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Ear Habit: Ear Training — Help and questions

Ear Habit trains your ear in short, scored sessions. It plays a sound, you name it, and it tells you, correctly, what it was. It covers five lessons: single notes, intervals, chord qualities, chord progressions and scales. It keeps count of the sounds you mix up, so the next session can aim at them.

This page says what the app does today and what it does not do. If something here does not match what you see in the app, that is our mistake and we want to hear about it.

Getting started

Do I need an account? No. There is no account, no sign-in and no email field. Open the app and the first screen is Today. One tap on "Start today's practice" opens your first session. The first time you play a level, a "Listen first" card comes before question one (see below).

Is there a questionnaire or a setup step? No. Nothing sits between opening the app and the first sound: no questionnaire, no price, no permission prompt.

Does it work with no signal? Yes. Every sound is made on your phone the moment you hear it, so the lessons play with no signal. There are no recordings to download.

Can I use it in a browser instead? Ear Habit is offered through Google Play, and on iPhone and iPad through the App Store. Underneath, it is an installable web app, so it can also run in a browser. If you use it that way, from the second day you open it, it offers once to be added to your home screen, where the browser allows that; installed that way it opens like an app and works with no signal. A few things differ in the browser version; they are listed under "What the app cannot do" below.

The lessons

What does a session look like? Ten questions. Each question plays a sound and offers a set of answer buttons. You can replay the sound as often as you like. Your answer is scored only on which button you picked. There is no clock, no countdown and no microphone, and time never affects a score.

Why does a level start with a "Listen first" card? So the first question is never the first time you hear a sound. The first time you play a level, each answer choice plays when you tap it, before the quiz begins. Tap "Start the quiz" when you are ready. Once you have finished a session of that level, it goes straight to the questions.

What happens when I get one wrong? The answer screen names both sounds: the one you picked and the one that played. The "Answer", "Both" and "Yours" buttons play them again. It lights the notes on a row of piano keys, and for notes and intervals it shows the notes that were played with their exact frequencies (for example, A4 440.00 Hz to E5 659.26 Hz), so you can check the answer key yourself. Nothing moves on until you tap.

Is there a sound when I answer right or wrong? Yes, after you answer: a chime when you are right and a low note when you miss. It never plays over a question. Turn it off in Settings, under Answer sounds.

What are the five lessons, and what is in them? Each lesson has its own ladder of levels in the Lessons tab. Levels 1 and 2 of every lesson are free:

one note sounds and you name it. Level 2 adds F♯ and B♭ in C major.

Level 2 adds the minor 3rd.

triads (major, minor, diminished, augmented).

Level 2: cadences on I, IV and V.

pentatonics. Level 2: the three minors (natural, harmonic and melodic) beside major.

A level is passed at 8 right out of 10. You can open either free level directly; you do not have to pass Level 1 to open Level 2.

What is "Today's practice"? The main button on the Today screen. It builds ten questions from what you have been practising and leans towards the sounds you have been mixing up. You can run it as many times a day as you like.

Can I leave a session part-way? Yes. If you answered at least one question, Today offers to pick the session up where you left it, on the same day. A session left part-way on an earlier day is not offered again, and the next tap starts a fresh one.

Can I answer with a keyboard? Yes. On a device with a keyboard, the number keys answer the matching buttons in order, and play them on the "Listen first" card.

The confusion map

What is it? One grid each for intervals, chord quality and scales: the sound that was played against the sound you picked, counted over the last seven days or since you started. Notes and progressions are practised and scored, but they do not have a map. Counts are written as numbers in each square, not shown by colour alone. Once you have mixed up any two sounds, the map names the pair you mix up most, with the count, in a plain sentence above the grid.

What can I do with it? Tap a square to see its count, hear both sounds with "Hear both", and start "Practise this pair": ten questions of only those two sounds. Today and the session results also show your most mixed-up pair. Once you also practised that lesson the week before, they set this week's count against last week's, so you can see whether you mix them up less than before.

Can I share it? In the app, "Copy this", under the named pair, copies that sentence to your clipboard as text; paste it into any message. If the phone will not copy, the app says so, and a screenshot works too. In a web browser the same button is "Share this": it draws the sentence as an image on your phone and hands it to the browser's share sheet, or saves the image where the browser cannot share files. Nothing is uploaded and nothing carries a link.

Why is it in teal and not red? A confusion is something to practise, not a failure. Red is used only for the answer you just missed, always with words beside it.

Settings

Everything in Settings takes effect the moment you touch it.

nylon guitar), piano-like, or sine (a pure tone with no overtones). "Play a sample" lets you hear each one.

for interval lessons; a lesson that needs a direction still asks for it.

intervals, scales and progressions.

What tuning does it use? Equal temperament, with A4 (the A above middle C) at 440 Hz. Note spellings and chord and scale formulas are checked against tonal, an open-source music theory library (MIT License), credited in About.

Reminders

How does the daily reminder work? In the installed app (Android, iPhone or iPad), turn on "Daily reminder" in Settings. Your phone asks once whether Ear Habit may send notifications, and only at that moment. If you allow it, the app hands your phone one reminder a day ("Ten questions today keep your streak alight.") for 7:00 pm, or for the time you set, and the phone shows it even with the app closed. It is off until you turn it on. The phone may deliver it a few minutes after the time you set, and when it is saving battery, sometimes not until you next pick it up. Ear Habit never asks for the "Alarms & reminders" permission.

I turned it on and nothing came. If notifications for Ear Habit were off when you turned the reminder on, the app says so under the reminder switch, and the switch goes back to off. If you turned notifications off in your phone's settings afterwards, the switch in Ear Habit can still read "On", so check your phone's settings (Apps, then Ear Habit, then Notifications) first. Turn them on there, then switch the reminder off and on again. Battery-saving modes on some phones can delay or block notifications; that is the phone's choice, not something the app can override.

