Comparison

Tenuto vs Complete Ear Trainer

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

Head to head
About

Tenuto

Enhance your musicality with a comprehensive suite of 24 customizable theory exercises and six essential musical calculators. Practice note and chord identification, ear training, and construct musical elements. Tools include accidentals, intervals, scales, chords, analysis symbols, and twelve-tone matrices.

Highlights
  • 24 customizable theory exercises
  • Note and chord identification
  • Ear training for intervals and scales
  • Musical construction exercises
  • Accidental calculator
  • Interval calculator
  • Chord calculator
Read full description

Tenuto is a collection of 24 highly-customizable exercises designed to enhance your musicality. From recognizing chords on a keyboard to identifying intervals by ear, it has an exercise for you. Tenuto also includes six musical calculators for accidentals, intervals, scales, chords, analysis symbols, and twelve-tone matrices. A short description of the exercises and calculators follows. –––––– • Note Identification • Key Signature Identification • Interval Identification • Scale Identification • Chord Identification Tap the button corresponding to the written staff line. For example: if shown a C, E, and G with a sharp; tap the "Augmented Triad" button. –––––– • Note Construction • Key Signature Construction • Interval Construction • Scale Construction • Chord Construction Construct the specified label by moving notes and/or adding accidentals. For example: if shown a C and an "Augmented 4th" label, move the second note to F and add a sharp. –––––– • Keyboard Reverse Identification Tap the piano key corresponding to the written note on the staff. While similar to Note Identification, this exercise uses a piano keyboard rather than note name buttons. • Keyboard Note Identification • Keyboard Interval Identification • Keyboard Scale Identification • Keyboard Chord Identification Tap the button corresponding to the highlighted piano key(s). If the C and G keys are highlighted, tap the "P5" (Perfect 5th) button. –––––– • Fretboard Note Identification • Fretboard Interval Identification • Fretboard Scale Identification • Fretboard Chord Identification Tap the button corresponding to the marked fretboard position(s). If the 2nd fret of the D string is marked, tap the "E" button. –––––– • Keyboard Ear Training • Note Ear Training Listen to the played reference and question notes. Select the piano key or note button corresponding to the question note. • Interval Ear Training • Scale Ear Training • Chord Ear Training Tap the button corresponding to the played notes. If E and F are played, tap the "Minor 2nd" button. –––––– • Accidental Calculator Display the accidental for a note and key. • Interval Calculator Display the interval for a note, type, and key. • Chord Calculator Display the scale for a tonic and scale type. • Chord Calculator Display the chord for a note, type, and key. • Analysis Calculator Display the chord for a symbol and key. • Matrix Calculator Display the twelve-tone matrix for a specified tone row.

About

Complete Ear Trainer

Develop your musical ear and music theory knowledge with this comprehensive training app. It offers progressive drills, various sound options, and a gamified learning experience to improve improvisation, composition, and performance skills.

Highlights
  • 150+ progressive drills
  • 11 drill types
  • 24 intervals, 36 chord types
  • Melodic dictations and chord progressions
  • Gamified learning with star system
  • Custom drill and program creation
  • Cloud sync across devices
Features
Read full description

The ultimate ear training app for musicians. Develop your relative pitch to the full by improving your aural skills and your music theory knowledge. This will better many aspects of your life as a musician, be it regarding improvisation, composition, arrangement, interpretation, singing, or playing in a band. Designed like a video game and with strong pedagogical concepts in mind, this app will make you truly master each interval, chord, scale, etc. before taking you to the next one. Features • 150+ progressive drills arranged over 4 levels / 28 chapters • 11 drill types, 24 intervals, 36 chord types, chord inversions, 28 scale types, melodic dictations, chord progressions • Easy mode: 50+ progressive drills arranged over 12 chapters especially designed for beginners • Play a selection of 21 drills in arcade mode • 5 octaves of actual recorded grand piano sounds • 7 additional sound banks are available, all with actual recorded sounds: vintage piano, Rhodes piano, electric guitar, harpsichord, concert harp, strings and pizzicato strings • In each chapter, a theory card will introduce you to the concepts you will need to know • No need to know how to read music on a staff • Designed like a video game: earn 3 stars in each drill of a chapter to unlock the next one. Or will you be able to obtain perfect 5-star scores? • Don't want to follow the preestablished path of progression? Create and save your own custom drills and rehearse them at your own convenience • Create full custom training programs and invite friends or students to join them. If for example you're a teacher you can create custom programs for your students, add drills every week and view their scores on private leaderboards • Never lose any progress: cloud sync across your various devices • 25 achievements to unlock • Worldwide leaderboards (global, per level, per chapter, easy mode, arcade mode) • Nice and clean user interface with 2 display themes: light and dark • Designed by a musician and music teacher with a Royal Conservatory master's degree Full Version • Download the app and try out the first chapter of each mode for free • One-time in-app purchase to unlock the full version on all your devices Having a problem? Got a suggestion? You can reach us at hello@completeeartrainer.com Terms of use: https://www.apple.com/legal/internet-services/itunes/dev/stdeula/

