PitchMe vs Tenuto

A clean, offline toolkit of about two dozen customisable music theory and ear training drills from the makers of musictheory.net, sold once rather than rented.

The short answer

Choose PitchMe if you want your ear trained in a key rather than in the abstract, with the difficulty decided for you and a reason to come back tomorrow.

Choose Tenuto if you want a precise, offline theory and drill toolkit you buy once, especially for notation, keyboard and fretboard work, and you are happy to design your own practice.

Tenuto is made by musictheory.net. 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.

Tenuto

Individually configurable mini-exercises — interval identification, chord identification, keyboard and fretboard drills — plus a set of theory calculators.

What Tenuto does well

Including the things it does better than PitchMe.

  • One purchase, no subscription, no ads, and it works with no internet connection.
  • Exceptionally well made and precise. Each exercise can be narrowed to the exact thing you are weak at, down to specific clefs or double accidentals.
  • The theory side — staff reading, keyboard and fretboard identification, and the accidental, interval and scale calculators — is broader than PitchMe's, which does no notation at all.
  • Backed by musictheory.net's free web lessons, which are still among the best written explanations of theory anywhere.

Where Tenuto stops

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

  • The ear training is abstract by design: two notes, name the distance, with no key centre established first.
  • No chord-function, harmony or intonation training.
  • No automatic difficulty progression — you choose your own settings for each exercise.
  • Challenge Mode scores against yourself only, and the app is iOS and macOS.

Side by side

PitchMe compared with Tenuto, axis by axis
What it trainsPitchMeTenuto

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.

Not found

Interval and chord drills are presented without a key centre.

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 and inversion, not by role in a key.

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 chord-tone identification.

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.

Not found

No cents-level tuning drills.

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.

Not found

Every exercise is manually configured; nothing escalates on its own.

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

Challenge Mode adds a timer and a personal high score.

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

Scores are private to you.

Price

Cost to start and to keep going.

Free to download; optional subscription. No ads.

One-time purchase. See their site for current pricing.

Platforms

Where it runs.

iOS and Android.

iOS and macOS.

Frequently asked questions

Is PitchMe or Tenuto better for ear training?
Tenuto is the better theory toolkit and the better offline purchase; its notation, keyboard and fretboard drills have no equivalent in PitchMe. For ear training specifically, PitchMe trains what you hear inside a key — scale degrees, chord functions, chord tones and intonation — which is closer to what you do when you work out a song by ear. Tenuto's ear exercises name intervals in isolation.
Does PitchMe have a one-time purchase like Tenuto?
PitchMe is free to download on iOS and Android with no ads, and offers an optional subscription rather than a one-time unlock. You can train for free without buying anything.

Judge it with your own ears

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