Best ear training apps for singers (2026): sight-singing, harmony and aural skills
Singers need different ear training from instrumentalists: you have to produce the pitch, not just recognize it. Eight apps compared for sight-singing, holding a harmony part, singing intervals and hearing notes in a key.
Instrumentalists can find a note by pressing a key. Singers have to hear it in their head first and then produce it. That’s why ear training matters more for singers, and why most ear training apps, built around “listen and tap the answer”, only cover half of what a vocalist needs.
This article is about aural skills for singers: sight-singing, holding a harmony part, singing intervals and scale degrees, and hearing where you are in the key. If your main problem is singing single notes in tune, start with our companion piece, best apps to learn to sing in tune, which covers pitch-matching apps.
We make one of the apps below (Fifths, a browser ear trainer with sing-back exercises). It isn’t the top pick here, because it doesn’t do sight-singing from notation yet, and for many singers that’s the main point.
Prices are as of October 2026, from official sites and the US App Store.
Quick answer
| App | Platforms | Grades your singing? | Price (Oct 2026) | Best for |
|---|---|---|---|---|
| Sight Singing Pro | iOS, Android | Yes, note by note | $8.99/mo, $89.99/yr or $259.99 once | Sight-singing from a score |
| EarMaster | Windows, macOS, iOS, Android | Yes (pitch and timing) | All-Access $49.95/yr; iOS Vocal Trainer $14.99 | Complete aural skills, including singing |
| Fifths | Web | Yes (sing-back exercises) | Free tier; Pro $4.99/mo or $39.99/yr | Singing scale degrees and patterns in a key |
| Harmony Helper | iOS | Yes (pitch and timing) | Free download | Learning and holding harmony parts |
| Functional Ear Trainer | iOS, Android | No (tap answers) | Free; Plus $19.99 | Hearing scale degrees |
| Perfect Ear | iOS, Android | Yes (“sing it” drills) | Free; Premium $14.99 | Cheap all-rounder with singing drills |
| ToneGym | Web, iOS | Not stated | Free tier; Pro $13.95/mo or $74.99/yr (iOS) | Gamified solfège and daily workouts |
| Sight Reading Factory | Web, iOS | No (generates material) | Individual plan about $35/yr | Unlimited fresh sight-reading material |
What singers actually need from ear training
- Production, not just recognition. Naming an interval you hear is useful. Singing an interval from a given note is the skill you use in rehearsal. Look for apps that listen to you.
- A sense of key. Choral and solo singers stay in tune by feeling scale degrees: where do is, how ti pulls up, how fa leans down. Solfège exists for this reason (see what is solfège).
- Holding your line against others. Harmony singing is a separate skill: keeping your part while other parts move around you.
- Reading. If you sing in choirs, auditions or exams, sight-singing from notation is the end goal.
No single app does all four well, so many singers combine two.
The apps
1. Sight Singing Pro
The strongest dedicated sight-singing app we found. You sing from a score, and it grades each note green or red using the microphone. It supports fixed do, movable do or letter names, has more than 2,000 scores and ABRSM courses, and includes separate Ear Training (dictation) and Ear Training (singing) modes. It’s actively updated on both iOS and Android and rated 4.8 on the App Store. Pricing is $8.99/month, $89.99/year, or $259.99 one-time.
Pros: exactly the skill choir singers and audition candidates need; note-by-note feedback; flexible solfège systems. Cons: the pricier side for a single skill; assumes you can already read basic notation. Best for: choir members, voice students and anyone with a sight-singing exam or audition.
2. EarMaster
The most complete aural-skills package, and one of the few general ear trainers that takes singers seriously. It has sight-singing from an on-screen score into the microphone with pitch and timing feedback, interval singing, sing-back and rhythm sing-back, and a Vocal Trainer add-on with about 200 exercises. On iOS the Vocal Trainer is $14.99, Solfege Fundamentals $9.99 and Interval Singing $1.99. The One-Year All-Access Pass is $49.95, and the desktop EarMaster Pro 7 licence is $59.95 (Vocal Trainer add-on $14.95).
Pros: covers recognition and production; deep curriculum; exam prep. Cons: mobile pricing is split into many modules; one App Store reviewer reports poor pitch detection for a low baritone voice, so test it with your own voice first. Best for: singers who want one app for the full aural-skills curriculum. See EarMaster alternatives if it’s not a fit.
3. Fifths (ours)
Fifths is a browser ear trainer whose Voice section is designed around singing in a key. After Match the Pitch (sing back a single note, any octave), the lessons move on:
- Find Home: a scale plays, then you sing the tonic.
- Steps and skips: step up or down and back, skip a third, skip a fifth.
- A pivot figure around the tonic.
- Triad arpeggios and pentachords, then full major and minor scales.
Each is graded by microphone pitch detection. Alongside the Voice section, the tonality and scale-degree lessons train hearing each note as a role in the key. That’s the same skill solfège builds, and the one that keeps a choir in tune. We wrote about the thinking behind this in designing a Voice section.
