Tenuto vs Chords 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.
Chords Trainer
Learn to recognize and play musical chords quickly. This app offers a comprehensive chord dictionary and practice modes, including games, to enhance your music learning journey. Improve your understanding of chords represented by symbols, notes, or keyboard layouts.
- Comprehensive chord library
- Customizable learning options
- Practice, watch, and game modes
- Intelligent question generation
- Real sample sound
- Chord lookup dictionary
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This app is to help us get familiar with all kinds of chords so that we are able to recognize or play them as quick as possible, no matter they are represented by chord symbols, music notes in the stave, or keyboard keys. Improving this ability will definitely benefit all aspects of our music learning. Also, the app can be used as a dictionary to look up chords. Main Features: • Cover almost all chords we can encounter • Allow to customize the learning by chords' roots, forms, quality, inversion, and voicing (open or closed position, doubling) • Practice mode to learn at our own pace • Watch mode to learn by watching the "chords movie" • Game mode to challenge ourselves and have fun by winning high score, trophies, and medals • Search mode to loop up chords • Questions generated intelligently based on your performance • Intuitive interface • Studio quality real sample sound
Screenshots
Verdict
Tenuto and Chords Trainer both sit at 4.8 stars, but that hides the real split: 95% of Tenuto's written reviews are positive against 50% of Chords Trainer's. Tenuto also leads on ratings volume (652 vs 7) and chart position (#5 vs unranked). Chords Trainer's advantage is price ($2.99 vs $4.99) and iOS requirement (12.4 vs 15.8). On rating, update cadence, 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
Tenuto costs $4.99 and Chords Trainer $2.99 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 — 4.8 for Tenuto against 4.7 for Chords Trainer. That said, the two scores are not equally well evidenced: Tenuto has 652 ratings behind it against 7, so its average is the more settled of the two. Written reviews are what separate them: 95% of Tenuto's written reviews are positive against 50% of Chords Trainer's.
Tenuto ships an update every 3 months, Chords Trainer every 2 months. The most recent releases landed on September 24, 2026 and September 21, 2026 respectively.
| Parameter | Tenuto | Chords Trainer |
|---|---|---|
| Price | $4.99 | $2.99 — better |
| Rating | 4.8 (652 ratings) — better | 4.7 (7 ratings) |
| Positive reviews | 94.6% of reviews — better | 50.0% of reviews |
| Number of ratings | 652 — better | 7 |
| Update frequency | Every 3 months | Every 2 months — better |
| Ads | No | No |
| In-app purchases | No | No |
| Monetization | Paid | Paid |
| Best chart rank | #5 — better | — |
| Devices | iPhone, iPad, iPod | iPhone, iPad, iPod |
| Requires iOS | 15.8 | 12.4 — better |
| Further details — not scored | ||
| Size | 11 MB | 21 MB |
| Age rating | 4+ | 4+ |
| Developer | musictheory.net | Plearn LLC |
Customer experience
Tenuto
Chords 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
Chords Trainer
Not enough reviews yet to summarise bugs or requests.
In-app purchases
Tenuto
No in-app purchases
Chords Trainer
No in-app purchases









