Comparison

EarMaster vs ET

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

Head to head
About

EarMaster

Enhance your musical abilities with comprehensive ear training, sight-singing, and rhythm exercises. This app offers thousands of lessons for all skill levels, from beginners to advanced musicians, and is used by top music schools.

Highlights
  • Ear training exercises
  • Sight-singing practice
  • Rhythm training
  • Vocal training
  • Beginner's course
  • Customizable exercises
  • Detailed progress stats
Features
Read full description

Music theory made easy and fun: EarMaster is the ultimate app for your ear training, sight-singing practice, rhythmic workout and vocal training at all skill levels! Thousands of exercises will help you build up your musical skills and become a better musician. Try it, it's not just fun to use but also very efficient: some of the best music schools use EarMaster! "The exercises are so well thought out, and have so much to offer both the complete beginner and the most world class musicians alike. Being an instructor at Nashville Music Academy, I can say this app has developed my ear and my students ear to a level that would have taken many more years to develop, if at all, without it." - User review by Chiddychat AWARDS “Best App of the Month” (App Store, Jan 2020) NAMM TEC AWARDS nominee Music Teacher Awards for Excellence nominee INCLUDED IN FREE VERSION: - Interval Identification (Customized Exercise) - Chord Identification (Customized Exercise) - 'Carmen – Habanera' (based on the iconic opera by Bizet) - 'Call of the Notes' (call-response ear training course) - 'Greensleeves' thematic course - First 20+ lessons of Beginners Course *Highlights* BEGINNER'S COURSE - Acquire all the core music theory skills with hundreds of progressive exercises on rhythm, notation, pitch, chords, scales, and more. COMPLETE EAR TRAINING - Train with intervals, chords, chord inversions, scales, harmonic progressions, melodies, rhythm, and more. LEARN TO SIGHT-SING - Sing on-screen scores into the microphone of your iPad or iPhone and get immediate feedback on your pitch and time accuracy. RHYTHM TRAINING - Tap! tap! tap! Sight-read, dictate and tap back rhythms, and get instant feedback on your performance. VOCAL TRAINER - Become a better singer with progressive vocal exercises on vocalizes, scale singing, rhythmic precision, interval singing, and more. SOLFEGE FUNDAMENTALS - Learn to use movable-do solfege, as easy as Do-Re-Mi! MELODIA - Become a true sight-singing master with EarMaster's take on the classic sight-singing book method AURAL TRAINER FOR UK GRADES - Prepare for ABRSM* Aural Tests 1-5 and similar exams RCM VOICE* - Prepare for your RCM Voice exams from Preparatory level to Level 8. CARMEN – HABANERA (free) - Explore the world of opera with this course based on the iconic opera by Bizet CALL OF THE NOTES (free) - A fun and challenging course in call-response ear training GREENSLEEVES (free) - Learn the English folk ballad Greensleeves with a series of fun exercises CUSTOMIZE EVERYTHING - Take control of the app and configure your own exercises: voicing, key, pitch range, cadences, time limits, etc. JAZZ WORKSHOPS - Exercises for advanced users with jazz chords and progressions, swing rhythms, jazz sight-singing and sing-back exercises based on jazz classics such as "After You've Gone", "Ja-Da", "St. Louis Blues", and many more. DETAILED STATS - Follow your progress day by day to spot your strengths and weaknesses. AND MUCH, MUCH MORE – Learn to sing and transcribe music by ear. Learn to use solfege. Plug a microphone or a MIDI controller to answer the exercises. And even more to explore on your own in the app :) WORKS WITH EARMASTER CLOUD - If your school or choir is using EarMaster Cloud, you can connect the app with your account and complete your home assignments with the app. *Not affiliated with ABRSM or RCM LOVE EARMASTER? LET'S STAY CONNECTED Drop us a line on Facebook, Instagram, Bluesky, Mastodon, or X!

About

ET

Enhance your musical ear with interactive exercises designed for musicians of all levels. Practice active and passive hearing through a variety of drills, including interval recognition, chord identification, and melodic imitation using your instrument or voice. The app offers a unique dialogue feature with integrated voicing generation for accurate feedback.

Highlights
  • Active and passive hearing exercises
  • Microphone-based instrument/voice feedback
  • Integrated voicing generator for chords
  • Customizable educational guidance
  • Over 280 achievements and score publishing
  • Support for over 40 scales and 140 chord progressions
Features
Read full description

