Fretonomy vs Clef Trainer Grid
Price, ratings, monetisation and update history for both apps, side by side — with what reviewers say about each.
Fretonomy
Master the guitar fretboard with interactive games and tools. Learn notes, chords, and scales, and even compose your own music. Practice with your real instrument and track your progress with detailed statistics.
- Interactive fretboard games
- Note, chord, and scale learning
- Real instrument practice with mic detection
- Songwriting and tablature tools
- Progress tracking and heat maps
- Support for 9 instruments
- Customizable learning options
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Created before AI and developed for 9+ years, Fretonomy is the ultimate guitar fretboard trainer. Learn every note, chord, scale and interval through fast, addictive games, then use it all to write your own music. For every level: beginners learn the basics, intermediate players finally see the whole neck, and advanced players can dig into extended chords, 950+ scales and any tuning. Made by a single developer who is also a guitarist. PLAY ON YOUR REAL GUITAR Turn on mic detection and answer with your instrument instead of tapping the screen. Fretonomy hears the note you play and tells you if it's right, so practice carries straight over to the guitar in your hands. 35+ GAMES AND TOOLS - Find any note on the fretboard, on any range of frets you choose: the first frets, a section in the middle, or the whole neck - Name Chord game: choose which chords to practice and identify their shapes anywhere on the neck, in any tuning, from simple triads to diminished sevenths and major thirteenths - Chord Chart Explorer: find any chord on any instrument in any tuning, worked out by a custom algorithm, and save your favorite shapes - Name Interval and Find Interval games, with your choice of intervals and starting notes - Scale Explorer: 950+ scales from any root note, customized however you want, with intervals color-coded - Games to practice building chords and scales note by note, and chord progressions chord by chord - Staff game: learn to read music on any section of the staff, with your choice of staff type - Staff and Fretboard game: find the fret that matches a note on the staff - Ear training for notes, intervals and chords - Circle of fifths practice - Built-in tuner and metronome - Video lessons in 20+ languages WRITE YOUR OWN SONGS - Write tablature, attach audio recordings and lyrics, and save your ideas - Fretonomy detects the scale of your riff and generates chord progressions that fit it - Generate any popular chord progression in any key, then play along with playback TRACK YOUR PROGRESS - A heat map shows how well you know every fret - Stats showing how fast you answer every single fret, interval and chord shape, for each instrument and tuning, and how far you've come - Milestones guide you through what to learn next 9 INSTRUMENTS Guitar, 7-string guitar, 8-string guitar, bass, 5-string bass, 6-string bass, ukulele, mandolin and banjo. MADE FOR HOW YOU PLAY - Automatic Mode: the games answer themselves on a loop, so you can learn just by watching - Timer Mode: set your own timer in any game to test yourself - Common tunings for every instrument, or add your own - Left-handed mode - Customizable interval colors and app theme color - Chord names as standard letters, chord symbols, or Nashville numbers (with or without flats) - Note names in letters, two solfege styles, numbers, German, Japanese, Indian, Cyrillic or Korean notation - Available in 20 languages HAND-BUILT BY ONE DEVELOPER Fretonomy has been designed and built by one independent developer since 2017, and new games are added regularly. PLAY EVERY GAME FREE Every game and tool is open in the free version, so you can try all of it. Terms of Use: https://www.fretonomy.com/terms/ Privacy Policy: https://www.fretonomy.com/privacy/
Clef Trainer Grid
Master sheet music reading across multiple clefs. Practice note input via touch, MIDI keyboard, or microphone. Features a unique grid input to ensure genuine learning, not just muscle memory.
