Almost any smartphone today has an app that can replace any physical electronic devices needed for a student or professional musician. We don’t have to keep changing our 9V batteries or find an outlet to plug in our Dr. Beat or Petersons’ Strobe Tuner.
The Musician Apps I Use & Recommend
- iStroboSoft: Pro Tuning
- Evernote Scannable: Scan Music
- forScore: Sheet Music Reader
- Modacity: Pro Music Practice
- Pro Metronome : Tempo, Beat, Subdivision, & Polyrhythm
- insTuner Free – Chromatic Tuner / Drone
iStroboSoft: Pro Chromatic Tuning
One of the best and precise tuning apps is the iStroboSoft by Peterson. I highly recommend this to anyone playing at a professional level. It’s $9.99 to own the app.
Click here for more information.
Scannable: Document Scanner
I use Scannable for any sheet music or documents that need to be converted to PDF or JPEG. It’s very efficient in scanning only the document or music you have and any cropping can be made within the app.
forScore: Digital Sheet Music Reader
Shelve those 3-ring binders. Get organized. Download and play something new in seconds. With forScore, your sheet music has never been better—it’s everything you can do with paper, and so much more.
– forScore
With Scannable & forScore you can have all of your music ready to play with a touch of a button. It has helped me organize all of my teaching music and easily able to switch from an etude to a solo piece or whatever else we are working on.
Modacity: Pro Music Practice
This app allows me to keep track of different repertoire I’m working on. Other features are: record and listen back and save recordings made within the app, suggest methods to obtain certain goals, check out which pieces I haven’t practice as much, and set time limits to a list of pieces you want to work within a certain time frame.
Within this app there’s a drone and metronome you can use while you practice or have it playing while you’re recording yourself playing.
Click the “logo” for a special offer.
Pro Metronome: Tempo, Beat, Subdivision, Poly-rhythm, Rhythm Trainer
This app allows you to set different tempos and time signatures. If you upgrade to the paid version for $2.99 you get more options with their “rhythm trainer” which allows you to randomly or precisely set when to turn on and off the click. It’s a great way to test your rhythm stability.
insTuner Free: Chromatic Tuner, Drone
When we practice, it’s allows great to have a reference pitch to help us develop a solid sense of pitch. This app allows you to create a drone of any pitch. It’s great to use this app with scales and method books, which helps your ears become more aware of what’s in-tune or not.
Alden F Cohen 