Anything Piano team · November 2026
Anything Piano vs Synthesia: Which is better in 2026?
Anything Piano, the AI piano tutor for iPhone and iPad from Play Anything, is the better app for learning songs. Bring any song from a link, an audio file, or a recording, and in about a minute its AI turns it into a lesson that hears you on any piano. Synthesia needs a MIDI file for every song outside its 150 built-in ones.
Anything Piano is our product. We put it first where it’s the right tool, and we say plainly where another tool fits better.
The verdict in one table
| Anything Piano | Synthesia | |
|---|---|---|
| Where your songs come from | Any song you bring: YouTube search, YouTube, TikTok, and Instagram links, audio files, recordings, Songscription imports | 150 included songs, plus MIDI and MusicXML files you find or buy |
| Time to a lesson of your song | About a minute | Only once you have a MIDI or MusicXML file of it |
| What you practice from | A piano roll split into parts, with finger numbers on songs that have fingering | Falling notes, sheet music, or both, with finger hints |
| Practice tools | Wait mode, looping, playback speed, one hand or both, difficulty levels, transposing, a scored Mastery run | Melody Practice (waits for the right note), loops, speed, hands separately |
| Hears you through | Any piano by microphone, plus Bluetooth MIDI and USB MIDI | A keyboard over USB or MIDI; no microphone input described |
| Lessons | Songs split into parts, learned right hand, then left, then both | No formal lessons; a “Learning Pack” is described as a paid upgrade |
| Where it runs | iPhone, iPad | Windows, Mac, iPad, Android tablets, Chromebook |
| AI help | Annie, an AI practice companion that finds any song from a description or lyrics | None described on its pages |
| Price | Free plan with free song conversions; Pro $19.99 a month or $143.99 a year | One-time unlock, $7.99 on the iPad App Store; free version with more than 20 songs |
Synthesia details were checked on November 10, 2026, on Synthesia’s own pages, listed under How we compared.
The real difference: who brings the file
Synthesia plays files. Beyond its 150 included songs, every song you want to learn has to arrive as a standard MIDI or MusicXML file, which you find online, make yourself, or buy from its Music Store. Its pages describe no way to start from an audio file, a YouTube video, or a link.
Anything Piano starts from the song itself, and there’s no file to hunt for. The song a friend sent you, the theme from the show you’re watching, or the track that’s all over TikTok this week goes straight into the app. We cover more apps that work this way in piano apps that let you practice any song.
How Anything Piano turns your song into a lesson
- Bring the song. Search YouTube inside the app, paste a YouTube, TikTok, or Instagram link, upload an audio file, record the song playing in the room, or scan a song shared from Songscription. Not sure what it’s called? Ask Annie, your AI practice companion, and describe the song or quote a line of the lyrics.
- Get your lesson. Anything Piano builds a piano roll of the song in about a minute and splits it into parts. It runs on Play Anything’s own music transcription model. In our October 2026 benchmark, Songscription, built on that model, ranked first in transcription and piano arrangements against Klang.io, Mirelo, and five open-source models.
- Play it on your piano. Learn each part right hand, then left hand, then both. Like a tutor at your side, the app listens, shows every right and wrong note, and in Wait mode holds the song until you play the right one. That’s what makes it an AI piano tutor, not a file player.
Practicing: what you get in Anything Piano
- Wait mode. The song holds until you play the right note, then moves on.
- Playback speed and looping. Slow a part down, loop it until it sits, then bring the speed back up.
- Difficulty levels. Where a song has more than one version, pick the one that fits your hands today and move up later.
- Transposing. Shift the notes up or down by semitones to a key that suits you. Finger numbers are hidden while a song is shifted.
- Finger numbers. Shown on the notes in the song’s original key. Not every song has fingering yet.
- A scored Mastery run. Play the full song for a score, with every note rated Perfect, Great, Good, or Miss and a combo that builds as you hit them.
Synthesia has falling notes, Melody Practice that waits for the correct note, loops, and hands separately too, but only for songs you already have as a file, and it describes no formal lessons. Its real edges are a one-time price, a sheet music view, and versions for Windows, Mac, and Android tablets. Anything Piano shows a piano roll, not sheet music; see piano apps without sheet music for why that suits song learners.