Screenshots

Tenuto4 screens
Complete Ear Trainer4 screens

Verdict

The call

The clearest difference is price: Complete Ear Trainer at Free against Tenuto's $4.99. Complete Ear Trainer also leads on update cadence (fortnightly vs every 3 months). Tenuto's advantage is in-app purchases (none vs 3) and chart position (#4 vs unranked). On rating, ads 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

Complete Ear Trainer is free to download; Tenuto costs $4.99 up front. Complete Ear Trainer sells 3 in-app purchases, starting at $0.99 per month. Tenuto asks for nothing beyond the download.

ReceptionRating · Positive reviews · Number of ratings

On the App Store both sit at effectively the same score — 4.8 for Tenuto against 4.7 for Complete Ear Trainer. Both are backed by a comparable volume of ratings — 652 and 199 respectively. Written reviews are what separate them: 94% of Tenuto's written reviews are positive against 85% of Complete Ear Trainer's.

UpkeepUpdate frequency

Tenuto ships an update every 3 months, Complete Ear Trainer fortnightly. Both last shipped on October 13, 2026.

Scorecard8 real differences · 3 level
Tenuto versus Complete Ear Trainer: the parameters behind the verdict, then further details
ParameterTenutoComplete Ear Trainer
Price$4.99Free — better
Rating4.8 (652 ratings) — better4.7 (199 ratings)
Positive reviews94.3% of reviews — better85.1% of reviews
Number of ratings652 — better199
Update frequencyEvery 3 monthsFortnightly — better
AdsNoNo
In-app purchasesNo — betterYes
MonetizationPaidFree with in-app purchases — better
Best chart rank#4 — better—
DevicesiPhone, iPad, iPod — betteriPhone, iPad
Requires iOS15.8 — better17.5
Further details — not scored
Size11 MB78 MB
Age rating4+4+
Developermusictheory.netBinary Guilt

Customer experience

Tenuto

All ratings652 ratings
Positive93.9%
Neutral2.0%
Negative4.1%
Written reviews352 reviews
Positive94.3%
Neutral2.8%
Negative2.8%

Complete Ear Trainer

All ratings199 ratings
Positive93.5%
Neutral2.0%
Negative4.5%
Written reviews174 reviews
Positive85.1%
Neutral7.5%
Negative7.5%

Bugs and requests

Tenuto

Reported bugs

5 issues
  • Sound cuts out
  • Unresponsive at times
  • Freezes up
  • Doesn't work well for guitar
  • Incorrect chord/key associations

Requested features

20 requests
  • Cadences and inversions for ear training
  • Chord progressions for ear training
  • Melodic and harmonic minor modes for scale recognition
  • 6th, 9th, 11th and 13th chord extensions for chord recognition
  • Melodic dictation
Show 15 more
  • Rhythm exercises
  • Fretboard reverse identification
  • Chord inversions for chord identification
  • Scales written on staff using various clefs
  • Rhythm, melodic, and harmonic dictation exercises
  • Part writing exercises
  • Exercises for form, cadences, etc.
  • MIDI support
  • Autoplay function
  • Ability to input notes/chords on fretboard
  • Chord progression ear training
  • Inversion options for chord and interval identification
  • Melodic and harmonic minor scale identification
  • Extended chord identification
  • Rhythmic dictation

Complete Ear Trainer

Not enough reviews yet to summarise bugs or requests.

In-app purchases

None

Tenuto

No in-app purchases

3 purchases

Complete Ear Trainer

Subscriptions2
  • Cloud Sync and Web access$0.991 Month
  • Cloud Sync and Web access$9.991 Year
One-time1
  • Full Version$6.99

Questions

Is Tenuto free?
Tenuto costs $4.99, with no in-app purchases.
Is Complete Ear Trainer free?
Complete Ear Trainer is free to download, with in-app purchases available.
Which has better reviews, Tenuto or Complete Ear Trainer?
Tenuto is rated higher. Tenuto averages 4.8 out of 5 from 652 ratings, while Complete Ear Trainer averages 4.7 from 199 ratings.
Do Tenuto or Complete Ear Trainer have ads?
Neither Tenuto nor Complete Ear Trainer shows ads.
Which is updated more often, Tenuto or Complete Ear Trainer?
Tenuto ships an update every 3 months, and Complete Ear Trainer fortnightly. Most recently, Tenuto was updated on October 13, 2026 and Complete Ear Trainer on October 13, 2026.

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