Play By Ear User Reviews

What users say

Top reviews

Indispensable

Really great app. I recommend it to all of my fellow musicians looking to train their ear or learn to read on their instrument.

The Best, It’s a Wow!

I’m a piano teacher and I still practice 3 hours a day or more. I think this is the best of all the ear training apps that I’ve used and seen. I tell all my students to get this app and use it daily.

It’s been a game changer for me because not only does it make you sing your answers but somehow it knows whether you are hearing the note before you sing it.

Don’t get anything else. Play by Ear is the real deal. And don’t be fooled by the name. In order to sightread effectively you have to be hearing the notes before you play them. Ply by ear is the best app for developing that hearing ability.
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Hi

Hi

A little hard for beginners

I like this app a lot, and it fills a need, but it’s a little tough for beginners (or people learning a new instrument, like me). A couple of things would make it easier:

1. Provide a “repeat” option: play the phrase, wait, play it again, wait, then give answer. Gives the student two tries. (Could even give a three-tries option.)

2. Allow limiting the scale patterns to a selected set of scales/keys. Maybe the jazz licks one, too. You can fudge this with the random notes by selecting notes to fit a scale, which is what I’ve ended up doing, for now, but it would be nice to have something more melodic.

I have not tried anything with chords, yet, because I’m using this with trumpet. Which gives me another suggestion: maybe you could provide profiles for multi-instrumentalists (it would only affect pitch recognition, I suppose, so might not be worth the effort).
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A must for a jazz musician !

I love this app, super useful for a jazz musician. I wish it had more questions like arpeggios as complement.

Play by Ear

Fantastic app for ear training. I am a piano teacher and I am using it personally and giving it to my students. I have not found anything better.

Works for me

Excellent. Random root notes good.
Would like to test from the same root
note sometimes.

Not too cool

I've installed the app, but I'm not hearing a peep out of it. I have checked another ear training app and it is fine.

It seems like a good idea, but it doesn't work.

Sign in

Would be nice if you could sign in and save all your practice.

Ultra interesting App

Very helpful! Congrats.

Good

Use it

Great App - Would Love Additional Features

This app has been a great addition to my ear training. After getting a good grasp on my intervals, this has been an awesome way to apply that knowledge without getting overwhelmed. I think every musician can benefit from doing some kind of training like this, and this app makes it possible to train without needing a partner to do call and response with - you can do it on your own from anywhere.

In my opinion, two additional features would make it a perfect app. Neither are THAT crucial, but would help. 1) vary the rhythms of the randomly generated melodies, and 2) add a bass clef option. Even without those features, I’ll still continue to spend a few minutes a day with this app and I’m sure I will see benefits over time.
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Stiff program, false errors

Lots of false errors. If you play the first note of a sequence too long, it will register that you played it for both notes of the interval. It is especially glitchy in chord recognition mode. You can’t play back a chord harmonically, it has to be arpeggiated, and then it often registers errors falsely, or it is listening for one note of the chord when you’ve already moved on to another. Your score ends up being frustratingly inaccurate. The program still feels pretty stiff to use. Also, I couldn’t find an option for randomizing ascending, descending, melodic and harmonic intervals, which would be more useful than only hearing one type of interval at a time.
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Good for beginner students

Good for beginner students. App allows for customization to different grade levels of piano

Very Useful

Simple and well-functioning portable ear trainer. Holds you to accurate intonation.

All apps should function this well.

Exactly what I was looking for!

What a great way to train your ear! Just started practising on my piano and amazed how the app recognising the notes I press on the piano. I'll include training with this app in my daily piano playing routine.

Completely worth it

This app is extremely well designed and perfect for anyone looking to improve their aural skills. It accomplishes more than what other music theory websites like teoria or musictheory.net because it identifies your progress and your errors for you. You can physically see what you got right and wrong. I feel more prepared because of this app for music school!!
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Good for musicians

Lots of ways to practice developing your ear and ability to visualize.

Easy app to use

This app is helping me with intervals. It also won't register a correct pitch if I chip it slightly on my horn. Easy to use too.

The absolute best

I hope this app never stops being developed. It's absolutely perfect!!