Comparison

Better Ears vs Tenuto

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

Head to head
About

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.

Highlights
  • 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
Features
Currently charting
Read full description

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.

About

Tenuto

Enhance your musicality with a comprehensive suite of 24 customizable theory exercises and six essential musical calculators. Practice note and chord identification, ear training, and construct musical elements. Tools include accidentals, intervals, scales, chords, analysis symbols, and twelve-tone matrices.

Highlights
  • 24 customizable theory exercises
  • Note and chord identification
  • Ear training for intervals and scales
  • Musical construction exercises
  • Accidental calculator
  • Interval calculator
  • Chord calculator
Read full description

Tenuto is a collection of 24 highly-customizable exercises designed to enhance your musicality. From recognizing chords on a keyboard to identifying intervals by ear, it has an exercise for you. Tenuto also includes six musical calculators for accidentals, intervals, scales, chords, analysis symbols, and twelve-tone matrices. A short description of the exercises and calculators follows. –––––– • Note Identification • Key Signature Identification • Interval Identification • Scale Identification • Chord Identification Tap the button corresponding to the written staff line. For example: if shown a C, E, and G with a sharp; tap the "Augmented Triad" button. –––––– • Note Construction • Key Signature Construction • Interval Construction • Scale Construction • Chord Construction Construct the specified label by moving notes and/or adding accidentals. For example: if shown a C and an "Augmented 4th" label, move the second note to F and add a sharp. –––––– • Keyboard Reverse Identification Tap the piano key corresponding to the written note on the staff. While similar to Note Identification, this exercise uses a piano keyboard rather than note name buttons. • Keyboard Note Identification • Keyboard Interval Identification • Keyboard Scale Identification • Keyboard Chord Identification Tap the button corresponding to the highlighted piano key(s). If the C and G keys are highlighted, tap the "P5" (Perfect 5th) button. –––––– • Fretboard Note Identification • Fretboard Interval Identification • Fretboard Scale Identification • Fretboard Chord Identification Tap the button corresponding to the marked fretboard position(s). If the 2nd fret of the D string is marked, tap the "E" button. –––––– • Keyboard Ear Training • Note Ear Training Listen to the played reference and question notes. Select the piano key or note button corresponding to the question note. • Interval Ear Training • Scale Ear Training • Chord Ear Training Tap the button corresponding to the played notes. If E and F are played, tap the "Minor 2nd" button. –––––– • Accidental Calculator Display the accidental for a note and key. • Interval Calculator Display the interval for a note, type, and key. • Chord Calculator Display the scale for a tonic and scale type. • Chord Calculator Display the chord for a note, type, and key. • Analysis Calculator Display the chord for a symbol and key. • Matrix Calculator Display the twelve-tone matrix for a specified tone row.

Screenshots

Better Ears4 screens
Tenuto4 screens

Verdict

The call

The clearest difference is monetization model: Better Ears at free against Tenuto's paid. Tenuto's advantage is review sentiment (95% vs 71%) and rating (4.8 vs 4.6). On price, 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

Better Ears costs $4.99 and Tenuto $4.99 up front. Neither carries in-app purchases, so what you see is what you pay.

ReceptionRating · Positive reviews · Number of ratings

Tenuto holds the better App Store score, 4.8 against 4.6. That said, the two scores are not equally well evidenced: Tenuto has 652 ratings behind it against 76, so its average is the more settled of the two. Written reviews point the same way: 71% of Better Ears's written reviews are positive against 95% of Tenuto's.

UpkeepUpdate frequency

Better Ears ships an update every 5 months, Tenuto every 3 months. The most recent releases landed on September 23, 2026 and September 24, 2026 respectively.

Scorecard5 real differences · 6 level
Better Ears versus Tenuto: the parameters behind the verdict, then further details
ParameterBetter EarsTenuto
Price$4.99$4.99
Rating4.6 (76 ratings)4.8 (652 ratings) — better
Positive reviews70.8% of reviews94.6% of reviews — better
Number of ratings76652 — better
Update frequencyEvery 5 monthsEvery 3 months — better
AdsNoNo
In-app purchasesNoNo
MonetizationFree — betterPaid
Best chart rank#156#6 — better
DevicesiPhone, iPad, iPodiPhone, iPad, iPod
Requires iOS15.6 — better15.8
Further details — not scored
Size86 MB11 MB
Age rating4+4+
DeveloperMAMP GmbHmusictheory.net

Customer experience

Better Ears

All ratings76 ratings
Positive90.8%
Neutral0.0%
Negative9.2%
Written reviews236 reviews
Positive70.8%
Neutral12.3%
Negative16.9%

Tenuto

All ratings652 ratings
Positive93.9%
Neutral2.0%
Negative4.1%
Written reviews350 reviews
Positive94.6%
Neutral2.6%
Negative2.9%

User reviews

Better Ears

From 76 App Store ratings

What we love

  • 👍 Great app for ear training
  • 🚀 Flexibility to customize exercises
  • 💡 Helpful for music students and professionals
  • 🎓 Improves aural skills and music theory knowledge

Room to improve

  • 🐛 Crashes and glitches on some devices
  • 🔊 Poor sound quality of instrument samples
  • 💰 Expensive for the limited features
  • 🤔 Confusing chord and interval naming conventions

Tenuto

From 652 App Store ratings

What we love

  • 🚀 Essential for musicians
  • 👍 Great app
  • 👍 Perfect app
  • 👍 Wonderful app
  • 👍 Highly recommend

Room to improve

  • 🐛 Wrong billing
  • 🐛 Piano tone is so bad
  • 🐛 Not good
  • 🐛 Great but buggy
  • 🐛 All sounds stopped working

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

Tenuto

Reported bugs

5 issues
  • Sound cuts out
  • Unresponsive at times
  • Freezes up
  • Doesn't work well for guitar
  • Incorrect chord/key associations

Requested features

20 requests
  • Cadences and inversions for ear training
  • Chord progressions for ear training
  • Melodic and harmonic minor modes for scale recognition
  • 6th, 9th, 11th and 13th chord extensions for chord recognition
  • Melodic dictation
Show 15 more
  • Rhythm exercises
  • Fretboard reverse identification
  • Chord inversions for chord identification
  • Scales written on staff using various clefs
  • Rhythm, melodic, and harmonic dictation exercises
  • Part writing exercises
  • Exercises for form, cadences, etc.
  • MIDI support
  • Autoplay function
  • Ability to input notes/chords on fretboard
  • Chord progression ear training
  • Inversion options for chord and interval identification
  • Melodic and harmonic minor scale identification
  • Extended chord identification
  • Rhythmic dictation

In-app purchases

None

Better Ears

No in-app purchases

None

Tenuto

No in-app purchases

Questions

Is Better Ears free?
Better Ears costs $4.99, with no in-app purchases.
Is Tenuto free?
Tenuto costs $4.99, with no in-app purchases.
Which has better reviews, Better Ears or Tenuto?
Tenuto is rated higher. Better Ears averages 4.6 out of 5 from 76 ratings, while Tenuto averages 4.8 from 652 ratings.
Do Better Ears or Tenuto have ads?
Neither Better Ears nor Tenuto shows ads.
Which is updated more often, Better Ears or Tenuto?
Better Ears ships an update every 5 months, and Tenuto every 3 months. Most recently, Better Ears was updated on September 23, 2026 and Tenuto on September 24, 2026.
Which is more popular, Better Ears or Tenuto?
Better Ears currently peaks at #156 in the App Store charts, and Tenuto at #6. Chart position reflects recent download velocity rather than total install base.

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