Alexis Kestler
Every musician‘s life is attached to the notes of different instruments and vocals. Here we look at some of the best ear training apps to help you get better at identifying notes.
Music has been part of our daily lives for centuries. If you are a musician, it is essential to improve your listening skills to get the most out of creating and experiencing music.
When we talk about improving musical skills, you probably would have guessed we mean improving vocals or instrumental technique. But today, we are talking about ear training. What could be better than having tools to enhance your musical skills right on your phone? To make this possible, we will discuss the 10 best ear training apps you can try right now.
What is Ear Training?
If you are a musician or DJ, you likely have heard about ear training and why it is essential. But no worries if you are new to this practice. Let‘s briefly understand what ear training is, why it is beneficial, and for whom.
Ear training, also known as aural skills, is a standard music-related practice in which musicians learn to identify pitches, melodies, chords, rhythms, intervals, solfege, and other basic elements of music by hearing them.
By that definition, you can see how difficult ear training can be. Ear training isn‘t limited to only musicians. It is also beneficial for sound engineers, producers, and DJs. The better your musical hearing and understanding, the better you can mix music, learn music theory, and write songs.
Why is Ear Training Essential, and What Are Its Benefits?
If you want to build a career in the music industry or achieve mastery in your musical skills, ear training is an essential fundamental skill to reach your goals. Ear training is a practice you will never regret, as it improves your understanding of music theory. It also helps you create new music and songs yourself. Some other vital benefits of ear training include:
Hear Better
As we said before, ear training is about understanding and recognizing musical chords, rhythms, and more by just listening. As a result, it improves your listening skills and lets you experience music more deeply.
Get Familiar with Music
We all listen to music, but ear training helps you become familiar with the rhythms, pitches, and other elements. Through this, your ear becomes attuned to the details of music and lets you understand it more accurately.
Get More Creative
The more music you hear and comprehend, the larger your musical vocabulary grows. As you continuously improve your vocabulary, you can become more creative with music. You need to master the fundamentals first.
Reduce Reliance on Written Music
The best part of ear training is that once proficient, you don‘t always need to rely on written music. You don‘t have to write down everything if you can understand the pitch and chord just by listening. You can practice and play music directly with your ear training skills and instrument.
Become More Versatile
When you become familiar with the essential rules and terms of music, you can quickly try new elements and genres. You can experiment with musical components like chords and instruments to get the desired outcome.
Now let‘s get to our list of the 10 best ear training apps you should try to improve your aural skills.
1. Complete Ear Trainer
Complete Ear Trainer is one of the most popular ear training apps available now. You likely have heard of it if you‘re already familiar with ear training apps.
Complete Ear Trainer includes over 150 progressive exercises organized into 28 chapters. This app is considered one of the best music-focused apps, offering up to 36 chord types, 28 scale types, 24 intervals, and more. The app has three modes—easy, medium, and complex. Users can choose the mode based on their skills.
The best part is it‘s beginner-friendly, so you can try it even if you don‘t know how to read music. This app comes in two versions—free and paid. The free version lets you try one chapter from each mode, while you must purchase the full version.
2. Functional Ear Trainer
Have you wondered how people transcribe music just by listening? This app can help with that. Anyone can transcribe or play music by ear with good aural skills. Functional Ear Trainer can help improve your skills easily.
The key difference between Functional Ear Trainer and others is it teaches you to distinguish tones in music. Regardless of age, this app is suitable for beginning ear training. Other apps may frustrate you, but this one keeps you engaged and excited while learning.
Functional Ear Trainer is free to download but has in-app purchases for more features.
3. Music Tutor
If you‘re entirely new to the music world and don‘t know how to read sheet music, identify notes, etc., this app can help familiarize you with the basics quickly.
Using Music Tutor gives you a free tutor on your phone to enhance your speed and accuracy in reading sheet music. From identifying notes to practicing aural skills, Music Tutor has you covered.
The app provides practice sessions with different lengths, including treble bass or alto clefs, from 1-10 minutes. Music Tutor lets you review mistakes and track progress. What makes it convenient for beginners and advanced students is the option to set a practice range. There are also in-app purchases for more features.
4. MyEarTraining – Ear Training App
Mastering ear training not only improves your musical skills but also builds confidence. If you‘re an intermediate student, try MyEarTraining. This app helps grasp musical theory quickly and efficiently, whether preparing for an exam or honing expert-level skills.
MyEarTraining offers 100+ aural exercises, from basic intervals and chords to advanced seventh-chord inversions, exotic scale modes, and more. This straightforward, comprehensive package completes all ear training requirements.
MyEarTraining also includes chord training, scale training, melody training, singing exercises, and more. Schools widely use it to assign exercises to students—proof of its educational benefits.
5. Perfect Ear
Most apps so far are for musicians, with fewer catering to singers. Perfect Ear fills this gap. Its key features resemble a fun, free music school.
Unlike similar apps, Perfect Ear has beginner courses and theory articles—making it the only music education app needed. It includes standard ear training like rhythm and pitch exercises but stands out with unique features like customizable exercises, sight reading, and note singing trainers.
For confused beginners starting from nothing, this is the app to try.
6. Piano Ear Training
This app is great for beginners and advanced piano students. Who doesn‘t like customizable apps matching your skills and preferences? Piano Ear Training fits the bill.
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The developers divided exercises into levels so anyone can get comfortable regardless of experience. You can also customize training to focus on specific tasks like chords, intervals, etc.
The user-friendly interface has tutorials to maximize your learning and track progress. As the name suggests, this app boosts your musical instrument skills by improving aural abilities.
7. Musical Theory Helper
Before jumping into practice, theory knowledge is essential, regardless of your pursuit. Musical Theory Helper perfectly plays the teacher role with essential music theory tools.
Beyond theory on intervals, chords, note values, scales, octaves, etc., the app includes a chord builder, scale builder, and more to generate and listen to examples. As an ear training app, it has exercises to elevate your musical skills.
Platform: Android
8. Earpeggio
If you have ear training experience and want an app to test yourself, this iOS app offers various free exercises.
Earpeggio has 10 exercises including interval identification, chord identification, melody dictation, rhythm dictation, and more. You can take tests after completing exercises to check your progress. The app provides detailed statistics tracking.
Platform: iOS
9. The Ear Gym
If you‘re a beginner wanting well-rounded ear training experience in one app, download The Ear Gym. As the name suggests, this app has diverse exercises.
Unlike others limited to chords and intervals, The Ear Gym covers intervals, scales, chords, and harmony. With over 40 scales and 29 intervals, you learn harmony through analysis, cadence identification, and chords.
Exercise-wise, The Ear Gym has many to elevate different skills—interval, rhythm, clef reading, and more.
Platform: Android
10. Audio Training
Here‘s an app most helpful for sound engineers and music producers. Song creation takes varied skills, so training shouldn‘t be one-size-fits-all.
Unlike others here, Audio Training focuses on music equalization and frequency. It contains unique training like feedback, EQ, and bandwidth. For aspiring sound engineers, this is the perfect first step.
Platform: Android
Conclusion
If only listening to music could make you an expert musician, the world would be full of melody. But mastery takes work. Ear training helps build that musical prowess.
We covered some top apps to improve your skills on the go. Next, check out the best piano learning apps to further build your musical talents.
