ChordDeck vs The Modality
Price, ratings, monetisation and update history for both apps, side by side — with what reviewers say about each.
ChordDeck
This app provides jazz chord flashcards for musicians to practice chord recall. It displays chord symbols, tones, formulas, and keyboard highlights, with audio playback. Users can mark difficult cards for later review.
- Practice jazz chord qualities
- Circle-of-fourths or random root order
- Continuous or one-pass practice sessions
- View chord tones, formulas, and keyboard highlights
- Built-in audio playback
- Mark and review difficult cards
- Local storage for settings and marked cards
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ChordDeck is a compact flashcard app for practicing jazz chord recall. Choose the roots and chord qualities you want to drill, then move through a focused deck one card at a time. Each card starts with a chord symbol so you can recall the answer mentally or on your instrument before revealing the details. Reveal a card to check the chord tones, a short formula, a compact piano keyboard highlight, and built-in audio playback. Mark difficult cards during practice and review them again later from the first screen. ChordDeck is designed for musicians who already know basic chord concepts and want a fast, repeatable way to build fluency. It keeps practice visual and direct instead of turning each session into a lesson page. Features: - Practice common jazz chord qualities across selected roots. - Follow circle-of-fourths root order or use random card order. - Choose one-pass sessions or continuous practice. - Reveal chord tones, formulas, and compact keyboard highlights. - Hear chord tones followed by the full chord. - Mark difficult cards and review them in a focused deck. - Use swipe navigation, previous and next controls, and timed autoplay. - Keep practice settings and marked cards stored locally on your device. ChordDeck is useful for jazz students, pianists, guitarists, bassists, arrangers, and other musicians who want quicker recognition of chord symbols, tones, and formulas.
The Modality
Explore the emotional depth of music through scales, moods, and microtones. This app teaches music theory by ear, focusing on Turkish makams and modal jazz, and how they intersect. Discover iconic recordings, learn through guided lessons, and meet the composers behind the music.
- Turkish makam exploration
- Modal jazz scales
- Cross-tradition comparisons
- Composer biographies
- Iconic recordings and improvisations
- Guided lessons and quizzes
- Glossary of musical terms
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You've heard music from across the world and felt something move in you — without knowing why. The Modality is how you find out. Most apps teach music theory as rules to memorize. The Modality teaches it as something to hear — because every musical tradition is really a different way to turn sound into feeling. We start with two of the most beautiful, and we're adding more. TURKISH MAKAM 29 makams, from Rast to Ferahfeza — each drawn degree by degree, with its microtonal commas marked, its seyir, its mood, the hour it belongs to, and the ney to play it. MODAL JAZZ 14 modes across two scales: the seven modes of the major scale, and the seven of melodic minor — the language of tension and release, from Lydian dominant to the altered sound. WHERE THEY MEET The Crossroads is where the two traditions touch. Hicaz and the Phrygian dominant share one ancient interval — hear them side by side, ney against Rhodes piano. Saba and Locrian reach the same depth of feeling by the same turn. Two musical worlds, one tap apart. THE PEOPLE BEHIND THE MUSIC 64 composers and performers, from Itri and Dede Efendi to Miles Davis and Bill Evans — with portraits, lives, and every place in the app you can hear them. Tap any name on any recording and meet the person. HEAR IT EVERYWHERE - Iconic recordings and taksim improvisations for every major makam - Canonical tunes for every mode — So What, Maiden Voyage, Spain - Songs you already know, mapped to the makam they live in — classical, arabesk, Anatolian rock - Play any scale on the ney or Rhodes, from any root LEARN IT PROPERLY - A guided lesson path in each tradition, from "What is a makam?" up - Quizzes that unlock level by level - A glossary of both traditions' vocabulary — taksim, seyir, voicing, vamp - Usul rhythm patterns with audio For curious listeners, for Western musicians meeting microtones for the first time, and for Turkish speakers rediscovering their own tradition. Two ways of hearing, each one whole. More on the way.
Screenshots
Verdict
The clearest difference is price: The Modality at Free against ChordDeck's $0.99. The Modality also leads on ratings volume (3 vs 1). On rating, review sentiment, update cadence and ads 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
The Modality is free to download; ChordDeck costs $0.99 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 — 5.0 for ChordDeck against 5.0 for The Modality. Both are backed by a comparable volume of ratings — 1 and 3 respectively. Written reviews split almost evenly too, at 100% and 100% positive.
ChordDeck ships an update weekly, The Modality every 8 days. The most recent releases landed on September 29, 2026 and September 24, 2026 respectively.
| Parameter | ChordDeck | The Modality |
|---|---|---|
| Price | $0.99 | Free — better |
| Rating | 5.0 (1 ratings) | 5.0 (3 ratings) |
| Positive reviews | 100.0% of reviews | 100.0% of reviews |
| Number of ratings | 1 | 3 — better |
| Update frequency | Weekly — better | Every 8 days |
| Ads | No | No |
| In-app purchases | No | No |
| Monetization | Paid | Free — better |
| Devices | iPhone, iPad | iPhone, iPod |
| Requires iOS | 17.0 | 16.4 — better |
| Further details — not scored | ||
| Size | 4 MB | 119 MB |
| Age rating | 4+ | 4+ |
| Developer | Shinhye Lee | Mehmet Aydin |
Customer experience
ChordDeck
The Modality
In-app purchases
ChordDeck
No in-app purchases
The Modality
No in-app purchases









