Guitar Permutation Trainer vs Hark
Price, ratings, monetisation and update history for both apps, side by side — with what reviewers say about each.
Guitar Permutation Trainer
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Guitar Permutation Trainer helps you practice finger permutations across your fretboard with a built‑in metronome and adaptive difficulty. Practicing permutation exercises on instruments like guitar, bass, and piano targets the small, intrinsic muscles of the hand and fingers, such as the lumbricals and interossei. These muscles are responsible for fine motor control, finger independence, and strength. Repetitive, structured movement patterns improve neuromuscular coordination by reinforcing neural pathways between the brain and fingers - a process known as motor learning. According to research in kinesiology and occupational therapy, consistent practice builds endurance and prevents overuse injuries by promoting balanced muscle development. For developing musicians, this foundation is essential for achieving speed, accuracy, and long-term technical reliability without strain.
Hark
This app trains musicians to identify notes within a musical key, focusing on their relationship to the tonic. It offers various training modes, including single notes, melodies, and chord progressions, with hands-free operation for convenient practice.
- Identify notes as scale degrees
- Hands-free training mode
- Multiple training modes (degrees, melodies, chords, progressions)
- Visual staff with colored notes
- Explore any note in any key
- Multiple instrument sounds
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Hark trains your ear the way musicians actually hear: every note as a degree of the key, not a distance from the note before it. A cadence — or a drone — puts the tonic in your ear. A note sounds. You answer on a ladder of degrees, with the home note at the bottom like the ground. Then the note walks home, step by step, back to the tonic, so you hear the pull instead of reading about it. That walk is the explanation. There is no lecture. FOUR KINDS OF TRAINING • Degrees — one note at a time, from two degrees up to all twelve • Melodies — short phrases, name every note in order • Chords in the key — I, IV, V and the rest, heard by function • Progressions — three and four chords in a row INSIDE • A ladder of seven colours: tonic gold, dominant blue, leading tone red • Notes on a staff, spelled the way the key spells them • The walk home after every answer • Hands-free: train with the screen off, on a walk or in the car. The key, the note, a pause for your answer, then the answer spoken aloud. • Explore: hold any degree in any key and listen. No score, no history. • Five instruments: piano, guitar, strings, choir, electric piano • Your map: accuracy by degree and by chord, and what your ear mixes up • Ten languages, and a ladder labelled with numbers, movable-do syllables or note names — Do–Si, Do–Ti, H and B where they belong FREE, FOR GOOD Five degree levels in C major — up to all seven degrees across two octaves — two melody levels, two chord levels, the first progression level, hands-free training, the staff, a week of statistics, and all of Explore: every degree in every key, there to listen to. No daily cap, no timers. HARK PRO — MONTHLY, YEARLY OR ONCE Training in all twelve keys, chromatic degrees, minor keys, three octaves, all seven chords with sevenths, progressions, melodies up to five notes, custom drills, and the full map of your ear with four weeks of history. Choose a monthly or yearly subscription, with a one-week free trial for eligible customers, or a one-time purchase for permanent Pro access. Only one free trial is available per subscription group. After the trial, the selected subscription renews at the price shown in the app. Subscriptions renew automatically unless cancelled at least 24 hours before the current period ends. Manage or cancel them in your Apple Account subscription settings. To avoid a charge after a free trial, cancel at least 24 hours before it ends. The free levels stay free either way. NO ACCOUNT, NO ADS No sign-up, no ads, no streaks and no nagging. Your individual answers and detailed training history stay on your device. The app sends a limited set of usage events with a random installation identifier, including session summaries and purchase or free-trial events, to help us understand how it works. The privacy policy lists what is sent. Terms of Use: https://www.apple.com/legal/internet-services/itunes/dev/stdeula/ Privacy Policy: https://hark-ear.pages.dev/privacy
Screenshots
Verdict
The clearest difference is price: Hark at Free against Guitar Permutation Trainer's $1.99. Guitar Permutation Trainer's advantage is in-app purchases (none vs 1). On update cadence, ads, device support and iOS requirement 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
Hark is free to download; Guitar Permutation Trainer costs $1.99 up front. Hark sells 1 one-off in-app purchase. Guitar Permutation Trainer asks for nothing beyond the download.
Guitar Permutation Trainer ships an update every 3 days, Hark every 4 days. The most recent releases landed on October 10, 2026 and October 11, 2026 respectively.
| Parameter | Guitar Permutation Trainer | Hark |
|---|---|---|
| Price | $1.99 | Free — better |
| Rating | — | 5.0 (1 ratings) — better |
| Positive reviews | — | 100.0% of reviews |
| Number of ratings | — | 1 — better |
| Update frequency | Every 3 days — better | Every 4 days |
| Ads | No | No |
| In-app purchases | No — better | Yes |
| Monetization | — | Freemium |
| Devices | iPhone, iPad — better | iPhone |
| Requires iOS | 18.4 | 17.0 — better |
| Further details — not scored | ||
| Size | 3 MB | 11 MB |
| Age rating | 4+ | 4+ |
| Developer | Benjamin Chouinard | Ilia Usatov |
In-app purchases
Guitar Permutation Trainer
No in-app purchases
Hark
- Hark Pro$19.99
Questions
Is Guitar Permutation Trainer free?
Is Hark free?
Do Guitar Permutation Trainer or Hark have ads?
Which is updated more often, Guitar Permutation Trainer or Hark?
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