PitchMe vs Perfect Ear

A broad, long-established Android-first trainer covering intervals, scales, chords, rhythm, solfège, note reading and custom exercises, free with ads and a premium tier.

The short answer

Choose PitchMe if you would rather have one method that escalates on its own, no ads, and chord, harmony and intonation training built on hearing in a key.

Choose Perfect Ear if you want the widest possible free feature list on Android, you want rhythm and notation drills in the same app, and you like configuring your own exercises.

Perfect Ear is made by Crazy Ootka Software. Check these claims at the source. Last verified .

"Not found" means we could not find the feature when we reviewed the app on 2026-08-25, not that it certainly does not exist. Apps change, and we do not track every release. Each app links to its own site — check anything that matters to your decision at the source.

How each one teaches

PitchMe

Establishes a key, then asks what you heard inside it — scale degrees, chord functions as Nashville numbers, notes within a sounding chord, and whether a note is in tune. Difficulty escalates by level rather than by setting.

Perfect Ear

A large library of configurable exercises plus theory articles, with the option to build your own drills, custom scales and chord progressions.

What Perfect Ear does well

Including the things it does better than PitchMe.

  • Enormous breadth for a free app: rhythm training, melodic dictation, sight reading, a scale dictionary and theory articles all sit alongside the ear training.
  • Custom exercises are its best feature. If you can specify exactly what you want to drill, you can build it.
  • You can get a long way before the premium tier matters.

Where Perfect Ear stops

The gaps that matter if relative pitch is what you are training.

  • Most of the ear training is abstract interval, scale and chord identification rather than functional hearing in a key.
  • No chord-function training in Nashville numbers, and no dedicated mode for picking a note out of a sounding chord.
  • Its singing exercises use a microphone for pitch matching; we found no drill for hearing whether a sounded note is slightly sharp or flat.
  • The free tier carries ads.

Side by side

PitchMe compared with Perfect Ear, axis by axis
What it trainsPitchMePerfect Ear

Trains notes in a key

Whether you identify what you hear relative to a tonal centre, or as an isolated distance between two notes. This is the difference between an ear that works on real music and one that only works on quizzes.

Yes

Every mode establishes a key first, then asks what you heard inside it, labelled as scale degrees or solfège.

Partial

Includes solfège and some in-key work, but the core drills are abstract.

Trains chords by function

Whether chords are drilled by their role in a key (the 4, the 5, the 6) rather than only by quality (major, minor, diminished). Function is what you need to hear a progression.

Yes

Chords are drilled as Nashville numbers — the 1, 4, 5, 6, then the 2, 3 and 7 — with inversions and non-diatonic chords unlocking later.

Partial

Chord identification by quality; progressions can be built manually.

Trains hearing inside a chord

Whether you practise picking out individual notes within a sounding chord — the skill behind transcribing voicings, harmonising, and singing a part.

Yes

A dedicated Harmony mode plays a chord and asks which note inside it you heard, including complex chords.

Not found

No dedicated chord-tone identification mode.

Trains intonation in cents

Whether you practise hearing that a note is slightly sharp or flat. Naming intervals is a labelling skill; hearing tuning is a resolution skill, and they train separately.

Yes

A dedicated Intonation mode asks whether a note is in tune, tightening from 15 cents to 5 cents as you improve.

Partial

Microphone singing exercises; no cents-level tuning discrimination found.

Removes crutches on a schedule

Whether difficulty escalates on its own — dropping the reference note, adding inversions, widening the range — rather than leaving you to pick settings you are already comfortable with.

Yes

Levels unlock a second octave, inversions, complex chords and extra scale degrees, and take the reference note away at level 3.

Partial

Structured units exist, but difficulty is mostly yours to set.

Built around a daily habit

Ear training is decided by how many days you show up, not by how much content the app has. Whether the app is shaped like something you open every day.

Yes

Rounds run about a minute, with three lives, a combo multiplier and optional daily reminders.

Partial

Practice reminders, but no game loop.

Leaderboards

Whether progress is visible against other people, which is what keeps a practice habit alive past the first fortnight.

Yes

Global leaderboards and shareable scores.

Not found

No leaderboards.

Price

Cost to start and to keep going.

Free to download; optional subscription. No ads.

Free with ads; premium subscription.

Platforms

Where it runs.

iOS and Android.

Android, with a more limited iOS build.

Frequently asked questions

Is PitchMe better than Perfect Ear?
Perfect Ear has more features; PitchMe has a sharper method. Perfect Ear adds rhythm, notation and custom exercises, which PitchMe does not have. PitchMe trains notes and chords by their function in a key, adds a harmony mode and cents-level intonation, escalates difficulty for you, and shows no ads. If you want breadth, take Perfect Ear. If you want relative pitch specifically, take PitchMe.
Does PitchMe have ads like Perfect Ear's free tier?
No. PitchMe shows no ads at all. It is free to download with an optional subscription.

Judge it with your own ears

PitchMe is free to download on iOS and Android, with no ads. One round takes about a minute.