Comparison

Play By Ear vs FiveLoop

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

Head to head
About

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.

Highlights
  • Pitch recognition for instrumental interaction
  • Hands-free, continuous play
  • Interval, chord, and melody exercises
  • Customizable tempo
  • Multiple key centers
  • Microphone calibration
Features
Read full description

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.

About

FiveLoop

Enhance your music learning with a tool that allows you to slow down, loop, and repeat sections of online video tutorials. It also offers AI-powered audio analysis to split songs into stems, detect chords and BPM, and generate transcriptions.

Highlights
  • Loop any video section
  • Adjust playback tempo
  • Handsfree MIDI/Bluetooth control
  • AI song stem separation
  • Chord and BPM detection
  • Note-for-note transcriptions
Features
Read full description

Practice Music Smarter with FiveLoop Turn online music lessons and songs into focused practice sessions. Slow down difficult passages, repeat precise A B loops and control playback without taking your hands off your instrument. Learn from the platforms you already use FiveLoop works with most online video platforms, including YouTube, Vimeo, TrueFire and many more. Practice at your own pace • Set exact loop points and repeat any passage • Adjust playback speed in 5% steps • Play, pause, rewind and fast forward • Control playback hands free with MIDI or a compatible Bluetooth foot controller Discover FiveLoop Studio Import a song and use powerful AI audio analysis tools to understand and practice every detail. • Separate music into drums, bass, vocals and other instruments • Isolate or mute stems to focus on the part you want to learn • Detect chords, key and BPM automatically • Practice with a metronome matched to the song • View note transcriptions for bass, vocals and other stems Made for every musician FiveLoop helps beginners, advanced players, guitarists, bassists, drummers, singers, pianists, teachers and students learn more effectively from video and audio. Tested and recommended platforms • YouTube • TrueFire • learnpracticeplay.com • gitarrenlehreronline.de • fingerfux.de Is your favorite platform not supported? Contact us at mail@duechtel.com Terms: https://www.fiveloop.io/terms.html Privacy: https://www.fiveloop.io/pricacypolicy.html

Screenshots

Play By Ear1 screens
FiveLoop4 screens

Verdict

The call

The clearest difference is in-app purchases: Play By Ear at none against FiveLoop's 3. Play By Ear also leads on ratings volume (79 vs 19) and iOS requirement (12.0 vs 15.0). On price, rating, review sentiment and update cadence 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

Both are free to download. FiveLoop sells 3 in-app purchases, starting at $4.99 per month. Play By Ear asks for nothing beyond the download.

ReceptionRating · Positive reviews · Number of ratings

On the App Store both sit at effectively the same score — 4.4 for Play By Ear against 4.4 for FiveLoop. Both are backed by a comparable volume of ratings — 79 and 19 respectively. Written reviews are what separate them: 82% of Play By Ear's written reviews are positive against 84% of FiveLoop's.

UpkeepUpdate frequency

Play By Ear ships an update every 2 months, FiveLoop every 6 weeks. The most recent releases landed on September 16, 2026 and September 8, 2026 respectively.

Scorecard4 real differences · 6 level
Play By Ear versus FiveLoop: the parameters behind the verdict, then further details
ParameterPlay By EarFiveLoop
PriceFreeFree
Rating4.4 (79 ratings)4.4 (19 ratings)
Positive reviews81.7% of reviews83.7% of reviews — better
Number of ratings79 — better19
Update frequencyEvery 2 monthsEvery 6 weeks — better
AdsNoNo
In-app purchasesNo — betterYes
MonetizationFree — betterFree with in-app purchases
DevicesiPhone, iPodiPhone, iPad, iPod — better
Requires iOS12.0 — better15.0
Further details — not scored
Size24 MB730 MB
Age rating4+17+
DeveloperSuperNonstop.com, Inc.Stephan Duechtel

Customer experience

Play By Ear

All ratings79 ratings
Positive87.3%
Neutral5.1%
Negative7.6%
Written reviews104 reviews
Positive81.7%
Neutral10.6%
Negative7.7%

FiveLoop

All ratings19 ratings
Positive78.9%
Neutral15.8%
Negative5.3%
Written reviews43 reviews
Positive83.7%
Neutral14.0%
Negative2.3%

Bugs and requests

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
Show 24 more
  • 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 more
  • 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

FiveLoop

Not enough reviews yet to summarise bugs or requests.

In-app purchases

None

Play By Ear

No in-app purchases

3 purchases

FiveLoop

Subscriptions2
  • Premium Monthly$4.991 Month
  • Premium Yearly$44.991 Year
One-time1
  • Fullversion$3.99

Questions

Is Play By Ear free?
Play By Ear is free to download, with no in-app purchases.
Is FiveLoop free?
FiveLoop is free to download, with in-app purchases available.
Which has better reviews, Play By Ear or FiveLoop?
Play By Ear and FiveLoop are both rated 4.4 out of 5 on the App Store, from 79 and 19 ratings respectively.
Do Play By Ear or FiveLoop have ads?
Neither Play By Ear nor FiveLoop shows ads.
Which is updated more often, Play By Ear or FiveLoop?
Play By Ear ships an update every 2 months, and FiveLoop every 6 weeks. Most recently, Play By Ear was updated on September 16, 2026 and FiveLoop on September 8, 2026.

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