Pitch trainer vs Functional Ear Trainer
Price, ratings, monetisation and update history for both apps, side by side — with what reviewers say about each.
Pitch trainer
Develop perfect and relative pitch with this ear training app focused on just intonation. Learn to identify and match harmonic intervals by ear, moving beyond equal temperament. Ideal for musicians and singers seeking precise intonation.
- Just intonation ear training
- Perfect and relative pitch development
- Double-stop note learning
- Harmonic interval matching
- Beat-based tone adjustment
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Ear training, play by ear, intervals, chords and rhythm — 15 games in one app. Warm up your ears before singing, band, orchestra, choir, guitar or piano practice. Harmonize teaches distance between notes by making you rebuild what you just heard. Your mic picks up your voice or instrument and shows how far off you are, in cents. No music theory needed: a friendly shrimp plays the example, and you copy it. ■ Build the interval - Double Stop — add a second note on top of a reference: octave, perfect fifth, major third and more - Chords — take one role inside a three-note chord and hold your part - Moon — a slow, low-gravity version of Double Stop for advanced ears - Low Register — the real bass range, so low that a phone speaker cannot reproduce the fundamental; you read the pitch from its overtones - Trill — hold one finger down and press/lift with another. 6 fingerings x 36 exercises ■ Read the score - Sight Reading — read the notes on the staff and answer on the two-row keyboard. The white keys are labeled with their note names, so you can count lines and spaces even if sheet music is new to you. 9 categories, 180 levels, 1,020 exercises ■ Rhythm - Rhythm — tap along with the scrolling score - Polyrhythm — two different pulses at once, one per hand - Mimic Taiko — call and response on Japanese drums. Hear a pattern, play it back - Silence — no sound at all. Measure time with your internal clock ■ Listen and remember - Play by Ear — reproduce the melody you heard on the keyboard. 9 categories, 129 levels, 516 phrases - Scales — trace a scale one note at a time - Arpeggios — hear a broken chord and follow it - Memory — a sound version of concentration: find the two takoyaki that ring alike - Goldfish Scooping — memorize each swimming fish by its note, then scoop them in the order given ■ Tools - Weekly Challenge — 5 tasks that change every week, with the example played only once. 3 runs per week, ranked on a Game Center weekly leaderboard - Metronome - Tuner — live readout in cents ■ Under the hood - 14 instrument sounds to choose from - Reference A from 440 to 446 Hz - Note names in English, German, Japanese or Italian - Rhythm games calibrate audio latency for your device - Judged against just intonation, so it carries straight over to choir, wind band, orchestra and ensemble work - A tutorial that gets you playing right away ■ Made for - Singers who want to stop drifting off pitch - Anyone training relative pitch - Players who want to pick up tunes by ear - Musicians chasing that moment when your note locks into the chord ■ Languages Japanese, English, German, Spanish, French, Italian, Polish, Portuguese (Brazil), Korean, Chinese (Simplified and Traditional) Free to start. Extra content and ad removal are one-time purchases — there is no monthly subscription.
Functional Ear Trainer
Develop your musical ear by learning to recognize tones within the context of a specific musical key. This app helps you understand the function of each note, improving your ability to transcribe, improvise, and play music by ear. Suitable for all ages and skill levels, with just 10 minutes of daily practice.
