Better Ears Beginner vs Relative
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.
Relative
Develop your musical ear with this solfege-based ear training app. Learn to recognize musical intervals and play by ear, essential for improvisation and jam sessions. Offers graduated training and pitch name input for absolute pitch practice.
- Relative-Do solfege training
- Interval recognition
- Absolute pitch practice
- Customizable scale degrees and octaves
- Multi-note training
- Streak counter
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**** Check out our new Sight-Singing app, on 25% off launch sale through September! https://itunes.apple.com/us/app/sight-singing-trainer/id1028696567 **** ** Combined remove adds and unlock advanced features including multi-note and UI customization in-app purchase now only $2.99! ** This is an ear training app made by a musician for musicians. Whether you play jazz, pop, classical, or any other style, the relative-Do solfege approach is basically the only effective relative pitch approach that allows you to play anything you hear by ear. Interval training, while helpful in a way, is way too slow to apply extensively in a practical manner. The method of recognizing the 12 solfege syllables: do, di/ra, re, ri/me, mi, fa, fi/se, so, si/le, la, li/te, ti based on their characteristic sound against a tonal/key center is widely taught in conservatories. Short of having perfect pitch, this is basically the only way to keep up in improvisations and jam sessions. This training won't be easy. As anyone teaching this method will tell you, it will usually take at least months or even years of hard work, but once you succeed, you'll just be able to play anything by ear. This app aims to provide a graduated training ramp up that will hopefully make the process easier. This app can also help practice absolute pitch by using the pitch name input mode instead of relative-do solfege syllables. Features: · Play reference cadence in any key to train in any key, major or minor · Ramp up starting with one note and work up to eight notes together or played in series · Customizable settings to train specific scale degrees or octaves · Streak counter to track progress · Practice using solfege syllables, scale degree numbers, or pitch names
Screenshots
Verdict
The clearest difference is iOS requirement: Relative at 7.1 against Better Ears Beginner's 15.6. On price, rating, review sentiment and ratings volume 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 and Relative sells 1 one-off in-app purchase. Whichever you choose, the download price is not the number that matters.
Better Ears Beginner holds the better App Store score, 4.5 against 4.3. Both are backed by a comparable volume of ratings — 35 and 65 respectively. Written reviews point the same way: 67% of Better Ears Beginner's written reviews are positive against 60% of Relative's.
Better Ears Beginner ships an update every 6 months, Relative every 4 months. The most recent releases landed on October 18, 2026 and October 15, 2026 respectively.
| Parameter | Better Ears Beginner | Relative |
|---|---|---|
| Price | Free | Free |
| Rating | 4.5 (35 ratings) — better | 4.3 (65 ratings) |
| Positive reviews | 66.8% of reviews — better | 60.0% of reviews |
| Number of ratings | 35 | 65 — better |
| Update frequency | Every 6 months | Every 4 months — better |
| Ads | No | No |
| In-app purchases | Yes | Yes |
| Monetization | Free with in-app purchases | Free with in-app purchases |
| Devices | iPhone, iPad, iPod — better | iPhone, iPod |
| Requires iOS | 15.6 | 7.1 — better |
| Further details — not scored | ||
| Size | 86 MB | 127 MB |
| Age rating | 4+ | 4+ |
| Developer | MAMP GmbH | Richard Foo |
Customer experience
Better Ears Beginner
Relative
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
Relative
Not enough reviews yet to summarise bugs or requests.
In-app purchases
Better Ears Beginner
- Unlock all functions$4.99
Relative
- Unlock Advanced Features + Remove Ads$2.99
Questions
Is Better Ears Beginner free?
Is Relative free?
Which has better reviews, Better Ears Beginner or Relative?
Do Better Ears Beginner or Relative have ads?
Which is updated more often, Better Ears Beginner or Relative?
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