Comparison

ChordLab vs Piano Notes Pro

Price, ratings, monetisation and update history for both apps, side by side — with what reviewers say about each.

Head to head
About

ChordLab

Explore modern four-part voice leading and chord permutations. This tool helps intermediate musicians discover new chord voicings and understand harmonic structures. Features include a Circle of Fifths, chord finder, and virtual instruments.

Highlights
  • Four-part voice leading calculator
  • Chord finder for triads and seventh chords
  • Interactive Circle of Fifths
  • Virtual piano and guitar instruments
  • All inversions and standard voicings
  • Apple Watch app for chord spelling
Features
Read full description

ChordLab is a specialist tool and calculator of sorts for modern four-part voice leading. Everyone has heard these colors in the arrangements of Big Bands - the horn riffs in the Jetsons carton song for example. With ChordLab we can in a way flip through all possible permutations of these chords. More theoretical background is available in the documentation. This is not a general chord app for beginning instrumentalists. To the intermediate player, however, ChordLab can be a source of great inspiration and introduction to many new color choices. Four-part harmony may feel restrictive on instruments capable of more than 4 voices, but for a small choir for example it is a basic fact of life. It has become a staple in modern music as well as it allows the accompanist to declutter the spectrum in a sense by playing fewer notes. Root and fifth substitutions are applied automatically when dialing up a chord in ChordLab. Simply like that. Once the quality of a chord has been set it can then be viewed and listened to in all standard and not so standard drop voicings and moved through its inversions. This is of particular importance to guitar players as quite a few voicings are impossible to play and one may be left with rather few options. Chord spelling is also the main feature of ChordLab's Apple Watch app. ChordLab has an interactive Circle of Fifths. With it we can look up key signatures for major and minor scales as well as all other modes derived of the major scale. So it is possible for example to display key signatures for all mixolydian scales and simultaneously highlight the other degrees for that mode. Additionally ChordLab displays degree structures for a key in standard Roman numerals. This is extremely useful when putting together chord progressions. Roots of the current harmonic domain are highlighted in white and can be tapped to audit the associated chords. The chord finder feature in ChordLab allows you to search its database for 3 or 4 note structures to determine their harmonic quality. To find a chord in its database ChordLab uses the enharmonically simplest solution and does not require you do know whether a note is called G# or an Ab. This is especially useful for guitarists that seldomly encounter chords in root position due to the tuning of the instrument. Features include: • Chord spelling for all common chords • Notation and textual representation of chord tones • Chord finder for triads and seventh chords • Alto, bass, tenor, treble clefs, TAB and grand staff • All inversions and standard voicings • Virtual piano and guitar instruments • Chord tone labeling in instrument views • All common open and alternate tunings presets (guitar) • Automatic root and fifth substitution • Apple Watch app There is a lot of functionality built into ChordLab, but as with any tool it is what we make of it. If chord spelling is a term in your vocabulary ChordLab should be of interest. Or maybe you want to grow your chord reportoire. Putting music theory into words often makes it sound overly complex yet nobody would say that orange or purple are complicated. ChordLab lets you play and work with colors in a sense and shows you how to play them on your instrument. It is very a unique tool for musicians, song-writers, professionals and music students and one that you will find yourself coming back to again and again.

About

Piano Notes Pro

This app helps users learn and practice reading piano music notes. It offers various modes, including a teaching mode and engaging game modes, to improve sight-reading skills. It's suitable for both beginners and experienced players looking to enhance their musical understanding.

Highlights
  • Full 88-key keyboard range
  • Teaching and game modes
  • Adjustable note range
  • Multiple quiz types
  • Support for all key signatures
  • Tutor mode for beginners
  • Colored keys as hints
Read full description

The Best Music Note Trainer on iPad "Great tutor for piano beginners !!" -- Zara56Mount, United States "Just checked out the tutor function and with enough practice I will be learning how to read notes! Yay! This is awesome, thanks!" -- Luucylu, United States "Great app. I use it for teaching piano every day. The kids love it. The updates have been thorough and often." -- r.constanzo, United Kingdom "Really good app and great value! Bought it for my 10 year old daughter who is learning the piano, but I have found it really useful myself and I've been playing for years." -- Eagle-20, United Kingdom "Amazing. One of the best self learning apps I've used." -- Yasin Bashir, United Kindom "It actually makes it addictive to learn. Every time you finish a session you just know you can do better. Great app!" -- music_dude, United States "I've been a piano teacher for many years and wished such a tool would have been on the market 20 years ago - would have saved lots of frustrated hours of repetitions..... Wonderful app to learn and train the notes and their names and where to find them on the piano." -- Carla12345, Germany ------------------------------ Whether you are a piano student looking for apps to help you on learning music notes, or you are a piano teacher who need a trainer app to help you in teaching classes, Piano Notes Pro is definitely what you need. With a wide range of level control, Piano Notes Pro is not only an interesting game for experienced piano players, but is also a great music note tutor for piano students. It certainly can help you learn and practice music notes effectively on your iPad. Piano Notes Pro is widely used and recommended by many piano teachers. It is the only professional choice for iPad! ------------------------------ FEATURES: - Full Keyboard Range: Cover all 88 keys of a piano. - Teaching Mode: Tap a key to show its note and pitch name. - Game Mode: Practice your sight-reading skill with games. - Adjustable Range: Your practice can be focused on particular notes by setting note range. - Quiz Types: 4 quiz types including Random, Ascending, Descending and Chords let you practice in different ways. Additional quiz types are available via in-app purchase. - All Key Signatures: 15 key signatures for treble stave and bass stave. - Help Modes: 3 help modes, including a Tutor mode for beginners. - Colored Keys: In game mode, colors can be applied as hints. This is especially helpful for beginners and kids. - Pitch Name Labels: White keys can be marked with their pitch names, 4 naming conventions provided. - Multiple Notes: Unlike other similar apps showing only one note at a time, Piano Notes Pro shows multiple notes simultaneously in game mode. This is very important for improving sight-reading speed. - Game Length Control: Each game quizzes you with up to 10 pages of notes. Both number of notes and number of pages are adjustable. - Achievements: Improve your skill with fun by gaining achievements. - Progress Report: Scores of all key-signatures of both clefs are clearly listed in a table. - Keyboard Size Control: You can adjust the keyboard size to fit your need. 3 different sizes are available. - Multiple User Profiles: With up to 40 user profiles, you can share the app with your friends or family members. This feature is also very useful for piano teachers to keep track of students' progress. - Gorgeous Sound: High-quality, real and beautiful piano sound. - MIDI Input: Support MIDI input with CoreMIDI (via Apple Camera Connection Kit and USB [to host] port on keyboard). ------------------------------ IMPORTANT NOTICE !! - Please disable 3-finger gesture in iOS Settings while playing chords. ------------------------------ App preview music by http://instrumentalsfree.com

