Which Levels of Chord Nebula Are Free and What Do Paid Levels Add?

Levels 1–3 of Chord Nebula are free and cover scale notes and basic chords. Levels 4–8 are unlocked with a one-time purchase made from the setup screen, and they add note ordering, root-in-bass voicings, seventh chords, and more. No subscription is mentioned for level access — the site's Subscribe section is a mailing list for release updates, not a paywall for content.

What the free levels cover

The free tier is not a demo that cuts off mid-concept. It maps to the first two stages of how the game teaches:

• Scale notes, one at a time — you play the individual notes of a chosen key until the shape of the scale is under your fingers.
• Basic chords built on those notes — how each chord is stacked, what it is called, and which scale degree it belongs to.

If your goal is to stop hunting for notes and start recognizing the chords that live inside a key, levels 1–3 are the part that does that work.

What the paid levels add

The progression is deliberate: the free levels give you the raw materials (notes and chords), and the paid levels move toward how those materials are actually used — ordering notes, changing which note sits in the bass, and extending chords into sevenths. The site describes the final and most important stage as drilling common progressions across keys, scales, and genres until moving between chords "stops being a calculation and becomes something you hear."

How to unlock the paid levels

1. Connect a MIDI keyboard (or a MIDI-capable app on your phone) and select it from the device list.
2. Pick your genre, scale, and key from the setup screen.
3. Choose a level from 4–8. The unlock is a one-time purchase initiated from that same setup screen.

You do not need to buy anything to evaluate the teaching style — play levels 1–3 first and judge whether the note-name fade-out and increasing pace suit you.

Deciding whether to pay

• Stay free if you are new to the keyboard and still building scale and basic-chord fluency. Levels 1–3 cover exactly that ground.
• Consider the one-time purchase if you already know your scales and basic chords and want the game to push you into voicings and seventh chords — the material that separates "I can name this chord" from "I can move through it in real music."
• Check your hardware first. The game requires a MIDI keyboard or a MIDI-capable app; without one, no level is playable regardless of tier.

One thing the site does not state: the price of the one-time purchase. It is described only as a purchase from the setup screen, so treat cost as something to confirm at the point of unlock rather than assume.