- Treble, alto, and bass clef support
- Major and minor key signature support
- Accidental support
- Adjustable ledger lines
- Grid input for muscle memory prevention
- MIDI keyboard and microphone input
- Cheat Mode for real-time note names
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Learn to read sheet music over various clefs! Practice reading and inputting notes using your finger, plugging a piano keyboard in, or virtually any other instrument using the microphone input mode. Take your skills outside of the app: Clef Trainer Grid also features a special grid input that scrambles button locations to prevent the building of a muscle memory. This ensures that you're actually learning the note letters, rather than just learning how to use an app! Still want to learn the piano keys? No worries! You can also switch a classic piano input at any time. Features also include: * Support for treble, alto, and bass clefs * Support for every major and minor key signature * Support for accidentals—Choose if you want to play outside of the key! * Adjustable number of ledger lines * Cheat Mode—View the names of the notes in real-time! * Dark Mode * Ghost Note —View miss-input notes on the staff
Screenshots
Verdict
The clearest difference is price: Fretonomy at Free against Clef Trainer Grid's $2.99. Fretonomy also leads on ratings volume (2.5K vs 13). Clef Trainer Grid's advantage is in-app purchases (none vs 10) and update cadence (daily vs weekly). On rating, ads and device support there is nothing between them.
Scored on Price · Rating · Positive reviews · Number of ratings · Update frequency · Ads · In-app purchases · Monetization · Best chart rank · Devices · Requires iOS
Fretonomy is free to download; Clef Trainer Grid costs $2.99 up front. Fretonomy sells 10 in-app purchases, starting at $2.99 per month. Clef Trainer Grid asks for nothing beyond the download.
Clef Trainer Grid holds the better App Store score, 4.8 against 4.6. That said, the two scores are not equally well evidenced: Fretonomy has 2.5K ratings behind it against 13, so its average is the more settled of the two. Written reviews point the same way: 65% of Fretonomy's written reviews are positive against 83% of Clef Trainer Grid's.
Fretonomy ships an update weekly, Clef Trainer Grid daily. The most recent releases landed on November 6, 2026 and November 5, 2026 respectively.
| Parameter | Fretonomy | Clef Trainer Grid |
|---|---|---|
| Price | Free — better | $2.99 |
| Rating | 4.6 (2.5K ratings) | 4.8 (13 ratings) — better |
| Positive reviews | 65.3% of reviews | 83.3% of reviews — better |
| Number of ratings | 2.5K — better | 13 |
| Update frequency | Weekly | Daily — better |
| Ads | No | No |
| In-app purchases | Yes | No — better |
| Monetization | Freemium — better | Paid |
| Best chart rank | — | #191 — better |
| Devices | iPhone, iPad | iPhone, iPad, iPod — better |
| Requires iOS | 17.6 | 15.0 — better |
| Further details — not scored | ||
| Size | 106 MB | 3 MB |
| Age rating | 4+ | 4+ |
| Developer | Strong Apps LLC | John Andersen |
Customer experience
Fretonomy
Clef Trainer Grid
Bugs and requests
Fretonomy
Reported bugs
4 issues- Subscription not unlocking full access
- Fretboard visualization issues on certain devices
- Crashes and freezes in some game modes
- Incorrect note/chord display on staff
Requested features
6 requests- Ability to customize note/chord display on staff
- Option to disable specific notes/chords in exercises
- Interval identification game
- Metronome integration for scale practice
- Cloud sync for progress and settings
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- Microphone support for note detection
Clef Trainer Grid
Not enough reviews yet to summarise bugs or requests.
In-app purchases
Fretonomy
- Premium$2.991 Month
- Premium$4.991 Month
- Premium$23.991 Year
- Guitar$2.99
- 4-String Bass$2.99
- Mandolin$2.99
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- Ukulele$2.99
- Banjo$2.99
- 5-String Bass$2.99
- All Instruments$99.00
Clef Trainer Grid
No in-app purchases
Questions
Is Fretonomy free?
Is Clef Trainer Grid free?
Which has better reviews, Fretonomy or Clef Trainer Grid?
Do Fretonomy or Clef Trainer Grid have ads?
Which is updated more often, Fretonomy or Clef Trainer Grid?
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