Comparison

Piano Notes Pro vs Music Reading Essentials

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

Head to head
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

About

Music Reading Essentials

This app aids in learning and practicing sheet music reading, covering musical signs, symbols, note names, rhythms, and intervals. It features flashcards divided into stages with a smart shuffling algorithm to reinforce learning, and offers clef selection and timer modes for comprehensive practice.

Highlights
  • Sheet music reading practice
  • Musical signs and symbols
  • Note names and rhythms
  • Intervals learning
  • Flashcards with stages
  • Clef selection (Treble, Bass, Alto)
  • Timer mode
Features
Read full description

"Poco-a-Poco: Music Reading Essentials" helps learning and practicing sheet music reading, understanding musical signs and symbols, note names, rhythms, intervals and more. Designed with the help of professional piano teachers, this fundamental tool is for those who are learning to play piano or other musical instruments, as well as for anybody who needs practicing sheet music reading. The application has four sets of flash cards divided into stages with increasing knowledge level. By choosing either one or a combination of any of the four sets, you can start testing yourself and study at the same time. The specially designed shuffling algorithm will start showing more often those cards, which were not answered correctly. Choose Notes from either Treble clef, Bass clef, Alto clef or the combination of Treble and Bass clefs ("Grand" mode). Use "Timer" to test your knowledge. The "Results" screen will show your progress as well what you need to continue working on. With the "Cards Info" screen you can see how the cards are arranged by sets and stages.

Screenshots

Music Reading Essentials4 screens

Verdict

The call

The clearest difference is rating: Music Reading Essentials at 4.6 against Piano Notes Pro's 3.8. Music Reading Essentials also leads on in-app purchases (none vs 1) and device support (3 vs 1). Piano Notes Pro's advantage is update cadence (every 2 months vs every 20 months) and review sentiment (86% vs 63%). On price, ratings volume and ads 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

Piano Notes Pro costs $2.99 and Music Reading Essentials $2.99 up front. Piano Notes Pro sells 1 one-off in-app purchase. Music Reading Essentials asks for nothing beyond the download.

ReceptionRating · Positive reviews · Number of ratings

Music Reading Essentials holds the better App Store score, 4.6 against 3.8. Both are backed by a comparable volume of ratings — 16 and 11 respectively. Written reviews complicate that: 86% of Piano Notes Pro's written reviews are positive against 63% of Music Reading Essentials's, so the app with the better star average is not the one people write more warmly about.

UpkeepUpdate frequency

Piano Notes Pro ships an update every 2 months, Music Reading Essentials every 20 months. The most recent releases landed on August 5, 2026 and October 1, 2026 respectively.

Scorecard7 real differences · 3 level
Piano Notes Pro versus Music Reading Essentials: the parameters behind the verdict, then further details
ParameterPiano Notes ProMusic Reading Essentials
Price$2.99$2.99
Rating3.8 (16 ratings)4.6 (11 ratings) — better
Positive reviews85.5% of reviews — better63.4% of reviews
Number of ratings16 — better11
Update frequencyEvery 2 months — betterEvery 20 months
AdsNoNo
In-app purchasesYesNo — better
MonetizationFree with in-app purchasesFree — better
DevicesiPadiPhone, iPad, iPod — better
Requires iOS8.0 — better15.0
Further details — not scored
Size29 MB122 MB
Age rating4+4+
DeveloperPatrick ChanNotagram, LLC

Customer experience

Piano Notes Pro

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

Music Reading Essentials

All ratings11 ratings
Positive81.8%
Neutral18.2%
Negative0.0%
Written reviews41 reviews
Positive63.4%
Neutral17.1%
Negative19.5%

Bugs and 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

Music Reading Essentials

Not enough reviews yet to summarise bugs or requests.

In-app purchases

1 purchases

Piano Notes Pro

One-time1
  • 3 Quiz Types, Interval Finder & Scale Marks$0.99
None

Music Reading Essentials

No in-app purchases

Questions

Is Piano Notes Pro free?
Piano Notes Pro costs $2.99, and also offers in-app purchases.
Is Music Reading Essentials free?
Music Reading Essentials costs $2.99, with no in-app purchases.
Which has better reviews, Piano Notes Pro or Music Reading Essentials?
Music Reading Essentials is rated higher. Piano Notes Pro averages 3.8 out of 5 from 16 ratings, while Music Reading Essentials averages 4.6 from 11 ratings.
Do Piano Notes Pro or Music Reading Essentials have ads?
Neither Piano Notes Pro nor Music Reading Essentials shows ads.
Which is updated more often, Piano Notes Pro or Music Reading Essentials?
Piano Notes Pro ships an update every 2 months, and Music Reading Essentials every 20 months. Most recently, Piano Notes Pro was updated on August 5, 2026 and Music Reading Essentials on October 1, 2026.

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