DronePlayer vs Musical Autoharp
Price, ratings, monetisation and update history for both apps, side by side — with what reviewers say about each.
DronePlayer
This app provides a practice tool for musicians to improvise over sustained tones, known as drones. It helps develop ear training and musical ideas by allowing users to mute drone voices for focused practice or add multiple drones for a richer experience.
- Improvisation practice tool
- Extended tonality practice
- Ear training development
- Muteable drone voices
- Multiple drone options
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DronePlayer is a fun, interactive practice assistant for improvising musicians. Playing over extended tonalities is a great way to develop your ears as well as your musical ideas. Long, sustained tones are generally known as drones. Drones have proven themselves quite useful for practicing. Many people use them to assist with intonation. Some enjoy playing scales over them. I personally have found them useful for practicing improvisation and improving my ears. Muting one of the drone voices is a great way to play with just a fundamental pitch. You can then improvise over this and focus on hearing how what you are playing relates. Adding a second drone voice just adds to the fun.
Musical Autoharp
Experience a classical recreation of a user-friendly instrument. This app makes playing music accessible and enjoyable for everyone, regardless of age or musical experience.
- Classical autoharp recreation
- Simple and easy to play
- Suitable for all ages
- Digital instrument simulation
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Make a little music, one strum at a time. Musical Autoharp turns your iPhone or iPad into a touch instrument. Sweep across the strings to strum, tap individual strings to pick out a melody, and choose a chord to shape the notes that ring. Explore a tune, accompany your singing, or simply enjoy the sound of the strings. Start with a few chords and see where the music takes you. • 36 playable strings to strum or pluck. • 15 chord buttons, including major, minor and seventh chords. • Tap the selected chord again to return to open strings. • Play with more than one finger. • String highlights and subtle animation respond to your touch. • Play in portrait or landscape on iPhone and iPad. Open Musical Autoharp and enjoy a moment of music.
Screenshots
Verdict
The clearest difference is rating: Musical Autoharp at 4.4 against DronePlayer's 2.2. Musical Autoharp also leads on review sentiment (69% vs 38%) and chart position (#179 vs unranked). DronePlayer's advantage is update cadence (every 4 months vs every 27 months) and iOS requirement (15.6 vs 18.0). On 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
DronePlayer costs $4.99 and Musical Autoharp $2.99 up front. Neither carries in-app purchases, so what you see is what you pay.
Musical Autoharp holds the better App Store score, 4.4 against 2.2. Both are backed by a comparable volume of ratings — 6 and 27 respectively. Written reviews point the same way: 38% of DronePlayer's written reviews are positive against 69% of Musical Autoharp's.
DronePlayer ships an update every 4 months, Musical Autoharp every 27 months. The most recent releases landed on October 24, 2026 and October 30, 2026 respectively.
| Parameter | DronePlayer | Musical Autoharp |
|---|---|---|
| Price | $4.99 | $2.99 — better |
| Rating | 2.2 (6 ratings) | 4.4 (27 ratings) — better |
| Positive reviews | 37.5% of reviews | 69.0% of reviews — better |
| Number of ratings | 6 | 27 — better |
| Update frequency | Every 4 months — better | Every 27 months |
| Ads | No | No |
| In-app purchases | No | No |
| Monetization | Paid | Free — better |
| Best chart rank | — | #179 — better |
| Devices | iPhone, iPad, iPod — better | iPhone, iPad |
| Requires iOS | 15.6 — better | 18.0 |
| Further details — not scored | ||
| Size | 57 MB | 37 MB |
| Age rating | 4+ | 4+ |
| Developer | tingjing.com | Thumb Wizards |
Customer experience
DronePlayer
Musical Autoharp
Bugs and requests
DronePlayer
Not enough reviews yet to summarise bugs or requests.
Musical Autoharp
Reported bugs
14 issues- Side swipe opens other screens
- Will not remain open
- Flashes onto screen then disappears
- Crashes all the time
- Barely usable
Show 9 moreShow fewer
- No Sound after update!
- Beautiful sound has disappeared
- No sound is very frustrating
- Too slow for useful strumming
- Distractingly slow
- One strum will be okay, the next might be nothing at all
- Unusable as a tool
- Response is terrible
- Latency prevents this from being useable
Requested features
9 requests- Larger choice of chords/keys
- Volume control
- Some lessons
- A small music book added
- Chords on the left side
Show 4 moreShow fewer
- Background sounds to add in
- More accurate chord changes
- Increase the size of the keys
- Publishing tunes to play on it
In-app purchases
DronePlayer
No in-app purchases
Musical Autoharp
No in-app purchases
