Hey, music mavens and rhythm rookies! Are you ready to strum, hum, and beat your way to musical mastery, all from the cozy comfort of your smartphone? In the age of digital do-re-mis, waving goodbye to traditional music lessons doesn’t mean you have to halt your harmonic journey. From the first chord to the final note, from the draft of your debut song to its final mix, this arsenal of apps not only brings the world of music to your fingertips but also ensures your musical voyage is as enriching as it is exciting. So, grab your phone, download your new musical mentors, and let the symphony of screens begin!
Instrument Learning Apps
Ready to take on a new instrument or level up your skills? In-person lessons aren’t the only way to get personalized instruction and feedback. Mobile music lessons can be an absolute game-changer. Here are some of our favorite apps for learning instruments.
Yousician – Offers interactive lessons for guitar, piano, bass, ukulele, and singing, using real-time feedback to improve your playing skills and technique.
Simply Piano by JoyTunes – A fast and fun way to learn piano, from beginner to pro. Works with any piano or keyboard, offering courses for different musical tastes and playing levels.
Fender Play – With bite-sized lessons based on your musical taste, Fender Play makes learning guitar, bass, and ukulele easy for beginners.
Music Creation Apps
Compose from anywhere with astonishingly well-rounded in-app features. Here are some of the best music creation apps in the biz.
Steinberg Cubasis – A full-featured mobile music-making app aimed at experienced musicians, offering a large library of effects, presets, and virtual instruments.
Zenbeats by Roland – Ideal for beginners, this digital audio workstation offers a generous free version with beginner-friendly lessons.
Reason Compact – Great for beginners with intuitive touch controls, offering a free version with basic instruments and the ability to connect with its desktop counterpart for more advanced features.
Sheet Music Apps
Take your treasure maps wherever you go with apps to augment your sheet music experience.
Tomplay – Offers interactive features like automatic scrolling, annotations, tempo change, and recorded accompaniments by professional musicians.
forScore – Designed for iOS devices, it’s a PDF reader for musicians, allowing detailed annotations and organization of sheet music.
MuseScore – A free music notation app with a vast library, offering the ability to compose music and share it with the community for feedback.
Apps for Touring Musicians
Get convenient, easy tools that give your performance an edge with our favorite apps for touring musicians.
Setlist Helper – Organizes your setlists and lyrics, offering hands-free mode for scrolling lyrics during live performances.
Jammcard – The “LinkedIn for musicians,” facilitating collaboration and networking within the music industry.
Mixing Station – A remote control app for digital mixers, crucial for personal in-ear monitor mixing during live performances.
Songwriting Assistance
Find the right word or the perfect chord to unstuck your songwriting prowess!
Rhymer’s Block – Suggests rhymes as you type, ideal for lyric writing.
RhymeZone – A comprehensive tool for finding rhymes, synonyms, and more.
Suggester – Helps songwriters choose chords that work well together, useful for those with limited music theory knowledge to sound their best.
Best Tuner and Metronome Apps
Keep a tuner and the beat everywhere you go with our top tuner and metronome apps.
The Metronome by Soundbrenner: This app goes beyond just a basic tuner, providing a chromatic tuner, metronome, practice tracking abilities, and setlist libraries. Its precision is noted down to 1/100th of a cent, ensuring you’re always in tune.
TonalEnergy: Known as the “Swiss Army Knife” of tuning apps, TonalEnergy includes a tuner, metronome, drone, and recording features, which can all be used simultaneously. This app is a treasure for musicians aiming for perfection.
Metronomerous – pro metronome: An advanced option for Android, especially useful for drummers or musicians focusing on complicated rhythm sections. It offers comprehensive features for setting tempo, subdivisions, and accents.
And there you have it, folks – your digital key to unlocking the music maestro within. Whether you’re a beginner looking to chart your course in the vast ocean of notes or a seasoned musician aiming to fine-tune your skills, these apps are your steadfast companions on the musical journey.