Comparison

Play By Ear vs Intervals

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

Intervals

This app helps you learn and practice identifying musical intervals and notes by ear. It offers customizable exercises with various instruments and difficulty levels to improve your relative and perfect pitch.

Highlights
  • Learn musical intervals
  • Practice ear training
  • Select intervals and notes
  • Choose musical instruments (piano, guitar)
  • Adjust octave
  • Train relative and perfect pitch
  • Difficulty levels
Features
Read full description

Do you want to learn musical intervals? Do you want to practice your ear training? With the help of our application, you can try ear training for musical intervals. At the beginning of classes, you can choose the musical intervals and notes that you want to study. After that, you can select and adjust the musical instrument and octave. In the basic version of the app, you can choose to practice piano or guitar. You will be able to train relative pitch and perfect pitch by guessing musical intervals and notes. To achieve good results, you have to complete ear training exercises and practice solfeggio regularly. If you practice regularly, you will gradually learn how to guess notes and musical intervals by ear. You can study from scratch and improve your skills. Classes are divided into difficulty levels. It will be easy for you to choose the level that suits you. To achieve success in the development of aural skills, first you need to learn how to identify simple musical intervals by ear. Then you can start studying more complex musical intervals for different root notes. Practice piano and guitar regularly, train your aural skills every day and everything will work out.

Screenshots

Play By Ear1 screens
Intervals4 screens

Verdict

The call

Play By Ear and Intervals both sit at 4.4 stars, but that hides the real split: 82% of Play By Ear's written reviews are positive against 0% of Intervals's. Play By Ear also leads on ads (none vs shown) and update cadence (every 2 months vs every 10 months). On price, rating, 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

Both are free to download. Neither carries in-app purchases, so what you see is what you pay.

ReceptionRating · Positive reviews · Number of ratings

Intervals holds the better App Store score, 4.6 against 4.4. That said, the two scores are not equally well evidenced: Play By Ear has 82 ratings behind it against 5, so its average is the more settled of the two. Written reviews complicate that: 82% of Play By Ear's written reviews are positive against 0% of Intervals's, so the app with the better star average is not the one people write more warmly about.

UpkeepUpdate frequency

Play By Ear ships an update every 2 months, Intervals every 10 months. The most recent releases landed on October 23, 2026 and October 29, 2026 respectively.

Scorecard5 real differences · 5 level
Play By Ear versus Intervals: the parameters behind the verdict, then further details
ParameterPlay By EarIntervals
PriceFreeFree
Rating4.4 (82 ratings)4.6 (5 ratings) — better
Positive reviews81.7% of reviews — better0.0% of reviews
Number of ratings82 — better5
Update frequencyEvery 2 months — betterEvery 10 months
AdsNo — betterYes
In-app purchasesNoNo
MonetizationFree — betterAd-supported
DevicesiPhone, iPodiPhone, iPad, iPod — better
Requires iOS12.012.0
Further details — not scored
Size24 MB54 MB
Age rating4+4+
DeveloperSuperNonstop.com, Inc.Dmitry Zaika

Customer experience

Play By Ear

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

Intervals

All ratings4 ratings
Positive100.0%
Neutral0.0%
Negative0.0%
Written reviews3 reviews
Positive0.0%
Neutral0.0%
Negative100.0%

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

Intervals

Not enough reviews yet to summarise bugs or requests.

In-app purchases

None

Play By Ear

No in-app purchases

None

Intervals

No in-app purchases

Questions

Is Play By Ear free?
Play By Ear is free to download, with no in-app purchases.
Is Intervals free?
Intervals is free to download, with no in-app purchases.
Which has better reviews, Play By Ear or Intervals?
Intervals is rated higher. Play By Ear averages 4.4 out of 5 from 82 ratings, while Intervals averages 4.6 from 5 ratings.
Do Play By Ear or Intervals have ads?
Intervals shows ads; Play By Ear does not.
Which is updated more often, Play By Ear or Intervals?
Play By Ear ships an update every 2 months, and Intervals every 10 months. Most recently, Play By Ear was updated on October 23, 2026 and Intervals on October 29, 2026.

Other comparisons