5 Essential Apps For Musicians

“There’s an app for that,” is such a common phrase uttered in our society today that I’m surprised I still have to do things like vacuum my floors or grocery shop without the assistance of my smart phone. Actually, I’m sure there is an app to aid in both of those tasks in some way. I have an app for bills, budgeting, crafts, planning, productivity, and even my favorite beer. There is an app for every responsibility, interest, and hobby.

For musicians the rule isn’t any different. There are a ton of different apps to help make life easier for musicians, but some are better than others.

1. GarageBand

GarageBand has been described as the holy grail of musical apps for musicians. It allows musicians to play, mix, and record songs in a few easy taps. This app allows you to create music without actually having an instrument, or you can plug in your own instrumentals. Once you’ve created your music, you can easily share it on a variety of different platforms. This is a great app for both beginners and seasoned musicians because of the many options and usability of the program. Unfortunately, this application was created by Apple and, therefore, is only available for iPhone users and is $4.99.

 

2. Guitar Tuna

Guitar Tuna is a free tuning app for both iPhone and Android phones. This works for a variety of different string instruments including both electric and acoustic guitars, ukuleles, cellos, and banjos, among others. It was over 100 tunings available including standard, drop-D, 12-string, and others. Out of the many tuning apps available for download, this one is the best because of the price (hard to beat free) and its overall positive ratings. It works well in noisy areas and you can choose your own headstock visual to make it more personal. Just be sure to watch a tutorial before venturing out on your own with this app so you don’t snap a string.

 

3. Spotify

Spotify is one of the best music streaming apps available for both iPhone and Android today. This app is not specific to musicians, of course, but is widely revered as the superior music streaming sites. Unlike other radio apps, Spotify has playlists that remain unchanged as opposed to genre or artist stations that are always changing. Spotify also has playlists based on genres, mood, and artists. They have sleep playlists, workout playlists, and focus playlists to aid in everyday life. Musicians can discover other music or listen to a certain playlist for inspiration using Spotify. This app has a free version with ads but offers a paid ad-free version as well.

 

4. SoundCloud

SoundCloud is a great app for budding artists and established artists alike. This great app allows new artists to upload and easily share their music and also allows established artists to discover fun, new music in their genre. For music fans SoundCloud is a great way to discover new music and support small bands or local music. For artists downloading their music to SoundCloud, your music can be easily shared onto your social media accounts for your fans. In 2014, an average of 12 hours of audio was uploaded to SoundCloud every minute. Fans are able to “like,” “follow,” and “share” different artists and songs to their social media pages to help engage with artists with listeners and is available for both iPhone and Android.

 

5. ForScore

ForScore is a music app that isn’t quite as well known as the others, but still a highly valuable tool for any musician. This app basically makes it so you can keep your sheet music with you wherever you go. It has a really simple format that’s easy to use and allows you to upload virtually any PDF. It also holds a large library of sheet music for you to have at all times. You can annotate, edit, and adjust formatting within the app. This is great for all kinds of musicians and is highly user friendly. In order to use, you should have the updated iOS operating system. For the best quality, make sure your phone has retina HD display included in the iPhone 6 and up. Unfortunately it is not available for Android and the mini version for iPhone is $6.99 and the full version is $9.99.

These must-have apps are all the best out there for musicians and rated highly by other musicians. They grasp onto a few different types of tasks that musicians commonly need to complete including music creation, tuning, listening, sharing, and playing. With each of these apps, they take this task and find a way to make it a little easier for the musician. So next time you see a friend having issues tuning their guitar, you can say, “hey, there’s an app for that.”