Piano Apprentice vs Ensemble Piano
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”.
Ensemble Piano
Explore a realistic virtual piano keyboard with high-quality sound and MIDI input. This free application is perfect for practicing, improvising, or simply enjoying musical exploration.
- Realistic virtual keyboard
- High-quality sound
- MIDI input support
- Ideal for practice
- Improvisation tool
- Free to use
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Piano is a free app for exploring a realistic virtual keyboard with high-quality sound and MIDI input. Ideal for practice, improvisation, or just playing around.
Screenshots
Verdict
The clearest difference is review sentiment: Ensemble Piano at 100% against Piano Apprentice's 46%. Ensemble Piano also leads on rating (4.9 vs 3.4) and in-app purchases (none vs 1). Piano Apprentice's advantage is iOS requirement (8.0 vs 18.0). On price, ratings volume, update cadence 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
Both are free to download. Piano Apprentice sells 1 one-off in-app purchase. Ensemble Piano asks for nothing beyond the download.
Ensemble Piano holds the better App Store score, 4.9 against 3.4. Both are backed by a comparable volume of ratings — 17 and 14 respectively. Written reviews point the same way: 46% of Piano Apprentice's written reviews are positive against 100% of Ensemble Piano's.
Piano Apprentice ships an update every 5 weeks, Ensemble Piano every 4 weeks. The most recent releases landed on October 8, 2026 and October 10, 2026 respectively.
| Parameter | Piano Apprentice | Ensemble Piano |
|---|---|---|
| Price | Free | Free |
| Rating | 3.4 (17 ratings) | 4.9 (14 ratings) — better |
| Positive reviews | 46.5% of reviews | 100.0% of reviews — better |
| Number of ratings | 17 — better | 14 |
| Update frequency | Every 5 weeks | Every 4 weeks — better |
| Ads | No | No |
| In-app purchases | Yes | No — better |
| Monetization | Free with in-app purchases | Free — better |
| Devices | iPhone, iPad, iPod | iPhone, iPad, Mac |
| Requires iOS | 8.0 — better | 18.0 |
| Further details — not scored | ||
| Size | 75 MB | 118 MB |
| Age rating | 4+ | 4+ |
| Developer | ION Audio | Ensemble Education |
Customer experience
Piano Apprentice
Ensemble Piano
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
Ensemble Piano
Not enough reviews yet to summarise bugs or requests.
In-app purchases
Piano Apprentice
- Holiday Song 3-Pack$0.99
Ensemble Piano
No in-app purchases
Questions
Is Piano Apprentice free?
Is Ensemble Piano free?
Which has better reviews, Piano Apprentice or Ensemble Piano?
Do Piano Apprentice or Ensemble Piano have ads?
Which is updated more often, Piano Apprentice or Ensemble Piano?
Other comparisons
