Route vi is more of a progression recognition practice, however, it is only useful up to a point, the olympic Chord progression game is much better. For learning how to create chord progressions I recommend a Chord theory course, or at least do the basic music theory couse under the learn tab

it's a compound exercise. if you sing roots and/or recognize individual inversions and top notes, it will go a long way. sometimes you might think, oh, i'm hearing a third scale degree (E in a key of C major), but the chord sounds more settled (the exact feeling is a personal thing), so it gotta be Am and not Em, but because i'm hearing E it means E is either the top note or it's an inversion of Am. then you listen to the same chord progression and sing A instead and try to recognize if it matches the chord more.

use the instrument to check yourself if you need to, but ultimately try to fizzle it out and do most of the checking in your head and with just voice.

this practice is hard, but i believe that's the only one to squeeze as much juice out of this exercise as possible. don't just rely on a general feel when identifying chord progressions, it's not very scalable imo.

Route VI is a killer for me. I'm now capturing the answers (using the scale to the right of the screen) and playing the chord progression on the piano to try to recognize a V vs. a IV vs. a I. It's not obvious to me. I also tried using Chord Crush. I did OK in that game, but it didn't translate to ToneGym. I'm sticking with it, but it's one of the hardest exercises for me. Keep at it!

I’m experiencing a similar situation. Using chord crush as my main exercise tool, then proceeding to tone gym
Having trouble with Route VI
Will try singing notes

Plus 1 on the chord crush team here. I do that every day along with this (and soundgym). I have decent ears and can do a lot of playing-by-ear, but somehow I seem to be color-blind when it comes to IV and V, it is absolutely maddening :)

Plus 2 for Chord Crush!

FWIW, one of my strategies for Route VI is to listen for common tones. Adjacent chords have no common tones, like the IV and the V. Chords a third apart have two common tones like ii and IV. A fifth or a fourth apart (same thing) like I and V and or ii and vi have one common tone. This helps narrow down which of options it couldn’t possibly be, especially when you hear all the voices move (you know they’re probably adjacent). This on top of cultivating recognizing chord quality minor/major/diminished, made Route VI one of my favorite games.

I feel like route IV is one of the last skills that start to develop. It’s also almost separate from hearing intervals and chords. I try to recognize each chord color just how I recognized intervals and most chords. My next task is to recognize chord and note positions in the major scale. Recognizing Intervals compared to note positions are slightly different skills set.

I see a lot of people suggesting ways to improve at the game, that's good and I really appreciate all your input, however I'm more interested to get more value from the game to get better at writing chord progressions.

For example, I take those progressions from Route VI and play around with them in my DAW, also I try to remake chords from existing chord examples, trying to guess the progression. I'm curious to know other applications of the game.

I should apologize for passing some suggestions, I tried Chord Crush and it seems like a cool game to develop ears, however it don't know where to focus now - ToneGym, Chord Crush or Functional Ear training app, this is a bit overwhelming

Yeah, I'm struggling big time with Route VI. I've used Chord Crush, but it doesn't seem to help. Now I'm trying to at least hear the V-I cadence. I'm been taking screen shots and practicing at the piano, but still can't get off level 9. Old TG serves up Route VI to me everyday...good thing I'm stubborn!

I think it’s fair to say that chord progressions are generally written in the context of a melody/theme/ solo. Harmony is usually there to color melody. A chord progression is only better or worse in the context of the tune you’re supporting. I happen to feel Chris Stapleton’s version of Tennessee Whiskey is brilliant. And that is just two chords over and over in 6/8. The original version used different, though more typical chord changes. He made it even simpler, and yet it works so well.

The other extreme is something like the bridge of “Girl From Ipenema”. You can debate all day how those chords even make sense as a progression, but man do they color that sumptuous melody really nicely.

It doesn’t have to be that complicated. Yeah you can mess around with chords n other theory devices but practicing and getting better at music theory and ear training fundamentals will allow you to play with chords more freely and comfortably. My ear is getting so good when I hear tense chords in rnb/ trap soul, I can pick out that it’s a diminished 2 chord, and that opens up more ideas for me.

Writing music becomes like writing an essay or a fun story. I can use a 2, 5, 1 progression to put a period at the end of a chord progression. Or use a 4, 6, 5 ,1 progression. I can then substitute one of the chords for a more tense one for the 2nd phase.
Or if I I’m making a more hyper pop or modern sound I can use a ton of sus4 chords or 5/9 chords.

Aka: there is no short cut. Just practice practice practice. At some point when it gets easier practice becomes fun because your playing with more complex pieces or playing the music you want to play as practice.
Like my practice is playing Zelda great fairy fountain in every key. That’s more fun than play scales.