- Recognize tones in musical key context
- Understand note function
- Improve transcription skills
- Enhance improvisation
- Develop perfect pitch
- Daily 10-minute practice
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Have you (or maybe one of your friends) ever wanted to learn to transcribe or play music by ear? It is so important for a musician to know what you are hearing. A good musical ear helps when you are composing, improvising, transcribing melodies, or playing with others. Most likely you have already tried different programs to learn to recognize intervals or even to acquire perfect pitch. However, although such programs develop your ear, but can you actually play any melody you hear as soon as you listen to it? Imagine you could understand music... It is like when somebody is talking to you, you not only hear pleasant sounds, but you recognize words and their meaning. One day I came across Alain Benbassat's program called "Functional Ear Trainer" and have been using it ever since. It is based on Alain's method to learn to recognize tones. The main difference between the Functional Ear Trainer and other methods is that it teaches you to distinguish between tones in the context of a particular musical key. You begin to recognize the role (or function) of each tone in this key, which is incredibly similar to its role in other keys of the same scale. And it is *guaranteed* anyone can gradually develop this skill. It does not matter: - who you are - an absolute beginner in music or a virtuoso professional musician; - how old you are - a 3 yo kid or a 90+ adult; - what musical instrument you play (you don't even have to play one). The only requirement is to practice for 10 minutes a day. I was so excited about this ear trainer that I have developed a mobile app based on the Alain Benbassat method. I hope you will find it useful.
Screenshots
Verdict
The clearest difference is rating: Functional Ear Trainer at 4.9 against Pitch trainer's 4.4. Functional Ear Trainer also leads on ads (none vs shown) and review sentiment (96% vs 68%). Pitch trainer's advantage is update cadence (every 5 days vs every 7 months). On price, in-app purchases, monetization model 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
Both are free to download. Pitch trainer sells 7 one-off in-app purchases and Functional Ear Trainer sells 1 one-off in-app purchase. Whichever you choose, the download price is not the number that matters.
Functional Ear Trainer holds the better App Store score, 4.9 against 4.4. That said, the two scores are not equally well evidenced: Functional Ear Trainer has 3.7K ratings behind it against 414, so its average is the more settled of the two. Written reviews point the same way: 68% of Pitch trainer's written reviews are positive against 96% of Functional Ear Trainer's.
Pitch trainer ships an update every 5 days, Functional Ear Trainer every 7 months. The most recent releases landed on October 2, 2026 and October 1, 2026 respectively.
| Parameter | Pitch trainer | Functional Ear Trainer |
|---|---|---|
| Price | Free | Free |
| Rating | 4.4 (414 ratings) | 4.9 (3.7K ratings) — better |
| Positive reviews | 68.3% of reviews | 96.2% of reviews — better |
| Number of ratings | 414 | 3.7K — better |
| Update frequency | Every 5 days — better | Every 7 months |
| Ads | Yes | No — better |
| In-app purchases | Yes | Yes |
| Monetization | Free with in-app purchases | Free with in-app purchases |
| Devices | iPhone, iPad, iPod | iPhone, iPad, iPod |
| Requires iOS | 14.0 — better | 15.0 |
| Further details — not scored | ||
| Size | 54 MB | 41 MB |
| Age rating | 9+ | 4+ |
| Developer | Toshihiko Arai | Serhii Korchan |
Customer experience
Pitch trainer
Functional Ear Trainer
Bugs and requests
Pitch trainer
Not enough reviews yet to summarise bugs or requests.
Functional Ear Trainer
Reported bugs
2 issues- Keyboard display issues when selecting all chromatic notes
- Inconsistent note resolutions in some exercises
Requested features
5 requests- Add support for multiple notes/chords at once
- Implement a mode for training key recognition
- Provide more customization options for exercises
- Include voice input to play the notes
- Add support for German/Norwegian key names
In-app purchases
Pitch trainer
- Buy a coffee$4.99
- Unlock Moon Stage$4.99
- Unlock all Rhythm stages$4.99
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- Support generously$9.99
- Unlock All PRO Features$9.99
- Remove Ads$9.99
- Support a lot$29.99
Functional Ear Trainer
- Functional Ear Trainer Plus$19.99
Questions
Is Pitch trainer free?
Is Functional Ear Trainer free?
Which has better reviews, Pitch trainer or Functional Ear Trainer?
Do Pitch trainer or Functional Ear Trainer have ads?
Which is updated more often, Pitch trainer or Functional Ear Trainer?
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