Flashnote Derby vs Practice Space
Price, ratings, monetisation and update history for both apps, side by side — with what reviewers say about each.
Flashnote Derby
This app transforms music note learning into an engaging game for young musicians. It offers various ways to practice and play, with customizable drills to suit any student's level. Track progress and make learning fun, whether at home or in lessons.
- Gamified note recognition races
- Practice mode with no timer
- Play notes on instrument or MIDI
- On-screen piano keyboard input
- Customizable clefs and note ranges
- Multiple engaging themes
- Teacher tools for assignments and progress tracking
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Flashnote Derby is a fun, effective way for kids to learn to read music through fast-paced note flashcard games. Perfect for piano, guitar, band, orchestra, and general music students, this teacher-created app turns note recognition into an engaging game that works equally well at home or in music lessons. ———— Learn to Read Music — Fast Each race is a fast-paced challenge: identify notes correctly as you learn to read music faster and speed your horse toward the finish line. Missed or slow answers allow the other horse to catch up. After each round, students can review the notes they missed— turning every race into a meaningful learning opportunity. ———— New! Practice Mode (No Timer, No Stress) Students can now choose a relaxed 'practice mode' with unlimited time for each note. Perfect for beginners, this mode builds accuracy and confidence before racing competitively. ———— Multiple Ways to Answer Players can answer flashcards in a variety of ways: • Play the note on any instrument. Flashnote Derby listens and recognizes what you play (including transposing instruments). • Use a MIDI instrument • Tap on-screen letter names • Or play notes on the on-screen piano keyboard ———— Fully Customizable for Any Student Tailor each drill to match your student’s level: • Treble, bass, alto, or tenor clef • Select specific note ranges or individual notes • Add sharps, flats, or full key signatures • Adjust time limits (or remove them entirely in Practice Mode) • Expand difficulty all the way up to five-and-a-half ledger lines above and below the staff. As skills grow, you can increase the challenge. Higher difficulty earns higher scores—keeping students motivated. ———— Multiple themes keep practice fresh In addition to the classic horse race, students can take flight with the whimsical Pretty Pegasus course, blast through an arcade-style space challenge in Ecliptic Encounter, or switch to the seasonal Reindeer Race during the holidays. ———— Built for Teachers, Loved by Students Flashnote Derby is designed to fit easily into lessons: • Quick to set up and perfect for a 1–2 minute warm-up • Send homework assignments directly to students • Track progress automatically • See which notes need more review Teachers see real improvement. Students stay engaged. Parents appreciate the progress. ———— Why Flashnote Derby Works Many students struggle because drilling note names feels boring and difficult. Flashnote Derby turns this essential skill into a game—one they’ll want to keep playing. A little daily practice adds up quickly, and students learn to read music with confidence. ———— Get on the road to confident music reading today! Download Flashnote Derby and help your young musician master notes with joy—not frustration.
Practice Space
This app helps students set and track practice goals with detailed notes and videos. Earn points and gems to unlock fun rewards like avatars and power-ups, fostering engagement through gamified progress and leaderboards.
- Create detailed practice goals
- Track goal completion
- Earn practice points and gems
- Unlock avatars and backgrounds
- In-app shop for rewards
- Practice point leaderboard
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Practice Space is the world's most engaging practice app, and it's free to use! Students can create detailed practice goals, track the completion of their goals and win fun awards along the way. Completing practice tasks and other goals, earns you practice points and gems, which can be used in the app's store to spice up your app with cool avatars, backgrounds, and in-app "power-ups". Some cool features: Create weekly practice goals with videos, and notes for each piece, technique or theory item you are working on. You can input these items as a "Lesson" on your own or with your teacher. Practicers can see their daily practice tasks, notes on each item and any videos of you or your teacher playing in the app. See how consistently you've reached your past practice goals, and join the practice point leaderboard. Earn gems, badges and other awards throughout your practice sessions. Our in-app shop allows you to use the gems you earn to reward yourself with a little fun after putting in the practice. Come join us in our Practice Space for FREE!
Screenshots
Verdict
The clearest difference is price: Practice Space at Free against Flashnote Derby's $4.99. Practice Space also leads on update cadence (every 3 weeks vs every 6 months). Flashnote Derby's advantage is review sentiment (71% vs 50%) and chart position (#29 vs unranked). On rating, ratings volume, 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
Practice Space is free to download; Flashnote Derby costs $4.99 up front. Neither carries in-app purchases, so what you see is what you pay.
On the App Store both sit at effectively the same score — 3.8 for Flashnote Derby against 3.9 for Practice Space. Both are backed by a comparable volume of ratings — 105 and 177 respectively. Written reviews are what separate them: 71% of Flashnote Derby's written reviews are positive against 50% of Practice Space's.
