Piano Apprentice vs Piano Play Now
Price, ratings, monetisation and update history for both apps, side by side — with what reviewers say about each.
Piano Apprentice
Learn piano with video lessons from a professional instructor. Follow along with visual cues on a compatible keyboard or learn to read sheet music. Practice songs at your own pace or simply enjoy improvising.
- Video piano lessons
- Interactive keyboard lighting
- Sheet music tutorials
- Adjustable playback speed
- Piano jam mode
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Learn to play piano the easy way with Piano Apprentice! Piano lesson videos are provided by The Piano Guy, a.k.a. Scott Houston. Just press “Piano Lessons”, pick the song you want to learn and he will show you how easy it is to play popular melodies. Start with the Right Hand alone, then the Left. Once those are mastered he will show you how to put your hands together! If you are using the Ion Piano Apprentice keyboard, the notes will light up along with Scott’s hands. Follow the lights and begin playing music instantly! Or, if you want to learn to read notes, select “Sheet Music” from the home screen. Then, you can choose to watch a basic tutorial on reading notes, or just dive right in to the song of your choice. Speed controls are provided for controlling the playback tempo, so you can learn at your own pace. Of course you can just have fun playing the piano and making up your own melodies by selecting “Piano Jam”.
Piano Play Now
Learn to play the piano with an interactive keyboard. Record your performances as MIDI files, load custom soundfonts, and save your multi-track compositions. Customize the keyboard layout and view note labels.
- Interactive piano keyboard
- MIDI file recording
- SF2 soundfont loading
- Multitrack recording
- Customizable key size
- Note display
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Play piano and record as a MIDI file. Load SF2 files. Multitrack recording. Save your tracks. Multiple piano configurations: - Scrollable - Customizable key size - Show piano notes
Screenshots
Verdict
The clearest difference is rating: Piano Play Now at 4.9 against Piano Apprentice's 3.4. Piano Play Now also leads on in-app purchases (none vs 1). Piano Apprentice's advantage is ads (none vs shown) and update cadence (every 5 weeks vs every 7 months). On price, ratings volume 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
Both are free to download. Piano Apprentice sells 1 one-off in-app purchase. Piano Play Now asks for nothing beyond the download.
Piano Play Now holds the better App Store score, 4.9 against 3.4. Both are backed by a comparable volume of ratings — 17 and 7 respectively.
Piano Apprentice ships an update every 5 weeks, Piano Play Now every 7 months. The most recent releases landed on October 21, 2026 and October 22, 2026 respectively.
| Parameter | Piano Apprentice | Piano Play Now |
|---|---|---|
| Price | Free | Free |
| Rating | 3.4 (17 ratings) | 4.9 (7 ratings) — better |
| Positive reviews | 46.5% of reviews | — |
| Number of ratings | 17 — better | 7 |
| Update frequency | Every 5 weeks — better | Every 7 months |
| Ads | No — better | Yes |
| In-app purchases | Yes | No — better |
| Monetization | Free with in-app purchases | Ad-supported — better |
| Devices | iPhone, iPad, iPod | iPhone, iPad, iPod |
| Requires iOS | 8.0 — better | 15.0 |
| Further details — not scored | ||
| Size | 75 MB | 227 MB |
| Age rating | 4+ | 17+ |
| Developer | ION Audio | Daniel Nowendsztern |
Customer experience
Piano Apprentice
Piano Play Now
Bugs and requests
Piano Apprentice
Reported bugs
10 issues- Video seek/scrub functionality resets to beginning on iOS 6.1+
- Lessons fail to download or download incomplete
- Video displays blank screen with audio only
- Keys not lighting up during playback
- App fails to update or gets stuck on update screen
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- Content vanishes after app closure
- Keyboard unresponsive without app connection
- Playback controls broken on iPad 2 and newer iOS versions
- Sheet music playback has same seek issues as video
- Download pending indefinitely without completion
Requested features
14 requests- Add more songs to the library
- Implement proper video scrubbing/seek functionality
- Slow down instructor playback speed
- Add pause and rewind controls for videos
- Include left-hand chord notation in sheet music
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- Add chord training and music theory lessons
- Implement adjustable tempo/BPM controls
- Add different difficulty levels for beginners vs advanced
- Include note labeling on sheet music
- Add voice-over identifying note names
- Provide downloadable content for offline use
- Create in-app song purchase options
- Add headphone jack to keyboard
- Extend keyboard to full octave range
Piano Play Now
Not enough reviews yet to summarise bugs or requests.
In-app purchases
Piano Apprentice
- Holiday Song 3-Pack$0.99
Piano Play Now
No in-app purchases
Questions
Is Piano Apprentice free?
Is Piano Play Now free?
Which has better reviews, Piano Apprentice or Piano Play Now?
Do Piano Apprentice or Piano Play Now have ads?
Which is updated more often, Piano Apprentice or Piano Play Now?
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