Functional Ear Trainer vs Maestro Pitch
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.
Maestro Pitch
Enhance your musical ear and music theory knowledge with interactive games. Learn to identify intervals, chords, and progressions, and connect theory to your instrument. Offers customizable settings and various instrument sounds.
- Interval Recognition Game
- Melodic Dictation Training
- Interval Singing Practice
- Chord Recognition Games
- Chord Progression Learning
- Freeplay Mode with Scale Visualization
- Multiple Instrument Tones
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Improve your aural memory, master your instrument, and make music theory practical. A good musical ear is one of the most important tools a musician can have. This skill is called relative pitch, and it is totally trainable! Maestro Pitch will train your ear, no matter your skill level, to be able to play and sing back whatever music you hear! Maestro Pitch consists of seven different game modes, each targeting different areas of your musicality. Level up through the app by accomplishing tasks that teach and walk you through musical concepts, or simply use the games directly with our numerous customizable settings and try to beat your high score! Maestro Pitch not only trains your ear and your knowledge of music, but it ties the theory to your instrument, improving your fluency! Get access to a variety of different instrument tones that spark inspiration and make ear training fun! There are four different guitar sounds and four different keyboard sounds offered, including a piano, electric keyboard, electric organ, and a synth. Check out the Freeplay Mode, where you can play a guitar or keyboard freely and get a visualization of every scale. This helps you realize the shapes and patterns of chords and scales on your instrument. Also compatible with left-handed guitarists. • Interval Recognition -- Music is made up of intervals, or distances between notes. You will have to guess what interval was played. This game mode will teach you how to identify intervals, making you a true master of pitch. Choose whether to play the notes melodically or harmonically, at the same time, as well as whether to play ascending or descending intervals, the speed the notes are played at, and much more. These settings are found in the game mode's menu. • Melodic Dictation -- For this game mode you will choose either guitar or keyboard, and the game will play you a number of notes and show you the fret/key location of the first one. You will have to guess the locations of the following ones. You can choose the number of notes, the speed the notes are played, and whether the interval names are displayed among other settings in the game mode menu. Melodic Dictation will make you significantly more proficient with your instrument. • Interval Singing -- The best way to learn intervals is to sing them as it most directly engrains the pitch distances in your mind and ensures you know them. This game mode uses the microphone to match your pitch to the notes played. Sight singing mode doesn't play the following note, truly testing your internalization of intervals and sight reading skills. • Chord Recognition -- For this game mode, you will have to guess what chord type was played. You can choose in the settings if you want to play with chord inversions and/or with an arpeggiation of the notes. Play with up to 21 answer choices! • Chord Progressions -- Learn the most common chord progressions found in thousands of songs! This game mode will train your ear to be able to detect any chord progression you hear. • Scale Recognition -- Get used to how the different scales sound and are unique from one another. This game mode will give you a better understanding of scale degrees and how they change from scale to scale. Each game mode will let you hear your wrong answers. Furthermore they are entirely customizable, giving you control over your learning. Take your musicianship to the next level and download Maestro Pitch for free today! **If you are enjoying Maestro Pitch, please leave a review. It helps support the continual development of this app.
Screenshots
Verdict
The clearest difference is update cadence: Maestro Pitch at every 3 weeks against Functional Ear Trainer's every 7 months. Functional Ear Trainer's advantage is review sentiment (96% vs 67%) and ratings volume (3.7K vs 5). 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 Maestro Pitch sells 2 in-app purchases, starting at $2.99 per month. Whichever you choose, the download price is not the number that matters.
On the App Store both sit at effectively the same score — 4.9 for Functional Ear Trainer against 5.0 for Maestro Pitch. That said, the two scores are not equally well evidenced: Functional Ear Trainer has 3.7K ratings behind it against 5, 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 67% of Maestro Pitch's.
Functional Ear Trainer ships an update every 7 months, Maestro Pitch every 3 weeks. The most recent releases landed on September 25, 2026 and July 1, 2026 respectively.
| Parameter | Functional Ear Trainer | Maestro Pitch |
|---|---|---|
| Price | Free | Free |
| Rating | 4.9 (3.7K ratings) | 5.0 (5 ratings) — better |
| Positive reviews | 96.2% of reviews — better | 66.7% of reviews |
| Number of ratings | 3.7K — better | 5 |
| Update frequency | Every 7 months | Every 3 weeks — better |
| Ads | No | No |
| In-app purchases | Yes | Yes |
| Monetization | Free with in-app purchases | Freemium |
| Devices | iPhone, iPad, iPod | iPhone, iPad, Mac |
| Requires iOS | 15.0 — better | 16.0 |
| Further details — not scored | ||
| Size | 41 MB | 211 MB |
| Age rating | 4+ | 4+ |
| Developer | Serhii Korchan | SG Application Developing LLC |
Customer experience
Functional Ear Trainer
Maestro Pitch
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
Maestro Pitch
Not enough reviews yet to summarise bugs or requests.
In-app purchases
Functional Ear Trainer
- Functional Ear Trainer Plus$19.99
Maestro Pitch
- Pro Version$2.991 Month
- Pro$24.991 Year
Questions
Is Functional Ear Trainer free?
Is Maestro Pitch free?
Which has better reviews, Functional Ear Trainer or Maestro Pitch?
Do Functional Ear Trainer or Maestro Pitch have ads?
Which is updated more often, Functional Ear Trainer or Maestro Pitch?
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