Better Ears Beginner vs Play By Ear
Price, ratings, monetisation and update history for both apps, side by side — with what reviewers say about each.
Better Ears Beginner
Enhance your musical skills and hearing with this comprehensive ear training app. It offers 13 diverse exercises, from interval recognition to chord progressions, with customizable training routines and instrument options. Track your progress and sync across devices for a seamless learning experience.
- 13 music theory and ear training exercises
- Customizable training routines
- User-created chords, scales, and progressions
- Six instrument sound options
- Pitch detection for vocal or instrument answers
- Virtual keyboard and guitar fretboard
- 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.
Play By Ear
Develop your musical ear with this call-and-response ear training app. It uses pitch recognition, allowing you to play notes back on your instrument instead of pressing buttons. Practice melodies, chords, and intervals in a way that mirrors real musical performance.
- Pitch recognition for instrumental interaction
- Hands-free, continuous play
- Interval, chord, and melody exercises
- Customizable tempo
- Multiple key centers
- Microphone calibration
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Play By Ear is a call-and-response ear training application that helps you develop the ability to hear pitches and play them back on your instrument by ear. Unlike other applications which force you to press buttons to indicate the notes you've heard, Play By Ear uses pitch recognition so you can play the notes back on your instrument (piano, guitar, trumpet, etc). Using your instrument to play the notes allows you to practice ear training in a method that most closely matches how you'll actually play music. ---------------------- APPLICATION FEATURES: ---------------------- - Pitch recognition so you can use your instrument to interact with the ear trainer - Hands-free, continuous play - Interval exercises - Chord exercises - Random melody exercises - Scale pattern melody exercises - Jazz lick melody exercises - Melodic and harmonic note sequences - Ascending and descending note sequences - Microphone calibration - Customizable tempo - Ability to show or hide the first note - C, Bb, Eb, F, G, and D key centers to match your instrument ---------------------- Note: Your device needs a microphone to fully enjoy Play By Ear's pitch recognition features. iPads, iPhones, and the latest iTouch all have microphones built-in, however older iTouch devices will need a headset or similar external microphone.
Screenshots
Verdict
The clearest difference is in-app purchases: Play By Ear at none against Better Ears Beginner's 1. Play By Ear also leads on review sentiment (82% vs 67%) and update cadence (every 2 months vs every 6 months). On price, rating, ratings volume and ads 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. Better Ears Beginner sells 1 one-off in-app purchase. Play By Ear asks for nothing beyond the download.
On the App Store both sit at effectively the same score — 4.5 for Better Ears Beginner against 4.4 for Play By Ear. Both are backed by a comparable volume of ratings — 35 and 79 respectively. Written reviews are what separate them: 67% of Better Ears Beginner's written reviews are positive against 82% of Play By Ear's.
Better Ears Beginner ships an update every 6 months, Play By Ear every 2 months. The most recent releases landed on September 14, 2026 and September 16, 2026 respectively.
| Parameter | Better Ears Beginner | Play By Ear |
|---|---|---|
| Price | Free | Free |
| Rating | 4.5 (35 ratings) — better | 4.4 (79 ratings) |
| Positive reviews | 66.8% of reviews | 81.7% of reviews — better |
| Number of ratings | 35 | 79 — better |
| Update frequency | Every 6 months | Every 2 months — better |
| Ads | No | No |
| In-app purchases | Yes | No — better |
| Monetization | Free with in-app purchases | Free — better |
| Devices | iPhone, iPad, iPod — better | iPhone, iPod |
| Requires iOS | 15.6 | 12.0 — better |
| Further details — not scored | ||
| Size | 86 MB | 24 MB |
| Age rating | 4+ | 4+ |
| Developer | MAMP GmbH | SuperNonstop.com, Inc. |
Customer experience
Better Ears Beginner
Play By Ear
User reviews
Better Ears Beginner
From 35 App Store ratingsWhat we love
- 👍 Free beginner version
- 🚀 Helpful for learning music theory
- 💡 Useful for ear training and pitch recognition
- 🎹 Ability to play piano-like keyboard
Room to improve
- 🐛 Crashes after purchasing add-on
- 🔒 No Airplay support
- 👎 Insufficient training functionality
- 🔊 Poor sound quality
- 🤔 Confusing for true beginners
Play By Ear
From 79 App Store ratingsWhat we love
- 👍 Great for ear training
- 👍 Helps learn to read music
- 👍 Excellent for musicians
- 👍 Good for piano teachers
- 👍 Pitch recognition accuracy
Room to improve
- 🐛 Inconsistent pitch detection
- 🐛 Issues with low notes
- 🐛 Glitchy chord recognition
- 🐛 False errors reported
- 🐛 Not ideal for beginners
Bugs and requests
Better Ears Beginner
Reported bugs
4 issues- Reverts to beginner version after phone update
- Audio stops working after some time
- Keyboard unresponsive on iPad
- Chord spellings are incorrect
Requested features
5 requests- Add more instruments
- Include rhythm training
- Provide more customization options
- Implement a game-like format
- Add support for reading sheet music
Play By Ear
Reported bugs
29 issues- No audio output
- App crashes frequently
- Pitch detection not working
- Plays single tone only
- Loses sound with timer/calls
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- Currently broken, plays back unison only
- Not working with iOS 9
- No audio on iPhone 6+
- Does not work with iOS8
- Doesn't save calibration
- Calibration only works sometimes
- Problems detecting notes below bottom 'A' on guitar
- Doesn't hear low octave notes
- App crashes after one or two exercises
- Does not play pitch as it should
- App keeps crashing after one exercise
- Pitch detection issues with voice
- Over-sensitive pitch detection
- App crashes after OS4 upgrade
- Phone doesn't pick up keys played on keyboard
- Tendency to crash randomly
- App crashes after one exercise
- Pitch detection too sensitive for wind instruments
- Doesn't pick up electric guitar
- Only picks up half notes on acoustic guitar
- App crashes, especially on interval section
- Mic issues with iPod Touch (not new version)
- App crashes after OS4 upgrade
- Phone doesn't pick up keys played on keyboard
Requested features
21 requests- Repeat option for phrases
- Limit scale patterns to selected scales/keys
- Profiles for multi-instrumentalists
- Test from the same root note sometimes
- Sign in and save practice data
Show 16 moreShow fewer
- Vary rhythms of melodies
- Add bass clef option
- Option to randomize ascending, descending, melodic, and harmonic intervals
- Add inversions for triads/chords
- Add more chord types
- Add a playable keyboard
- Setting to prevent sleep mode
- Ability to mix ascending and descending intervals/chords
- Input own phrases for practice
- Add rhythm feature
- Super-imposed pitch graph for feedback
- More forgiving pitch setting for wind players
- Option to force exercises in a chosen key
- Change clef in which notes are displayed
- Super easy version with delayed answer feedback
- Keyboard option for public places practice
In-app purchases
Better Ears Beginner
- Unlock all functions$4.99
Play By Ear
No in-app purchases
Questions
Is Better Ears Beginner free?
Is Play By Ear free?
Which has better reviews, Better Ears Beginner or Play By Ear?
Do Better Ears Beginner or Play By Ear have ads?
Which is updated more often, Better Ears Beginner or Play By Ear?
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