Functional Ear Trainer vs Complete Rhythm Trainer
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.
Complete Rhythm Trainer
Master musical rhythm with this gamified training app. Learn to read, recognize, tap, and write complex rhythms through progressive drills and interactive challenges. Features include custom programs, instrument sound banks, and cloud sync.
- 252 progressive drills across 4 levels
- Extensive rhythm content including complex time signatures
- 5 drill types: imitation, reading, dictation, two-voice
- Arcade mode with 11 selectable drills
- Custom drill and program creation
- Cloud sync across devices
- 23 instrument sound banks
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The ultimate rhythm training app for musicians. Learn to read, recognize, tap and write rhythms from simplest to most advanced. Rhythm is one of the most important aspects of music and one that every musician should become proficient with. Designed like a video game and with strong pedagogical concepts in mind, this app will make you master rhythm while rendering the learning process enjoyable. Features • 252 progressive drills arranged over 4 levels / 30 chapters • Extensive content: from simple time signatures to compound and asymmetric time signatures, from half notes and quarter notes to thirty-second notes, triplets, swing eighths, double dotted notes, quintuplets, ... • 5 drill types: rhythm imitation drills, rhythm reading drills, rhythm dictations, two-voice reading drills and two-voice dictations • Play a selection of 11 drills in arcade mode • Play and practice polyrhythms in a dedicated polyrhythm section • Most of the drills are randomly generated, enabling you to practice the studied rhythms as many times as needed • 23 instrument sound banks with actual recorded sounds: piano, guitar, pizzicato violin, conga, bongo, djembe, darabuka, woodblock, ... • Designed like a video game: earn 3 stars in each drill of a chapter to complete it. Or will you be able to obtain perfect 5-star scores? • Don't want to follow the preestablished path of progression? Create and save your own custom drills and rehearse them at your own convenience • Create full custom training programs and invite friends or students to join them. If for example you're a teacher you can create custom programs for your students, add drills every week and view their scores on private leaderboards • Never lose any progress: cloud sync across your various devices • 25 achievements to unlock • Leaderboards to compare arcade mode scores with other players worldwide • Nice and clean user interface with 2 display themes: light and dark • 4 sheet music display styles: modern, classic, handwritten and jazz • Designed by a musician and music teacher with a Royal Conservatory master's degree Full Version • Download the app and try out the first two chapters for free • One-time in-app purchase to unlock the full version on all your devices Having a problem? Got a suggestion? You can reach us at hello@completerhythmtrainer.com Terms of use: https://www.apple.com/legal/internet-services/itunes/dev/stdeula/
Screenshots
Verdict
The clearest difference is update cadence: Complete Rhythm Trainer at every 10 days against Functional Ear Trainer's every 7 months. Functional Ear Trainer's advantage is ratings volume (3.9K vs 106) and review sentiment (97% vs 88%). On price, rating, ads and in-app purchases 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 and Complete Rhythm Trainer sells 3 in-app purchases, starting at $0.99 per month. Whichever you choose, the download price is not the number that matters.
Functional Ear Trainer holds the better App Store score, 4.9 against 4.7. That said, the two scores are not equally well evidenced: Functional Ear Trainer has 3.9K ratings behind it against 106, so its average is the more settled of the two. Written reviews point the same way: 97% of Functional Ear Trainer's written reviews are positive against 88% of Complete Rhythm Trainer's.
Functional Ear Trainer ships an update every 7 months, Complete Rhythm Trainer every 10 days. The most recent releases landed on November 12, 2026 and November 11, 2026 respectively.
| Parameter | Functional Ear Trainer | Complete Rhythm Trainer |
|---|---|---|
| Price | Free | Free |
| Rating | 4.9 (3.9K ratings) — better | 4.7 (106 ratings) |
| Positive reviews | 96.7% of reviews — better | 88.5% of reviews |
| Number of ratings | 3.9K — better | 106 |
| Update frequency | Every 7 months | Every 10 days — better |
| Ads | No | No |
| In-app purchases | Yes | Yes |
| Monetization | Free with in-app purchases | Free with in-app purchases |
| Devices | iPhone, iPad, iPod — better | iPhone, iPad |
| Requires iOS | 15.0 — better | 17.5 |
| Further details — not scored | ||
| Size | 41 MB | 56 MB |
| Age rating | 4+ | 4+ |
| Developer | Serhii Korchan | Binary Guilt |
Customer experience
Functional Ear Trainer
Complete Rhythm Trainer
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
Complete Rhythm Trainer
Not enough reviews yet to summarise bugs or requests.
In-app purchases
Functional Ear Trainer
- Functional Ear Trainer Plus$19.99
Complete Rhythm Trainer
- Cloud Sync and Web access$0.991 Month
- Cloud Sync and Web access$9.991 Year
- Full Version$6.99
Questions
Is Functional Ear Trainer free?
Is Complete Rhythm Trainer free?
Which has better reviews, Functional Ear Trainer or Complete Rhythm Trainer?
Do Functional Ear Trainer or Complete Rhythm Trainer have ads?
Which is updated more often, Functional Ear Trainer or Complete Rhythm Trainer?
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