Piano trainer for iPad
Built by a professional pianist and composer. Plug in any USB or Bluetooth MIDI keyboard and KeyStage reads exactly what you play, so you are never marked wrong when you got it right. Simple enough for kids, serious enough for adults.
Coming to the App Store. One email at launch, nothing else.
See how it works
Apps that listen through a microphone have to guess, and when they guess wrong, your child gets marked wrong on a note they played right. That moment is where beginners quit. KeyStage reads the keyboard itself, so every note is seen exactly as it was played: no missed notes, no wrong calls, nothing to argue with. If you played it right, it counts. Trust is what keeps a beginner coming back to the bench.
Playing music takes three things. Most apps teach one and skip the rest. KeyStage builds all three from the first lesson.
Reading
Start with falling notes to find your way, then real sheet music takes over. You come out reading music, not chasing colored lights.
Rhythm
Tap and clap drills scored on timing, with a metronome you can feel. Quarter notes to eighths to sixteenths, one steady step at a time.
Ear
Hear a note or a chord and find it on the keys. Real ear training, answered by playing, not by tapping a multiple-choice button.
Most apps score whether you hit the beat. KeyStage teaches the beat: what a quarter, eighth, sixteenth and triplet actually are, read in real notation, counted out loud, then played in time.
Every value gets its own lesson, its counting in numbers or syllables, and a tap-along drill scored on timing.
No setup wizards, no microphone permissions, no tinny listening. Plug in and the keyboard tells KeyStage everything.
Any MIDI keyboard, over USB or Bluetooth. A fifty dollar starter works perfectly.
The notes light up and fall in time. In wait mode the app pauses until you find the right key, so nobody feels lost.
Accuracy, rhythm and the exact bars to practice next. Honest feedback, because it heard every note correctly.
Twelve clear levels carry a beginner from a five-finger tune to Beethoven and Satie. There is always an obvious next step, so kids keep going instead of hitting a wall and quitting.
Levels 1 to 12, roughly prep through grade 3.
A calm, grown-up interface built for focus, not noise. Same app, whether it is a six-year-old or an adult beginner.
Point your iPad at any sheet music and KeyStage turns the page into a playable lesson, with the same wait mode, tempo control and looping it gives every built-in piece. The music you want to learn becomes the music you practice.
I’ve played piano professionally and written music for most of my life. When my own kids were small, I went looking for an app to help them learn in a fun way. I tried a lot of them, and I never found one I felt good handing to my children. They dress piano up as a game, guess at what you play, and quietly teach habits a real teacher spends years undoing. So I built KeyStage, for my kids and for anyone starting out: real notation, real rhythm, and a path that begins at the very first note. If you learn with it, you are learning the piano, not the app.
The maker of KeyStage, professional pianist and composer
Any keyboard or digital piano that speaks MIDI, connected over USB or Bluetooth. That covers nearly everything made in the last two decades, including fifty dollar starter keyboards. Smaller keyboards work too; the app shows you where you are on the full range.
No. Lessons, the rhythm gym and the whole free library live on the iPad, so practice works offline, in the car, or at grandma’s house.
It is for anyone starting the piano. Kids and adults follow the same real curriculum; the pacing simply adapts. Plenty of grown-ups use it as their first honest teacher.
Pricing will be announced at launch. Whatever the number is, over a hundred public-domain pieces stay free, and there will never be loot boxes, ads or pay-to-progress mechanics.
KeyStage is coming to the App Store for iPad, iPadOS 17 and up. Join the list above or below and you will get exactly one email the moment it is live.
Add your email and we will tell you the moment KeyStage is live on the App Store.