ScoreSkills vs Piano Syntax
Price, ratings, monetisation and update history for both apps, side by side — with what reviewers say about each.
ScoreSkills
Learn music theory, ear training, and sight-reading through fun, step-by-step games and challenges. This app helps users of all levels compose their own music and improve cognitive skills like focus and memory.
- Ear training exercises
- Sight-reading practice
- Music theory lessons
- Compose your own music
- Step-by-step rewarding games
- Instant performance feedback
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ScoreSkills is an innovative app that helps you to learn music and enhance your musical skills in a fun & interesting way. The App is designed for beginners and doesn’t require a musical instrument to enjoy. ScoreSkills offers you (or your kids) "learning by experience" fun exercises that teach you as you go to read, write and play music at your own pace, whenever and wherever you want. “By far, it’s my favorite app, and it really helps me learn music theory while making it fun and interesting.” With our proven techniques, developed by music experts and educators, you'll gain everything you need to master music and become a pro (music theory, ear-training, sight-reading, music writing, etc.). Not only that, it is proved that our learning methods improve other life & brain skills such as; creativity, focus, memory abilities, analytical skills, etc. We introduce new skills by using step by step rewarding games and challenges that suit your playing level and give you instant feedback on your performance. WRITE YOUR OWN MUSIC! ScoreSkills is the only music education app that trains your music-writing skills as a core part of learning. You'll be composing your own music in no time. Download now to practice reading, writing, singing, and listening to music and join our global community of music makers. WHO IS THIS APP FOR? Basically, anyone who can read and wants to improve his music and personal skills. It is perfectly suited for self-learning or as a supplement to learning with a teacher. WHAT WILL YOU LEARN? The app contains thousands of levels, and we keep releasing hundreds more every few weeks that will teach you everything you need in a simplified way. Aural Foundations, Pitch Matching, Directional Audiation, Note reading up to an octave, Rhythms including Whole, Half, and Quarter Notes, Notes up to staff edges, Rhythms including eighth and 16th notes, Accidentals, Tonic and Dominant Functions, Notes up to 3 Ledger Lines, Rhythms with Ties, 4 More Major Scales, Chord Inversions, Add Subdominant Chords, Whole and Half Steps, 4 More Major Scales, Interval Quality, Simple Chord Progressions, Rhythms in 2/4, 4/4, and 6/8, Complex Rhythms in Duple/Triplets, All 12 Major keys and scales, Chord Progressions, and more subjects are arriving soon. HOW DOES THE SUBSCRIPTION WORK? Get a 7-day free trial! Subscribers will receive unlimited access to all of the chapters and levels. If you enjoy your ScoreSkills trial, do nothing, and your subscription will automatically continue. You can choose the plan that suits you the most between our 3 plans. Prices may vary in different countries, and payment will be charged to iTunes Account. Subscriptions automatically renew unless auto-renew is turned off at least 24-hours before the end of the current period. CONTACT We'd love to hear your thoughts, feedback, and suggestions while we strive to make music education fun and easy and enable anyone to become a composer. Reach us at ScoreSkillsTeam@compoze.co Have fun! privacy policy: https://www.scoreskills.com/privacy.htm terms of use: https://www.scoreskills.com/terms.htm
Piano Syntax
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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
Screenshots
Verdict
The clearest difference is ads: Piano Syntax at none against ScoreSkills's shown. Piano Syntax also leads on update cadence (every 3 days vs fortnightly). ScoreSkills's advantage is iOS requirement (15.6 vs 17.0). On price, in-app purchases 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
Both are free to download. ScoreSkills sells 11 in-app purchases, starting at $9.99 per 7 days and Piano Syntax sells 2 in-app purchases, starting at $2.99 per month. Whichever you choose, the download price is not the number that matters.
ScoreSkills ships an update fortnightly, Piano Syntax every 3 days. The most recent releases landed on October 26, 2026 and October 24, 2026 respectively.
| Parameter | ScoreSkills | Piano Syntax |
|---|---|---|
| Price | Free | Free |
| Rating | 4.6 (2K ratings) — better | — |
| Positive reviews | 59.7% of reviews | — |
| Number of ratings | 2K — better | — |
| Update frequency | Fortnightly | Every 3 days — better |
| Ads | Yes | No — better |
| In-app purchases | Yes | Yes |
| Monetization | Free with in-app purchases | — |
| Devices | iPhone, iPad, iPod | iPhone, iPad, Mac |
| Requires iOS | 15.6 — better | 17.0 |
| Further details — not scored | ||
| Size | 122 MB | 1.3 GB |
| Age rating | 4+ | 4+ |
| Developer | Compoze Music Solutions | Tristan Waley |
Bugs and requests
ScoreSkills
Reported bugs
4 issues- App crashes frequently
- Note-writing feature not working properly
- Progress not saved between sessions
- Lessons not unlocking as expected
Requested features
5 requests- Allow creating multiple user profiles
- Add more detailed music theory lessons
- Improve note-writing functionality
- Provide better feedback on mistakes
- Introduce a free version with ads
Piano Syntax
Not enough reviews yet to summarise bugs or requests.
In-app purchases
ScoreSkills
- ScoreSkills Pro3 Days trial$9.997 Days
- ScoreSkills Pro$14.991 Month
- ScoreSkills Pro3 Days trial$14.991 Month
Show 8 moreShow fewer
- ScoreSkills Pro3 Days trial$28.993 Months
- ScoreSkills Pro$29.993 Months
- ScoreSkills Pro3 Days trial$37.996 Months
- ScoreSkills Pro$39.991 Year
- ScoreSkills Pro$44.996 Months
- ScoreSkills Pro$59.991 Year
- ScoreSkills Pro7 Days trial$59.991 Year
- ScoreSkills Pro1 Month trial$59.991 Year
Piano Syntax
- Pro Monthly7 Days trial$2.991 Month
- Pro Annual7 Days trial$19.991 Year
Questions
Is ScoreSkills free?
Is Piano Syntax free?
Do ScoreSkills or Piano Syntax have ads?
Which is updated more often, ScoreSkills or Piano Syntax?
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