SightReader vs Synthesia: falling notes or real notation? (2026)

Synthesia turns any MIDI or MusicXML file into falling coloured bars descending onto a keyboard, waits for you to hit the right key, and costs $39 once. SightReader shows you real notation, marks every note you play against it, scores your timing separately, and costs £48 a year. If you want to play a specific piece — and you have the file — Synthesia is superb value and there is nothing dishonest about the way it works. If the thing you are trying to build is the ability to open unfamiliar music and read it, falling notes are not the route there.

Full disclosure: we make SightReader. Synthesia takes a wider range of file formats than we do, and its one-off price is unbeatable in this comparison. Both are covered below.

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Falling notes and notation are different skills

Reading standard notation is a decoding task. Your eye takes in a cluster of noteheads, resolves their pitches from their positions on the stave against the current key signature, resolves their durations from their shapes and beams, and your hands act on that — ideally a bar or two ahead of where you are playing. It is slow and effortful at first and becomes automatic with volume.

Falling notes remove the decoding entirely. Position on screen maps directly to position on the keyboard, and length of bar maps directly to length of note. There is nothing to translate, which is exactly why it works so well for beginners and why a song learned that way can be learned quickly.

The consequence is that time spent on falling notes builds the motor skill and does not build the reading skill. That is our view rather than a research finding, and given we sell the notation-based alternative you should weigh it accordingly. But it follows from what each display asks your eyes to do, and it matches what a lot of people find when they have been playing from falling-note apps for a year and still cannot get through a new piece on paper.

Synthesia does offer standard notation as a display option on songs that carry it. Falling notes are the default and the mode the product is built around.

Import: they win, and the framing matters

Synthesia opens any standard MIDI file and any MusicXML file. SightReader opens MusicXML and nothing else. On format breadth Synthesia is ahead and the table says so.

What is not true — and it comes up in comparisons written by people with something to sell — is that import is a thing only Synthesia does. SightReader takes any MusicXML file on the Pro tier, with no limit on how many. The honest row is “MusicXML (us) / MIDI and MusicXML (them)”.

Our narrowness is deliberate. MIDI carries performance data and almost no notation: no clef assignment, no key-signature semantics, no enharmonic spelling, no voicing, no beaming. To render a readable score from a MIDI file you have to infer all of it, and inference produces plausible guesses rather than what the composer wrote. That is fine for falling notes, where none of it is needed, and not fine for a product whose job is to mark you against the score. The longer version of that argument is here.

The price shapes

Synthesia’s $39 unlock covers Windows, macOS, iOS, Android and compatible Chromebooks, and includes 150 songs plus access to a paid music store. There is a free version with limited built-in songs and unrestricted MIDI-file playback.

SightReader is £5 a month or £48 a year, with a permanent free tier of 54 pieces including both practice modes.

Over five years, Synthesia costs $39 and SightReader costs about £240. If a one-off purchase is what you are after, this comparison ends here and Synthesia wins it. What the subscription pays for is the 4,000-piece graded library, the ABRSM alignment, the assessment and the timing analysis — none of which Synthesia sets out to provide.

Side by side

If it is the notation row that decided it for you, the free tier has 54 real pieces and no card.

When Synthesia is the better choice

You want to play a particular piece and you have the file. Drop it in, slow it down, learn it hands separately. That is a clean, cheap, well-executed workflow and we do not offer it.

A one-off price is the point. $39, forever, on every platform you own. Nothing in this category competes with that on cost, and subscription fatigue is a real reason to choose it.

You have a lighted keyboard. Synthesia drives the lights. We do not.

You want hands-separate practice. Synthesia does it; SightReader does not do it on repertoire, and that is a gap on our side rather than a decision.

You are not trying to learn to read. Plenty of people play well by ear and want a way to work through pieces without wrestling with a score. Falling notes are the right tool for that and there is nothing second-rate about it.

And if you want the opposite of that

If the reason you are reading this page is that you have learned a dozen pieces in Synthesia and still freeze when someone puts sheet music in front of you, the missing thing is notation under time pressure with something marking the result.

FAQs

Does Synthesia teach you to read sheet music?

Not primarily. Synthesia’s default view is falling notes — coloured bars descending onto a keyboard — with standard notation available as an option on songs that have it. You can learn a piece that way without reading the notation at all, which is what makes it accessible and also what limits it as reading practice. SightReader only ever shows you notation, because reading it under time pressure is the skill it is training.

How much does Synthesia cost compared with SightReader?

Synthesia is a one-off unlock, listed at $39 when we checked on 1 August 2026, and that covers every platform. SightReader is £5 a month or £48 a year. Over several years Synthesia is far cheaper, and if a one-time purchase is what you want, nothing here competes with it. What the subscription buys is the graded library, the assessment and the exam alignment, none of which Synthesia does.

Can Synthesia import your own music?

Yes, and it takes a wider range than we do: any standard MIDI file or MusicXML file. SightReader accepts MusicXML only. On format breadth Synthesia wins that row outright — but import is not something only Synthesia has, which is how the comparison is sometimes framed. Both products let you bring your own scores.

Does Synthesia score your playing?

It scores note accuracy against the file and can wait for the correct note before advancing, in the style of a rhythm game. What it does not do is grade your reading of notation or report timing as a separate dimension. SightReader’s Pitch & Rhythm mode gives you an on-time percentage, an early/late split and your average tendency in milliseconds, measured against a metronome grid.

Is Synthesia good for beginners?

It is very good at getting a beginner playing something quickly, because falling notes need no prior knowledge. The risk is that it can become the thing you use instead of learning to read, rather than a step towards it. If you want both, plenty of people use Synthesia for songs they want to play and something notation-based for reading practice.

How we checked

Synthesia details come from its own site, its app-store listings and its documentation, read on 1 August 2026. The price is the list price for the full unlock on that date. The argument about falling notes and reading is ours and is labelled as such rather than dressed up as a finding. Where we say a feature is absent, we looked for it on the vendor’s own pages and did not find it. SightReader figures are our own.

Elsewhere: SightReader vs flowkey, SightReader vs Piano Marvel, and the best sight-reading apps for piano.