9 Best Ear Training Apps of 2026

EarMaster is the most complete ear trainer we compared. The app lists 4000+ exercises that cover interval, chord and scale recognition, chord inversions, harmonic progressions, melodic and rhythmic dictation, and sight-singing, where you sing a score into the microphone and get feedback on pitch and timing. A Beginner's Course teaches rhythm, notation and basic theory alongside the ear work, and dedicated courses prepare students for ABRSM Aural Tests 1 to 5 and RCM Voice exams. The free version is genuinely useful, with customized interval and chord identification and the first 20+ lessons of the Beginner's Course. Paid content comes as App Store bundles, such as the Beginner's Course bundle at $7.99, or as a subscription that unlocks everything on phone, tablet and computer. The tradeoff is complexity: the menus and purchase options are dense, and the subscription is priced in euros on EarMaster's own site.

Perfect Ear packs a lot into a free download. Its drills cover interval comparison and recognition, chord recognition with inversions and progressions, scales, melodic dictation, rhythm reading and imitation, sight reading, and absolute pitch and note singing, so it trains more than pitch alone. Guided courses run from beginner to advanced, and a daily practice dashboard helps you keep a routine. The standout for intermediate players is the custom exercise editor: you can define your own chords, scales and rhythmic figures, set ranges and directions, and drill only what you keep getting wrong. Guitarists also get a Fretboard Trainer with custom tunings. Upgrades are in-app purchases, with a Full Exercise Pack at $4.99, Premium at $14.99 and individual packs from $0.99, which keeps costs low but makes the full price harder to see at a glance. It lacks formal exam courses, so students preparing for graded aural tests may prefer EarMaster.

Complete Ear Trainer turns relative pitch training into a game with a clear path. It lists 150+ progressive drills arranged over 4 levels and 28 chapters, covering 24 intervals, 36 chord types, chord inversions, 28 scale types, melodic dictation and chord progressions, and you earn stars in each drill to open the next chapter. Beginners get an easy mode with 50+ drills, and a theory card introduces each concept, so you do not need to read music on a staff. Sounds are recorded instruments, starting with a grand piano and including Rhodes, electric guitar, harp and strings. You can also build custom drills, and teachers can create programs for students with private leaderboards. The pricing is simple: try the first chapter of each mode free, then pay $6.99 once for the full version. It focuses on pitch and harmony, with less rhythm and singing work than the top two picks.

Functional Ear Trainer takes a different route from interval drills. Based on Alain Benbassat's method, it teaches you to recognize each tone by its role, or function, in a major or minor key, which is closer to how you hear notes in a real song. The free desktop version 2 on miles.be includes a step-by-step e-learning course and a practice lab with customizable exercises, and the iOS and Android apps by Serhii Korchan bring the same method to your phone. The app asks for about 10 minutes of practice a day, and the routine is easy to keep. The core app is free, and an optional Functional Ear Trainer Plus upgrade costs $19.99. The tradeoff is scope: it does not cover rhythm, sight-singing or chord progressions, so pair it with a broader trainer if you need those skills or face an aural exam.

Theta Music Trainer teaches ear training through short games, and it covers more ground than most. Its 12 courses and 50 games span pitch matching and tuning, scales and solfege, melodic and harmonic intervals, melody, chords, chord progressions, rhythm and notation, plus sound games on mixing, equalization and effects that suit producers. The free tier opens the first 3 levels of every game and adds 3 credits a week for higher levels. Theta Player, the individual plan, is $9 per month or $39 per year, which is one of the cheapest full subscriptions here. Teachers can pick Theta Studio at $79 a year for 30 student accounts with assignments and progress tracking, and schools get a schoolwide plan with Google Classroom, Clever and ClassLink support. Adults who want a serious, exam-style workflow may find the game framing less direct than EarMaster or Complete Ear Trainer.

musictheory.net is the simplest free place to start. Its exercises run in a browser with no download, and the ear training section covers keyboard ear training, where you hear a note and press the matching piano key, plus note, interval, scale and chord ear training. The same site offers identification and construction drills on the staff, keyboard and fretboard, so students can connect what they hear with what they read. Teachers get two useful tools: an Exercise Customizer that creates a permanent link to a set exercise, and a Code Checker that validates verification codes students submit after practice. Everything is free, and the site asks users who find it helpful to buy its Tenuto app. The limits are depth and structure: there are no courses, no progress path and no rhythm or dictation drills, so it works best as a supplement or for a quick warm-up.

teoria is a free website built by José Rodríguez Alvira to support his courses at the Conservatory of Music of Puerto Rico, and it has been online since January 1997. It suits college and conservatory students because its exercises go beyond intervals and chords into melodic dictation, two voice and four voice dictation, harmonic progressions, rhythmic dictation using patterns and harmonic analysis of short excerpts. Many exercises accept answers from a MIDI keyboard in Chrome, Firefox, Edge or Opera, and signing in lets you save scores and see your practice time over the last 30 days. Tutorials and reference pages explain the theory behind each drill. The site has removed all advertising and runs on donations. Its design is dated, it is less pleasant on a phone, and it does not lead beginners through a course, so newcomers should start with an app and add teoria for dictation work.

Tenuto is the offline, expanded version of the musictheory.net exercises for iPhone and iPad. It bundles 24 highly customizable exercises, including keyboard ear training, note ear training and interval, scale and chord ear training, where you hear the notes and tap the matching answer. The rest of the app covers written skills: identifying and constructing notes, key signatures, intervals, scales and chords on the staff, and identification drills on a piano keyboard and guitar fretboard. Six calculators handle accidentals, intervals, scales, chords, analysis symbols and twelve-tone matrices, which theory students use often. Tenuto costs $4.99 once on the App Store and holds a 4.7 rating from 668 ratings. The limits match the website: ear training stops at single notes, intervals, scales and chords, with no dictation, rhythm or course path, and there is no Android version.

ToneGym, from the makers of SoundGym, is built around a daily workout. Each day you get a fresh set of short games with instant feedback that train intervals in ascending, descending and harmonic form, chord recognition with inversions and progressions, scales and modes, rhythm repetition and dictation, melody memory and sight-singing with solfege. Named trainer games such as Chordelius and Rhythmic Parrot each focus on one skill. Tools such as a Chord Progression Generator with voice-leading playback and an interactive Circle of Fifths go beyond drills, and the ToneGym Performance Index, personal bests and skill stats show where you are improving. Weekly Olympics contests add a social push. You can start free, but Pro costs $13.95 per month or $74.99 per year on the App Store, which makes it the priciest monthly plan here, and the new iPhone app has few ratings so far.