Comparison

Functional Ear Trainer vs ScoreSkills

Price, ratings, monetisation and update history for both apps, side by side — with what reviewers say about each.

Head to head
About

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.

Highlights
  • Recognize tones in musical key context
  • Understand note function
  • Improve transcription skills
  • Enhance improvisation
  • Develop perfect pitch
  • Daily 10-minute practice
Features
Read full description

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.

About

ScoreSkills

Learn music theory, ear training, and sight-reading through fun, step-by-step games and challenges. This app helps users of all levels compose their own music and improve cognitive skills like focus and memory.

Highlights
  • Ear training exercises
  • Sight-reading practice
  • Music theory lessons
  • Compose your own music
  • Step-by-step rewarding games
  • Instant performance feedback
Features
Read full description

ScoreSkills is an innovative app that helps you to learn music and enhance your musical skills in a fun & interesting way. The App is designed for beginners and doesn’t require a musical instrument to enjoy. ScoreSkills offers you (or your kids) "learning by experience" fun exercises that teach you as you go to read, write and play music at your own pace, whenever and wherever you want. “By far, it’s my favorite app, and it really helps me learn music theory while making it fun and interesting.” With our proven techniques, developed by music experts and educators, you'll gain everything you need to master music and become a pro (music theory, ear-training, sight-reading, music writing, etc.). Not only that, it is proved that our learning methods improve other life & brain skills such as; creativity, focus, memory abilities, analytical skills, etc. We introduce new skills by using step by step rewarding games and challenges that suit your playing level and give you instant feedback on your performance. WRITE YOUR OWN MUSIC! ScoreSkills is the only music education app that trains your music-writing skills as a core part of learning. You'll be composing your own music in no time. Download now to practice reading, writing, singing, and listening to music and join our global community of music makers. WHO IS THIS APP FOR? Basically, anyone who can read and wants to improve his music and personal skills. It is perfectly suited for self-learning or as a supplement to learning with a teacher. WHAT WILL YOU LEARN? The app contains thousands of levels, and we keep releasing hundreds more every few weeks that will teach you everything you need in a simplified way. Aural Foundations, Pitch Matching, Directional Audiation, Note reading up to an octave, Rhythms including Whole, Half, and Quarter Notes, Notes up to staff edges, Rhythms including eighth and 16th notes, Accidentals, Tonic and Dominant Functions, Notes up to 3 Ledger Lines, Rhythms with Ties, 4 More Major Scales, Chord Inversions, Add Subdominant Chords, Whole and Half Steps, 4 More Major Scales, Interval Quality, Simple Chord Progressions, Rhythms in 2/4, 4/4, and 6/8, Complex Rhythms in Duple/Triplets, All 12 Major keys and scales, Chord Progressions, and more subjects are arriving soon. HOW DOES THE SUBSCRIPTION WORK? Get a 7-day free trial! Subscribers will receive unlimited access to all of the chapters and levels. If you enjoy your ScoreSkills trial, do nothing, and your subscription will automatically continue. You can choose the plan that suits you the most between our 3 plans. Prices may vary in different countries, and payment will be charged to iTunes Account. Subscriptions automatically renew unless auto-renew is turned off at least 24-hours before the end of the current period. CONTACT We'd love to hear your thoughts, feedback, and suggestions while we strive to make music education fun and easy and enable anyone to become a composer. Reach us at ScoreSkillsTeam@compoze.co Have fun! privacy policy: https://www.scoreskills.com/privacy.htm terms of use: https://www.scoreskills.com/terms.htm

Screenshots

Functional Ear Trainer4 screens
ScoreSkills4 screens

Verdict

The call

The clearest difference is review sentiment: Functional Ear Trainer at 96% against ScoreSkills's 60%. Functional Ear Trainer also leads on ads (none vs shown) and rating (4.9 vs 4.6). ScoreSkills's advantage is update cadence (fortnightly vs every 7 months). On price, ratings volume, in-app purchases and monetization model 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

CostPrice · In-app purchases · Ads · Monetization

Both are free to download. Functional Ear Trainer sells 1 one-off in-app purchase and ScoreSkills sells 11 in-app purchases, starting at $9.99 per 7 days. Whichever you choose, the download price is not the number that matters.

