Chord Progression Lab vs Incipit
Price, ratings, monetisation and update history for both apps, side by side β with what reviewers say about each.
Chord Progression Lab
Read full descriptionHide full description
Chord Progression Lab turns music theory into a sandbox. Pick a key. Pick a style. Listen. Tweak. Export. That's the whole loop β and it's surprisingly addictive whether you're a songwriter looking for your next progression, a producer hunting for a starting MIDI, a music student studying voice leading, or just a curious listener who wants to know what a Phrygian dominant actually sounds like. 25+ music-theory approaches, from familiar to far-out: β’ Pop, Doo-Wop, Pachelbel's Canon, Circle of Fifths β’ 12-Bar Blues and Jazz β’ Rock and Punk power-chord progressions β’ Epic Minor and Andalusian cadences β’ Indian Raga (Bhairav), Arabic Maqam (Hijaz), East Asian GΕng pentatonic β’ Japanese HirajΕshi, Indonesian Gamelan (Slendro) β’ Klezmer Freygish, Flamenco Phrygian, Celtic Mixolydian, Slavic minor β’ Bulgarian 7/8 Balkan, West African Highlife β’ Bossa Nova, Reggae, Hawaiian slack key β’ Avant-Garde quartal stacks and tone clusters All 12 keys. Transpose any progression β instantly. Dissonance dial. Great for ear-training, jazz studies, or just hearing how a vanilla IβVβviβIV mutates when you add tension. Tempo control. Drag from a slow 40 BPM crawl to a 200 BPM sprint. Each style starts at a tempo that fits the genre. See it as you hear it. A piano keyboard lights up with the active chord tones in real time, and the chord sequence scrolls along showing Roman numerals and the actual chord name in the current key. Export MIDI. One tap saves a standard MIDI file you can drop into any DAW β and the share sheet sends it anywhere: AirDrop, Files, email, Messages. No accounts. No ads. No tracking. No internet required. Everything runs on-device with a built-in synthesizer. Whether you're studying theory, writing a song, prototyping a beat, or just curious what a Bulgarian 7/8 progression sounds like β Chord Progression Lab gets you from idea to audio in two taps.
Incipit
Read full descriptionHide full description
Ten pieces to change what you hear. Ten times over. Most people who feel shut out of a kind of music are not missing an ear. They are missing somewhere to put their attention. Nobody ever told them what to listen for in the first two minutes, and the music does not announce it. Incipit is ten libraries, each of ten pieces in order, each piece finishable in one sitting. A guide called Chiron tells you why each one earned its place, the room it was made in, what changed because of it, one named thing it teaches you to hear, and exactly which recording to go and play. THE TEN LIBRARIES Classical Music β line, harmony, form, time Film Scores β the tools from Classical, on music you already know Soul & Motown β the rhythm section under the voice Country β craft that hides itself Jazz β decisions being made in front of you Hip-Hop β sampling, the drum machine, the producer as composer Rock & the Electric Guitar β distortion, feedback, volume Reggae & Dub β where the beat is not, and the mixing desk as an instrument Latin β rhythm as a system, from Havana to Buenos Aires Electronic β sound built from nothing Genres first and difficulty rising, so nothing asks for an ear you have not been given. WHAT TEN GETS YOU Not expertise. Ten pieces will not make anyone knowledgeable about anything, and anyone promising otherwise is selling something. What ten pieces do is change what arrives. Music that reached you as texture starts arriving as structure. THE TOOLS ACCUMULATE, AND THEY TRAVEL Each piece hands over one named listening tool and you keep it. Bach gives you the single line. Vivaldi gives you the returning theme, which then explains four hundred years of concerto form β and turns out to be running the whole of John Williams. The backbeat you learn in Motown is the one Hip-Hop samples. The clave you clap in Cuba is the engine of a tango. A hundred tools by the end, and they work on music the app never mentions. THE MAP Each library has a map of its ten and what runs between them. Beethoven answering Mozart. Debussy refusing to resolve what Beethoven argued. Each connection appears once you have met both ends of it. WHAT IS NOT HERE No streaks. No points, badges or leaderboards. No account, no sign-in, no advertising. Nothing about you is collected or sent anywhere, because there is nowhere to send it. Recordings are named precisely, by performer and year, and open in Spotify if you have it. Spotify is not required. Where a record carries profanity, the linked edition does not. Every word is original writing produced for this app, fact-checked against sources before publication.
Screenshots
Verdict
The clearest difference is price: Incipit at Free against Chord Progression Lab's $0.99. Incipit also leads on iOS requirement (15.1 vs 26.5). On ads, in-app purchases and device support there is nothing between them.
Scored on Price Β· Rating Β· Positive reviews Β· Number of ratings Β· Update frequency Β· Ads Β· In-app purchases Β· Monetization Β· Best chart rank Β· Devices Β· Requires iOS
Incipit is free to download; Chord Progression Lab costs $0.99 up front. Neither carries in-app purchases, so what you see is what you pay.
| Parameter | Chord Progression Lab | Incipit |
|---|---|---|
| Price | $0.99 | Free β better |
| Update frequency | β | Every 2 weeks |
| Ads | No | No |
| In-app purchases | No | No |
| Devices | iPhone, iPad | iPhone, iPod |
| Requires iOS | 26.5 | 15.1 β better |
| Further details β not scored | ||
| Size | 2 MB | 30 MB |
| Age rating | 4+ | 12+ |
| Developer | David Mickey | David Hamm |
In-app purchases
Chord Progression Lab
No in-app purchases
Incipit
No in-app purchases
Questions
Is Chord Progression Lab free?
Is Incipit free?
Do Chord Progression Lab or Incipit have ads?
Other comparisons













