Recommended “APPs”

For very young pianists (age 4-6):

Music for Little Mozarts. This introduces high/low, going up/down, names of keys on the piano. This is best for total beginners!

KinderBach. Intro to the keyboard. Large-scale graphics are easy to read.

Jellybean Tunes. Cute intro to the music staff, notes and the keyboard. The script is shown on screen and spoken - great for children who aren’t reading fluently yet.

Morton Sobotnik’s Pitch Painter.

Isle of Tune.

A Duck in New York City. This is actually a book that is an interactive app. Children love the story about a duck who dreams of leaving the prairie to have a career dancing on Broadway!

Note Reading APPs:

SightReadPlus. This might be the VERY BEST sight-reading app on the market for beginners...plus, it’s FUN!

SightRead Minor. This was made by the same company that made SightReadPlus. It’s terrific. That’s enough to say!

Flash Note Derby. Very fun APP that shows a horse-race (or a reindeer race at Christmas time) as the student names the notes. Includes video lessons about note-reading.

Music Flash Class. Versatile flashcard APP that allows the user to customize which notes will be ‘quizzed.’ This is a GREAT APP!

Music Tutor. Simple, no-frills, flashcard APP.

Piano Notes Pro. Supports multiple users. Keeps a leader board of high scores. User is presented with several notes on a staff and he/she needs to play them on a keyboard. The only downfall: The keyboard has VERY narrow keys.

Smart Music. Highly recommended, versatile sight-reading and play/sing-a-long app. I strongly encourage all vocal students at the middle and high school levels to buy a student subscription to this software. It can be used on iPad or on any computer.

Rhythm Reading APPs:

My Rhythm. Comprehensive rhythm APP. This is not for young students. It goes to a ver complex level of rhythm-reading. This is a great APP for a student preparing for ABRSM or TAP at Level 4 and above or for students preparing for college admission.

Read Rhythm. Versatile APP. It’s very user-friendly and all settings can be adjusted. Each exercise is tapped three times in a row. The score is the total of the three times. Student gets a % score and shows their avg deviation from the correct rhythm. Each note is also scored and shows if it was on time, early, or late.

Rhythm Lab. Versatile rhythm-reading APP. This is great for students at all levels. It’s user-friendly!

Theory APPs:

Theory Lessons. This literally walks a user through all the basics of music literacy, from how to read the staff to chord progressions, inversions, and orchestration of chords. There are no exercises. It’s simply a knowledge base. This is great for parents who want to learn a bit of music knowledge to help their children in lessons.

Tenuto. This app has a bit of everything! It’s fully customizable. It is a great app for the serious music student and a great refresher for students before auditions and college placement exams.

Ear Trainer Lite. Great app for working on intervals, chords and scales. This is perfect for students preparing for auditions or college placement exams.

Ear Training APPs:

Blob Chorus. This is a very silly app that is completely addictive and FUN! Match the sound you hear to the correct blob.

Composition APPs:

Notion. This is similar to Finale and Sibelius on the computer, but more watered-down. You can transfer files back and forth to either of the computer programs by saving as MUSIC XML.

Symphony Pro. This is lower cost than Notion, but doesn’t have as many features.

Garage Band. This is now available on all i-devices and computers and is well worth the price. The possibilities are endless in this app!

Notate Me. Write your music on the ipad using your FINGER and have it turned into a digital file/music score file. This app has handwriting recognition!

Play-along/Sing-along APPs:

PianoMaestro. Students LOVE this app, which features music scrolling across the page, a cool character cheering them on, and great background music. Students get to play a lot of cool pop music in this one!

Funk Box. This is a vintage drum machine that could be used to play along with any of the songs. It is a great replacement for a metronome ! Students love this APP!

Home Concert Xtreme. This is the ultimate play-along APP. Don’t let its $39 price deter you. This is one of the best apps ever made for piano students. You can upload any standard MIDI file to this APP, which is then displayed ON SCREEN, and the student can play along. If you are plugged into a digital piano, HCX will actually follow you in terms of tempo, dynamics and such. I use this with students a lot during lessons, so all of my students are already familiar with the APP. This program is also available for MAC or PC from www.zenph.com

Yamaha Note Star. Very cool app to play along with some of your favorite pop tunes. The songs are available for a fee as an in-app purchase.

Jammit. Ridiculously cool app for playing along with your favorite popular tunes!

Smart Music. This might be the greatest thing since sliced gluten-free bread! Smart Music has a multitude of embedded method books, repertoire, and much more for all isntruments and voice. Their piano repertoire is extremely limited, but this is a great app for vocalists and instrumentalists other than pianists. It has a yearly subscription fee per student and can be used on iPad or any computer. (Software installation required on a computer.)

Metronome APPs:

Pro Metronome. This has a great ‘look’ on the screen and students find it easy to change the tempo, time signature, and more.

Speak Beat. This might very well be the BEST METRONOME EVER, since it COUNTS OUT LOUD for you :) This only works on iPod and iPhone.

Music Viewing/Storage of Digital Music Files:

Music Notes. This app will sync all of your purchased and free music from www.musicnotes.com and will transpose the pieces with the touch of a button.

MusicPad. This is the app that goes with www.OnlineSheetMusic.com website

forScore. This is a useful app for viewing/storing your digital music files. It works in conjunction with the air turn pedal, as well.

unReal Book. Another great way to organize and store your digital music files.

piaScore. This is a great app for storing digital files and might be the ONLY app that allows you to turn pages with the nod of a head or wave of a hand!

Other Useful APPs:

Pianist. This is a piano for your i-device. This is very useful for singers who need to warm up before an audition and have no access to a piano!

HanonPlus. A fun play-along app of all of the famous exercises and etudes by Hanon.

Puffin Web Browser. This is a ‘browser’ that you can use to play games on FLASH websites, such as MusicLearningCommunity.com, on your iPad. (Usually, iPads cannot play FLASH games.)

The Orchestra. This is one of the most beautiful and comprehensive APPs available to music teachers and parents! Introduce your students and children to all of the instruments of the orchestra.

iMazing. This is software for your mac or PC that will allow you to keep your i-devices organized. Easily synch files and keep them organized in the folders you’d like. Unlike iTunes, it works easily for simultaneous file transfers!