As a person who has always dreamt of learning to play the piano, I quickly realized that it is not as easy a process as I had secretly hoped it would be (movies are so unreliable). Apparently, daily practice is important, but I was too busy with getting proficient in various TV shows, which I suspect did not aid me in my quest of becoming a renowned pianist. Well, I hope you are a bit (or a lot) more motivated than me. If you are then you will enjoy this list of piano apps that will help you learn how to play the piano, improve your musicianship overall and let you have fun in the process.

Piano enthusiasts, gather round

Piano players, look no more because there is an amazing app ready to teach you.     I am talking about OnlinePianist (sadly available only for iOS, but thankfully has a desktop version anyone can enjoy). With the app, you can learn how to play contemporary and classical songs while practicing to refine your technique and adjusting the learning process to your own comfort. Also, check out their promo video, it’s amazing, or maybe I am just a sucker for animations.

Piano companion is an app that holds chords and scales, an interactive circle of fifths, compatible chords, chord progression builder with scale patterns, a MIDI keyboard and a banana. Ok, obviously there is no banana, but it appeared a banana is the only thing this app is missing. Piano companion is a literal library, available in different languages. With a gorgeous design, it appears to be a must-have for all pianists. It is available to both Android and Apple users for the price of $4.99

If you are a game lover like me then I recommend using Yokee as your go-to app for some piano fun. Choose what to play from a vast song collection, containing tunes from various genres, then select a difficulty level, get ready and play like a pro. Earn achievements and challenge your friends, because what is learning if you don’t get to show your friends just how much better than them you are at clicking in tempo and in tune the screen. Let’s be honest, this app will probably not make you a great pianist, but at least it will let you pretend you are one for a bit and in the process allow you to have a jolly good time at the cost of some in-app purchases. Yokee is available both on the Play Store and App Store.

If you love piano game apps then you should definitely check out Piano Master Free, in the trailer of which they literally say “follow the notes on screen and feel like a real pianist”.

With Little Big Piano you are more likely to actually learn how to play a few of your favorite songs. Personally, I think it is going to take up quite a lot of time, but if you for some reason dislike actually playing on the real piano and prefer to tap on the screen as colorful dots are streaming down then you will definitely enjoy this. The cool aspect of Little Big Piano is that you also get to create your own musical masterpieces in the free play mode. Furthermore, you can pester the developers to add to the songbook new songs, so don’t you worry, they will make Jason Derulo’s “Talk Dirty” happen for you (if they haven’t already). The app is available on Apple and claims to be completely free, but I suspect some in-app purchases might be lurking around.

If games are not your thing or if you are actually looking to learn something instead of just “pretending” to be a pianist, you might enjoy the Piano Ear Training app. It is equipped with an abundance of exercises with various difficulty levels. You can choose to practice whether a tone is higher or lower, as well as pitch identification, melodic dictation, chord progression, scale identification, interval comparison and other hard-core musician stuff. No pretending here. Get Piano Ear Training at the Play Store for free. Apple users can train their ears with the help of Ear Trainer, which is free to download but offers in-app purchases.

Apple users, this is for you! Piano 3D is currently considered to be one of the most popular piano apps in the App store. When you see it, I am sure you will understand why. With amazing 3D graphics and almost 800 songs in its library, both classical and contemporary, it is truly a must have. Piano 3D lets you experience what it is like to play a concert piano thanks to its 3D interface, amazing real-life sound and 87 keys that take up the entire screen. The app also has an abundance of cool features which allow you to not only enjoy classical music with a really cool visual presentation but to also record and create your own music and even learn how to play songs and classical pieces. The app is free to download, but in order to try out all its features, you need to pay for some in-app purchases, which range from $1.99 to $19.99.

If Android users are looking to get the most popular piano app on the Play Store then they should download Piano +. The app is very extensive and has more than 50 000 songs to choose from, provided by various content partners. You can also choose from 128 MIDI instruments and 12 sampled voices to create some great tunes. Being so popular and all, Piano + developers are constantly updating it, fixing bugs and adding new features. As with other apps, it is free to download but has in-app purchases.

Check out this video tutorial for a quick look into Piano +.

Have you finished with your scale practice for today? Did you train your ear to distinguish low notes from higher notes? Great! Now join us and other musicians on Drooble where you can get to making some real music and of course sharing piano learning tips.

Learn how to make your own piano phone case: