Important Points
- Ear training apps can take your musicianship to the next level by honing your skills in pitch recognition, interval identification, and rhythm, which are often overlooked in traditional practice.
- Perfect Ear and Tenuto are the frontrunners among the best ear training apps, providing a wide range of exercises for musicians of all skill levels.
- Spending just 10 minutes a day practicing ear training through these apps can significantly enhance your ability to play by ear and improvise.
- The most successful ear training apps include game elements to keep users interested while they develop essential listening skills.
- Musicians who have honed their aural skills using these apps report increased confidence in their performances and a quicker learning curve for new material.
Training your ear is arguably the most important skill a musician can develop. While technical proficiency on your instrument is important, it is your ears that truly connect you to the language of music. TopMusic Studio helps thousands of musicians develop vital listening skills through specialized training programs that complement the apps we will be discussing today.
Whether you’re having trouble identifying intervals, struggling with pitch recognition, or simply want to take your musicianship to the next level, the right ear training app can change the way you interact with sound. The digital revolution has made ear training more accessible and engaging than ever before.
How Your Ears Can Lead You to Musical Greatness
Consider your favorite musicians. What sets them apart is more than just technical ability. It’s their capacity to instantly recognize and react to subtle changes in music. This isn’t some sort of sorcery or purely inborn talent. It’s a honed skill known as aural awareness, and it’s something you can systematically get better at with focused practice.
Effective ear training opens up the world of music around you. Melodies turn from mysterious sequences into recognizable patterns. Chord progressions shift from abstract ideas to familiar soundscapes. Your ability to improvise, write songs, and play with others skyrockets as you start to truly hear the music conversation instead of just mechanically taking part in it.
Traditional ear training methods, like spending hours at a piano practicing intervals, have put off a lot of musicians. However, modern ear training apps have completely changed the game by making the process interactive, progressive, and even fun. These apps give you instant feedback, monitor your progress, and adjust to your skill level. This creates a personalized learning experience that traditional methods just can’t compete with.
Top 7 Ear Training Apps for Musicians to Use in 2023
I’ve sifted through countless applications and sought advice from expert educators and performers to bring you the top seven ear training tools on the market. Each one has its own unique advantages that can appeal to various learning styles and musical objectives.
1. Perfect Ear: The Best Overall Ear Training App
Perfect Ear is my number one recommendation for musicians of all levels because it is the most comprehensive ear training app out there. This app is an all-in-one package for interval training, chord identification, rhythm practice, sight-reading, and scales and modes recognition. What makes Perfect Ear truly unique is its well-designed progression system that gradually ups the ante as you improve your skills. Perfect Ear is available on both iOS and Android. The free version is already quite generous, but if you want to unlock all 40+ exercise categories and remove ads for uninterrupted practice sessions, you can upgrade to premium for $9.99.
2. Tenuto: Great for Integrating Music Theory
From the makers of musictheory.net, Tenuto is a fantastic tool for bridging the gap between theoretical understanding and practical listening skills. The app offers 24 customizable exercises that cover note identification, interval recognition, chord construction, and keyboard visualization. What sets Tenuto apart is how it emphasizes the visual elements of music notation alongside aural skills, which makes it especially useful for classically trained musicians. At $3.99 for iOS (no subscription necessary), it’s an excellent value for a one-time purchase, but Android users will have to look elsewhere as it’s only available on Apple. For more insights on learning tools, check out expert opinions on learning online.
3. EarMaster: A Comprehensive Approach to Skill Development
EarMaster uses a systematic, curriculum-based approach to ear training that is similar to a formal music education. The app includes organized courses with clear progression paths, making it ideal for serious students who want a methodical training regimen. Its most notable feature is the Jazz course developed with Berklee College of Music, offering specialized training for jazz musicians. EarMaster also provides excellent rhythm training through its rhythm sight-reading and dictation exercises, complete with microphone input for clapping exercises. The professional-grade interface comes with a higher price tag ($59.95 for desktop, $9.99/month for mobile subscription), but the depth of content justifies the investment for dedicated musicians.
4. Complete Ear Trainer: A Game-Based Learning Experience
Complete Ear Trainer turns the often monotonous task of ear training into a fun, game-like activity. The app excels in its meticulously adjusted difficulty progression and achievement system, which provides instant rewards to keep you motivated. With over 25 exercises spanning intervals, chords, scales, and melodies, it offers a thorough training experience while keeping the process enjoyable and rewarding. The app is available on iOS and Android for $3.99 with no ongoing subscription, making it a cost-effective one-time purchase for your musical growth.
