Comparison

Music Theory Pro vs Tenuto

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

Head to head
About

Music Theory Pro

Master music theory and ear training with interactive exercises. Identify notes, chords, scales, and tempos to improve your musical skills. Suitable for beginners and advanced musicians alike, with customizable difficulty levels.

Highlights
  • Note naming games
  • Key signature identification
  • Interval ear training
  • Chord and scale recognition
  • Tempo identification quiz
  • Competitive scoring
  • Customizable difficulty
Features
Read full description

Theory and Ear Training in one slick package. 130,000 downloads! Top musicians practice....a lot. If you are serious about mastering theory and ear training, this app is designed to make practicing fun! You will be presented with a note, key signature, interval, chord, scale, or tempo. Your challenge is to identify what you see or hear as quickly as possible to earn high scores and beat other people who are playing around the world. If you prefer, you can simply play on your own and you'll never be forced to post your scores. Whether you’ve just started learning music, or are looking for something challenging, MTP has what you need. For Beginners: Note Naming Games Key Signatures Interval Ear Training Beginner mode for Note Names, Key Signatures and Interval ear training For Pros: Competitive Games- post your score to compete worldwide Ear Training Chords– inversions, open voicings Ear Training Scales – Modes, Western Scales, Blues, Whole Tone, Pentatonic, etc. Jazz Chords and Scales – Altered Dominants, extended chords Music Theory Pro is also available for apple computers in the mac app store. With every activity and exercise you can alter the challenge level by turning the harder answers off, and working on the basics or by flipping them all on for maximum difficulty. See what others think about this amazing app! User Reviews: “I survived my first year of music theory with this, and am still constantly using it this year as well. It is nicely customizable and easy to use. There's a lot of material is covers. I absolutely love the ear training. It has been invaluable. Looks nice, too! This is the app to buy for Music Theory class.” – Whitney Huskey “I love this app. It also has some challenging ear training exercises. I have bought a lot of music theory apps and this one is my favorite for theory” – Hadrian7 Beginners quickly become Pros Users who are just learning music will be able to practice naming notes on the piano and on the staff. Sharpen your ears The ear training section provides many challenges for the more advanced student. It takes a sharp ear to identify altered dominant chords and modal scales quickly. For jazz musicians we’ve included the modes from the melodic minor scale and all kinds of extended chords. There is even a tempo quiz to identify beats per minute by assigning a number to a click track. Increase your skills by competing with others Various exercises propel you to higher scores, which you can post to compete for top ratings. Who will be #1 in the world this month? Could be you! “This app is great. I have gone from having absolutely no knowledge in Music Theory, to doing very well in all of the categories the app offers. Thank you very much for helping me learn Theory finally and making it fun.” – whoisjk Download Music Theory Pro and start becoming a better musician today! Dr. Joel Clifft

About

Tenuto

Enhance your musicality with a comprehensive suite of 24 customizable theory exercises and six essential musical calculators. Practice note and chord identification, ear training, and construct musical elements. Tools include accidentals, intervals, scales, chords, analysis symbols, and twelve-tone matrices.

Highlights
  • 24 customizable theory exercises
  • Note and chord identification
  • Ear training for intervals and scales
  • Musical construction exercises
  • Accidental calculator
  • Interval calculator
  • Chord calculator
Read full description

Tenuto is a collection of 24 highly-customizable exercises designed to enhance your musicality. From recognizing chords on a keyboard to identifying intervals by ear, it has an exercise for you. Tenuto also includes six musical calculators for accidentals, intervals, scales, chords, analysis symbols, and twelve-tone matrices. A short description of the exercises and calculators follows. –––––– • Note Identification • Key Signature Identification • Interval Identification • Scale Identification • Chord Identification Tap the button corresponding to the written staff line. For example: if shown a C, E, and G with a sharp; tap the "Augmented Triad" button. –––––– • Note Construction • Key Signature Construction • Interval Construction • Scale Construction • Chord Construction Construct the specified label by moving notes and/or adding accidentals. For example: if shown a C and an "Augmented 4th" label, move the second note to F and add a sharp. –––––– • Keyboard Reverse Identification Tap the piano key corresponding to the written note on the staff. While similar to Note Identification, this exercise uses a piano keyboard rather than note name buttons. • Keyboard Note Identification • Keyboard Interval Identification • Keyboard Scale Identification • Keyboard Chord Identification Tap the button corresponding to the highlighted piano key(s). If the C and G keys are highlighted, tap the "P5" (Perfect 5th) button. –––––– • Fretboard Note Identification • Fretboard Interval Identification • Fretboard Scale Identification • Fretboard Chord Identification Tap the button corresponding to the marked fretboard position(s). If the 2nd fret of the D string is marked, tap the "E" button. –––––– • Keyboard Ear Training • Note Ear Training Listen to the played reference and question notes. Select the piano key or note button corresponding to the question note. • Interval Ear Training • Scale Ear Training • Chord Ear Training Tap the button corresponding to the played notes. If E and F are played, tap the "Minor 2nd" button. –––––– • Accidental Calculator Display the accidental for a note and key. • Interval Calculator Display the interval for a note, type, and key. • Chord Calculator Display the scale for a tonic and scale type. • Chord Calculator Display the chord for a note, type, and key. • Analysis Calculator Display the chord for a symbol and key. • Matrix Calculator Display the twelve-tone matrix for a specified tone row.

