Tenuto vs Music Note Trainer
Price, ratings, monetisation and update history for both apps, side by side — with what reviewers say about each.
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.
- 24 customizable theory exercises
- Note and chord identification
- Ear training for intervals and scales
- Musical construction exercises
- Accidental calculator
- Interval calculator
- Chord calculator
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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.
Music Note Trainer
Enhance your music skills with this app that bridges the gap between musical notation, keyboard layouts, and auditory recognition. It offers various training modes and real-time feedback to improve sight-reading, ear training, and music theory comprehension.
- Real-time pitch detection via microphone
- MIDI instrument support
- Virtual 88-key keyboard
- 20 question/answer modes
- Customizable learning targets
- Progress statistics and intelligent question generation
- Studio sound quality
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This app is to train our conversion among grand staff, piano keyboard, note name (C, D, E...), solfège (Do, Re, Mi...), Curwen hand sign, and sound (pitch), which can benefit our sight-reading, sight-singing, ear training, composition, music theory study, etc. Main Features: • Support real instruments by accurate real-time pitch detection through the microphone of your iPhone/iPad • Support MIDI connection to your instruments • Virtual keyboard supports full 88 keys • 20 question/answer modes for you to choose (E.g., you can learn sight-reading reversely - see a piano key first and find the corresponding note in the staff, which is so-called Reversal Learning) • Allow you to search the music notes among different approaches • Scientific Pitch Notation (SPN) adopted to reinforce keyboard orientation (I.e., you have to identify the octave of a note instead of its letter name only) • Three training modes: view only, practice, and exam • Adjustable time challenging mode and manual mode to next question • Customize your learning target based on keyboard range, notes filter, and accidentals • Statistics for each note to track your progress • Question generated intelligently based on your progress statistics for each note • Support swipe or flick gesture to input accidentals in the staff • Studio sound quality
Screenshots
Verdict
The clearest difference is rating: Tenuto at 4.7 against Music Note Trainer's 4.0. Tenuto also leads on review sentiment (94% vs 59%) and ratings volume (665 vs 5). Music Note Trainer's advantage is price ($2.99 vs $4.99) and iOS requirement (9.0 vs 15.8). On update cadence, 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
Tenuto costs $4.99 and Music Note Trainer $2.99 up front. Neither carries in-app purchases, so what you see is what you pay.
Tenuto holds the better App Store score, 4.7 against 4.0. That said, the two scores are not equally well evidenced: Tenuto has 665 ratings behind it against 5, so its average is the more settled of the two. Written reviews point the same way: 94% of Tenuto's written reviews are positive against 59% of Music Note Trainer's.
Tenuto ships an update every 3 months, Music Note Trainer every 2 months. Both last shipped on October 24, 2026.
| Parameter | Tenuto | Music Note Trainer |
|---|---|---|
| Price | $4.99 | $2.99 — better |
| Rating | 4.7 (665 ratings) — better | 4.0 (5 ratings) |
| Positive reviews | 94.1% of reviews — better | 58.8% of reviews |
| Number of ratings | 665 — better | 5 |
| Update frequency | Every 3 months | Every 2 months — better |
| Ads | No | No |
| In-app purchases | No | No |
| Monetization | Paid | Paid |
| Best chart rank | #7 — better | — |
| Devices | iPhone, iPad, iPod | iPhone, iPad, iPod |
| Requires iOS | 15.8 | 9.0 — better |
| Further details — not scored | ||
| Size | 11 MB | 19 MB |
| Age rating | 4+ | 4+ |
| Developer | musictheory.net | Plearn LLC |
Customer experience
Tenuto
Music Note Trainer
Bugs and requests
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
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- 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
Music Note Trainer
Not enough reviews yet to summarise bugs or requests.
In-app purchases
Tenuto
No in-app purchases
Music Note Trainer
No in-app purchases