Complete Ear Trainer stands out with its smart algorithm that modifies itself based on your performance, giving you more practice in areas you find challenging. This custom approach guarantees you’re always working at the limit of your skill—the ideal place for skill improvement. Users especially like the clean, easy-to-use interface that removes distractions and keeps the focus on training.
5. Functional Ear Trainer: Ideal for Contextual Pitch Recognition
The Functional Ear Trainer app stands out from the crowd because it teaches you to recognize notes in their harmonic context rather than in isolation. This app uses Alain Benbassat’s method to help you develop relative pitch. It trains your ears to recognize the function of each scale degree within a key. This approach is more similar to how we actually experience music in real-world situations. You can download this app for free on both iOS and Android platforms. There is also a low-cost pro version ($2.99) that unlocks additional exercises and removes advertisements.
Functional Ear Trainer is a great choice for musicians who have a hard time with traditional interval-based training. The app uses cadences to establish tonal centers before identifying pitches, and users have reported that this approach has helped them to transcribe melodies and improvise with confidence. The app’s minimalist interface makes it easy for anyone to use, even if they’re not very tech-savvy.
6. Good Ear: Ideal for Novices
Good Ear offers a user-friendly starting point for musicians who are new to ear training. This app concentrates on basic skills with simple, clear exercises that boost confidence through early wins. Its interface is notably easy to navigate, steering clear of complex music theory terminology that could be off-putting for beginners. Good Ear is available on both iOS and Android. While the free version includes basic exercises, the premium upgrade ($4.99) provides access to more challenging difficulty levels and additional exercise categories.
This app takes a step-by-step approach, making sure you have a good grasp of the basics before you move on to more complex ideas, and this builds a strong foundation for your musical growth. Beginners in particular like the thorough explanations that come with each drill, which help them understand the connection between what they’re hearing and the music theory behind it.
7. MyEarTraining: Ideal for Personalized Practice
MyEarTraining is unique for its highly adaptable practice setting that lets you modify exercises to your particular needs. Musicians can change difficulty levels, choose particular intervals or chord types to practice, and design custom drills that focus on their individual weak areas. This adaptability makes it especially useful for intermediate and advanced musicians with particular training objectives. The app is available on both major platforms and offers a freemium model, with the premium version ($6.99/month or $39.99/year) providing access to all exercise types and detailed progress analytics.
The app’s most notable feature is its in-depth tracking of statistics, which provides a detailed look at your performance in various categories. These analytics allow you to see patterns in your errors and track progress over time, creating a data-driven method of ear training that is attractive to systematic learners.
What These Apps Can Help You Learn
The best ear training apps aren’t just about improving your listening skills in general, they help you master specific skills that are essential for becoming proficient in music. Knowing what these key skills are can help you choose the right tools to train with and monitor your progress more effectively.
Interval Recognition: The Core of Musical Listening
Interval recognition is the core component of ear training, as it teaches you to recognize the gap between two pitches. This skill is the foundation for understanding melodies, harmonies, and chord progressions. When you can immediately identify whether you’re listening to a perfect fifth or a minor third, you gain the capability to write down music by ear and foresee how a melody will conclude.
Typically, apps start with bigger, more distinguishable intervals such as octaves and perfect fifths, and then move on to more difficult ones like minor seconds and tritones. Practicing these exercises regularly reshapes your brain to automatically sort and identify these sound relationships, turning vague sounds into solid musical ideas you can incorporate into your performance.
Monitor Your Progress
Keeping tabs on your ear training advancement is key to staying motivated and making sure your practice is still working. Most of the best ear training apps have in-app analytics that monitor your accuracy rates, response times, and problem areas. Use these tools to spot trends in your errors and modify your practice routine as needed. Make concrete, quantifiable goals like “Identify all major and minor triads with 90% accuracy” instead of unclear objectives like “improve at chord recognition.”
Typical Ear Training Errors to Steer Clear Of
Regardless of having the top apps on hand, there are specific stumbling blocks that can hinder your advancement in cultivating solid listening abilities. Recognizing these typical errors will aid you in establishing a more productive practice routine and speed up your musical development. Keep in mind that ear training is a long-distance race, not a quick dash—regular, conscious practice produces much better outcomes than infrequent intense study periods.
