Tonic vs Functional Harmony
Price, ratings, monetisation and update history for both apps, side by side — with what reviewers say about each.
Tonic
This app uses augmented reality to display over 130 chords directly on your piano. It guides you on finger placement, making it easier to learn and play chords, especially for those who don't read traditional sheet music. Ideal for musicians of all levels.
- Augmented reality chord display
- Over 130 chords
- Finger placement guidance
- Flat/sharp display modes
- Works with various piano sizes
- 3 octave options
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Tonic is the world's first AR chord dictionary. Chords are amazing. But for musicians who aren't jazz aficionados, finding a chord from a lead sheet is often frustrating and time consuming. And for the many talented musicians who don't read sheet music, chord dictionaries with music notation don't make things any easier. Tonic is the solution. Using AR, Tonic lets you easily view over 130 chords on your own piano. It tells you exactly where to place your fingers to play almost any chord. Great for students, professionals, or anyone interested in music. Features: - Over 130 chords with music notation - Flat/sharp display modes - Works with 88, 76, 61, 49, and 25 key pianos - 3 octaves to choose from - An adorable app icon
Functional Harmony
This music theory app helps users spell chords and scales by entering a root note. It also identifies intervals when two notes are provided. Learn music theory concepts quickly and easily.
- Spell chords
- Spell scales
- Identify intervals
- Enter root note for chords/scales
- Enter two notes for interval identification
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Functional Harmony is a fast music theory desk for players and students. Build chords and scales from a root and quality. Identify harmony from notes. Or just Ask—type a chord, scale, or note stack in plain English and jump straight to the answer. SCALE FINDER • Choose a root and scale quality—major, minor, modes, pentatonic, and more • See every degree spelled clearly for practice and ear training • Perfect when you need a quick scale finder without flipping textbooks CHORD BUILDER & CHORD ID • Spell major, minor, sevenths, suspended, augmented, diminished, and more • Stack notes in the Notes tab to identify chords and intervals (reverse lookup) • Piano-friendly note entry with accidentals—great as a chord identifier ASK • Natural-language queries: “C major 7”, “F# dorian”, “C E G” • Live preview before you open Chords, Scales, or Notes • Built for homework, rehearsals, and songwriting sessions WHY FUNCTIONAL HARMONY • Chords, scales, and note identification in one app • Clean, bottom-anchored controls designed for one-handed practice • No accounts, no clutter—just theory when you need it Whether you call it a scale finder, chord identifier, or harmony lab, Functional Harmony keeps tonal music theory at your fingertips.
Screenshots
Verdict
The clearest difference is review sentiment: Functional Harmony at 83% against Tonic's 39%. Functional Harmony also leads on rating (4.9 vs 4.0). Tonic's advantage is update cadence (weekly vs every 6 months) and ratings volume (204 vs 24). On price, ads, in-app purchases and monetization model 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
Both are free to download. Neither carries in-app purchases, so what you see is what you pay.
Functional Harmony holds the better App Store score, 4.9 against 4.0. That said, the two scores are not equally well evidenced: Tonic has 204 ratings behind it against 24, so its average is the more settled of the two. Written reviews point the same way: 39% of Tonic's written reviews are positive against 83% of Functional Harmony's.
Tonic ships an update weekly, Functional Harmony every 6 months. The most recent releases landed on August 14, 2026 and September 6, 2026 respectively.
| Parameter | Tonic | Functional Harmony |
|---|---|---|
| Price | Free | Free |
| Rating | 4.0 (204 ratings) | 4.9 (24 ratings) — better |
| Positive reviews | 38.8% of reviews | 83.3% of reviews — better |
| Number of ratings | 204 — better | 24 |
| Update frequency | Weekly — better | Every 6 months |
| Ads | No | No |
| In-app purchases | No | No |
| Monetization | Free | Free |
| Devices | iPhone, iPad, iPod — better | iPhone, iPad |
| Requires iOS | 11.0 — better | 18.0 |
| Further details — not scored | ||
| Size | 13 MB | 24 MB |
| Age rating | 4+ | 4+ |
| Developer | Coda Labs Incorporated | Dylan Shade |
Customer experience
Tonic
Functional Harmony
Bugs and requests
Tonic
Reported bugs
26 issues- Calibration doesn't work
- Dots move perpendicular to what they should
- App thinks piano is rotated 90 degrees
- App won't pick up the piano
- Keys never show
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- Dots overlap and don't align for each key
- Dots slide around after calibration
- Target for placing a dot can become permanently rotated
- Second marker/target never appears
- Blue circle pops up floating around
- Target doesn't pop up for alignment
- Notes don't align perfectly
- G# is completely off
- Diminished triads and augmented triads switched in notation
- Highest key not detected
- Second target won't appear on screen
- Dots are not centered on the keys correctly
- Doesn't detect highest key on 61 key pianos
- First target aligns perfectly but second target doesn't show up
- Second dot will not appear during alignment
- No second target to align
- Can't calibrate, second target doesn't appear
- Calibration dot gets stuck in one place
- Second target doesn't appear for alignment
- Hard to calibrate properly
- AR is not perfect
Requested features
10 requests- Fix calibration tool
- Make YouTube video with instructions
- Add more chords (9ths, 11ths, 13ths, jazz chords)
- Add chord inversions
- Support for smaller keyboards
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- Display all key names
- Add basic music playing/ar tutorial
- Specify number of keys for unconventional keyboards
- Auto-calibrate by detecting keyboard
- Allow searching all chords and inversions
Functional Harmony
Not enough reviews yet to summarise bugs or requests.
In-app purchases
Tonic
No in-app purchases
Functional Harmony
No in-app purchases