Pros: singing exercises grounded in a key, not isolated notes; ear training and voice in one place; free in any browser with no signup for the first lessons; per-item stats show which degrees you miss. Cons: no sight-singing from notation or melodic dictation yet (both are planned, not shipped); no harmony-part practice; no song library; iOS and Android apps aren’t in the stores yet. Pricing: most Voice lessons, plus foundations, tonality and scale degrees, are free. Pro is $4.99/month or $39.99/year. Best for: singers building the inner sense of key that sight-singing depends on, especially those who aren’t fluent in notation yet.
4. Harmony Helper
Built for learning harmony parts. You isolate your vocal line, adjust the volume of each part, and get real-time pitch and timing feedback while you sing against the others. It includes a “5 Steps to Learning and Holding Harmonies” practice guide and free songs from its songbook. RWS Global acquired it in March 2025 and said the app would stay free for individuals. Note that the sheet-music scanner was discontinued in late 2024, so you can’t scan your own scores, and we found no Android version.
Pros: the only app here built specifically for holding a part against other parts. Cons: iOS only; the songbook limits what you can practice now that scanning is gone; its future direction under new ownership is unclear. Best for: choir and ensemble singers learning parts.
5. Functional Ear Trainer
A focused, highly rated app (4.9 from about 3,800 App Store ratings). A cadence sets the key, a note plays, and you name the scale degree. It’s free on iOS and Android, with a $19.99 Plus upgrade on iOS. It doesn’t listen to you sing; you tap answers. Many singers use it anyway and sing each note aloud before answering, which turns it into a production exercise.
Pros: the purest scale-degree training available; cheap; a daily 10-minute habit. Cons: no singing input; only one skill. Best for: singers who want to hear do, re, mi as roles in a key. Pair it with a sing-back app.
6. Perfect Ear
A low-cost iOS and Android all-rounder with intervals, chords, scales, rhythm and solfège, plus “sing it” pitch and note-singing drills using the microphone. On iOS, Premium is $14.99, with packs from $0.99.
Pros: cheap; adds singing drills to standard ear training. Cons: older reviews report unreliable singing detection; the singing is a feature, not the focus. Best for: singers on a budget who want one general app.
7. ToneGym
A gamified web platform (with a newer iOS app) offering daily workouts and games including Solfègiator, a solfège game, along with a Sight-Singing Trainer tool and vocal warm-ups. ToneGym doesn’t say whether the singing games grade you through the microphone. In the iOS app, Pro is $13.95/month or $74.99/year.
Pros: daily-habit design; solfège practice that feels like a game. Cons: relatively expensive; the iOS app is new with mixed early reviews. See ToneGym alternatives. Best for: singers motivated by streaks and scores.
8. Sight Reading Factory
Not an ear trainer, but useful to singers. It generates unlimited sight-reading exercises for voice parts (soprano, alto, tenor, baritone, bass, cambiata) and choir ensembles, in a browser and on iOS. We saw the individual plan listed at about $35/year. Sung exercises aren’t auto-graded as far as we could find (they’re recorded for a teacher), so pair it with an app that listens.
Best for: never running out of new material to sight-read, especially if your choir director uses it.
Also useful
- CyberBass: free, donation-funded rehearsal files for standard choral works, with slow-down and looping. No pitch feedback, but invaluable for learning repertoire.
- ChorusClass (iOS): multitrack choir rehearsal with mute, loop and slow-down.
How to choose
- “I have a sight-singing audition or exam”: Sight Singing Pro, or EarMaster if you also need dictation and rhythm.
- “I lose my part when others sing”: Harmony Helper, plus rehearsal tracks from CyberBass.
- “I can’t read music well yet, but I want to hear and sing in a key”: Fifths or Functional Ear Trainer (sing aloud as you answer).
- “I want to sing intervals”: EarMaster’s Interval Singing. For identifying intervals, see best interval training apps or our free interval ear trainer.
- “I’m still working on singing single notes in tune”: start with best apps to learn to sing in tune and our vocal range test.
A good combination for most singers is a sing-back or sight-singing app (one that listens to you) plus a scale-degree trainer (to build the sense of key). Ten minutes of each a day goes a long way. For a general comparison, see our best ear training apps roundup.
FAQ
What’s the best app for sight-singing practice? Sight Singing Pro is the most focused, grading each note as you sing from a score. EarMaster is the best general app with sight-singing included.
Should singers learn movable do or fixed do? For hearing function in a key, which is what keeps you in tune in harmony, movable do is the usual recommendation in English-speaking choral teaching. Fixed do is standard in many European conservatories. Sight Singing Pro supports both. Our what is solfège article covers the trade-offs.
Do singers need to learn intervals? They help, especially for sight-singing leaps. But choir singers mostly navigate by scale degree: knowing a note is sol tells you more than knowing it’s a fifth above the last one. Train both.
Is there an app that helps me sing harmony? Harmony Helper is built for it: isolate your part and get pitch feedback while the other parts play. Sing Sharp also has a Harmony & Trio program.
Can I practice ear training for singing without an app? Yes. Sing scale degrees against a drone, use a piano to check yourself, and sing your choir part with rehearsal tracks. Apps mainly add immediate, objective feedback, which is hard to get on your own.