Theory Lessons vs Complete Ear Trainer
Price, ratings, monetisation and update history for both apps, side by side — with what reviewers say about each.
Theory Lessons
Explore 39 animated music theory lessons covering fundamental concepts like scales, chords, and intervals. Deepen your understanding of musical structure and analysis with this comprehensive resource.
- 39 animated music theory lessons
- Covers staff, clefs, and ledger lines
- Explains note and rest duration
- Details major and minor scales
- Teaches intervals and chord inversions
- Includes Roman numeral analysis
- Features musical analysis examples
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Theory Lessons features 39 music theory lessons from musictheory.net, presented in their original animated versions. Complete lesson list: • The Staff, Clefs, and Ledger Lines • Note Duration • Measures and Time Signature • Rest Duration • Dots and Ties • Steps and Accidentals • Simple and Compound Meter • Odd Meter • The Major Scale • The Minor Scales • Scale Degrees • Key Signatures • Key Signature Calculation • Generic Intervals • Specific Intervals • Writing Intervals • Interval Inversion • Introduction to Chords • Triad Inversion • Seventh Chords • More Seventh Chords • Seventh Chord Inversion • Diatonic Triads • Roman Numeral Analysis: Triads • Diatonic Seventh Chords • Roman Numeral Analysis: Seventh Chords • Composing with Minor Scales • Voicing Chords • Analysis: O Canada • Nonharmonic Tones • Phrases and Cadences • Circle Progressions • Common Chord Progressions • Triads in First Inversion • Triads in Second Inversion • Analysis: Auld Lang Syne • Building Neapolitan Chords • Using Neapolitan Chords • Analysis: Moonlight Sonata
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.
- 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
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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
Verdict
The clearest difference is price: Complete Ear Trainer at Free against Theory Lessons's $2.99. Complete Ear Trainer also leads on update cadence (fortnightly vs every 4 months) and rating (4.7 vs 4.4). Theory Lessons's advantage is in-app purchases (none vs 3) and chart position (#9 vs unranked). On review sentiment, ratings volume, 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
Complete Ear Trainer is free to download; Theory Lessons costs $2.99 up front. Complete Ear Trainer sells 3 in-app purchases, starting at $0.99 per month. Theory Lessons asks for nothing beyond the download.
Complete Ear Trainer holds the better App Store score, 4.7 against 4.4. Both are backed by a comparable volume of ratings — 126 and 199 respectively. Written reviews point the same way: 83% of Theory Lessons's written reviews are positive against 85% of Complete Ear Trainer's.
Theory Lessons ships an update every 4 months, Complete Ear Trainer fortnightly. The most recent releases landed on October 15, 2026 and October 13, 2026 respectively.
| Parameter | Theory Lessons | Complete Ear Trainer |
|---|---|---|
| Price | $2.99 | Free — better |
| Rating | 4.4 (126 ratings) | 4.7 (199 ratings) — better |
| Positive reviews | 83.1% of reviews | 85.1% of reviews — better |
| Number of ratings | 126 | 199 — better |
| Update frequency | Every 4 months | Fortnightly — better |
| Ads | No | No |
| In-app purchases | No — better | Yes |
| Monetization | Free — better | Free with in-app purchases |
| Best chart rank | #9 — better | — |
| Devices | iPhone, iPad, iPod — better | iPhone, iPad |
| Requires iOS | 15.8 — better | 17.5 |
| Further details — not scored | ||
| Size | 4 MB | 78 MB |
| Age rating | 4+ | 4+ |
| Developer | musictheory.net | Binary Guilt |
Customer experience
Theory Lessons
Complete Ear Trainer
Bugs and requests
Theory Lessons
Reported bugs
2 issues- Directional arrows and guidance symbols not working on iPad
- Text panels cut off at the bottom and unable to be resized
Requested features
4 requests- Add more advanced theory topics
- Incorporate practice exercises and quizzes
- Include support for other instruments beyond piano
- Integrate with the Tenuto app for a more complete experience
Complete Ear Trainer
Not enough reviews yet to summarise bugs or requests.
In-app purchases
Theory Lessons
No in-app purchases
Complete Ear Trainer
- Cloud Sync and Web access$0.991 Month
- Cloud Sync and Web access$9.991 Year
- Full Version$6.99
Questions
Is Theory Lessons free?
Is Complete Ear Trainer free?
Which has better reviews, Theory Lessons or Complete Ear Trainer?
Do Theory Lessons or Complete Ear Trainer have ads?
Which is updated more often, Theory Lessons or Complete Ear Trainer?
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