ScaleMate vs Strathmore
Price, ratings, monetisation and update history for both apps, side by side — with what reviewers say about each.
ScaleMate
This app provides an interactive reference for understanding music scales and jazz harmony. It allows users to hear, visualize, and manipulate scales to deepen their comprehension of musical concepts. Features include expert write-ups, practical usage tips, and animated transformations between scales.
- Hear scales as melodies
- Visualize scales on circle of fifths
- Expert scale write-ups
- Manipulate scales and hear changes
- Full library of scales
- Automatic scale recognition
- Animated scale transformations
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ScaleMate is a modern, interactive reference to jazz harmony. ScaleMate lets you… HEAR SCALES conventionally or as random melodies. VISUALIZE SCALES in ways that help you understand them deeper. READ & LEARN through built-in, expert scale write-ups & use tips. MANIPULATE SCALES while you listen. Hear the effects instantly to understand how scales differ. ————————————————— ScaleMate is a reference that shows you & plays for you any scale you wish…. But that's just the beginning. ScaleMate helps you hear & understand scales and harmony more deeply… by teaching you to visualize scales in ways that match what they sound like. Imagine… Wouldn't it be nice to have a single image to understand all the modes of the major scale? Ever wonder why the modes are ordered so oddly, hopping between major & minor & dominant? Or notice that the Altered Scale is the "darkest", most minor sounding of all possible dominant scales? Or that its tritone-substitution, the Lydian Dominant Scale, is the "brightest" of them all? Ever notice that the minor pentatonic scale is a mode of the major pentatonic scale and wonder whether there were any other useful pentatonic modes? Ever notice that the major pentatonic scale (and its modes) are the only 5-note scale that doesn't contain any half steps or tritones? ScaleMate shows you scales in a way that makes these observations natural and immediate… and plays you the results too. Or ever just wonder what the definition of a dominant chord is and which common scales can be used for them? ScaleMate's got you covered. ——————— FEATURES ——————— USE IT RIGHT AWAY Use ScaleMate right now! Built-in help is there for you whenever you want it. LISTEN ScaleMate lets you hear what scales sound like, by playing them up & down, or by playing random melodies that use them. VISUALIZE WHAT YOU HEAR ScaleMate shows every scale both linearly (for melodic understanding) and on the circle of fifths (for harmonic understanding). FULL LIBRARY OF SCALES ScaleMate knows all the scales you're ever likely to encounter. A WELLSPRING OF KNOWLEDGE Extensive info pages on 60+ of the most common & important scales, including practical advice and usage tips. (Over 15,000 words of content.) USE IT TO TEACH ScaleMate is perfect for projecting on a screen or sharing over zoom while you teach. Its animations let you show how one scale transforms into another, and it has special features (pointing, hiding/revealing) for educators. AUTOMATIC SCALE RECOGNITION Build your own scales and ask yourself "what if I make this change…" Whenever you produce a conventional scale, ScaleMate will automatically identify it for you by name and tell you about it. ANIMATED IN FRONT OF YOUR EYES Change between one scale and another and see the differences between them, visually animated before you. SMART SPELLING ScaleMate notates perfectly, for every scale in every key. NOTE ROLES Next to each note, ScaleMate displays its function—in numbers (3, 5, b7) or in solfege (Mi, Sol, Te) or not at all, according to your preference. SIMPLE OR ADVANCED NOTATION ScaleMate shows you double flats and double sharps whenever they're called for… unless you'd rather see simpler note names. Prefer never to see notes like Cb and E#? You can have ScaleMate show them as B and F. DIMINISHED HARMONY Choose the option to color the notes in three colors so you can see which diminished seventh chord every note belongs to. Great for understanding diminished scales & chords and seeing how they relate to other scales too. JAZZ CRED ScaleMate is created by Anton Schwartz. An award-winning saxophonist & composer as well as an expert educator, he is also the creator of the highly rated RANDOM ROOTS app. Terms and conditions: https://scalemate.app/terms-conditions Privacy policy: https://scalemate.app/privacy
Strathmore
Experience location-aware music compositions mapped to a specific campus. Users must be on-site with headphones to play the music, which unfolds as they explore.
- Location-aware music compositions
- Campus-specific mapping
- Geo-tagged musical works
- Interactive exploration
- Headphone-required experience
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Strathmore: Sonic Trails is a collection of Location Aware Music compositions mapped for the campus in North Bethesda, Maryland. In order to experience the works within you must be on the Strathmore campus and a pair of headphones is required. The first geo-tagged composition is “The Imagined Forest” from composer Grace-Evangeline Mason. Due to the amount of music contained within the experience we recommend downloading this app before you arrive. When you arrive at Strathmore • Open the app • Put on headphones • Press play Begin exploring the park and the music will unfold depending on your chosen path.
Screenshots
Verdict
The clearest difference is review sentiment: ScaleMate at 100% against Strathmore's 0%. ScaleMate also leads on rating (4.8 vs 3.0) and ratings volume (24 vs 1). Strathmore's advantage is price (Free vs $3.99) and iOS requirement (12.0 vs 17.5). On update cadence, ads, 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
Strathmore is free to download; ScaleMate costs $3.99 up front. Neither carries in-app purchases, so what you see is what you pay.
ScaleMate holds the better App Store score, 4.8 against 3.0. That said, the two scores are not equally well evidenced: ScaleMate has 24 ratings behind it against 1, so its average is the more settled of the two. Written reviews point the same way: 100% of ScaleMate's written reviews are positive against 0% of Strathmore's.
ScaleMate ships an update fortnightly, Strathmore every 10 days. The most recent releases landed on October 24, 2026 and October 7, 2026 respectively.
| Parameter | ScaleMate | Strathmore |
|---|---|---|
| Price | $3.99 | Free — better |
| Rating | 4.8 (24 ratings) — better | 3.0 (1 ratings) |
| Positive reviews | 100.0% of reviews — better | 0.0% of reviews |
| Number of ratings | 24 — better | 1 |
| Update frequency | Fortnightly | Every 10 days — better |
| Ads | No | No |
| In-app purchases | No | No |
| Monetization | Paid | Free — better |
| Devices | iPhone, iPad | iPhone, iPad, iPod — better |
| Requires iOS | 17.5 | 12.0 — better |
| Further details — not scored | ||
| Size | 36 MB | 630 MB |
| Age rating | 4+ | 4+ |
| Developer | Anton Schwartz | BLUEBRAIN |
Customer experience
ScaleMate
Strathmore
In-app purchases
ScaleMate
No in-app purchases
Strathmore
No in-app purchases









