# Tenuto — Theory exercises and tools

> Musical theory exercises and calculators for ear training and composition. (iPhone/iPad app by musictheory.net.)

- Source: https://appshunter.io/ios/app/tenuto/id459313476 (this page in markdown: same URL + `.md`)
- Developer: [musictheory.net](https://appshunter.io/developer/459313479)
- Category: Music, Education
- Price: $4.99
- Rating: 4.80/5 from 652 App Store ratings · 347 written reviews indexed
- Age rating: 4+
- Requires: iOS 15.8 · 11 MB
- Languages: American English
- Released: 2011-08-30
- Data updated: 2026-08-31
- Monetization: paid
- User reviews in markdown: https://appshunter.io/ios/app/tenuto/id459313476/reviews.md

## What is Tenuto?

Tenuto is a collection of 24 highly-customizable exercises designed to enhance your musicality. From recognizing chords on a keyboard to identifying intervals by ear, it has an exercise for you. Tenuto also includes six musical calculators for accidentals, intervals, scales, chords, analysis symbols, and twelve-tone matrices.

A short description of the exercises and calculators follows.

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• Note Identification
• Key Signature Identification
• Interval Identification
• Scale Identification
• Chord Identification
Tap the button corresponding to the written staff line. For example: if shown a C, E, and G with a sharp; tap the "Augmented Triad" button.

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• Note Construction
• Key Signature Construction
• Interval Construction
• Scale Construction
• Chord Construction
Construct the specified label by moving notes and/or adding accidentals. For example: if shown a C and an "Augmented 4th" label, move the second note to F and add a sharp.

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• Keyboard Reverse Identification
Tap the piano key corresponding to the written note on the staff. While similar to Note Identification, this exercise uses a piano keyboard rather than note name buttons.

• Keyboard Note Identification
• Keyboard Interval Identification
• Keyboard Scale Identification
• Keyboard Chord Identification
Tap the button corresponding to the highlighted piano key(s). If the C and G keys are highlighted, tap the "P5" (Perfect 5th) button.

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• Fretboard Note Identification
• Fretboard Interval Identification
• Fretboard Scale Identification
• Fretboard Chord Identification
Tap the button corresponding to the marked fretboard position(s). If the 2nd fret of the D string is marked, tap the "E" button.

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• Keyboard Ear Training
• Note Ear Training
Listen to the played reference and question notes. Select the piano key or note button corresponding to the question note.

• Interval Ear Training
• Scale Ear Training
• Chord Ear Training
Tap the button corresponding to the played notes. If E and F are played, tap the "Minor 2nd" button.

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• Accidental Calculator
Display the accidental for a note and key.

• Interval Calculator
Display the interval for a note, type, and key.

• Chord Calculator
Display the scale for a tonic and scale type.

• Chord Calculator
Display the chord for a note, type, and key.

• Analysis Calculator
Display the chord for a symbol and key.

• Matrix Calculator
Display the twelve-tone matrix for a specified tone row.

## Key features

- 24 customizable theory exercises
- Note and chord identification
- Ear training for intervals and scales
- Musical construction exercises
- Accidental calculator
- Interval calculator
- Chord calculator

## Chart rankings

- #3 in Top Paid · Music (US App Store)
- #48 in Top Paid (US App Store)

## What do users think of Tenuto?

Overall sentiment: positive

**Pros**

- 🚀 Essential for musicians
- 👍 Great app
- 👍 Perfect app
- 👍 Wonderful app
- 👍 Highly recommend
- 👍 Fantastic app
- 👍 Excellent app
- 👍 Best app for beginners
- 👍 Superb
- 👍 Brilliant
- 👍 Awesome
- 👍 Excellent for learning
- 👍 Incredibly useful
- 👍 Best music theory app ever
- 👍 Cannot say enough good things about this app
- 👍 Tremendous app
- 👍 Ideal, just what I needed
- 👍 Fantastic Theory App
- 👍 Perfect
- 👍 Must have app
- 👍 Invaluable tool for musicians
- 👍 Excellent for ear training
- 👍 Best in App Store
- 👍 Great teaching tool
- 👍 Very Useful
- 👍 Awesome app!
- 👍 A sound program of exercises
- 👍 Fantastic Application
- 👍 Great app for learning
- 👍 Absolutely fantastic!
- 👍 Superb for beginners or advanced

**Cons**

- 🐛 Wrong billing
- 🐛 Piano tone is so bad
- 🐛 Not good
- 🐛 Great but buggy
- 🐛 All sounds stopped working
- 🐛 Not good for guitarists
- 🐛 Terrible and misleading

**Commonly reported bugs**

- Sound cuts out
- Unresponsive at times
- Freezes up
- Doesn't work well for guitar
- Incorrect chord/key associations

**Most requested features**

- Cadences and inversions for ear training
- Chord progressions for ear training
- Melodic and harmonic minor modes for scale recognition
- 6th, 9th, 11th and 13th chord extensions for chord recognition
- Melodic dictation
- Rhythm exercises
- Fretboard reverse identification
- Chord inversions for chord identification
- Scales written on staff using various clefs
- Rhythm, melodic, and harmonic dictation exercises
- Part writing exercises
- Exercises for form, cadences, etc.
- MIDI support
- Autoplay function
- Ability to input notes/chords on fretboard
- Chord progression ear training
- Inversion options for chord and interval identification
- Melodic and harmonic minor scale identification
- Extended chord identification
- Rhythmic dictation

## Recent user reviews (10 of 347)

All indexed reviews: https://appshunter.io/ios/app/tenuto/id459313476/reviews.md

### 5/5 — Get This App!!

*2026-08-01, version 5.1*

If you’re on the search for an app to help you reinforce your musical foundations, this is the app.  It’s not instructional so much as it is access to exercises that will help you lock in the knowledge you’re getting from your lessons.  I’ve merely explored it for about 5 minutes and feel like I’m stealing it for $4.99.  Well worth the money.  Get this app!

