ApproachNote vs Fake Book Index
Price, ratings, monetisation and update history for both apps, side by side — with what reviewers say about each.
ApproachNote
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Every tune has been played a hundred ways. ApproachNote helps you hear them. When you're learning a standard, the first question is always: how have players come at this before? ApproachNote puts every approach in one place — search a tune and pull up the releases that recorded it, with full track listings, artist credits, cover art, and direct links to stream many recordings, where available. Listen to how a dozen players phrased the same melody. Trace who played on what. Follow the thread from one interpretation to the next until you find the approach that's yours. * Search a tune and find every release that recorded it * Full track listings, credits, and cover art * One-tap streaming links to hear each recording, where available * Explore artists and the players behind them * Built for the woodshed — fast, clean, no clutter Before you decide how you'll play it, hear how it's been played. That's ApproachNote. ApproachNote is free for the next 60 days–try it out!
Fake Book Index
Quickly find jazz standards across numerous fake books and play-along series. Search by title or composer, filter by owned books, and browse titles by page. Works offline, ideal for musicians.
- Search 10,000+ jazz standards
- Works offline
- Search by composer
- Filter by owned books
- Browse titles by page
- Supports custom book imports
- Multi-language support
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The fastest way to find which fake book a jazz standard is in — and on which page. Search 10,000+ jazz standards across 90+ books at once: Real Book, New Real Book, Sher Music, Hal Leonard, Aebersold Play-A-Long, and many more. No signal at the basement venue? No problem. Fake Book Index works fully offline. Perfect for late-night jam sessions, anywhere. Available on iPhone, iPad, and Mac. SEARCH Start typing and results appear instantly. No internet, no waiting. Search by composer too: type “Parker” to see every Charlie Parker title in your collection. FILTER AND BROWSE Select only the books you own to narrow your results. Pick any book and tap Browse to see all its titles sorted by page. Ideal on the bandstand. PLAY-ALONG SERIES Aebersold and Hal Leonard Jazz Play-Along volumes are listed individually, so you can quickly find the right tune and work on your standards with accompaniment. YOUR BOOKS Add any fake book that isn’t in the list. Enter titles manually or import a JSON index. Your books are saved and searchable alongside the others. Available in English, French, German, Japanese, Spanish, Italian. The index is updated regularly — new books and titles are added without requiring an app update. A BOOK IS MISSING? If you own a fake book that isn’t in the app, feel free to get in touch. I’ll happily add it.
Screenshots
Verdict
The clearest difference is price: ApproachNote at Free against Fake Book Index's $2.99. Fake Book Index's advantage is update cadence (every 5 days vs every 10 days) and device support (4 vs 2). On 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
ApproachNote is free to download; Fake Book Index costs $2.99 up front. Neither carries in-app purchases, so what you see is what you pay.
ApproachNote ships an update every 10 days, Fake Book Index every 5 days. The most recent releases landed on October 25, 2026 and October 28, 2026 respectively.
| Parameter | ApproachNote | Fake Book Index |
|---|---|---|
| Price | Free — better | $2.99 |
| Rating | — | 5.0 (2 ratings) — better |
| Number of ratings | — | 2 — better |
| Update frequency | Every 10 days | Every 5 days — better |
| Ads | No | No |
| In-app purchases | No | No |
| Monetization | — | Paid |
| Devices | iPhone, iPad | iPhone, iPad, iPod, Mac — better |
| Requires iOS | 17.0 | 15.6 — better |
| Further details — not scored | ||
| Size | 30 MB | 5 MB |
| Age rating | 12+ | 4+ |
| Developer | Dave Rodger | Armel Courree |
In-app purchases
ApproachNote
No in-app purchases
Fake Book Index
No in-app purchases
Questions
Is ApproachNote free?
Is Fake Book Index free?
Do ApproachNote or Fake Book Index have ads?
Which is updated more often, ApproachNote or Fake Book Index?
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