Advancing Too Fast
Many musicians often rush through basic ear training exercises to move on to more advanced ones. This excitement can lead to a lack of foundational skills, which can later hinder your ability to grasp more complex ideas. Rather than advancing once exercises become “good enough,” strive for mastery—95% accuracy or better—before moving on to the next level. Real expertise comes from overlearning fundamental skills until they become second nature, forming a solid base for more advanced musical perception.
Not Using Skills in Real Music
A lot of musicians work hard on ear training exercises but don’t use these skills in their music. This causes a problem where you might be good at identifying intervals on their own but have trouble using this skill when listening to a song or playing with others. The answer is to often make the connection between abstract exercises and real music.
Give identifying intervals in familiar tunes a go, or try to pick out chord progressions in your favorite tracks, or transcribe short musical phrases by ear. This hands-on application strengthens neural pathways and aids your brain in recognizing patterns in context, not just in controlled practice settings.
Another great tip is to include your instrument in your ear training practice. After you identify an interval or chord in your app, play it right away on your instrument. This creates a multisensory learning experience that helps you understand and remember the information better. For those with disabilities, incorporating assistive tech devices can further enhance this learning experience.
- Listen actively to music in different genres, trying to identify intervals and chord progressions
- Practice singing intervals before identifying them in your app
- Try to play simple melodies by ear on your instrument
- Record yourself playing or singing and analyze your intonation accuracy
- Join improvisation sessions where you must rely on your ears
Inconsistent Practice
The brain builds neural pathways through repetition and consistency. Sporadic ear training—cramming before music lessons or practicing only when inspired—severely limits your progress. Ten minutes of daily practice yields dramatically better results than an hour once a week. The beauty of ear training apps is that they make short practice sessions possible anywhere—waiting for a bus, during a lunch break, or before bed. Create triggers that remind you to practice, such as connecting ear training to an existing habit like your morning coffee or evening wind-down routine.
Several musicians have discovered that keeping a record of their practice streak in a habit-forming app or just on a calendar can create accountability and motivation. The mental satisfaction of keeping up a daily practice streak can be a strong motivator to keep your ear training going, even on days when you’re swamped.
How These Apps Will Change Your Musical Abilities
The benefit of focused ear training goes beyond just identifying intervals or chords. As your listening skills improve, you’ll notice significant changes in how you connect with music, both as a listener and a performer. Musicians who make a habit of regular ear training often talk about a feeling of “musical enlightenment,” where parts of music that were previously hidden suddenly become clear and easy to understand. This change impacts every part of your musical life, from how effectively you practice to how confident you feel performing.
By training your ear, you’ll find that you’re able to pick up new songs much faster as you start to see patterns instead of having to think about each note. Improvising becomes more natural because you’re letting your ears lead your fingers. You’ll even find that you enjoy listening to music more because you’re able to pick up on the nuances in harmony and voice leading that you might have missed before. The time and effort you put into training your ear now will continue to pay off for as long as you’re a musician. For those interested in further enhancing their skills, exploring online educational courses can provide expert insights and additional learning opportunities.
“I used to struggle with sheet music, feeling stuck to the page. After six months of consistent ear training with these apps, I can now learn songs by ear in minutes that would have taken me days to master from notation. It’s like I’ve been given a musical superpower.” — Michael R., Guitarist and TopMusic Studio student
Perhaps the most important thing is that strong aural skills free you from dependence on written music. While notation remains a valuable tool, the ability to play what you hear—whether it’s a melody in your head or a song on the radio—opens up creative possibilities that aren’t available to musicians who rely exclusively on sheet music. This musical independence is particularly valuable in collaborative settings where quick adaptations and musical communication are essential.
Another advantage of ear training is that it boosts your self-esteem. As your ear improves, you’ll feel more confident in your musical skills and feel more connected to other musicians. The frustration of “not getting it” will decrease, and you’ll feel more satisfied because you’ll finally understand the musical language that’s all around you.
Commonly Asked Questions
In my many years of teaching and advising music educators, I’ve been asked a lot of questions about ear training apps and how effective they are. Below, I’ve answered the most frequently asked questions, addressing concerns from both beginners and experienced musicians. This information should help you manage your ear training journey with realistic expectations and practical strategies for success.
