# Piano Syntax — Build and Explore Pop and Jazz > Build and Explore Pop and Jazz (iPhone/iPad app by Tristan Waley.) - Source: https://appshunter.io/ios/app/piano-syntax/id6765528532 (this page in markdown: same URL + `.md`) - Developer: [Tristan Waley](https://appshunter.io/developer/1895980938) - Category: Music, Education - Price: Free with in-app purchases - Age rating: 4+ - Requires: iOS 17.0 · 1.3 GB - Languages: American English - Released: 2026-09-16 - Data updated: 2026-09-28 - User reviews in markdown: https://appshunter.io/ios/app/piano-syntax/id6765528532/reviews.md ## What is Piano Syntax? Piano Syntax is for piano players who already have some foundation. Build chord charts and hear them back with real voicings and a real groove, explore every chord quality on every root, and take the result away as a clean PDF. It closes the gap between knowing the chords and sounding musical. WHO IT IS FOR You learned as a child and stopped. You can still read a little, but a chord chart means nothing to you. Or you taught yourself from videos, and you play the same three songs every time you sit down. Or you started recently, moved past the basics quickly, and find beginner apps patronising. Or you write songs, and your harmony is limited to the chords you already know. LEAD SHEETS Build a chord chart for anything you want to play. Transpose it to any key, choose how the chords are placed on the keyboard, and hear it play back on a sampled grand piano with a groove and a metronome. Repeat markers, variable beat lengths per chord, lyrics bar by bar, and clean PDF export. Thirteen templates give you a starting point. Everything after that is yours. Practising chords in isolation is like practising vocabulary words. This is practising sentences. SEND A CHART Send a chart to another player and it arrives as a chart, not a picture of one. Your harmony, your form, your voicings, playing on their device the way you arranged it. One chart or a whole set in one file. Opening a chart someone sent you is free, subscription or not. SONGWRITER LAB Sketch a progression, give the song sections, and hear the whole thing with a groove behind it. Keep your words in the lyric library, drop them in bar by bar, then copy the song across to Lead Sheets without losing anything. CHORD LAB Every chord quality on every root, from block triads through shell voicings to rootless jazz structures. Keyboard diagrams, instant playback, and curated progressions across pop, rock, jazz and classical. RHYTHM LAB Groove patterns for pop, jazz, blues and Latin, in common time, 3/4, 6/8 and 12/8. Load any progression and hear the harmony inside a real rhythmic context. PRACTICE LAB Structured sessions by genre, focus and level, with timed blocks and the scales and chords for each block on screen. A daily journal, and guided paths through the skills a tune asks for. LEARN Eleven chapters: Approach, Fundamentals, Harmony 1, Rhythm, Harmony 2, Pop Focus, Jazz Harmony, ii-V-I Voicings, Jazz Improvisation, Blues Focus and Musicianship. Prose, real notation, interactive keyboards and audio. REFERENCE The perpetual cheat sheet. Chords, scales, intervals, diatonic chords, the circle of fifths and study cards, indexed and searchable for mid-practice lookups. NO SONG LIBRARY, AND THAT IS DELIBERATE Piano Syntax does not ship arrangements of other people's songs. It gives you the tools to build a chart for anything you want to play, in your key, at your tempo, with your own notes on it. What you make belongs to you and stays on your device. No account, no sign-in, and it works offline. FOR TEACHERS Piano Syntax works alongside lessons, not instead of them. Pull up voicings, charts and rhythm patterns mid-lesson. Export any chart as a PDF for a student to take home, or send them the chart itself. FREE AND PRO Free: three Learn chapters, Approach, Fundamentals and Harmony 1, plus quotes and tips. Four Reference areas in all twelve keys: chords, scales, intervals and the circle of fifths. Every chart opens and plays, including all thirteen templates, and you can switch voicing modes in the player and hear them, though those changes are not saved. Pro unlocks chart building and sending, Chord Lab, Songwriter Lab, Rhythm Lab and Practice Lab, the eight remaining Learn chapters, and Diatonic Chords and Study Cards in Reference. Monthly or yearly, with one free week to start. If your subscription lapses, your charts still open, still play, and still export. Terms of Use: https://www.tristanwaley.com/pianosyntaxterms ## Pricing and in-app purchases Base price: Free. **Subscriptions** | Subscription | Price | Period | | --- | --- | --- | | Pro Monthly | $2.99 | per month | | Pro Annual | $19.99 | per year | ## Version history (last 3 releases) ### 1.1.1 — 2026-09-24 Voicings The voicing picker is now organised by family. Choose Rooted Chord, Guide Tones, Rootless, Drop 2, Upper Structures or Quartal and Quintal, then open a family to compare its shapes side by side. Every row shows the chord it spells, along with any tensions it adds, so you can see what you are about to hear. New left hand voicings for altered and b9 dominants, and both A and B sides are now shown in every family. On a lead sheet, the voicing sheet separates what the chart is now from what you can change it to, so returning to your own per chord voicings is one tap. Chord Lab's section controls now use the same Smooth and Custom pair as the chart. Learn Chord scale relationships for minor chords are now split by chord: minor 7th, minor 6th and minor major 7th each get their own scales. Scale Palettes is quicker to move around, with every chord type visible at once and the scales above the keyboard. Modes now run in white key order, and the modes of melodic minor name the scales the way players do, including the altered scale, Lydian dominant and Phrygian dominant. New bebop content, including how the scales are actually played. Reference Cleaner chord and scale layouts, with every selector labelled and no more half empty rows. ### 1.1 — 2026-09-23 A new Learn chapter, Jazz Harmony: diatonic chords, chord function, the ii-V-I, extensions and the altered dominant, tritone substitution, secondary dominants, and reading a tune's changes. Harmony 3 is now ii-V-I Voicings, and Jazz Focus is now Jazz Improvisation. Lesson examples now play voice-led, so you can hear each voice move into the next chord. Held chords keep ringing when a scale plays over them. Fixed a voicing issue where a doubled bass note could collide with the right hand. Reference pages sit centred on large iPads, with further iPad layout fixes. ### 1.0 — 2026-09-16 No release notes. ## Apps similar to Piano Syntax | App | Rating | Price | Category | | --- | --- | --- | --- | | [VELD Festival](https://appshunter.io/ios/app/veld-festival/id6578457060) | — | Free | Music | | [TONALY: Songs, Scales & Theory](https://appshunter.io/ios/app/tonaly-songs-scales-and-theory/id1242467844) | 4.8 (6,328) | Free | Music | | [Newzik: Sheet Music Reader](https://appshunter.io/ios/app/newzik-sheet-music-reader/id966963109) | 4.6 (1,528) | Free | Music | | [Music Mastering: AudioMaster](https://appshunter.io/ios/app/music-mastering-audiomaster/id1091734833) | 4.5 (2,764) | Free | Music | --- *Data collected daily from the US App Store and indexed by [AppsHunter](https://appshunter.io/). User reviews are verbatim App Store reviews. Ratings, prices and chart positions refresh continuously; this snapshot is from 2026-09-28.*