Screenshots

ChordLab4 screens

Verdict

The call

The clearest difference is review sentiment: Piano Notes Pro at 86% against ChordLab's 22%. Piano Notes Pro also leads on ratings volume (16 vs 1) and price ($2.99 vs $3.99). ChordLab's advantage is rating (5.0 vs 3.8) and device support (4 vs 1). On update cadence, ads and in-app purchases 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

CostPrice · In-app purchases · Ads · Monetization

ChordLab costs $3.99 and Piano Notes Pro $2.99 up front. ChordLab sells 10 one-off in-app purchases and Piano Notes Pro sells 1 one-off in-app purchase. Whichever you choose, the download price is not the number that matters.

ReceptionRating · Positive reviews · Number of ratings

ChordLab holds the better App Store score, 5.0 against 3.8. That said, the two scores are not equally well evidenced: Piano Notes Pro has 16 ratings behind it against 1, so its average is the more settled of the two. Written reviews complicate that: 22% of ChordLab's written reviews are positive against 86% of Piano Notes Pro's, so the app with the better star average is not the one people write more warmly about.

UpkeepUpdate frequency

ChordLab ships an update every 3 months, Piano Notes Pro every 2 months. The most recent releases landed on September 25, 2026 and August 5, 2026 respectively.

Scorecard7 real differences · 3 level
ChordLab versus Piano Notes Pro: the parameters behind the verdict, then further details
ParameterChordLabPiano Notes Pro
Price$3.99$2.99 — better
Rating5.0 (1 ratings) — better3.8 (16 ratings)
Positive reviews21.7% of reviews85.5% of reviews — better
Number of ratings116 — better
Update frequencyEvery 3 monthsEvery 2 months — better
AdsNoNo
In-app purchasesYesYes
MonetizationPaidFree with in-app purchases — better
DevicesiPhone, iPad, iPod, Apple Watch — betteriPad
Requires iOS12.18.0 — better
Further details — not scored
Size40 MB29 MB
Age rating4+4+
DeveloperRoGame SoftwarePatrick Chan

Customer experience

ChordLab

All ratings1 ratings
Positive100.0%
Neutral0.0%
Negative0.0%
Written reviews23 reviews
Positive21.7%
Neutral17.4%
Negative60.9%

Piano Notes Pro

All ratings16 ratings
Positive68.8%
Neutral6.3%
Negative25.0%
Written reviews242 reviews
Positive85.5%
Neutral5.8%
Negative8.7%

Bugs and requests

ChordLab

Not enough reviews yet to summarise bugs or requests.

Piano Notes Pro

Reported bugs

2 issues
  • No sound output on some devices
  • Occasional freezing or crashing

Requested features

5 requests
  • Display notes per second metric
  • Ability to display both treble and bass clefs simultaneously
  • Option to record and play back user's performance
  • Inclusion of actual musical pieces to practice sight reading
  • Tracking of weak notes to focus practice on problem areas

In-app purchases

10 purchases

ChordLab

One-time10
  • 01 Keyboard Pack$0.99
  • 02 Guitar Pack$0.99
  • 03 Bass Pack$0.99
Show 7 more
  • 04 Strings Pack$0.99
  • 05 Mallets Pack$0.99
  • 06 Winds Pack$0.99
  • 07 Synths Pack$0.99
  • 08 Folk Pack$0.99
  • 09 Winds Pack 2$0.99
  • 10 Folk Strings Pack$0.99
1 purchases

Piano Notes Pro

One-time1
  • 3 Quiz Types, Interval Finder & Scale Marks$0.99

Questions

Is ChordLab free?
ChordLab costs $3.99, and also offers in-app purchases.
Is Piano Notes Pro free?
Piano Notes Pro costs $2.99, and also offers in-app purchases.
Which has better reviews, ChordLab or Piano Notes Pro?
ChordLab is rated higher. ChordLab averages 5.0 out of 5 from 1 ratings, while Piano Notes Pro averages 3.8 from 16 ratings.
Do ChordLab or Piano Notes Pro have ads?
Neither ChordLab nor Piano Notes Pro shows ads.
Which is updated more often, ChordLab or Piano Notes Pro?
ChordLab ships an update every 3 months, and Piano Notes Pro every 2 months. Most recently, ChordLab was updated on September 25, 2026 and Piano Notes Pro on August 5, 2026.

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