation tones.
• The app is provided “as is”, without warranty of any kind.

Accessibility

• Everything works with a keyboard. Feedback is announced to screen readers, and animations follow your device's “reduce motion” setting. Sound and confetti can be turned off in Settings.
• The live check depends on a microphone and on speaking. If that doesn't work for you, the tone descriptions, pinyin, characters, glosses and reference links still work on their own, and the Hear the target button lets you hear each tone shape.

Credits

• Pitch detection: autocorrelation, implemented from scratch for this app (no third-party libraries).
• Tone shapes follow the standard Chao tone-number descriptions of the four Mandarin tones.
• Reference links: AllSet Learning, Wikipedia, Yoyo Chinese, linked, not embedded.
• Built with the on-device coach pattern from the Little Hands app.

Tone Trainer version 1.0.0