Yet another ear-training app? Well, this one is different! Playing jazz, pop and improvised music means being able to quickly recognize and replay what you hear. Although this app began as an ear-training tool for students of jazz and pop at the Zurich University of the Arts (ZHdK), it is also intended for musicians playing in other styles, and at all levels. It was developed by Swiss IT specialist and jazz trumpeter Daniel Schenker, professor at ZHdK, in collaboration with his son Elia. How it works The app offers a host of ear-training exercises, many of them quite enjoyable, all designed to enhance both active and passive hearing. Active hearing means reproducing what you have heard on an instrument or with your voice, while passive hearing refers to the ability to identify such things as the scales, triads and four-note-chords, tensions and slash chords, on which active hearing is based. One of the features that make our app so special is the fact that its microphone enables a sort of dialogue between the app and the musician – whether on voice, brass and reed instruments, guitar, piano or electric bass. Unlike other apps, this one uses an integrated voicing generator to ensure that the chords played (position, voicing) correspond to the actual performance situation. In addition, the app uses a detailed educational guidance system, which allows users to individually customize the exercises. You can obtain over 280 achievements. Compete with other users and publish your high scores and trophies!   Active exercises (microphone) - Five-tone range imitation, major and minor: suitable for younger students or amateurs - Diatonic imitation: reproduction of notes in a particular key, vocally or on an instrument - Atonal imitation: improvement of relative or referential hearing - Tone sequences (2 - 6 tones) - Intervals - Resolution game: technique for the improvement of downward interval singing or playing - Bass imitation exercises: double bass notes and root notes of various chords are to be reproduced vocally or on an instrument, a central skill that is often underdeveloped - Sing or replay chord tensions (e.g. #9, b13) - Scales sandbox: imitation practice in tonal spaces from over 40 different scales - Tonal memory game   Passive exercises (identification practice) - Intervals / Interval series - Triads/four-note-chords in root position and inversion; top note positions - Four-note-chords with one tension (17 types) and with two tensions (15 types) - All 12 major and minor triads above a root note (slash chords/hybrids) - Identification of scales, modes and over 140 jazz, pop and classical chord progressions Depending on the setting, the chords can also be played arpeggiated. The app supports Bluetooth MIDI (iPhones only).   For whom is the app intended? - Singers both amateur and professional who want to incorporate (noteless) ear training exercises into their practice programme. - Musicians in primary and secondary school, musicians and singers preparing for university entrance exams (practical theory), and conservatory students - Musicians and singers of all genres, especially jazz/pop/rock, who want to freshen up or expand their chord vocabulary - Brass players: control in mouthpiece exercises (buzzing)

Screenshots

EarMaster4 screens
ET4 screens

Verdict

The call

The clearest difference is price: EarMaster at Free against ET's $5.99. EarMaster also leads on ratings volume (429 vs 2). ET's advantage is in-app purchases (none vs 10) and rating (5.0 vs 4.6). On update cadence, ads 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

CostPrice · In-app purchases · Ads · Monetization

EarMaster is free to download; ET costs $5.99 up front. EarMaster sells 10 one-off in-app purchases. ET asks for nothing beyond the download.

ReceptionRating · Positive reviews · Number of ratings

ET holds the better App Store score, 5.0 against 4.6. That said, the two scores are not equally well evidenced: EarMaster has 429 ratings behind it against 2, so its average is the more settled of the two.

UpkeepUpdate frequency

Both ship on a similar rhythm, roughly every 2 months. The most recent releases landed on November 6, 2026 and November 7, 2026 respectively.

Scorecard6 real differences · 4 level
EarMaster versus ET: the parameters behind the verdict, then further details
ParameterEarMasterET
PriceFree — better$5.99
Rating4.6 (429 ratings)5.0 (2 ratings) — better
Positive reviews80.9% of reviews—
Number of ratings429 — better2
Update frequencyEvery 2 monthsEvery 2 months
AdsNoNo
In-app purchasesYesNo — better
MonetizationFree with in-app purchases — betterPaid
DevicesiPhone, iPad, iPodiPhone, iPad, iPod
Requires iOS15.012.0 — better
Further details — not scored
Size306 MB97 MB
Age rating4+4+
DeveloperEarMaster ApSDaniel Schenker

Customer experience

EarMaster

All ratings429 ratings
Positive89.5%
Neutral3.3%
Negative7.2%
Written reviews257 reviews
Positive80.9%
Neutral4.7%
Negative14.4%

ET

All ratings2 ratings
Positive100.0%
Neutral0.0%
Negative0.0%

Bugs and requests

EarMaster

Reported bugs

3 issues
  • Crashes and errors when loading certain exercises
  • Inconsistent behavior with metronome and rhythm playback
  • Issues with saving progress and restoring purchased content

Requested features

5 requests
  • Allow users to specify their vocal range
  • Add more chord and chord progression options
  • Implement a jazz-focused curriculum
  • Improve feedback and error analysis for users
  • Add support for different tuning systems

ET

Not enough reviews yet to summarise bugs or requests.

In-app purchases

10 purchases

EarMaster

One-time10
  • General: Interval Singing$1.99
  • General: Interval Identification$1.99
  • General: Chord Progressions$1.99
Show 7 more
  • Jazz: Chord Identification$1.99
  • Beginner's Course: Modules 5 to 13$3.99
  • Beginner's Course bundle$7.99
  • Customized Exercises bundle$14.99
  • General Workshops bundle$14.99
  • Jazz Workshops bundle$14.99
  • Vocal Trainer$14.99
None

ET

No in-app purchases

Questions

Is EarMaster free?
EarMaster is free to download, with in-app purchases available.
Is ET free?
ET costs $5.99, with no in-app purchases.
Which has better reviews, EarMaster or ET?
ET is rated higher. EarMaster averages 4.6 out of 5 from 429 ratings, while ET averages 5.0 from 2 ratings.
Do EarMaster or ET have ads?
Neither EarMaster nor ET shows ads.
Which is updated more often, EarMaster or ET?
EarMaster ships an update every 2 months, and ET every 2 months. Most recently, EarMaster was updated on November 6, 2026 and ET on November 7, 2026.

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