Know Notes vs Fretboard Learning
Price, ratings, monetisation and update history for both games, side by side — with what reviewers say about each.
Know Notes
Develop your musical ear by learning to identify notes and chords by sound. This gamified app makes practicing fun and competitive, allowing you to progress from basic notes to sharps and flats.
- Ear training
- Note recognition
- Chord recognition
- Gamified learning
- Progressive difficulty
- Natural notes, sharps, and flats
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Train Ears, Master Music. Learn to recognize musical notes and chords by their unique sound. Gamified to make learning fun and competitive. Start small, then work your way up to learn every natural note and their sharp/flat.
Fretboard Learning
Master the guitar fretboard with interactive games and comprehensive learning tools. Practice your ear, learn hundreds of chords and scales, and customize your learning experience with various tunings and modes. Track your progress with detailed statistics and explore music harmony.
- Educational games for fretboard notes
- Learn over 500 chords
- Master all scales in different boxes
- Customizable tunings
- Left-handed mode
- Interactive Circle of Fifths
- Metronome
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Are you new to the guitar? Or maybe you're a seasoned player who's looking for a little help getting your ear back in shape. Either way, Fretboard Learning is your best bet for learning the notes on your guitar. Fretboard Learning offers the best educational games to learn the notes on your guitar. You can practice your musical ear, learn more than 500 chords all over the fretboard, learn all scales in all the different boxes, and customize your experience by selecting your favorite tuning or creating a new one of your own! Left-handed mode is also available. The app includes: - Differents game modes - More than 500 chords all over the fretboard - All scales in all the differents boxes - Custom tunings or create your own - Left handed mode - Different notes notation - Circle of fifths: an interactive and fun tool to explore music harmony - Metronome - Statistics of your results - Detailed heat map of the fretboard
Screenshots
Verdict
The clearest difference is review sentiment: Know Notes at 96% against Fretboard Learning's 70%. Know Notes also leads on rating (4.9 vs 4.7). Fretboard Learning's advantage is update cadence (every 3 days vs fortnightly) and ratings volume (485 vs 32). 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. Know Notes sells 6 one-off in-app purchases and Fretboard Learning sells 2 in-app purchases, starting at $1.49 per month. Whichever you choose, the download price is not the number that matters.
Know Notes holds the better App Store score, 4.9 against 4.7. That said, the two scores are not equally well evidenced: Fretboard Learning has 485 ratings behind it against 32, so its average is the more settled of the two. Written reviews point the same way: 96% of Know Notes's written reviews are positive against 70% of Fretboard Learning's.
Know Notes ships an update fortnightly, Fretboard Learning every 3 days. The most recent releases landed on September 21, 2026 and September 23, 2026 respectively.
| Parameter | Know Notes | Fretboard Learning |
|---|---|---|
| Price | Free | Free |
| Rating | 4.9 (32 ratings) — better | 4.7 (485 ratings) |
| Positive reviews | 95.7% of reviews — better | 69.8% of reviews |
| Number of ratings | 32 | 485 — better |
| Update frequency | Fortnightly | Every 3 days — better |
| Ads | No | No |
| In-app purchases | Yes | Yes |
| Monetization | Free with in-app purchases | Free with in-app purchases |
| Best chart rank | — | #142 — better |
| Devices | iPhone | iPhone, iPad, iPod — better |
| Requires iOS | 16.0 | 13.0 — better |
| Further details — not scored | ||
| Size | 107 MB | 38 MB |
| Age rating | 4+ | 4+ |
| Developer | wylan neely | Mustapha AOUAS |
Customer experience
Know Notes
Fretboard Learning
Bugs and requests
Know Notes
Not enough reviews yet to summarise bugs or requests.
Fretboard Learning
Reported bugs
9 issues- Identify by sound produces no audio or disturbing beep sound
- Notes on lower half of fretboard not selectable
- Missing button for sharps/flats (D# not available when shown)
- Low E string gets stuck on D in custom tuning setup
- Broken links to Twitter and website in about section
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- Screen cutoff in horizontal orientation
- Enharmonic errors in some scales
- Pro access lost after app reinstall
- Incorrect answer options not provided for some questions
Requested features
14 requests- Octave differentiation (C1, C2, C3, etc.)
- Support for different number of strings and instruments (bass)
- Actual guitar note sounds instead of generic beep
- Horizontal/landscape orientation support
- Ability to select specific frets and notes in all game modes
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- Single string isolation practice mode
- Backing tracks for practice
- CAGED system mapping
- Unlimited practice mode option
- Show correct answer after wrong selection
- Chord support for alternate tunings
- Share button for scales and chords
- Full fretboard view with scrolling instead of limited sections
- Customizable game progression pace
In-app purchases
Know Notes
- Violin Notes$0.99
- Electronic Keyboard Notes$0.99
- Grand Piano Notes$0.99
Show 3 moreShow fewer
- Unlock Violin Instrument$2.99
- Acoustic Guitar (Major Chords)$2.99
- Unlock Acoustic Guitar$3.99
Fretboard Learning
- All Access Package$1.491 Month
- All Access Package$9.99
Questions
Is Know Notes free?
Is Fretboard Learning free?
Which has better reviews, Know Notes or Fretboard Learning?
Do Know Notes or Fretboard Learning have ads?
Which is updated more often, Know Notes or Fretboard Learning?
Other comparisons