Why is there no reminder in the browser version? A web page cannot send a notification with the page closed, so the browser version does not offer a reminder switch. Settings says this in plain words rather than offering a reminder that would not arrive.

What the app cannot do

We would rather say this here than have you find it out.

lock-screen widget, no smartwatch app and no Android Auto or CarPlay screen.

notification sound.

installed app.

grade rhythm. Every answer is a button.

plucked string is a synthesised string, not a recording of a guitar.

sends your practice anywhere: the only thing it sends out is the check of a Pro purchase (see the privacy policy). So your practice does not follow you automatically. Use Copy practice and Paste a copy (below) to move it.

exam board's grades.

pitch or any result by a date. It tells you honestly whether you are mixing up a pair less this week than last.

Your data

Where is my practice kept? On your phone. Your sessions, streak and confusion map are kept on the device, and Ear Habit never sends them anywhere. There are no ads and no usage tracking in the app.

How do I keep a copy of my practice? Settings, then Your practice, then Copy practice. The app copies every answer, your settings and your confusion map to your clipboard as text, and says "Copied your practice" only when the phone took it. Paste it somewhere you keep things, such as a note or an email to yourself. (In a web browser the button is Save a copy and saves a file named like ear-habit-practice-2026-10-09.json to your downloads instead.)

How do I bring it back, or move it to another phone? Settings, then Your practice, then Paste a copy. Paste the copied text into the box and tap Bring it back. Open a copy takes a saved file instead (in a web browser it is the only way back). On a phone with no practice yet the two buttons read Paste practice from another phone and Open a copy from another phone. Bringing a copy back replaces what is on the phone, and a backup of what was there is kept on the phone first. If the text or file cannot be read, nothing is changed and the app says so.

How do I erase everything? Settings, then Your practice, then Erase everything. It clears every session, setting and reminder from the app and cannot be undone from inside the app, so copy your practice first if you want to keep it. You can also choose "Keep my practice" there to back out. The app keeps one hidden safety copy of what was there just before, on the phone only; erasing a second time, or uninstalling, removes it.

What is "Example practice"? An optional fortnight of example practice you can load (Settings, Show me an example) to see what the screens look like with data in them. It is labelled as an example wherever it shows, and Clear the example removes it while leaving your own sessions exactly as they are.

If I uninstall the app, is my practice gone? From the phone, yes: Ear Habit keeps no copy anywhere else. If your Android phone backs up to your Google account, or your iPhone or iPad to iCloud, the phone may bring it back when you reinstall, but do not count on that. Copy your practice first if you want to keep it.

What is free

Ear Habit Pro is an optional subscription. These stay free, with no trial and no time limit:

scales.

Pro is for going further: levels 3 to 6 of each lesson, practice sets you build yourself from sounds you choose, and your confusion map over 30 or 90 days. It is $19.99 a year or $2.99 a month (US prices; the store shows yours before you confirm), and it from now on gets a new lesson set about every quarter. On Android you can try it free for a week first, with no card; on iPhone and iPad the free week is the App Store's own one-week trial on the yearly plan.

Subscriptions, cancelling and refunds

On Android, Pro is sold through Google Play; on iPhone and iPad, through the App Store. This is how it works:

Where will a price appear? Only after you have finished at least one session, and only when you tap something that is part of Pro. Not on first launch, not when you open the app, not inside a session and not on your results. Every screen offering Pro has a visible close that takes you back to the free levels.

What plans are there? First, a free week. On Android: once you have finished a session, one tap opens Pro for 7 days, with no card and no purchase. The app shows the date it ends before you tap. Nothing is charged and nothing renews when it ends; Pro locks again and everything you practised stays. On iPhone and iPad the free week is the App Store's own one-week trial of the yearly plan: Apple charges the yearly price when it ends unless you cancel at least 24 hours before, in Settings: tap the name at the top, then Subscriptions. Then a yearly plan and a monthly plan, both charged by your app store when you confirm, and both renewing automatically until you cancel (on the App Store: unless cancelled at least 24 hours before the period ends). There is no weekly plan and no lifetime purchase. Prices are the ones your app store shows for your country.

Can it remind me before the free week ends? Yes. While the week runs, the Pro screen offers one reminder on day 5. It is a notification filed on your phone, and the app asks for permission to send it only when you tap to set it. From day 5, Today also says when the week ends.

How do I cancel? In Ear Habit: Settings, then Manage subscription. That opens your app store's own subscription page for Ear Habit, where you tap Cancel and confirm. There is no survey, no discount offer and no screen asking you to stay.

You can also cancel without opening the app, in Google Play: Profile, then Payments & subscriptions, then Subscriptions, then Ear Habit. On iPhone: Settings, then your name, then Subscriptions.

What happens when a subscription ends? The free levels, Today's practice, the map for this week and all time and your whole history stay as they are. Sounds you practised while subscribed stay in Today's practice and on your confusion map. Nothing you practised is taken away.

How do refunds work? Purchases and refunds are handled by Apple or Google, not by us; we never see your card. On Google Play, a refund can be requested from your order history within 48 hours of buying. For purchases made through Apple, request a refund at reportaproblem.apple.com.

I bought Pro on another phone. Use "Restore purchases" on the Pro screen. It asks your app store what this account already owns.

Who we are

Ear Habit is made by one independent developer, published under chibuapps.com. There is no server collecting your answers. The app's privacy policy is at https://chibuapps.com/aural-drill/privacy/ and is linked from Settings.

How do I reach us? Please use the developer contact email shown on Ear Habit's Google Play or App Store listing. Tell us what you saw, on which phone, and which lesson and level. We would rather hear about a wrong answer key than have you keep a wrong sound in your ear.