Flashnote Derby ships an update every 6 months, Practice Space every 3 weeks. The most recent releases landed on September 23, 2026 and September 20, 2026 respectively.
| Parameter | Flashnote Derby | Practice Space |
|---|---|---|
| Price | $4.99 | Free — better |
| Rating | 3.8 (105 ratings) | 3.9 (177 ratings) — better |
| Positive reviews | 70.7% of reviews — better | 50.0% of reviews |
| Number of ratings | 105 | 177 — better |
| Update frequency | Every 6 months | Every 3 weeks — better |
| Ads | No | No |
| In-app purchases | No | No |
| Monetization | Free | Free |
| Best chart rank | #29 — better | — |
| Devices | iPhone, iPad | iPhone, iPad, iPod — better |
| Requires iOS | 16.6 | 15.0 — better |
| Further details — not scored | ||
| Size | 110 MB | 58 MB |
| Age rating | 4+ | 4+ |
| Developer | Luke Bartolomeo | Practice Space, LLC |
Customer experience
Flashnote Derby
Practice Space
User reviews
Flashnote Derby
From 105 App Store ratingsWhat we love
- 🎮 Engaging gamified learning experience with racing themes
- 🎵 Effective tool for learning note reading and music literacy
- 🎨 Customizable themes and visual designs
- ⚙️ Highly customizable settings for notes, speed, and difficulty
- 👨🏫 Teacher-friendly features with student tracking and presets
Room to improve
- 🐛 Frequent crashes and app freezing issues
- 🔊 Harsh negative feedback sounds (booing) discourages learners
- 🎵 Inaccurate note detection, especially for E note and lower instruments
- 📱 Poor mobile responsiveness and slider controls on phones
- ⚠️ Data loss after updates without warning
Practice Space
From 177 App Store ratingsWhat we love
- 👍 Motivates practice
- 👍 Useful for teachers and students
- 👍 Makes practice dynamic and entertaining
- 👍 Good for vocal and piano lessons
- 👍 Helps establish practice routine
Room to improve
- 🐛 Streak freeze not working
- 🐛 Account/password issues
- 🐛 App crashes on older iPads
- 🐛 Glitchy and slow loading
- 🐛 Practice timer issues (pauses, stops early)
Bugs and requests
Flashnote Derby
Reported bugs
15 issues- App crashes on launch or during use
- White screen on startup that auto-closes
- Note recognition fails, particularly for E note
- Low instrument octave recognition issues
- Data and student names lost after updates
Show 10 moreShow fewer
- Settings menu disappears or becomes inaccessible
- Speed selection buttons unresponsive
- Email preset sending feature non-functional
- Password reset system broken
- Master device cloning feature not working
- Audio detection marks answers before notes are played
- Incorrect display scaling on iPad and tablets
- Slider controls difficult to use on mobile devices
- App incompatible with Safari and some browsers
- Family sharing not recognized despite being enabled
Requested features
16 requests- Restore previous speed options (Walk, Trot, Canter, Gallop)
- Option to customize number of test notes (return 10/20 options)
- Remove or tone down negative feedback sounds
- Add more theme options (animals, seasonal themes)
- Untimed mode without racing element
Show 11 moreShow fewer
- Two-octave keyboard display for better note differentiation
- Support for sharps and flats
- Alto and tenor clef options
- Female jockey character option
- Combined treble and bass clef exercises
- Better search visibility in app stores
- Family sharing support improvements
- External audio interface compatibility
- Improved mobile responsiveness for sliders and controls
- Better instructional videos with audio/visual note examples
- Personalized high scores for multiple users
Practice Space
Reported bugs
18 issues- Streak freeze does not activate
- Forgot password email not sending
- App crashes immediately upon opening on iPad
- App takes forever to load and is glitchy
- Practice timer stops at goal when outside app
Show 13 moreShow fewer
- App crashes and loses practice sessions
- Practice times/dates cannot be edited
- App doesn't save practice if not manually stopped
- App doesn't recognize streak by practice date
- Practice days don't match streak days
- App cuts off practice at 5 mins with 'error'
- Practice session restarted
- App does not track practice days correctly
- Points reset after app version update
- App crashes after login on older iOS devices
- Cannot go back to press complete after finishing practice
- Practice timer stops when switching apps
- App crashes when saving practice session
Requested features
11 requests- Long-term practice graphs (bar/line)
- More instrument options (violin, flute)
- Download digital sheet music
- Spanish language option
- Ability for teachers to fix practice times
Show 6 moreShow fewer
- Ability for teachers to add missed practices
- Message system for teacher feedback
- Tap tempo feature for metronome
- Ability to type in specific BPM for metronome
- Option to disable practice timer pausing when leaving app
- Ability to group chat with a few people
In-app purchases
Flashnote Derby
No in-app purchases
Practice Space
No in-app purchases
Questions
Is Flashnote Derby free?
Is Practice Space free?
Which has better reviews, Flashnote Derby or Practice Space?
Do Flashnote Derby or Practice Space have ads?
Which is updated more often, Flashnote Derby or Practice Space?
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