### 5/5 — Fun

*2026-07-09, version 5.1*

This is fun to do during my down time.

### 5/5 — I love it

*2026-07-06, version 5.1*

This app helped me in my band life very much, nothing more i can request for besides adding a valve identifier for notes for things like trumpet, baritone, and mellophone.

### 5/5 — Best aural training app and more

*2026-06-25, version 5.1*

No nonsense app, clean interface and highly functional. Many thanks!

### 5/5 — Perfect

*2026-06-08, version 5.1*

So helpful! Love the fact there is no subscription just a one time purchase. Screw subscriptions!

### 3/5 — Maybe I’m just a bit slow??

*2026-03-22, version 5.0.1*

As a noob I’m finding it hard to use. I can sing but am trying to put labels to notes and keys. Will delete this review if I figure it out.

### 5/5 — i love this app

*2026-03-01, version 5.0.1*

this app is phenomenal and is the only app you should ever pay $5 for

### 5/5 — Amazing

*2026-01-20, version 5.0.1*

I love this app it helps me so much I can learn a lot it teaches me from beginner to intermediate to advanced

### 5/5 — Essential for musicians

*2025-12-15, version 5.0.1*

It is a must for music majors. I have an A in music theory thanks to this app.

### 1/5 — Wrong billing

*2025-12-06, version 5.0*

App store says $6.99 but I am charged $17.59 i.e. more than double. Developer, can you please check?

## Frequently asked questions about Tenuto

### What does Tenuto do?

Tenuto is a music theory application that offers 24 customizable exercises designed to improve musicality. It includes tools for identifying notes, intervals, scales, and chords, as well as ear training modules. The app also features six musical calculators for accidentals, intervals, scales, chords, analysis symbols, and twelve-tone matrices.

### What are the key features of Tenuto?

Key features include a variety of identification exercises (notes, key signatures, intervals, scales, chords) on staff, keyboard, and fretboard. It also offers construction exercises for these musical elements, ear training modules for listening comprehension, and six specialized calculators for musical analysis and computation.

### How much does Tenuto cost?

Based on the provided information, Tenuto is a paid application. There are no mentions of in-app purchases or advertisements, indicating a one-time purchase model for full access to all features.

### What kind of musical concepts can I learn with Tenuto?

You can learn to identify and construct notes, key signatures, intervals, scales, and chords. The app also supports ear training for these elements and provides calculators for accidentals, intervals, scales, chords, analysis symbols, and twelve-tone matrices, covering a broad range of music theory topics.

### Who is Tenuto designed for?

Tenuto is designed for anyone looking to enhance their musical understanding and skills. This includes music students, aspiring composers, and practicing musicians who want to strengthen their theoretical knowledge, ear training abilities, and compositional tools.

## Version history (last 5 releases)

### 5.1 — 2026-04-28

- Updates the app icon used in Dark, Clear, or Tinted modes.
- Fixes several layout and drawing issues when running as a Windowed App.
- Fixes an extremely rare crash when Challenge Mode is enabled.

### 5.0.1 — 2025-12-08

- Fixes an issue where Tenuto could fail to import an exercise.

### 5.0 — 2025-05-19

- Adds the "Note Values" customization to all staff-based exercises. This feature allows exercises to display quarter and half notes in addition to whole notes.
- Fixes an issue where audio might not play after watching a video in another app. If you encounter audio issues in this version, please contact us so we can further diagnose.
- Fixes various graphical glitches and layout issues when running on newer devices.

### 4.2 — 2021-08-17

• Adds support for Dark Mode. In Dark Mode; menus, dialogs, and settings have a dark appearance. Large white areas, such as the background of music notation or piano white keys, are dimmed.
• Raises the location of answer buttons on certain devices to better align with the system keyboard.
• Fixes an audio lag issue when using certain Bluetooth headphones.
• Fixes various minor layout issues.

### 4.1.2 — 2019-01-16

• Improves compatibility with new iPad Pro models.
• Fixes an issue in Fretboard Interval Identification where the "Distance Limit" customization would not always work.
• Changes scoring for certain Challenge Mode customizations. When a "Question Limit" is set and "Multiple Attempts" is turned off, any unanswered questions will be counted as incorrect when the challenge ends.

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## More apps by musictheory.net

- [Theory Lessons](https://appshunter.io/ios/app/theory-lessons/id493157418)

All apps by musictheory.net: https://appshunter.io/developer/459313479

## Related topics

[tenuto](https://appshunter.io/ios/topics/tenuto) · [tenuto 2](https://appshunter.io/ios/topics/tenuto-2) · [musictheory net](https://appshunter.io/ios/topics/musictheory-net) · [music theory](https://appshunter.io/ios/topics/music-theory) · [music theory apps](https://appshunter.io/ios/topics/music-theory-apps)

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*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 2026-08-31.*
