Tenuto vs Music Calculator
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 Calculator
This app allows musicians to input musical notation and instantly hear it played back with accurate pitch and timing. It's designed for practicing difficult passages, improving sight-reading, and building musical confidence through features like slowing down playback and looping sections.
- Input and play back musical notation
- Accurate pitch, timing, and tempo playback
- Slow down and loop passages for practice
- Calculator-style interface for intuitive input
- Supports complex rhythms and tuplets
- 25 realistic instrument sounds
- Save and load musical passages
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A sketchpad for music, for practice and for composing. Notes go in on a keypad as quick as a calculator, and play back exactly as written. FOR PRACTICE Copy out what you're learning: an exercise, a few difficult measures, the piece your teacher assigned. Hear how it should sound, then slow it down, loop it, and raise the tempo as you improve. Pianists can write both hands on a grand staff, and choirs can write out all four parts and hear them together. Check your rhythm counting or your harmony homework by ear. The keypad is simple enough for children to use, and the selected note's name, such as F#, shows on its key as you write. FOR COMPOSING Write down a melody, a chord progression or a four-part harmony before you forget it, and hear every part played back with real instrument sounds. Use one instrument or several, with up to four voices on each staff, and keep every idea in your library. HOW IT WORKS Tap a note value to add a note, drag up or down to set its pitch, and drag sideways for sharps and flats. The keys are large, so there are no toolbars of tiny icons and no stylus. WRITE IT • Notes and rests from double whole notes to 128th notes, with up to three dots • Chords, and up to four voices per staff, each in its own color with stems placed for you • Several parts, each with as many staves as it needs: a piano grand staff, SATB on two staves, a duet, a small group • Treble, bass, alto and tenor clefs, with clef changes anywhere • Every key signature, chosen from an interactive circle of fifths, with key changes anywhere • Simple and compound time signatures, and a pickup measure where a piece starts with one • Ties, accidentals, staccato, accents and tenuto • Triplets, quintuplets and nested tuplets • Automatic beaming HEAR IT • Precise playback in pitch, rhythm and tempo, looping continuously • Long-press play to set the tempo, from 30 to 240 BPM, even while the music plays: slow a passage down as far as you need, then raise the tempo as your playing improves • 25 instrument sounds, from grand piano and harpsichord to strings, brass, woodwinds, harp and guitar • Two metronome channels and a volume for every part • The score glides along as it plays and each note lights up as it sounds KEEP AND SHARE IT Every passage is saved to your library and named for you. Import MusicXML (.musicxml, .xml, .mxl) from other notation apps, with its notes, rhythms, keys and clefs, and export MusicXML to finish a piece in desktop notation software. Built for iPhone, one-handed, and for iPad, with a full-width keypad and a library sidebar. Pinch or double-tap to zoom. There are no ads and no account to create, and your music stays on your device. WHAT IT ISN'T Music Calculator is built for short passages and ideas, not symphonies. It doesn't do dynamics, slurs, lyrics or chord symbols, print or export PDFs, export audio or MIDI, or scan sheet music. If you need those, a desktop engraving program is the right tool. If you want to write a passage down and hear it in seconds, this is. TRY IT FREE To use Music Calculator, choose a monthly or annual subscription, each with a 7-day free trial for new subscribers, or a one-time lifetime purchase. The subscription is called Music Calculator Pro on Apple's purchase sheet and in your Apple Account settings. Payment is charged to your Apple Account at confirmation of purchase, or at the end of the free trial. Subscriptions renew automatically unless canceled at least 24 hours before the end of the current period, and your account is charged for renewal within 24 hours before the period ends. You can manage or cancel subscriptions in your Apple Account settings. Any unused portion of a free trial is forfeited when you buy a subscription. Privacy Policy: https://music-calculator.app/privacy Terms of Use (EULA): https://www.apple.com/legal/internet-services/itunes/dev/stdeula/
Screenshots
Verdict
The clearest difference is price: Music Calculator at Free against Tenuto's $4.99. Music Calculator also leads on update cadence (every 10 days vs every 3 months). Tenuto's advantage is rating (4.7 vs 4.0) and in-app purchases (none vs 3). On ads 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
Music Calculator is free to download; Tenuto costs $4.99 up front. Music Calculator sells 3 in-app purchases, starting at $2.99 per month. Tenuto asks for nothing beyond the download.
Tenuto holds the better App Store score, 4.7 against 4.0. That said, the two scores are not equally well evidenced: Tenuto has 667 ratings behind it against 2, 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 67% of Music Calculator's.
Tenuto ships an update every 3 months, Music Calculator every 10 days. The most recent releases landed on November 1, 2026 and October 30, 2026 respectively.
| Parameter | Tenuto | Music Calculator |
|---|---|---|
| Price | $4.99 | Free — better |
| Rating | 4.7 (667 ratings) — better | 4.0 (2 ratings) |
| Positive reviews | 94.1% of reviews — better | 66.7% of reviews |
| Number of ratings | 667 — better | 2 |
| Update frequency | Every 3 months | Every 10 days — better |
| Ads | No | No |
| In-app purchases | No — better | Yes |
| Monetization | Paid — better | Subscription |
| Best chart rank | #9 — better | — |
| Devices | iPhone, iPad, iPod — better | iPhone, iPad |
| Requires iOS | 15.8 — better | 18.0 |
| Further details — not scored | ||
| Size | 11 MB | 53 MB |
| Age rating | 4+ | 4+ |
| Developer | musictheory.net | JET Powered Apps Ltd. |
Customer experience
Tenuto
Music Calculator
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 Calculator
Not enough reviews yet to summarise bugs or requests.
In-app purchases
Tenuto
No in-app purchases
Music Calculator
- Monthly7 Days trial$2.991 Month
- Annual7 Days trial$19.991 Year
- Music Calculator Pro$49.99








