Comparison

MEI vs PianoBloom

Price, ratings, monetisation and update history for both apps, side by side โ€” with what reviewers say about each.

Head to head
About

MEI

Features
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Music Education Interface (MEI) is an educational app designed to support instrumental learning by combining visual, auditory, and interactive exercises. It helps students strengthen essential musical skills through structured practice and immediate feedback. Fingering Practice: The Fingering module helps learners connect musical notation, note names, pitch, and instrument fingerings. Each exercise follows a guided sequence: * Prepare during a measure of silence. * Listen to a reference note. * Play the note at the selected tempo. An instrument-specific fingering chart remains visible throughout the exercise, reinforcing the association between written notes and correct finger positions. Customize your practice by selecting: * Metronome tempo * Lowest note * Highest note This allows exercises to be tailored to beginners as well as more advanced players. Built-in Tuner: The integrated tuner provides real-time pitch detection, helping musicians develop accurate intonation and improve pitch awareness during daily practice. Supported instruments: Clarinet, Oboe & Trumpet Whether you are learning your first notes or reinforcing your technical foundations, MEI offers an intuitive and engaging way to practice more effectively.

About

PianoBloom

Features
Read full description

PianoBloom transforms music theory into an interactive visual experience. Explore scales, modes, and chords with an intuitive interface that makes complex musical relationships easy to understand because everything is being adjusted in front of your eyes. Turn the external circle to change Key Signatures and Tonal centers, turn the internal circle to change Modes. iOS drag gestures and UI elements make the App look timelessly elegant. The Interval Bloom shows output on the piano keys while giving you the whole arrangement of intervals. Whenever you explore a chord, it is always in the context of the current Key Signature, Mode and Scale Type. One year anniversary update includes Adaptive Just Intonation, that automatically retunes to the best available tuning, or choose regular Just Intonation and tune to whatever note you want by dragging around the yellow triangle - you will discover that some tunings are completely unusable and that's the lesson. Also included other historic temperaments and the global pitch reference can be adjusted and locked. SCALES & MODES - Pentatonic, Major, and Harmonic Minor scale types - All 15 keys with transposition and 3 keys with Sharp/Flat switch - Major, Suspended, Blues minor, Blues Major, minor Modes for Pentatonic scale type - Ionian, Dorian, Phrygian, Lydian, Mixolydian, Aeolian, Locrian modes for Major scale type - Augmented Major, Altered Dorian, Phrygian Dominant, Lydian Sharp 2nd, Super Locrian Double Flat 7, Harmonic minor, Locrian Natural 6 modes for Harmonic minor scale type - Visual color coding that actually represents the quality of each Mode. COMPREHENSIVE CHORD SYSTEM - Roman numeral chord analysis - Major, Minor, Augmented, Diminished and Sus chords STANDARD MUSIC NOTATION - Standard notation output for notes you press on keyboard - Notes with note names inside and color coded Sharps/Flats to help you learn reading - All 15 Key Signatures for Pentatonic, Major and Harmonic minor scale types. - Real-time chord note display - Interactive Circle of Fifths for when you need that reference KEYBOARD WITH SOUND - Basic Traingle wave for clarity - Custom made FM synth presets designed to be more audible on phone speakers - Connect to Bluetooth speakers without losing the sound source INTUITIVE INTERFACE - Drag to rotate between Keys and Modes - Tap Roman numerals to explore chord progressions - Visual feedback with color-coded intervals - Smooth animations and responsive design TUNINGS Tap the tuning button to switch between Equal Temperament, Adaptive Just Intonation, fixed Just Intonation, three meantone temperaments (1/4, 1/3 and 1/6 comma) and four well temperaments (Werckmeister III, Kirnberger III, Vallotti and Young). Play a chord, switch tunings while it rings, and hear the difference. LEMONS AND WOLVES The flower now shows how pure the selected chord is: a Lemon emoji for every slightly sour interval, a Wolf emoji for every wolf, and the worst offender in cents. In fixed tunings you can watch the petals drift away from the pie's lines - that gap is how far out of tune the note is. REFERENCE PITCH Tune A4 anywhere from 380.0 to 444.0 Hz, with stops at historical pitches like 415.3 Hz Baroque, 430 Hz Classical and 440 Hz modern concert pitch. Lock the pitch to compare tunings without the pitch jumping. The Interval Bloom shows why Roman numeral chords work the way they do, how to change Modes, what happens when we transpose Modes, Keys, Chords. How is Blues minor related to Phrygian Dominant? Very easy to see on the Interval Bloom! Whether you're a beginner learning basic chords or an advanced musician exploring complex harmonic relationships, PianoBloom provides the tools you need to understand and apply music theory practically. Perfect for pianists, complete beginners, music students, composers, advanced musicians and anyone wanting to deepen their musical understanding.

Screenshots

MEI1 screens
PianoBloom4 screens

Verdict

The call

The clearest difference is iOS requirement: MEI at 13.0 against PianoBloom's 17.6. On price, update cadence, ads and in-app purchases there is nothing between them.

Scored on Price ยท Rating ยท Positive reviews ยท Number of ratings ยท Update frequency ยท Ads ยท In-app purchases ยท Monetization ยท Best chart rank ยท Devices ยท Requires iOS

CostPrice ยท In-app purchases ยท Ads ยท Monetization

Both are free to download. Neither carries in-app purchases, so what you see is what you pay.

UpkeepUpdate frequency

Both ship on a similar rhythm, roughly every 2 months. The most recent releases landed on November 3, 2026 and October 30, 2026 respectively.

Scorecard1 real difference ยท 5 level
MEI versus PianoBloom: the parameters behind the verdict, then further details
ParameterMEIPianoBloom
PriceFreeFree
Update frequencyEvery 2 monthsEvery 2 months
AdsNoNo
In-app purchasesNoNo
DevicesiPhone, iPad, iPod โ€” betteriPhone, iPad
Requires iOS13.0 โ€” better17.6
Further details โ€” not scored
Size50 MB2 MB
Age rating4+4+
DeveloperAlberto AcquilinoRAIMONDS BLUMS

In-app purchases

None

MEI

No in-app purchases

None

PianoBloom

No in-app purchases

Questions

Is MEI free?
MEI is free to download, with no in-app purchases.
Is PianoBloom free?
PianoBloom is free to download, with no in-app purchases.
Do MEI or PianoBloom have ads?
Neither MEI nor PianoBloom shows ads.
Which is updated more often, MEI or PianoBloom?
MEI ships an update every 2 months, and PianoBloom every 2 months. Most recently, MEI was updated on November 3, 2026 and PianoBloom on October 30, 2026.

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