Synthesia

Review by eFreeware

Synthesia is a piano learning app from Synthesia LLC, first released in December 2014 and now past 10 million installs on Google Play, where it holds a 3.9 average from more than 93,000 ratings. It is free to download, carries no ads, and offers a one-time purchase rather than a subscription. The pitch is simple: you can begin playing straight away even if you have never learned to read sheet music, using the touchscreen or a connected digital keyboard.

That combination is the reason to consider it. Most teaching tools assume some notation reading from the start, or they turn practice into a sequence of drills divorced from real pieces. Synthesia takes the opposite route, showing the music as falling note blocks and letting you match them with your fingers, while still offering traditional notation for anyone who wants to build that skill alongside.

The catalog is modest at the free level and considerably larger once you pay, and the app has been updated as recently as February 2025 with fixes for MIDI device connections and support for Android 15. What follows is a look at what it does well, what the purchase changes, and the sort of player it fits.

Playing a song without reading notation

The core of the app is the falling note display. Notes descend toward a keyboard at the bottom of the screen, and you play them at the moment they arrive. You can choose that view, switch to conventional sheet music, or show both at once, which is a useful arrangement for anyone who wants to connect the shapes on a staff with the keys under their hands rather than treating notation as a separate subject to be studied first.

Every song includes hints for which finger to use on each note. For a beginner, that removes a lot of the guesswork that makes early piano practice frustrating, because fingerings are exactly the sort of thing a teacher supplies and a self-taught player has to work out alone. The hints run alongside the notes rather than in a separate reference, so the information arrives while you are playing.

The app also includes loops, bookmarks and a built-in metronome. Loops let you isolate a passage and repeat it, bookmarks mark the places worth returning to, and the metronome keeps the tempo steady. None of these are unusual in music software, but having them inside the same screen as the falling notes means you are not switching between tools to work on a difficult bar.

Hands, waiting mode and lighted keyboards

You can practice each hand on its own or bring both together. Working one hand at a time is the standard way to learn a piece, and having it built in means you do not have to find a simplified arrangement just to get started. Melody Practice mode goes further: the app waits until you hit the correct note before the music moves on, so a wrong note stops the piece rather than passing by unnoticed.

If you own a digital piano, you can connect it and play on real keys instead of the touchscreen. According to the developer, Synthesia works with the lights built into most lighted keyboards, so the key you should press can be shown on the instrument itself. That is a neat use of hardware that many owners probably never expected to use this way.

Playing on a touchscreen and playing on weighted keys are different experiences, and the app supports both without insisting on either. Someone with a keyboard at home can treat the tablet as a teacher; someone without one can still work through the material on glass. The trade-off is that touchscreen playing will not build the finger strength a real keyboard does, so the connected route is the more complete one where the hardware exists.

What the free version covers and what the purchase changes

The free download includes more than 20 songs, which is enough to find out whether the falling-note approach suits the way you learn. The one-time purchase opens the full set of 150 included songs, along with any other MIDI song ever created, so material you find elsewhere can be brought into the app rather than being limited to the built-in catalog.

The purchase also adds a multi-track recorder for capturing your own playing. That is a meaningful addition for anyone who wants to write or arrange rather than only reproduce existing pieces. It is worth stressing what the developer stresses: this is a single payment, not a monthly subscription, and that one purchase is described as covering all future upgrades.

That structure is unusual among learning apps, many of which charge by the month. Paying once and keeping access is easier to justify for a hobby you might set aside for a season and return to later. The free tier is a genuine trial rather than a locked shell, so the decision to pay can be made after you have played enough to know.

Setting up and what you need

Getting started is a matter of installing the app and choosing how you want to play. If you are using the touchscreen, there is nothing else to arrange. If you plan to connect a digital keyboard, you will need the cable or adapter that suits your instrument, and recent updates have addressed MIDI device connections, which suggests the developer is still tending to that side of things.

The app now requires Android 6 or later, so very old devices are out of scope. The most recent update also adds support for Android 15 and ties in the sheet music display, along with assorted bug fixes. Anyone running a reasonably current phone or tablet should have no trouble.

There is no advertising inside the app. The practical requirements are therefore modest: a device, a way to play, and a decision about whether the free songs are enough or whether the full catalog and recorder justify the purchase.

The player this suits

This is built for someone who wants to make music at the keyboard before they can read it. If you have tried to learn from a method book and stalled on notation, the falling notes give you a way in that produces recognizable music quickly. The finger hints and the waiting mode in Melody Practice keep that early progress from turning into guesswork.

It also fits a returning player who reads music but wants a practice companion that can loop a passage, hold a tempo and let them try one hand at a time. The option to show notation and falling notes together makes it useful for shoring up reading rather than replacing it. A household with a digital piano and a tablet has an obvious use for it.

Where it is narrower is in what it is: a tool for playing pieces, with the practice aids arranged around that. Someone looking for theory lessons, composition instruction or a structured curriculum will find the app is organized around songs rather than around a course of study. The recorder and MIDI import extend what you can do with it, but the center of gravity remains playing along.

A one-time purchase for keyboard practice

Synthesia does one thing carefully: it gets you playing piano with the least possible friction between wanting to start and actually starting. The falling notes, the finger hints, the option to practice hands separately and the waiting mode all serve that goal, and the addition of sheet music and MIDI import means the app can grow with you rather than being outgrown.

The 3.9 average across a large number of ratings suggests a generally satisfied audience rather than universal enthusiasm, which is about what you would expect for a tool that asks you to practice. The free download with no ads and more than 20 songs makes trying it a low-commitment decision, and the one-time unlock for 150 songs, external MIDI files and the multi-track recorder is straightforward to weigh.

If you own a digital keyboard and want a practice partner that shows you what to play, this is an easy recommendation. If you are learning on a phone or tablet alone, it still works, with the caveat that real keys will teach your hands more. Either way, the free version answers the important question before you spend anything.

What's new in version 10.10.6001

• Synthesia now requires Android 6 or later. • Added ties in sheet music display. • MIDI device connection fixes. • Support for Android 15. • Support for latest Google Play billing library. • Fixed several more bugs.