Better Ears vs BlueJamPlayer
Price, ratings, monetisation and update history for both apps, side by side — with what reviewers say about each.
Better Ears
Enhance your musical abilities with a comprehensive ear training application. It offers 13 diverse exercises, from interval recognition to chord progressions, suitable for all skill levels. Customize your learning path with user-defined levels and instruments.
- 13 ear training exercises
- Customizable chords, scales, and progressions
- 6 instrument sound options
- Virtual keyboard and fretboard
- Vocal or instrument input
- Preset and custom training levels
- Cross-device synchronization
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Better Ears is the complete ear training and sight‑reading workout for musicians, students and teachers. Train your musical ear and master music theory — from interval recognition all the way to chord progressions and rhythm training. 15 exercises take you from absolute beginner to pro, at your own pace, with no rules and no pressure. NEW: RHYTHM TRAINING Sharpen your sense of timing with two brand‑new exercises. Hear a rhythm and clap or tap it back, or read rhythmic notation and perform it in time — with count‑in, metronome, triplets and time signatures like 3/4, 4/4 and 5/4. Clap straight into your device's microphone and Better Ears listens. YOU DECIDE HOW TO TRAIN There are no rules to follow. You decide when to start, what to practice and how often. 15 EXERCISES INCLUDED • Interval recognition • Scale recognition • Chord recognition • Chord progressions • Pitch recognition • Melodic dictation • Tempo recognition • Key signature recognition • Music reading • Interval music reading • Scale music reading • Chord music reading • Melody music reading • Rhythm recognition (new) • Rhythm reading (new) ANSWER WITH YOUR VOICE OR A REAL INSTRUMENT Built‑in pitch detection lets you answer by singing or by playing a real instrument (e.g. piano or guitar). Just sing or play the notes when the microphone button lights up red. CUSTOM CHORDS, SCALES & CHORD PROGRESSIONS The built‑in editor lets you add your own chords, scales and chord progressions. FOUR PRESET LEVELS + UNLIMITED CUSTOM LEVELS Start at Beginner, Easy, Normal or Professional — then build your own levels to focus exactly where you need to: church modes, those two pesky intervals, custom rhythms, whatever you like. 6 INSTRUMENTS & CUSTOM SOUNDFONTS Train with Acoustic Grand, Bright Acoustic Piano, Electric Grand, Drawbar Organ, Nylon and Steel Acoustic Guitar — or extend Better Ears with your own sounds via SoundFonts (.sf2). KEYBOARD & FRETBOARD Answer on a virtual piano keyboard or a virtual guitar fretboard. MIDI SUPPORT Route sound through an external MIDI device and even control Better Ears with a connected master keyboard. SYNC ALL OF YOUR DEVICES Keep your Mac, iPhone and iPad in sync via Dropbox. You choose what to sync: your own levels, your statistics, your settings — or all of it. STATISTICS Better Ears tracks your progress for every exercise and every question — right and wrong answers at a glance. WIKIPEDIA INTEGRATION The matching Wikipedia article is shown for each exercise, so the theory is always one tap away. REFRESHED DESIGN A modern, fully redesigned interface on iPhone, iPad and Mac — with full Dark Mode and crystal‑clear music notation.
BlueJamPlayer
This music app allows musicians to play along with tracks, practice songs at adjustable speeds and pitches, and control playback hands-free with a footswitch. It features effects, song analysis for key and BPM, and playlist management for seamless jam sessions.
- Hands-free footswitch control
- Adjustable pitch and speed
- Configurable audio effects
- Song analysis (key & BPM)
- Playlist management
- A->B loop playback
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The BlueJamPlayer is made for musicians and should be the tool of choice when it comes to doing one of the things below... LIVE | You play in a band and sometimes require guitar riffs, drum patterns or sound clips that you have as MP3 on your iPhone or iPad. With BlieJamPlayer you could start the clip with a footswitch, because as a guitar player there is no hand free to start playback on your mobile when playing TRAINER | You want to learn a song or a difficult solo and you have to practice it over and over again? Simply load song or solo onto your iPhone/iPad, adjust speed and control it via footswitch JAM | You have some cool songs where you simply just want to play along. Maybe adjust the pitch to match your vocals and ready for your jam session DUO | If you play in a DUO and your team is incomplete, you can record your songs in Left/Right split and then turn off your own part to play along with your records. With playlists you could play through your entire session songs For this to work, our BlueJamPlayer has a lot of features to offer: # The player is controlled via Bluetooth by PagerTurner foot pedals # Pitch can be adjusted without changing the speed # Also, the speed is adjustable without changing the pitch # Free configurable effects (reverb, delay, flanger, equalizer, filter) # All songs in your iTunes library can be used # Songs are analyzed to the key, so you know the key when playing solos # The BPM are also analyzed and delay and flanger automatically adjusted to BPM # The playlist management will help to sort your session songs # There are 4 Play Modes with different usage of your foot pedal # The A->B play mode is made to play parts of a song in a loop We packed all of that into our small, compact BlueJamPlayer. If you like to know which Bluetooth PageTurner pedals will work, there are suggestions in the Bluetooth setup
Screenshots
Verdict
The clearest difference is review sentiment: Better Ears at 71% against BlueJamPlayer's 50%. BlueJamPlayer's advantage is price ($1.99 vs $4.99) and iOS requirement (12.0 vs 15.6). On update cadence, ads, in-app purchases 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
Better Ears costs $4.99 and BlueJamPlayer $1.99 up front. Neither carries in-app purchases, so what you see is what you pay.
Better Ears ships an update every 5 months, BlueJamPlayer every 6 months. The most recent releases landed on October 16, 2026 and October 13, 2026 respectively.
| Parameter | Better Ears | BlueJamPlayer |
|---|---|---|
| Price | $4.99 | $1.99 — better |
| Rating | 4.6 (76 ratings) — better | — |
| Positive reviews | 70.8% of reviews — better | 50.0% of reviews |
| Number of ratings | 76 — better | — |
| Update frequency | Every 5 months — better | Every 6 months |
| Ads | No | No |
| In-app purchases | No | No |
| Monetization | Free — better | Paid |
| Devices | iPhone, iPad, iPod | iPhone, iPad, iPod |
| Requires iOS | 15.6 | 12.0 — better |
| Further details — not scored | ||
| Size | 86 MB | 57 MB |
| Age rating | 4+ | 4+ |
| Developer | MAMP GmbH | Stefan Arnhold |
Customer experience
Better Ears
BlueJamPlayer
Bugs and requests
Better Ears
Reported bugs
3 issues- Note recognition issues on lower strings
- Inconsistent behavior when customizing lessons
- Dropbox sync feature not working as expected
Requested features
5 requests- Add chord inversions and progressions
- Include melodic and rhythmic dictation exercises
- Provide more instrument sound options
- Improve statistics tracking and personalization
- Add support for bass clef and multiple clefs
BlueJamPlayer
Not enough reviews yet to summarise bugs or requests.
In-app purchases
Better Ears
No in-app purchases
BlueJamPlayer
No in-app purchases
Questions
Is Better Ears free?
Is BlueJamPlayer free?
Do Better Ears or BlueJamPlayer have ads?
Which is updated more often, Better Ears or BlueJamPlayer?
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