Comparison

Melody Ear Training vs Sensation Drill

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

Head to head
About

Melody Ear Training

Develop your musical ear with this engaging piano game. It helps improve interval recognition, pitch sense, and transcription skills. Suitable for both beginners and experienced musicians, it offers adjustable difficulty and MIDI integration.

Highlights
  • Interval recognition
  • Pitch sense improvement
  • Transcription skills
  • MIDI keyboard integration
  • Adjustable difficulty settings
  • Customizable melody parameters
Features
Read full description

***** Highly addictive piano game. ***** A fun way to develop a better musical ear! Great for experienced musicians and beginners. Music students love this app. ---- Melody Ear Training can help improve: • Interval recognition • Sense of pitch • Transcription skills • Improvising skills • Self esteem --- How to Play: • Tap "play" to hear the melody • To hear the melody again, tap "replay" • Use the piano to play the melody yourself • Play often to improve your score! --- MIDI In – Plug in your MIDI keyboard to enhance the experience! (Core MIDI compatible) MIDI Out – If you have a music instrument app (such as a synth) that can run in "background mode" and accepts virtual Core MIDI, you can play Melody Ear Training using the sounds of that app. --- Tips for the Beginners: Start with "2 Notes" for the melody length, set the difficulty to "Diatonic", and set the "Scale" to "C". Use the + and - keyboard range control to set the keyboard to a small range such as "C, D" or "C, D, E". Keep practicing, and as you progress you'll want to make the range larger. --- Tips for the Pros: Set "Feedback" to "Never" and turn on "Autoplay" to play continuously without ever missing a beat. Crank up the tempo to see how fast you can go! --- Melody Settings: Scale – 13 major scales Difficulty – Diatonic, Random Tonic, Chromatic Length – 2 to 6 notes Tempo – 60 to 320 BPM Keyboard Range – Starting at 2 notes in a major scale (ex. “C, D”) and up to 12 notes in a major scale (ex. “C, D, E, F, G, A, B, C, D, E, F, G”) with the ability to change octaves. Feedback – Set to "Never" to stop all messages. Set to "Wrong" if you only want messages for incorrect melodies. Sound – Set to "Piano" to hear the built-in piano sound. Set to "MIDI Out" to hear the sound of a music instrument app (such as a synth) that can run in "background mode" and accepts virtual Core MIDI. Autoplay – Turn on to always play the next melody immediately. Turn off if you want to play the keyboard freely between melodies. Key Labels – Turn off to remove note names on white keys. Allow Unison – Turn off if you don't want the same note to be played twice in a row. --- About the Difficulty Setting: "Diatonic" uses notes from a major scale. This setting is recommended. "Random Tonic" uses notes from a random major scale each time. "Chromatic" mode is the "extreme mode" where any combination of notes is possible. As a result, strange intervals like the Augmented 2nd (ex. F to G#) are possible. --- About the Score: Melody Ear Training is all about self progression. Tap the score to reset at any time. The game goes on forever and the music never ends! --- Can you guess the next note? Download the app to find out!

About

Sensation Drill

Practice trumpet sight-reading with randomized musical scores featuring unexpected intervals. Focus on intonation and attacks to improve your inner ear and embouchure. The app generates new scores with a tap and allows intuitive zooming.

Highlights
  • Randomized musical score generation
  • Unexpected interval exercises
  • Focus on intonation and attacks
  • Improve inner ear and embouchure
  • Intuitive pinch-to-zoom score display
  • Real-time music score rendering
Features
Read full description

Train your sight reading and trumpet playing skills by playing unexpected intervals. As proposed by Clint 'Pops' McLaughlin the Sensation Drill app generates random scores with intervals you can't remember from well-known melodies. Playing this music-scores with focus on intonation and proper attacks will improve your inner ear and your embouchure. By tapping on the display the app will generate a completely new score. Scores can be zoomed be intuitive pinch gestures which trigger a complete re-formatting of the score. This app uses the GUIDOLib for rendering high quality music scores in real-time.

Screenshots

Melody Ear Training4 screens
Sensation Drill4 screens

Verdict

The call

The clearest difference is price: Sensation Drill at $0.99 against Melody Ear Training's $9.99. Sensation Drill also leads on rating (5.0 vs 4.6) and review sentiment (100% vs 76%). Melody Ear Training's advantage is update cadence (every 7 months vs every 28 months) and ratings volume (37 vs 1). On 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

CostPrice · In-app purchases · Ads · Monetization

Melody Ear Training costs $9.99 and Sensation Drill $0.99 up front. Neither carries in-app purchases, so what you see is what you pay.

ReceptionRating · Positive reviews · Number of ratings

Sensation Drill holds the better App Store score, 5.0 against 4.6. That said, the two scores are not equally well evidenced: Melody Ear Training has 37 ratings behind it against 1, so its average is the more settled of the two. Written reviews point the same way: 76% of Melody Ear Training's written reviews are positive against 100% of Sensation Drill's.

UpkeepUpdate frequency

Melody Ear Training ships an update every 7 months, Sensation Drill every 28 months. Both last shipped on November 1, 2026.

Scorecard7 real differences · 3 level
Melody Ear Training versus Sensation Drill: the parameters behind the verdict, then further details
ParameterMelody Ear TrainingSensation Drill
Price$9.99$0.99 — better
Rating4.6 (37 ratings)5.0 (1 ratings) — better
Positive reviews75.7% of reviews100.0% of reviews — better
Number of ratings37 — better1
Update frequencyEvery 7 months — betterEvery 28 months
AdsNoNo
In-app purchasesNoNo
MonetizationFree — betterPaid
DevicesiPhone, iPad, iPod — betteriPhone, iPad
Requires iOS12.0 — better17.0
Further details — not scored
Size295 MB5 MB
Age rating4+4+
Developer262HzKilian IT-Consulting

Customer experience

Melody Ear Training

All ratings37 ratings
Positive89.2%
Neutral2.7%
Negative8.1%
Written reviews37 reviews
Positive75.7%
Neutral10.8%
Negative13.5%

Sensation Drill

All ratings1 ratings
Positive100.0%
Neutral0.0%
Negative0.0%
Written reviews1 reviews
Positive100.0%
Neutral0.0%
Negative0.0%

In-app purchases

None

Melody Ear Training

No in-app purchases

None

Sensation Drill

No in-app purchases

Questions

Is Melody Ear Training free?
Melody Ear Training costs $9.99, with no in-app purchases.
Is Sensation Drill free?
Sensation Drill costs $0.99, with no in-app purchases.
Which has better reviews, Melody Ear Training or Sensation Drill?
Sensation Drill is rated higher. Melody Ear Training averages 4.6 out of 5 from 37 ratings, while Sensation Drill averages 5.0 from 1 ratings.
Do Melody Ear Training or Sensation Drill have ads?
Neither Melody Ear Training nor Sensation Drill shows ads.
Which is updated more often, Melody Ear Training or Sensation Drill?
Melody Ear Training ships an update every 7 months, and Sensation Drill every 28 months. Most recently, Melody Ear Training was updated on November 1, 2026 and Sensation Drill on November 1, 2026.

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