In short
- For learning relative pitch from scratch, Functional Ear Trainer's key-centred method is the one most teachers point to, and the core is free.
- For the widest free toolkit — intervals, chords, scales, rhythm, dictation — Perfect Ear covers the most ground in one app.
- For a structured, graded course, EarMaster is the most complete, at a subscription price.
- For theory alongside ear training, Tenuto is a one-off purchase from the makers of musictheory.net.
- For pitch memory — hearing a tone, holding it, finding it again — Percore measures it in cents and is free daily, but it does not teach intervals or chords.
How this list was made
Each app was checked against its own App Store or Google Play listing and its own site on 21 October 2026. Prices are what the listings showed on that date in US dollars; stores set local prices. We did not use star ratings or download counts — they move daily and say more about marketing than about what the exercises do. Percore, the app this site belongs to, is included where it genuinely belongs and excluded from the needs it does not serve.
The apps
Functional Ear Trainer
- Best for
- Learning relative pitch from nothing
- Platform
- iOS and Android
- Price
- Free, with in-app purchases
Most interval trainers play two notes and ask you to name the gap. Functional Ear Trainer does something different and, for most learners, more useful: it plays a cadence to establish a key, then a single note, and asks which scale degree it is. You learn how a note feels inside a key — the thing you actually need to play by ear or transcribe — rather than memorising the sound of a major sixth in isolation. The method is Alain Benbassat's, and the app suggests about ten minutes a day.
It is single-minded, which is its strength. There is no theory course, no rhythm section and no chord dictation. If what you want is to hear a melody and know where it sits in the key, start here.
The limit. It teaches one method well; for chords, rhythm or theory you will need a second app.
Perfect Ear
- Best for
- The most ground covered for free
- Platform
- iOS and Android
- Price
- Free, with optional exercise packs under US$5 each
Perfect Ear is the general-purpose toolkit. Interval comparison and recognition, chord and scale exercises, melodic dictation, absolute-pitch drills, note singing, rhythm reading, writing and imitation, a sight-reading trainer and a scale dictionary, with custom drills that let you choose the intervals, keys, ranges and directions you want. The free tier is generous; the paid packs add full exercise sets for rhythm and intervals.
The breadth is the point and also the cost: it is a set of tools rather than a course, so you have to know what to practise. Good for a player who already has a teacher or a plan.
The limit. No guided path. A beginner can easily spend a month in the wrong exercise.
EarMaster
- Best for
- A complete graded course
- Platform
- iOS, Android, macOS and Windows
- Price
- Free download; the All Access upgrade is a subscription, priced on its site
EarMaster is the one that looks like a curriculum, because it is one: thousands of exercises in graded lessons across intervals, chords, progressions, scales, rhythm and sight-singing, with microphone input so it can hear you sing or clap back. It has been around for decades and is used in music schools, and the desktop version is the most complete ear trainer available.
It is also the heaviest on this list, and the full set of exercises sits behind a subscription rather than a one-off price. If you want to be taken through a course from the first lesson to advanced jazz chords, it is the one; if you want five minutes on the bus, it is too much.
The limit. Subscription pricing for the full set and a desktop-first design; the phone app is the companion, not the main event.
Tenuto
- Best for
- Theory and ear training together, bought once
- Platform
- iOS
- Price
- US$4.99, once
Tenuto is the app from musictheory.net, which is where most people first learned to read a key signature online. It carries twenty-four customisable exercises — note, key signature, interval, scale and chord identification and construction, some on a piano keyboard — and six calculators. Ear training is part of it rather than the whole of it: interval, scale and chord ear exercises sit next to the reading and construction ones.
It is a one-off purchase with no subscription, no account and no ads, which in 2026 is rare enough to count as a feature.
The limit. iOS only, and the ear-training section is smaller than the dedicated apps above.
Complete Ear Trainer
- Best for
- A game-shaped progression through intervals and chords
- Platform
- iPhone, iPad and Mac
- Price
- Free first chapters; Full Version US$6.99 once
Complete Ear Trainer organises the standard material — intervals, chords, scales, melodic dictation and chord progressions — into a main path of more than 150 drills across four levels and twenty-eight chapters, where the stars you earn in one chapter unlock the next. An Easy Mode adds fifty beginner drills and an Arcade Mode a selection of twenty-one. It is the one to choose if you need structure but find EarMaster's course too formal: the levels do the planning for you, and the unlock is a single purchase rather than a subscription.
The first chapter of each mode is free, so you can tell whether the format suits you before paying. It is conventional in method, which is fine: the conventional method works for most people who stick with it.
The limit. Interval drills in isolation; it does not teach the key-centred hearing that Functional Ear Trainer does.
Percore
- Best for
- Pitch memory, measured in cents, as part of a daily practice
- Platform
- iPhone
- Price
- Free daily practice; Pro US$39.99 a year or US$4.99 a week
Percore is not an ear trainer in the sense the other five are. It does not teach intervals, chords or scale degrees. What it does is measure one thing the others mostly do not: pitch memory. A single sine tone plays once, somewhere between roughly 140 and 760 Hz, and goes silent. You find it again by dragging a waveform — the pitch glides under your finger — and you are told how many cents you were off. It is the same every day, with the same targets for everyone, so your series is comparable with yesterday's.
The free daily practice also includes colour, duration and shape, and Pro adds three more hearing modules: Rhythm (feel a beat, play it back), Direction (locate a sound by ear) and Timbre (match a sound's brightness). It suits a musician or producer who wants a two-minute daily reading of how steady their ear is, next to their other senses, rather than a course.
The limit. No intervals, no chords, no theory. If you are learning to play by ear, pair it with one of the first five.
Which one, for which need
| You want to… | Start with |
|---|---|
| Learn to hear notes inside a key and play by ear | Functional Ear Trainer |
| Practise intervals, chords, rhythm and dictation for free | Perfect Ear |
| Follow a complete course with singing and clapping input | EarMaster |
| Learn theory and ear training together, pay once | Tenuto |
| Clear levels through the standard interval and chord material | Complete Ear Trainer |
| Measure how well you hold a pitch, daily, in two minutes | Percore |
If the words in this table are unfamiliar — cents, relative pitch, pitch memory — How to improve pitch recognition explains them, and What is a cent in music? covers the unit every one of these apps eventually reports in.
Measure your pitch memory, free, in half a minute.
Download on the App StoreFrequently asked
What is the best free ear training app?
For breadth, Perfect Ear: intervals, chords, scales, rhythm and dictation are all in the free tier. For a method that teaches you to play by ear, Functional Ear Trainer's core exercises are free. For pitch memory specifically, Percore's daily practice is free.
Can an app give me perfect pitch?
Adults very rarely acquire true absolute pitch, and no app on this list claims to grant it. What can be trained is relative pitch — hearing intervals and scale degrees — and pitch memory, holding a tone accurately in mind for a while. Both improve with daily practice.
What is the difference between ear training and pitch memory?
Ear training usually means learning to identify musical relationships: intervals, chords, scale degrees. Pitch memory is holding a specific pitch in mind and finding it again, measured in cents. Most ear trainers drill the first; Percore measures the second.
How often should I do ear training?
Short and daily beats long and occasional. Ten minutes a day is the figure most apps and teachers suggest; a two-minute measurement is enough to see a trend if what you want is to track rather than to drill.
Were these apps tested?
Each was checked against its own listing and site on 21 October 2026, and the descriptions stay within what those say. Prices are as shown in US dollars on that date. Check the store page before buying — stores change prices and free tiers without notice.