Functional Ear Trainer vs Pitch 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.
Pitch Trainer
Develop your musical ear with structured lessons and custom drills for identifying notes, intervals, and chords. Tailor your practice with various display options, instrument sounds, and specific skill focus.
- Note recognition (Perfect Pitch)
- Interval training (melodic/harmonic)
- Chord quality identification
- Customizable practice drills
- Multiple instrument sounds
- Solfege and transposition options
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Pitch Trainer helps you build real ear skills: identify notes, recognize intervals, hear chord quality, follow chord progressions, and detect scales with confidence. It's built around structured lessons plus fast custom drills, so you always know what to practice next and you can improve consistently. World-class training tools: 1) Pitch Trainer (Note Recognition) - Train your ear to identify individual notes by name. - Structured lessons that expand across the 12 chromatic notes - Practice across different octaves (low, medium, high, random) - Optional reference pitch to help you learn faster 2) Interval Training - Learn to recognize the distance between two notes. - Train all common intervals from minor 2nd through octave - Melodic vs harmonic options (separate vs together) - Ascending and descending practice - Short theory explanations and mnemonics to lock concepts in 3) Chord Recognition - Train your ear to identify chord quality and type. - Practice major, minor, diminished, augmented, and 7th chords - Progress from triads to more advanced chord types - Build reliability across different octave ranges 4) Chord Progressions - Train your ear to follow how chords move in real music. - Learn common progressions like I-IV-V, ii-V-I, and I-V-vi-IV - Practice cadences, turnarounds, and 12-bar blues - Build the skills to hear song structure by ear 5) Scale Detection - Train your ear to recognize scales and modes. - Major, natural/harmonic/melodic minor, and the modes (Dorian, Phrygian, Lydian, Mixolydian) - Pentatonic, blues, whole tone, and chromatic scales - Progress from familiar scales to advanced tonalities Practice your way Customize the experience to match how you learn and what you play: - Note display options: sharps, flats, or solfege - Transpose displayed notes to any key (helpful for transposing instruments) - Choose different instrument sounds (piano, guitar) - Select exactly what you want to drill: specific notes, intervals, chords, progressions, or scales Subscription is required for pitch, chord, interval, progression, and scale training. Subscription details: Payment will be charged to your App Store account once your purchase is confirmed. You can manage or cancel your subscription in Account Settings; if canceled, access will continue until the end of the current billing period. Subscriptions automatically renew 24 hours before the period ends, and your account will be charged within that 24-hour window. Auto-renewal can be turned off at any time in Account Settings. Any unused portion of a free trial, if available, will be forfeited when a subscription is purchased Privacy Policy: https://trypitchtrainer.app/privacy Terms of Service: https://trypitchtrainer.app/tos Contact Us: hello@trypitchtrainer.app
Screenshots
Verdict
Functional Ear Trainer and Pitch Trainer both sit at 4.9 stars, but that hides the real split: 96% of Functional Ear Trainer's written reviews are positive against 32% of Pitch Trainer's. Functional Ear Trainer also leads on ratings volume (3.8K vs 483). Pitch Trainer's advantage is update cadence (every 6 days vs every 7 months) and chart position (#95 vs unranked). 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 Pitch Trainer sells 12 in-app purchases, starting at $2.99 per 7 days. 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 3.8K ratings behind it against 483, so its average is the more settled of the two. Written reviews point the same way: 96% of Functional Ear Trainer's written reviews are positive against 32% of Pitch Trainer's.
Functional Ear Trainer ships an update every 7 months, Pitch Trainer every 6 days. Both last shipped on October 24, 2026.
| Parameter | Functional Ear Trainer | Pitch Trainer |
|---|---|---|
| Price | Free | Free |
| Rating | 4.9 (3.8K ratings) — better | 4.7 (483 ratings) |
| Positive reviews | 96.2% of reviews — better | 32.1% of reviews |
| Number of ratings | 3.8K — better | 483 |
| Update frequency | Every 7 months | Every 6 days — better |
| Ads | No | No |
| In-app purchases | Yes | Yes |
| Monetization | Free with in-app purchases | Free with in-app purchases |
| Best chart rank | — | #95 — better |
| Devices | iPhone, iPad, iPod | iPhone, iPad, iPod |
| Requires iOS | 15.0 — better | 15.1 |
| Further details — not scored | ||
| Size | 41 MB | 84 MB |
| Age rating | 4+ | 4+ |
| Developer | Serhii Korchan | Ear & Pitch Training Studios LLC |
Customer experience
Functional Ear Trainer
Pitch 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
Pitch Trainer
Not enough reviews yet to summarise bugs or requests.
In-app purchases
Functional Ear Trainer
- Functional Ear Trainer Plus$19.99
Pitch Trainer
- Pitch Trainer Subscription Weekly7 Days trial$2.997 Days
- Weekly Subscription7 Days trial$4.997 Days
- Pitch Trainer Weekly Access7 Days trial$7.997 Days
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- Pitch Trainer Monthly7 Days trial$8.991 Month
- Pitch Trainer Annual Offer$14.991 Year
- Pitch Trainer 3 Months$19.993 Months
- Pitch Trainer Annual Offer$24.991 Year
- Pitch Trainer Subscription Annual$29.991 Year
- Annual Subscription2 variants$39.991 Year
- Pitch Trainer Annual Access$49.991 Year
- Pitch Trainer Annual$59.991 Year
- Pitch Trainer Annual Subscription7 Days trial$59.991 Year








