Functional Ear Trainer vs Aural Wiz
Price, ratings, monetisation and update history for both apps, side by side — with what reviewers say about each.
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.
Aural Wiz
Enhance your musical ear by learning to identify intervals, scales, modes, chords, and cadences. This app offers two modes: Learn to hear and understand musical elements, and Practice to test your recognition skills. It's designed for music students and musicians aiming to improve their aural abilities.
- Interval recognition
- Scale identification
- Mode training
- Chord and cadence learning
- Learn mode
- Practice mode
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Learn to recognize intervals, scales, modes chords and cadences with Aural Wiz. Whether you are a music student preparing for aural tests as part of your formal musical training or a musician just working towards improving your aural skills, Aural Wiz would be an indispensable companion for you. You can use Aural Wiz in two modes - Learn and Practice. In Learn mode, you can play back an interval, scale, mode, chord or a cadence to understand how it sounds. In Practice mode, a melodic or harmonic pattern will be played and you'll be asked to identify the interval, scale, mode, chord or cadence. Practicing this way has been a proven way to improve your aural skills. Make Aural Wiz part of your daily aural improvisation routine.
Screenshots
Verdict
The clearest difference is in-app purchases: Aural Wiz at none against Functional Ear Trainer's 1. Aural Wiz also leads on update cadence (every 5 weeks vs every 7 months) and iOS requirement (12.0 vs 15.0). Functional Ear Trainer's advantage is ads (none vs shown) and review sentiment (96% vs 76%). On price, rating 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. Aural Wiz asks for nothing beyond the download.
On the App Store both sit at effectively the same score — 4.9 for Functional Ear Trainer against 4.8 for Aural Wiz. That said, the two scores are not equally well evidenced: Functional Ear Trainer has 3.7K ratings behind it against 636, so its average is the more settled of the two. Written reviews are what separate them: 96% of Functional Ear Trainer's written reviews are positive against 76% of Aural Wiz's.
Functional Ear Trainer ships an update every 7 months, Aural Wiz every 5 weeks. The most recent releases landed on October 19, 2026 and October 8, 2026 respectively.
| Parameter | Functional Ear Trainer | Aural Wiz |
|---|---|---|
| Price | Free | Free |
| Rating | 4.9 (3.7K ratings) — better | 4.8 (636 ratings) |
| Positive reviews | 96.2% of reviews — better | 75.6% of reviews |
| Number of ratings | 3.7K — better | 636 |
| Update frequency | Every 7 months | Every 5 weeks — better |
| Ads | No — better | Yes |
| In-app purchases | Yes | No — better |
| Monetization | Free with in-app purchases | Ad-supported — better |
| Devices | iPhone, iPad, iPod | iPhone, iPad, iPod |
| Requires iOS | 15.0 | 12.0 — better |
| Further details — not scored | ||
| Size | 41 MB | 15 MB |
| Age rating | 4+ | 4+ |
| Developer | Serhii Korchan | Bijoy Thangaraj |
Customer experience
Functional Ear Trainer
Aural Wiz
User reviews
Functional Ear Trainer
From 3.7K 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)
Aural Wiz
From 636 App Store ratingsWhat we love
- 🎓 Effective ear training and interval identification
- 📚 Teaches music theory concepts comprehensively
- 🆓 Free app with no ads
- 👍 User-friendly and simple to use
- 🎯 Good for exam preparation (GCSE, music exams)
Room to improve
- 🎯 Not suitable for complete beginners
- 📖 Lacks explanations of music theory terms
- 🔁 Cadence recordings repeat frequently
- 🎵 Timbre changes abruptly mid-scale
- 😴 Can feel boring or repetitive
Bugs and requests
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
Aural Wiz
Reported bugs
4 issues- Cannot return to main menu after closing ads
- App crashes or requires restart after ad closure
- Minor 7th chord labeled incorrectly (minor-major instead of minor-minor)
- Same intervals/chords/scales play multiple times in succession
Requested features
9 requests- Descending intervals and scales option
- Speed adjustment for scales
- Chromatic scale option
- Intervals played from top to bottom
- Modes of melodic/harmonic minor
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- Extended chords practice
- More cadence recording variety
- Statistics/progress tracking section
- Better explanations for beginners
In-app purchases
Functional Ear Trainer
- Functional Ear Trainer Plus$19.99
Aural Wiz
No in-app purchases
