Touch Notation vs Guitar Notation Pro
Price, ratings, monetisation and update history for both apps, side by side — with what reviewers say about each.
Touch Notation
Create musical scores with intuitive touch gestures. Draw notes, add expressions, and play back your compositions with 30 instrument voices. Export your work in various formats.
- Handwritten notation input
- 30 built-in instrument voices
- Tempo and dynamics control
- Page layout functions
- Transpose feature
- Multiple export formats (PDF, SMF, MusicXML)
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Touch Notation is a powerful musical score creation app that allows anyone to enjoy writing music using touch gestures. In Japan, Touch Notation was selected as one of the ‘App Store Best of 2014’ apps, and held the No.1 spot in the iPad Paid App index for music apps for over two weeks. Up until now, musical score creation software has relied upon dragging individual notes from a palette onto staves. By contrast, Touch Notation allows musicians to draw directly onto the score using a finger or touch pen, and have their work immediately appear as beautifully written notation, then played back using the app’s 30 built-in instrument voices. - A wide-range of functions accessible from a cleanly designed, intuitive user interface. - Ability to enter musical expressions for adjusting tempo and dynamics. - Layout functions such as page breaks. - Convenient transpose feature for raising/lowering the pitch of the entire score. - Output scores using Air Print, or save to Dropbox in PDF, SMF, MusicXML, and ScoreMaker formats. Touch Notation allows the following musical symbols to be entered by hand: - Note, Rest (including dotted and double-dotted), Long Rest, Beam, Tuplet (Triplet) - Grace Note - Accidental, Tie, Slur - Accent, Staccato, Tenuto, Fermata - Trill, sfz, Arpeggio, Pedal, Senza - Metronome symbol - Crescendo, Decrescendo - Dynamics symbols (ppp~fff) - Octave symbol - Repeat brackets - Repeat marks (D.C./Fine/D.S./Segno/Coda/to Coda) - Clefs (Treble Clef/Bass Clef/C Clef/Percussion Clef) - Key signature - Time signature - Bar lines (repeat marks) - Abbreviation Lyrics and other musical expressions (‘Dolce’, ‘Tranquillo’, etc.) can be added using text input, while comments and memos can also be written freehand directly onto the score. * Drum notation is supported, but other types such as rhythm notation and tab notation are not supported. * Older devices may experience stuttering when playing complicated scores with many simultaneous notes.
Guitar Notation Pro
Compose, edit, and playback guitar sheet music scores with this powerful notation app. Supports multi-track tabs, chord charts, and various instruments. Export your compositions in industry-standard formats.
- Compose and edit sheet music
- Multi-track tab support
- Chord chart configuration
- High-quality playback
- Export to MusicXML, MIDI, PNG, PDF
- Supports up to 8 staff
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A great guitar tabs and chords notation app on iOS. For any guitar music lover, Guitar Notation gives you the ability to read, compose, edit, and playback guitar sheet music scores. With it you can be a talented composer and great musician anywhere. As long as you have a little knowledge of sheet music, you can write music composition simply by touch and move. Of course it could help you to learn guitar notations. It can handle multi-track tabs, also it supports for chord chart configuration. With the help of it you could easily record the flashes of inspiration wherever they strike. Are you ready to compose music in a simple way? ----------------------- Features: -Export in the industry-popular MusicXML file format, allowing for exchanging sheet music with other software (Finale, Sibelius, Encore, MuseScore, etc). -Export MIDI file. -Export PNG image and PDF document. -High quality sound for playback. -Support editing up to 8 staff at the same time. -Support many kinds of guitar and bass instrument. ----------------------- Supported notation: *A variety of note types, from whole note to 128th note and dotted note *Chord chart configuration *A variety of time signatures *All standard key signatures *Adjustable tempo *All accidentals (sharps, flats, double sharps, double flats, and naturals) *Tie, slur, and tuplet *Many types of ornament *A wide range of dynamics
Screenshots
Verdict
The clearest difference is price: Touch Notation at $9.99 against Guitar Notation Pro's $149.00. Touch Notation also leads on iOS requirement (11.0 vs 13). Guitar Notation Pro's advantage is rating (4.1 vs 2.9) and in-app purchases (none vs 10). On ratings volume, update cadence, ads and monetization model 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
Touch Notation costs $9.99 and Guitar Notation Pro $149.00 up front. Touch Notation sells 10 one-off in-app purchases. Guitar Notation Pro asks for nothing beyond the download.
Guitar Notation Pro holds the better App Store score, 4.1 against 2.9. Both are backed by a comparable volume of ratings — 21 and 24 respectively. Written reviews point the same way: 45% of Touch Notation's written reviews are positive against 56% of Guitar Notation Pro's.
Both ship on a similar rhythm, roughly every 3 months. The most recent releases landed on October 15, 2026 and October 5, 2026 respectively.
| Parameter | Touch Notation | Guitar Notation Pro |
|---|---|---|
| Price | $9.99 — better | $149.00 |
| Rating | 2.9 (21 ratings) | 4.1 (24 ratings) — better |
| Positive reviews | 44.6% of reviews | 55.6% of reviews — better |
| Number of ratings | 21 | 24 — better |
| Update frequency | Every 3 months | Every 3 months |
| Ads | No | No |
| In-app purchases | Yes | No — better |
| Monetization | Paid | Paid |
| Devices | iPhone, iPad, iPod | iPhone, iPad, iPod |
| Requires iOS | 11.0 — better | 13 |
| Further details — not scored | ||
| Size | 112 MB | 153 MB |
| Age rating | 4+ | 4+ |
| Developer | Kawai Musical Instruments Manufacturing Co., Ltd. | 嵩 张 |
Customer experience
Touch Notation
Guitar Notation Pro
In-app purchases
Touch Notation
- Sound Set: Piano$0.49
- Sound Set: Guitar/Bass 1$0.49
- Sound Set: Strings$0.49
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- Sound Set: Brass/Woodwind$0.49
- Sound Set: Bell/Mallet$0.49
- Sound Set: Vocal/Others$0.49
- Core MIDI Output$1.99
- Handwritten Font$1.99
- Sound Set: Full$2.99
- Chord Name & Automatic Accompaniment$3.99
Guitar Notation Pro
No in-app purchases
Questions
Is Touch Notation free?
Is Guitar Notation Pro free?
Which has better reviews, Touch Notation or Guitar Notation Pro?
Do Touch Notation or Guitar Notation Pro have ads?
Which is updated more often, Touch Notation or Guitar Notation Pro?
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