StrumForge vs ZZZ FretHarmony
Price, ratings, monetisation and update history for both apps, side by side — with what reviewers say about each.
StrumForge
This app helps guitarists improve their timing, technique, and improvisation skills. It offers tools for practicing chord changes, scales, and riffs with synchronized TAB and animated diagrams. Users can generate millions of chord progressions and customize their practice sessions.
- Generate millions of theory-based chord progressions
- Practice with synchronized TAB and animated fretboard
- Explore over 750 riffs and technique drills
- Play along with 23 sampled drum grooves
- Practice triad inversions and arpeggios
- Improvise with mode and pentatonic scale diagrams
- Customize practice loops and guitar sounds
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Work on chord changes, build your timing and technique, and practice improvisation with StrumForge. See how chords and scales connect across the fretboard, and follow each phrase with synchronized TAB and animated diagrams. Instantly generate over 1 million unique, theory-based chord progressions across every key. Customize your practice loop, choose your guitar sound and rhythm, and play along at your own pace. No ads. No account required to get started. CHORD PROGRESSIONS • Choose 2, 4, 8, 12, or 16 chords for focused loops or longer sessions • Set your key, mode, chord types, tempo, and guitar sound • Lock chords, change voicings, or build your own progression • Choose roots and chord types separately with an easy-to-browse picker • Explore open chords, barre chords, triads, and power chords • Add sevenths, sixths, ninths, suspended chords, and add9 chords • Get helpful suggestions for compatible chord options and musical styles • See chord shapes outlined on the fretboard during playback or preview EXERCISES & RIFFS • Explore over 750 riffs and technique drills, from beginner to advanced • Practice picking, legato, slides, bends, blues, country, jazz, and more • Follow synchronized TAB and an animated fretboard • Hear ringing notes, sustained chord tones, bends, and prebends • Adjust tempo and key, loop with a count-in and metronome, and save favorites • Search by name or reference, and filter by difficulty, technique, and type • Use All keys for variety and triad or interval colors to highlight chord tones RHYTHM & DRUMS • Play along with 23 sampled drum grooves, including Rock, Jazz Swing, Driving Rock, Half Shuffle, and Pocket Funk • Explore rhythms in 4/4, 3/4, and 6/8 with the full Pro collection • Customize drum parts from light to busy and add fills • Choose guitar strumming patterns independently of the drum groove • Balance guitar and drum volumes, and save rhythm settings with favorites TRIADS & ARPEGGIOS • Explore triad inversions and how shapes connect across the fretboard • Practice with the Triad Trainer and Arpeggio Trainer • Practice nine arpeggio types across all five CAGED positions • Follow animated TAB and adjust tempo, direction, and rhythm SCALES & FRETBOARD • Improvise with matching mode and pentatonic scale diagrams • Choose a scale manually with separate root and scale selections • Explore individual CAGED shapes or the full fretboard • Show note or interval labels and highlight triads or characteristic intervals • View suggested chord fingerings and move diagrams along the fretboard • Use left-handed diagrams in portrait or landscape MAKE IT YOUR OWN • Preview a collection of light and dark themes • Create and save custom color themes with Pro UNLOCK STRUMFORGE PRO Unlock unlimited progression generation, longer progressions, musical styles, the full drum collection, trainers, exercises, and advanced scale tools. Pro also includes: • Save, revisit, and share favorite progressions • Sync favorites and preferences across devices with an account • Automatic practice tracking, session stats, and streaks • Guitar tuner with alternate tunings and reference tones • Metronome with tap tempo, subdivisions, swing, and saved presets • Additional 12-string, overdrive, and arpeggiated guitar sounds • Saved practice preferences Put music theory into practice and discover ideas for your own songs with StrumForge. Terms of Use (EULA): https://www.apple.com/legal/internet-services/itunes/dev/stdeula/
ZZZ FretHarmony
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A guitar practice app that draws the relationship between chords and scales on the neck itself. ■ The whole neck, drawn Chord tones, scale tones, extensions and avoid notes, muted and open strings — each told apart by colour and shape. Switch to degrees and a shape becomes the same shape in every key. ■ Every fingering a chord has From the chord book anyone learns first to every position on every run of adjacent strings. Choose by which string the root is on, and narrow it down by arrangement: close, drop 2, drop 3, shell, power chord. ■ Progressions written in degrees Diatonic or not, a progression is built from degrees. Change the key and the whole thing transposes; change key part way through and it modulates. Start from a preset or from nothing at all. ■ Arpeggios with a rhythm of their own Not only up and down: three-finger and Travis-style patterns that have a rhythm in them, and a different pattern for each bar if you want one. ■ Eight recorded instruments Electric, acoustic and nylon-string guitar, piano, organ, harp, cello and flute — each note pitch-corrected one at a time. A synthesised string is there too. ■ More than thirty scales Every mode of the major and minor scales, pentatonics, both blues scales, bebop, whole tone, diminished, altered, Hungarian minor, and the Japanese scales: hirajoshi, in sen, yo and ryukyu. ■ It all stays on your device No account, no sign-in. Settings and saved progressions live on the device only, and nothing about what you play is sent anywhere. On a tablet the neck stays visible while you work; on a phone it stays pinned while the controls scroll under it. ―――――――――― ZZZ FretHarmony Pro (auto-renewing subscription) - Length and price: 1 year / ¥360 - What it does: hides every advert and removes the limit on saved progressions - Renews every year unless cancelled at least 24 hours before the period ends - Cancel any time in your App Store account settings; cancelling takes effect at the end of the period already paid for Terms of Use (EULA): https://www.apple.com/legal/internet-services/itunes/dev/stdeula/ Privacy Policy: https://smolt-stage.com/home/privacy/zzz-fretharmony-privacy-policy-ios-en.html
Screenshots
Verdict
The clearest difference is ads: StrumForge at none against ZZZ FretHarmony's shown. On price, in-app purchases, device support and iOS requirement 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. StrumForge sells 4 in-app purchases, starting at $2.99 per 7 days and ZZZ FretHarmony sells 1 in-app purchase, starting at $1.99 per year. Whichever you choose, the download price is not the number that matters.
| Parameter | StrumForge | ZZZ FretHarmony |
|---|---|---|
| Price | Free | Free |
| Rating | 4.8 (61 ratings) — better | — |
| Positive reviews | 100.0% of reviews | — |
| Number of ratings | 61 — better | — |
| Update frequency | Every 2 days | — |
| Ads | No — better | Yes |
| In-app purchases | Yes | Yes |
| Monetization | Freemium | — |
| Devices | iPhone, iPad, iPod — better | iPhone, iPad |
| Requires iOS | 15.0 — better | 16.3 |
| Further details — not scored | ||
| Size | 70 MB | 28 MB |
| Age rating | 4+ | 4+ |
| Developer | Adam Spain | SMOLT STAGE, K.K. |
In-app purchases
StrumForge
- StrumForge Pro Weekly7 Days trial$2.997 Days
- StrumForge Pro Monthly$4.991 Month
- StrumForge Pro Annual$24.991 Year
- Lifetime Pro$49.99
ZZZ FretHarmony
- ZZZ FretHarmony Pro$1.991 Year
Questions
Is StrumForge free?
Is ZZZ FretHarmony free?
Do StrumForge or ZZZ FretHarmony have ads?
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