ReceptionRating · Positive reviews · Number of ratings

Functional Ear Trainer holds the better App Store score, 4.9 against 4.6. Both are backed by a comparable volume of ratings — 3.8K and 2K respectively. Written reviews point the same way: 96% of Functional Ear Trainer's written reviews are positive against 60% of ScoreSkills's.

UpkeepUpdate frequency

Functional Ear Trainer ships an update every 7 months, ScoreSkills fortnightly. Both last shipped on October 29, 2026.

Scorecard4 real differences · 6 level
Functional Ear Trainer versus ScoreSkills: the parameters behind the verdict, then further details
ParameterFunctional Ear TrainerScoreSkills
PriceFreeFree
Rating4.9 (3.8K ratings) — better4.6 (2K ratings)
Positive reviews96.2% of reviews — better59.7% of reviews
Number of ratings3.8K — better2K
Update frequencyEvery 7 monthsFortnightly — better
AdsNo — betterYes
In-app purchasesYesYes
MonetizationFree with in-app purchasesFree with in-app purchases
DevicesiPhone, iPad, iPodiPhone, iPad, iPod
Requires iOS15.0 — better15.6
Further details — not scored
Size41 MB122 MB
Age rating4+4+
DeveloperSerhii KorchanCompoze Music Solutions

Customer experience

Functional Ear Trainer

All ratings3,749 ratings
Positive98.1%
Neutral0.8%
Negative1.1%
Written reviews627 reviews
Positive96.2%
Neutral1.9%
Negative1.9%

ScoreSkills

All ratings1,943 ratings
Positive87.8%
Neutral6.0%
Negative6.3%
Written reviews273 reviews
Positive59.7%
Neutral15.0%
Negative25.3%

User reviews

Functional Ear Trainer

From 3.8K App Store ratings

What 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)

ScoreSkills

From 2K App Store ratings

What we love

  • 👍 Easy to use
  • 🚀 Engaging and gamified learning
  • 👍 Helpful for beginners
  • 👍 Intuitive interface
  • 👍 Great for practicing music theory

Room to improve

  • 💰 Expensive subscription
  • 🔒 Too much content locked behind paywall
  • 🐛 Frequent crashes and glitches
  • 🐛 Buggy note-writing feature
  • 💡 Lack of explanations for new concepts

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

ScoreSkills

Reported bugs

4 issues
  • App crashes frequently
  • Note-writing feature not working properly
  • Progress not saved between sessions
  • Lessons not unlocking as expected

Requested features

5 requests
  • Allow creating multiple user profiles
  • Add more detailed music theory lessons
  • Improve note-writing functionality
  • Provide better feedback on mistakes
  • Introduce a free version with ads

In-app purchases

1 purchases

Functional Ear Trainer

One-time1
  • Functional Ear Trainer Plus$19.99
11 purchases

ScoreSkills

Subscriptions11
  • ScoreSkills Pro3 Days trial$9.997 Days
  • ScoreSkills Pro$14.991 Month
  • ScoreSkills Pro3 Days trial$14.991 Month
Show 8 more
  • ScoreSkills Pro3 Days trial$28.993 Months
  • ScoreSkills Pro$29.993 Months
  • ScoreSkills Pro3 Days trial$37.996 Months
  • ScoreSkills Pro$39.991 Year
  • ScoreSkills Pro$44.996 Months
  • ScoreSkills Pro$59.991 Year
  • ScoreSkills Pro7 Days trial$59.991 Year
  • ScoreSkills Pro1 Month trial$59.991 Year

Questions

Is Functional Ear Trainer free?
Functional Ear Trainer is free to download, with in-app purchases available.
Is ScoreSkills free?
ScoreSkills is free to download, with in-app purchases available.
Which has better reviews, Functional Ear Trainer or ScoreSkills?
Functional Ear Trainer is rated higher. Functional Ear Trainer averages 4.9 out of 5 from 3.8K ratings, while ScoreSkills averages 4.6 from 2K ratings.
Do Functional Ear Trainer or ScoreSkills have ads?
ScoreSkills shows ads; Functional Ear Trainer does not.
Which is updated more often, Functional Ear Trainer or ScoreSkills?
Functional Ear Trainer ships an update every 7 months, and ScoreSkills fortnightly. Most recently, Functional Ear Trainer was updated on October 29, 2026 and ScoreSkills on October 29, 2026.

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