Play By Ear vs Active Ear
Price, ratings, monetisation and update history for both apps, side by side — with what reviewers say about each.
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.
- Pitch recognition for instrumental interaction
- Hands-free, continuous play
- Interval, chord, and melody exercises
- Customizable tempo
- Multiple key centers
- Microphone calibration
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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.
Active Ear
Develop your musical ear with a comprehensive ear training app. It offers various exercises to help musicians identify pitches, intervals, chords, and progressions. Customize your learning with practice modes and test your knowledge with quizzes.
- Pitch Recognition
- Interval Training
- Chord Quality Identification
- Bassline Training
- Progression Training
- Chord Inversions
- Customizable Practice Mode
- Quiz Mode
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Active Ear is for musicians of all skill levels and instrument types. With dozens of exercises ranging from beginner to advanced, Active Ear focuses on teaching you to identify pitches, intervals, chords, and progressions using only your Ear. The Practice Mode of the app allows you to customize the challenges to focus only on areas you're interested in improving. Once you're confident with the Practice Mode, you test yourself in the Quiz Mode of the app to see how well you understand the concepts. Active Ear Comes with six Ear Training Programs: - Pitch Recognition - Interval Training - Chord Quality - Bassline Training - Progression Training - Chord Inversions
Screenshots
Verdict
The clearest difference is rating: Active Ear at 4.7 against Play By Ear's 4.4. Active Ear also leads on update cadence (monthly vs every 2 months) and review sentiment (94% vs 82%). Play By Ear's advantage is iOS requirement (12.0 vs 15.1). On price, ratings volume, 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
Both are free to download. Neither carries in-app purchases, so what you see is what you pay.
Active Ear holds the better App Store score, 4.7 against 4.4. Both are backed by a comparable volume of ratings — 82 and 49 respectively. Written reviews point the same way: 82% of Play By Ear's written reviews are positive against 94% of Active Ear's.
Play By Ear ships an update every 2 months, Active Ear monthly. The most recent releases landed on November 1, 2026 and November 3, 2026 respectively.
| Parameter | Play By Ear | Active Ear |
|---|---|---|
| Price | Free | Free |
| Rating | 4.4 (82 ratings) | 4.7 (49 ratings) — better |
| Positive reviews | 81.7% of reviews | 93.8% of reviews — better |
| Number of ratings | 82 — better | 49 |
| Update frequency | Every 2 months | Monthly — better |
| Ads | No | No |
| In-app purchases | No | No |
| Monetization | Free | Free |
| Devices | iPhone, iPod | iPhone, iPad, iPod — better |
| Requires iOS | 12.0 — better | 15.1 |
| Further details — not scored | ||
| Size | 24 MB | 23 MB |
| Age rating | 4+ | 4+ |
| Developer | SuperNonstop.com, Inc. | MCPHERSON'S MUSIC LLC |
Customer experience
Play By Ear
Active Ear
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
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- 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
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- 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
Active Ear
Not enough reviews yet to summarise bugs or requests.
In-app purchases
Play By Ear
No in-app purchases
Active Ear
No in-app purchases
Questions
Is Play By Ear free?
Is Active Ear free?
Which has better reviews, Play By Ear or Active Ear?
Do Play By Ear or Active Ear have ads?
Which is updated more often, Play By Ear or Active Ear?
Other comparisons