Despite technology making ear training more accessible than ever, many musicians still have misunderstandings about the process and timeline of developing strong aural skills. Knowing the truth behind these questions can help you approach your practice with patience and the right expectations.
Keep in mind that results will differ from person to person depending on a number of factors, such as previous musical experience, how often you practice, and even the unique ways our brains process sound. The responses below are representative of what most people experience, but your own path may look a bit different.
How long does it take to become good at ear training?
Ear training is a gradual process, and it usually takes 6-12 months of consistent practice to see substantial improvements. Most musicians notice the first significant breakthroughs after about 4-6 weeks of daily practice, usually in interval recognition or simple chord identification. Complete mastery—the ability to instantly recognize complex harmonies and transcribe music accurately on the first listen—may take several years to develop. The key factor isn’t your starting point but your consistency; 10 minutes daily will yield faster results than hour-long sessions once a week. For those looking to enhance their learning experience, exploring online educational courses can provide additional resources and expert guidance.
Are ear training apps useful if I can’t carry a tune?
Actual tone deafness (amusia) is very uncommon, affecting fewer than 4% of people. What most folks mistake for “tone deafness” is really an untrained listening ability that can be greatly improved with structured practice. Ear training apps are especially helpful for those who have trouble recognizing pitches, as they provide immediate feedback and slowly build the neural pathways necessary for sound discrimination. Start with the largest intervals (octaves) and slowly work your way down to smaller ones, celebrating small victories rather than expecting immediate perfection. If you can tell the difference between questions and statements in spoken language (which have different pitch contours), your brain is already capable of recognizing musical pitches.
Should you splurge on the paid versions of ear training apps?
There are three main reasons why you might want to consider getting the paid versions of ear training apps: they get rid of annoying ads that disrupt your practice, they give you access to more exercises for a more well-rounded practice, and they let you track your progress in detail so you can see where you need to improve. If you’re a serious musician and you use the app every day, these benefits could make it worth the price. Plus, many of these apps cost less than a single music lesson, and they give you months’ worth of practice material.
When deciding if you should upgrade, think about how often you practice. If you use the app every day, the premium features will likely be worth the cost. If you’re still getting into the habit of practicing, get good at the free content before you spend money on premium features.
Can I use ear training apps if I don’t read music?
Yes, you can! Many ear training apps are designed to be used by musicians who don’t read traditional notation. While some music theory knowledge is beneficial, most apps introduce concepts gradually with visual and audio examples that don’t require score reading. In fact, ear training can be a great supplement to learning by ear, as it helps you systematically develop the listening skills that intuitive musicians often naturally have. For those interested in enhancing their accessibility to music learning, exploring assistive tech devices can also be beneficial.
Functional Ear Trainer and the beginner levels of Perfect Ear are ideal for musicians who play by ear because they concentrate on sound recognition rather than notation. As you improve, you may discover that your enhanced listening skills make it easier to learn notation because you start to associate sounds with their written form.
- Begin with apps that prioritize relative pitch over absolute pitch
- If you’re comfortable with these instruments, use apps that provide keyboard or fretboard visuals
- Concentrate on functional ear training that instructs by sound on scale degrees
- Search for apps that provide audio examples instead of just notation examples
- Consider apps that use color-coding or shape-based depictions of musical ideas
Many of today’s top musicians honed their skills primarily through listening rather than reading. Ear training apps can help formalize this natural method of learning music, providing you with the theoretical framework to comprehend what you’re already listening to.
How can I tell if my ear training is getting better?
Improvement in ear training can be hard to measure, as it often comes in fits and starts, with periods of stagnation followed by sudden leaps forward. The most reliable signs that you’re getting better include: getting faster at identifying intervals or chords, getting higher scores on app exercises, being able to pick out patterns in more and more complex pieces of music, and most importantly, being able to do things like figure out melodies by ear or notice when the chords change in a song. Most good ear training apps have features that let you track your progress and see how much you’re improving over time.
Aside from app metrics, consider real-world musical situations. Do you notice yourself identifying the chord progressions in songs on the radio? Can you harmonize with other musicians more effortlessly? Are you observing details in familiar recordings that you previously overlooked? These practical applications are the real gauge of ear training success.
