Comparison

GuitarParrot vs JAX ESSENTIALS

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

Head to head
About

GuitarParrot

This app offers a "Follow the Leader" style ear training game for musicians. It helps develop the ability to hear and play notes and melodies on your instrument, supporting improvisation and song learning across various scales and keys.

Highlights
  • Follow the Leader ear training game
  • Supports all 12 keys and multiple scale choices
  • Adjustable difficulty levels
  • Custom scale settings for interval drilling
  • Works with guitar, voice, or any instrument
  • No visual assistance, relies on ear training
Features
Currently charting
Read full description

GuitarParrot® brings the classic "Follow the Leader" game to a whole new place - your phone or tablet! Start off easy, then increase the level as you improve! Work in all 12 keys, with many scale choices. Develop your abilities to hear notes and melodies and instantly land them on your guitar! Why is that useful? If you are a musician trying to improvise or learn songs, it becomes much easier as you connect your ear to your instrument. Any virtuoso musician will tell you that ear training is extremely important to musical growth. As an instructor, this is a game I play with students of all levels. I created this app to expand the game beyond what a normal human (me) could offer: Scale - choose from 4-note, 5-note, Major, Minor, and Custom scales. Keys - all 12 keys are available. Octaves - two octave settings let you explore the neck more completely. Levels - each level adds 4 notes to the melody. Level 10 is 40 notes long. Can you beat it? How about with a Chromatic scale? The "Custom" scale setting makes it possible to drill intervals, triads, or any other 1-octave arrangement of notes. The game can be played on iPad, iPhone or Silicon Mac, using the built-in mic or a guitar interface like iRig or a similar device. You can also use wired headphones with or without a built-in mic. Bluetooth playback is supported, but not Bluetooth mic. Although it is intended for Guitar, you can use any instrument or even sing. Instead of poking a note on the screen or touching colored lights in sequence, this app makes you listen and play your own instrument. There is no visual assistance, just rely your ear. This app is an incredible practice tool that should be a part of a complete program. A good instructor will show you how to apply the scales and notes to songs you may be learning. Visit www.guitarparrot.com for videos and more!

About

JAX ESSENTIALS

This audio effect plugin offers a multi-stage phaser modulation with allpass filters for dynamic soundscapes. It's compatible across Apple devices and integrates with popular music production software.

Highlights
  • Multi-stage phaser modulation
  • Allpass filter design
  • LFO for depth and speed modulation
  • Cross-device preset sharing
  • Includes ~200 factory presets
  • Resizable and adaptive interface
Features
Read full description

( THIS IS AN AUDIOUNIT. AudioUnits are app extensions, requiring any audio host application to perform. ) Use the same AudioUnits across all modern Apple devices, including the iPhone and the Mac (Apple Silicon). Native MacOS apps like GarageBand, MainStage 3 and Logic Pro X are fully supported. Any 3rd-party AUv3 supporting host should be able to host the plugin too. The JAX ESSENTIAL SERIES Phaser is a multi stage phaser modulation effect that uses multiple allpass filters, to produce all kinds of the famous phaser effect. A low frequency oscillator modulates depth and speed of the filter modulation on both stereo channels for various living and moving sound nuances. Make static sounding voices more interesting or create sweaping special effects. You may share the presets for this effect across all your supported devices. Around 200 factory presets are included, you can make and export/import your own. The complete manual is included and can be previewed on our support website: https://audio.digitster.com For advanced usage (i.e. mastering and exciting), we recommend to select the phaser from our SELECTIVE RANGE SERIES, which allows to limit the frequency range for processing. This build is truly 'universal', meaning, the audio unit is available for: - iOS (all actual iPhones) - iPadOS (all actual iPads) - macOS (Apple Silicon) - visionOS (Apple Vision Pro) Requirements: MacOS 11.0++ iOS 14.0++ Behaviour on all devices is identical. The parametric interface is resizeble and adopts to any screen size and orientation. This especially applies to Logic Pro X and all hosts with adjustable window sizes on all platforms. Display contrast can be adjusted freely and is now saved with each preset.

Screenshots

GuitarParrot4 screens
JAX ESSENTIALS4 screens

Verdict

The call

The clearest difference is price: GuitarParrot at $1.99 against JAX ESSENTIALS's $4.99. GuitarParrot also leads on ratings volume (11 vs 1) and chart position (#184 vs unranked). JAX ESSENTIALS's advantage is iOS requirement (14.0 vs 26.0). On rating, update cadence, 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

CostPrice · In-app purchases · Ads · Monetization

GuitarParrot costs $1.99 and JAX ESSENTIALS $4.99 up front. Neither carries in-app purchases, so what you see is what you pay.

ReceptionRating · Positive reviews · Number of ratings

On the App Store both sit at effectively the same score — 5.0 for GuitarParrot against 5.0 for JAX ESSENTIALS. That said, the two scores are not equally well evidenced: GuitarParrot has 11 ratings behind it against 1, so its average is the more settled of the two.

UpkeepUpdate frequency

GuitarParrot ships an update every 3 weeks, JAX ESSENTIALS every 2 weeks. The most recent releases landed on October 27, 2026 and October 19, 2026 respectively.

Scorecard4 real differences · 7 level
GuitarParrot versus JAX ESSENTIALS: the parameters behind the verdict, then further details
ParameterGuitarParrotJAX ESSENTIALS
Price$1.99 — better$4.99
Rating5.0 (11 ratings)5.0 (1 ratings)
Positive reviews100.0% of reviews—
Number of ratings11 — better1
Update frequencyEvery 3 weeksEvery 2 weeks — better
AdsNoNo
In-app purchasesNoNo
MonetizationPaidPaid
Best chart rank#184 — better—
DevicesiPhone, iPadiPhone, iPad, iPod — better
Requires iOS26.014.0 — better
Further details — not scored
Size45 MB33 MB
Age rating4+4+
DeveloperHineman Music Services, LLCJens Guell

Customer experience

GuitarParrot

All ratings11 ratings
Positive100.0%
Neutral0.0%
Negative0.0%
Written reviews5 reviews
Positive100.0%
Neutral0.0%
Negative0.0%

JAX ESSENTIALS

All ratings1 ratings
Positive100.0%
Neutral0.0%
Negative0.0%

In-app purchases

None

GuitarParrot

No in-app purchases

None

JAX ESSENTIALS

No in-app purchases

Questions

Is GuitarParrot free?
GuitarParrot costs $1.99, with no in-app purchases.
Is JAX ESSENTIALS free?
JAX ESSENTIALS costs $4.99, with no in-app purchases.
Which has better reviews, GuitarParrot or JAX ESSENTIALS?
GuitarParrot and JAX ESSENTIALS are both rated 5.0 out of 5 on the App Store, from 11 and 1 ratings respectively.
Do GuitarParrot or JAX ESSENTIALS have ads?
Neither GuitarParrot nor JAX ESSENTIALS shows ads.
Which is updated more often, GuitarParrot or JAX ESSENTIALS?
GuitarParrot ships an update every 3 weeks, and JAX ESSENTIALS every 2 weeks. Most recently, GuitarParrot was updated on October 27, 2026 and JAX ESSENTIALS on October 19, 2026.

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