Melody Ear Training vs Pianist Pro
Price, ratings, monetisation and update history for both apps, side by side — with what reviewers say about each.
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.
- Interval recognition
- Pitch sense improvement
- Transcription skills
- MIDI keyboard integration
- Adjustable difficulty settings
- Customizable melody parameters
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***** 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!
Pianist Pro
This virtual piano app for iPad offers photo-realistic graphics and professional sound. It includes full recording, MIDI control, and a variety of built-in instruments and effects to help musicians create and perform.
- Full recording and overdub facility
- Live MIDI control
- Standard MIDI File import/export
- 16 professionally recorded instruments
- Built-in effects, arpeggiator, and drum machine
- 88 key configurable keyboard layout
- Scale Piano interface
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As featured in the Apple 'Your Verse' and 'iPad is Musical' TV Ads, recommended by The New York Times, The Independent, The Daily Telegraph, Rolling Stone Magazine, and played live by legendary band Squeeze on the Jimmy Fallon show (NBC). --To take your compositions to the next level, be sure to check out our amazing new Digital Audio Workstation app for iPad: Looptical Music Studio-- Pianist, the ORIGINAL iPhone piano, turns Professional for the iPad with photo-realistic graphics and an unbelievable sound. Pianist Pro was the number one music app for the iPad at release. MAIN FEATURES ============= - Full recording and overdub facility. - Live MIDI control of external synths via CoreMidi, USB, Network MIDI, OSC or DSMI. - Standard MIDI File import and export. - Audio (WAV) file export. - 16 professionally recorded instruments (pianos, organs, guitars, synths). - Built-in effects, arpeggiator and drum machine. - Soft and Sustain pedals, and velocity based on key strike position. - A full 88 key Single or dual keyboard layout with configurable key size. - Onscreen pitch bend, modulation and swell pedal controls. - Vibrato and Low-Pass Filter. Pianist Pro is a virtual piano designed specifically for the iPad, with the same great interface and style that has made Pianist the best known piano on the iPhone, and a whole host of new features too. It features full MIDI import and export capability, allowing you to record song ideas while on the road and export them via MIDI to your Digital Audio Workstation back at the studio. You can also use Pianist Pro as a great master MIDI keyboard, either with USB, CoreMIDI, or via Wi-Fi. Drive your soft or hard synths wirelessly from the sofa, or from another room. Pianist Pro can even be used as a MIDI sound source, driven by an external hardware keyboard. A built-in arpeggiator allows the user to create perfectly timed runs just by holding down a few keys, and complex patterns of notes and chords can be programmed into the arpeggiator and played back live. Pianist Pro makes it easy to play shuffle-beat blues piano, complete with walking bassline and overlayed jazz chords - all by simply holding down a single chord. Changing the chord changes the melody but maintains the tight rhythm provided by the arpeggiator. A drum machine offers an elegantly simple interface for adding rhythm, with a choice of drum kits to suit a range of musical styles. While a delay effect can be used to bring energy and interest to a synth bassline, or guitar or piano riff. The 'Scale Piano' interface allows the user to select a musical scale from a large choice of presets (eg. Natural Minor or Pentatonic Blues) or define their own scales from scratch. Notes and runs on that scale can then be played back in any key, simply by sliding a finger up and down a virtual touch-pad on-screen. Musicians at all levels have raved about Pianist Pro. Visit our website (moocowmusic.com) for demonstration videos, a full description of functionality including the user manual, and more screenshots. If you require assistance, please click on the support link. We aim to answer all emails within 24 hours.
Screenshots
Verdict
The clearest difference is rating: Melody Ear Training at 4.6 against Pianist Pro's 3.7. Melody Ear Training also leads on ratings volume (37 vs 3) and device support (3 vs 1). Pianist Pro's advantage is update cadence (every 2 weeks vs every 7 months) and price ($4.99 vs $9.99). On review sentiment, 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
Melody Ear Training costs $9.99 and Pianist Pro $4.99 up front. Neither carries in-app purchases, so what you see is what you pay.
Melody Ear Training holds the better App Store score, 4.6 against 3.7. That said, the two scores are not equally well evidenced: Melody Ear Training has 37 ratings behind it against 3, 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 73% of Pianist Pro's.
Melody Ear Training ships an update every 7 months, Pianist Pro every 2 weeks. The most recent releases landed on November 6, 2026 and November 1, 2026 respectively.
| Parameter | Melody Ear Training | Pianist Pro |
|---|---|---|
| Price | $9.99 | $4.99 — better |
| Rating | 4.6 (37 ratings) — better | 3.7 (3 ratings) |
| Positive reviews | 75.7% of reviews — better | 72.8% of reviews |
| Number of ratings | 37 — better | 3 |
| Update frequency | Every 7 months | Every 2 weeks — better |
| Ads | No | No |
| In-app purchases | No | No |
| Monetization | Free — better | Paid |
| Devices | iPhone, iPad, iPod — better | iPad |
| Requires iOS | 12.0 | 8.0 — better |
| Further details — not scored | ||
| Size | 295 MB | 116 MB |
| Age rating | 4+ | 4+ |
| Developer | 262Hz | MooCowMusic Ltd. |
Customer experience
Melody Ear Training
Pianist Pro
In-app purchases
Melody Ear Training
No in-app purchases
Pianist Pro
No in-app purchases
Questions
Is Melody Ear Training free?
Is Pianist Pro free?
Which has better reviews, Melody Ear Training or Pianist Pro?
Do Melody Ear Training or Pianist Pro have ads?
Which is updated more often, Melody Ear Training or Pianist Pro?
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