Sight Reading Factory vs Functional Ear Trainer
Price, ratings, monetisation and update history for both apps, side by side — with what reviewers say about each.
Sight Reading Factory
Instantly compose unlimited sight-reading music exercises for any instrument. Customize difficulty and levels to suit musicians of all ages and abilities. Includes classroom management for educators to assign and assess student performance.
- Unlimited sight-reading material
- On-demand music composition
- Customizable difficulty levels
- Supports all instruments
- Classroom management
- Assignment creation and grading
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Sight Reading Factory makes practicing the important skill of sight reading quick, easy, effective and fun! This app composes music instantly and on-demand, providing musicians with a virtually unlimited supply of sight reading material. There are multiple levels of difficulty and the exercises can even be customized exactly to the needs of the musician. Sight Reading Factory is very versatile and can be used by musicians of all ages and abilities including music educators, music students, casual musicians and even professional musicians. Sight reading exercises can be generated for piano, guitar, voice, woodwinds, brass, strings, percussion and even full ensembles. Teachers and students can also use the built-in classroom management and assignments feature for assessment. Teachers can organize students into classes/groups and create assignments for them. Students complete assignments by generating a sight reading exercise and recording themselves performing the exercise. The assignment can then be submitted back to the teacher to grade and leave feedback.
Functional Ear Trainer
Develop your musical ear by learning to recognize tones within the context of a specific musical key. This app helps you understand the function of each note, improving your ability to transcribe, improvise, and play music by ear. Suitable for all ages and skill levels, with just 10 minutes of daily practice.
- Recognize tones in musical key context
- Understand note function
- Improve transcription skills
- Enhance improvisation
- Develop perfect pitch
- Daily 10-minute practice
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Have you (or maybe one of your friends) ever wanted to learn to transcribe or play music by ear? It is so important for a musician to know what you are hearing. A good musical ear helps when you are composing, improvising, transcribing melodies, or playing with others. Most likely you have already tried different programs to learn to recognize intervals or even to acquire perfect pitch. However, although such programs develop your ear, but can you actually play any melody you hear as soon as you listen to it? Imagine you could understand music... It is like when somebody is talking to you, you not only hear pleasant sounds, but you recognize words and their meaning. One day I came across Alain Benbassat's program called "Functional Ear Trainer" and have been using it ever since. It is based on Alain's method to learn to recognize tones. The main difference between the Functional Ear Trainer and other methods is that it teaches you to distinguish between tones in the context of a particular musical key. You begin to recognize the role (or function) of each tone in this key, which is incredibly similar to its role in other keys of the same scale. And it is *guaranteed* anyone can gradually develop this skill. It does not matter: - who you are - an absolute beginner in music or a virtuoso professional musician; - how old you are - a 3 yo kid or a 90+ adult; - what musical instrument you play (you don't even have to play one). The only requirement is to practice for 10 minutes a day. I was so excited about this ear trainer that I have developed a mobile app based on the Alain Benbassat method. I hope you will find it useful.
Screenshots
Verdict
The clearest difference is review sentiment: Functional Ear Trainer at 96% against Sight Reading Factory's 33%. Functional Ear Trainer also leads on rating (4.9 vs 2.7) and ratings volume (3.8K vs 391). Sight Reading Factory's advantage is in-app purchases (none vs 1) and update cadence (every 2 months vs every 7 months). On price, ads and device support there is nothing between them.
Scored on Price · Rating · Positive reviews · Number of ratings · Update frequency · Ads · In-app purchases · Monetization · Best chart rank · Devices · Requires iOS
Both are free to download. Functional Ear Trainer sells 1 one-off in-app purchase. Sight Reading Factory asks for nothing beyond the download.
Functional Ear Trainer holds the better App Store score, 4.9 against 2.7. That said, the two scores are not equally well evidenced: Functional Ear Trainer has 3.8K ratings behind it against 391, so its average is the more settled of the two. Written reviews point the same way: 33% of Sight Reading Factory's written reviews are positive against 96% of Functional Ear Trainer's.
Sight Reading Factory ships an update every 2 months, Functional Ear Trainer every 7 months. The most recent releases landed on October 21, 2026 and October 24, 2026 respectively.
| Parameter | Sight Reading Factory | Functional Ear Trainer |
|---|---|---|
| Price | Free | Free |
| Rating | 2.7 (391 ratings) | 4.9 (3.8K ratings) — better |
| Positive reviews | 32.5% of reviews | 96.2% of reviews — better |
| Number of ratings | 391 | 3.8K — better |
| Update frequency | Every 2 months — better | Every 7 months |
| Ads | No | No |
| In-app purchases | No — better | Yes |
| Monetization | Free — better | Free with in-app purchases |
| Devices | iPhone, iPad, iPod | iPhone, iPad, iPod |
| Requires iOS | 12.0 — better | 15.0 |
| Further details — not scored | ||
| Size | 29 MB | 41 MB |
| Age rating | 4+ | 4+ |
| Developer | GraceNotes LLC | Serhii Korchan |
Customer experience
Sight Reading Factory
Functional Ear Trainer
User reviews
Sight Reading Factory
From 391 App Store ratingsWhat we love
- 🚀 Great for sight reading practice
- 👍 Customizable options
- 🚀 Generates new melodies on demand
- 👍 Helpful for improving sight reading skills
- 👍 Good for teachers to use with students
Room to improve
- 🐛 Login/account creation issues
- 💰 Expensive subscription required
- 🔍 Limited features in the app compared to website
- 🐛 Viewing/zooming issues on larger devices
- 🐛 Metronome issues and inconsistencies
Functional Ear Trainer
From 3.8K App Store ratingsWhat we love
- 🚀 Effective ear training
- 👍 Simple and intuitive interface
- 💡 Customizable exercises
- 🎉 Noticeable improvement with regular practice
- 🎨 Visually appealing design
Room to improve
- 🐛 Occasional audio glitches
- 💡 Lack of support for other instruments besides piano
- 💡 Desire for more advanced features (e.g. chord recognition)
Bugs and requests
Sight Reading Factory
Reported bugs
3 issues- App crashes or has rendering errors on older iOS versions
- Unable to create account within the app
- Inconsistent behavior when selecting certain options
Requested features
4 requests- Add more advanced sight reading options (e.g. modulations, accidentals)
- Implement wrong note detection and feedback
- Allow recording and reviewing of practice sessions
- Add more instrument options beyond piano
Functional Ear Trainer
Reported bugs
2 issues- Keyboard display issues when selecting all chromatic notes
- Inconsistent note resolutions in some exercises
Requested features
5 requests- Add support for multiple notes/chords at once
- Implement a mode for training key recognition
- Provide more customization options for exercises
- Include voice input to play the notes
- Add support for German/Norwegian key names
In-app purchases
Sight Reading Factory
No in-app purchases
Functional Ear Trainer
- Functional Ear Trainer Plus$19.99
Questions
Is Sight Reading Factory free?
Is Functional Ear Trainer free?
Which has better reviews, Sight Reading Factory or Functional Ear Trainer?
Do Sight Reading Factory or Functional Ear Trainer have ads?
Which is updated more often, Sight Reading Factory or Functional Ear Trainer?
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