Screenshots

Music Theory Pro4 screens
Tenuto4 screens

Verdict

The call

The clearest difference is rating: Tenuto at 4.7 against Music Theory Pro's 3.1. Tenuto also leads on review sentiment (94% vs 54%) and ratings volume (668 vs 49). Music Theory Pro's advantage is update cadence (every 5 weeks vs every 3 months) and iOS requirement (9.0 vs 15.8). 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

CostPrice · In-app purchases · Ads · Monetization

Music Theory Pro costs $4.99 and Tenuto $4.99 up front. Neither carries in-app purchases, so what you see is what you pay.

ReceptionRating · Positive reviews · Number of ratings

Tenuto holds the better App Store score, 4.7 against 3.1. That said, the two scores are not equally well evidenced: Tenuto has 668 ratings behind it against 49, so its average is the more settled of the two. Written reviews point the same way: 54% of Music Theory Pro's written reviews are positive against 94% of Tenuto's.

UpkeepUpdate frequency

Music Theory Pro ships an update every 5 weeks, Tenuto every 3 months. Both last shipped on November 10, 2026.

Scorecard6 real differences · 5 level
Music Theory Pro versus Tenuto: the parameters behind the verdict, then further details
ParameterMusic Theory ProTenuto
Price$4.99$4.99
Rating3.1 (49 ratings)4.7 (668 ratings) — better
Positive reviews54.3% of reviews94.2% of reviews — better
Number of ratings49668 — better
Update frequencyEvery 5 weeks — betterEvery 3 months
AdsNoNo
In-app purchasesNoNo
MonetizationPaidPaid
Best chart rank—#8 — better
DevicesiPhone, iPad, iPodiPhone, iPad, iPod
Requires iOS9.0 — better15.8
Further details — not scored
Size9 MB11 MB
Age rating4+4+
DeveloperJoel Clifftmusictheory.net

Customer experience

Music Theory Pro

All ratings49 ratings
Positive38.8%
Neutral26.5%
Negative34.7%
Written reviews164 reviews
Positive54.3%
Neutral18.3%
Negative27.4%

Tenuto

All ratings652 ratings
Positive93.9%
Neutral2.0%
Negative4.1%
Written reviews382 reviews
Positive94.2%
Neutral2.9%
Negative2.9%

User reviews

Music Theory Pro

From 49 App Store ratings

What we love

  • 👍 Great for fine tuning your ear
  • 🚀 Fantastic and simple to use
  • 👍 Excellent for increasing speed and recognition
  • 👍 Wonderful app, full of spot on representation of music theory
  • 👍 Effective, really improves your skills

Room to improve

  • 🐛 The app doesn't seem to be working at all
  • 🐛 Unable to hear the notes for intervals
  • 🐛 Frustrating, very hard and boring
  • 🐛 Can't exit the app, have to go to Home Screen
  • 🐛 Sadly frustrating for beginners, zero instruction

Tenuto

From 668 App Store ratings

What we love

  • 🚀 Essential for musicians
  • 👍 Great app
  • 👍 Perfect app
  • 👍 Wonderful app
  • 👍 Highly recommend

Room to improve

  • 🐛 Wrong billing
  • 🐛 Piano tone is so bad
  • 🐛 Not good
  • 🐛 Great but buggy
  • 🐛 All sounds stopped working

Bugs and requests

Music Theory Pro

Reported bugs

2 issues
  • Login screen freezes
  • Incompatible with older devices

Requested features

12 requests
  • Add timing
  • Add tenor clef
  • Add more instruments to identify music with
  • Repeat the scale when the answer was wrong and play the right one
  • Graphic sample of both wrong/right answers
Show 7 more
  • Samples of music where the different scales are used
  • Link to a website with more in-depth info
  • Require reading more ledger lines in note drills
  • Teach and explain the skills and concepts that it's testing on
  • Adjust the position of the keys on the keyboard
  • Dark mode option
  • Advanced analytics dashboard

Tenuto

Reported bugs

5 issues
  • Sound cuts out
  • Unresponsive at times
  • Freezes up
  • Doesn't work well for guitar
  • Incorrect chord/key associations

Requested features

20 requests
  • Cadences and inversions for ear training
  • Chord progressions for ear training
  • Melodic and harmonic minor modes for scale recognition
  • 6th, 9th, 11th and 13th chord extensions for chord recognition
  • Melodic dictation
Show 15 more
  • Rhythm exercises
  • Fretboard reverse identification
  • Chord inversions for chord identification
  • Scales written on staff using various clefs
  • Rhythm, melodic, and harmonic dictation exercises
  • Part writing exercises
  • Exercises for form, cadences, etc.
  • MIDI support
  • Autoplay function
  • Ability to input notes/chords on fretboard
  • Chord progression ear training
  • Inversion options for chord and interval identification
  • Melodic and harmonic minor scale identification
  • Extended chord identification
  • Rhythmic dictation

In-app purchases

None

Music Theory Pro

No in-app purchases

None

Tenuto

No in-app purchases

Questions

Is Music Theory Pro free?
Music Theory Pro costs $4.99, with no in-app purchases.
Is Tenuto free?
Tenuto costs $4.99, with no in-app purchases.
Which has better reviews, Music Theory Pro or Tenuto?
Tenuto is rated higher. Music Theory Pro averages 3.1 out of 5 from 49 ratings, while Tenuto averages 4.7 from 668 ratings.
Do Music Theory Pro or Tenuto have ads?
Neither Music Theory Pro nor Tenuto shows ads.
Which is updated more often, Music Theory Pro or Tenuto?
Music Theory Pro ships an update every 5 weeks, and Tenuto every 3 months. Most recently, Music Theory Pro was updated on November 10, 2026 and Tenuto on November 10, 2026.

Other comparisons