Annie, your AI practice companion
Annie is the feature our team is proudest of. She’s Anything Piano’s AI practice companion: tell her how a song goes or type a line of the lyrics, and she finds it, so even a song you can’t name becomes a lesson in about a minute. She also guides you through getting started and sends practice reminders. Synthesia’s pages describe nothing like her.
What players say
From Anything Piano’s App Store reviews:
- “I can practice songs I actually want to learn” (Arvindp44, a beginner)
- “I uploaded a pretty obscure track and the app did a flawless job transcribing it.” (xcrispynorix)
- “pretty accurate at identifying the notes you are playing via audio” (an intermediate player)
Your piano
Synthesia follows your playing only when a keyboard is connected over USB or MIDI, with Bluetooth MIDI on iPad. Its pages describe no microphone input, so they describe no way for it to hear an acoustic piano.
Anything Piano hears you through your iPhone or iPad microphone on any acoustic or digital piano, and connects over Bluetooth MIDI, paired inside the app, or over USB with no pairing. You set your keyboard’s lowest and highest note once, so a 49-, 61-, 76-, or 88-key instrument lines up on screen, and it works with the light-up PartyKeys keyboard. Read do I need a MIDI keyboard?, and see which piano learning apps work with your digital piano for the connections across seven apps.
Price
Anything Piano is free to download. The free plan includes free song conversions and the free Public Library, with every practice tool unlocked. Pro adds unlimited songs for $19.99 a month or $143.99 a year. See Is Anything Piano free? for what each plan includes.
Synthesia is a one-time unlock, $7.99 on the iPad App Store. Its free version has more than 20 songs and a time limit on outside songs. The unlock doesn’t come with the songs: every song beyond the included ones is a MIDI or MusicXML file you still have to find or buy.
Which one should you pick?
Pick Anything Piano if you already know the songs you want to play: pop songs, game music, a song from a show, or anything you heard on YouTube or TikTok. It’s also the pick if you play an acoustic piano or don’t own a MIDI keyboard, and if you want the app to hear you and wait for you on the song you chose today.
Pick Synthesia only if you already have MIDI files and a MIDI keyboard, need sheet music, or practice on a computer or an Android tablet.
We compared more apps in the best Synthesia alternatives and Anything Piano vs flowkey. If you want to make your own MIDI or sheet music from a song, Songscription vs Synthesia covers that side.
How we compared
We read Synthesia’s website, FAQ, unlock page, and App Store listing on November 10, 2026, for song source, practice tools, platforms, connections, and price. Anything Piano’s features come from the app itself. We didn’t run a side-by-side test of note detection or time either app, so this comparison makes no claim about which detects notes more accurately. Review quotes are copied word for word from the App Store.
Synthesia sources, checked November 10, 2026: website, FAQ, unlock page, App Store listing.
Get Anything Piano and start with the song you actually want to play.
Questions
Not beyond its 150 included songs. Synthesia plays standard MIDI and MusicXML files, and its pages describe no way to start from an audio file or a link. Anything Piano takes the song itself, from a YouTube search, a YouTube, TikTok, or Instagram link, an audio file, a recording, or a Songscription import, and turns it into a lesson in about a minute. No file to find first.
Yes, Anything Piano. It’s an AI piano tutor for iPhone and iPad that turns any song you bring into falling-note practice split into parts, with Wait mode, looping, playback speed, one hand or both, and finger numbers on songs that have fingering. If you can’t remember the song’s name, Annie, its AI practice companion, finds it from a description or a line of lyrics.
Synthesia follows your playing only with a keyboard connected over USB or MIDI, and its pages describe no microphone input. Anything Piano hears you through your iPhone or iPad microphone on any acoustic or digital piano, and also connects over Bluetooth MIDI or USB.
Anything Piano, if you want to learn the songs you actually listen to. It builds the lesson from the song in about a minute and listens on any piano. Synthesia is a falling-notes player for MIDI files, which fits only if you already have the file and a MIDI keyboard.
No. Anything Piano shows a piano roll, with finger numbers on songs that have fingering. Synthesia can show sheet music, falling notes, or both, so if reading notation is your goal, Synthesia’s sheet view is the one thing it has that Anything Piano doesn’t.
Anything Piano is free to download, with free song conversions and every practice tool on the free plan. Pro is $19.99 a month or $143.99 a year. Synthesia is a one-time unlock, $7.99 on the iPad App Store, and its free version has more than 20 songs and a time limit on outside songs. Prices were checked in November 2026.
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