Welcome to the age of technology, where almost anything and everything “musical” can be achieved just by the snap of your fingers. In this modern age, the internet is everything, especially now that you can have the internet right in your mobile device; the possibilities that you can achieve with this is limitless!
Every musician in this day and time should have a working/sound device (smartphone, tablet, laptop, PC etc) which is internet-enabled of course! Creating music, learning, recording, fine-tuning etc has become much more easier to do than it was before through the help of apps installed on mobile phones and other devices. Some apps come with a price, others come with a period of free trial, after which you pay for it, while some others are completely free! (for those of us who cannot afford to pay for a mobile app or who do not just like the idea of paying for an app….or those who just like free stuff!) Let’s have a look at 10 free, easy-to-use, go-to apps that I’ll personally recommend to musicians for Android and iOS.
The Metronome by Soundbrenner – iOS and Android
This app is fantastic and is suitable for all musicians; guitar, drums, piano and even vocalists. Learn how to play and sing on rhythm with this app. This app is easy to use, enables you to create rhythm, save rhythm presets and create setlists, it has over 20 inbuilt sounds to choose from, a light and dark theme to switch from; for those who have light-sensitive eyes, also supports MIDI and Ableton link.
GarageBand – iOS
This is a free app for iOS users only, it converts your device into a mini recording studio. It enables you to record directly from your phone with lots of instruments included in the app. It has a Multi-Touch keyboard that enables you to play instruments like the piano, guitar, ukulele etc directly on your phone. It also features live loops and sound packs that make you mix music like a professional, you can also listen to your work after you’re done and share with others or on other platforms.
Songwriter’s Pad – iOS and Android
This is another great app for iOS and Android and is a ‘must-have app’ for songwriters and musicians generally, it makes your songwriting activity well ordered and arranged. The app has great features which allows you to write down your lyrics as instantly as you get it in your head, it also has the ‘get ideas’ button which includes words, rhymes and a dictionary that eases the use of complex words and helps to combat writer’s block. You can also fill in the chords of the lyrics of the song as you write along.
Yousician – iOS and Android
Yousician grants you access to learn how to play the guitar, piano, ukulele and bass guitar conveniently and at your own pace. The app listens to you when you play and then gives you instant feedback on your playing to help you improve; more like a digital real life tutor. It makes learning the instrument fun by bringing up songs you love for you to learn with and learning to play your own style/genre of music, it also tracks your day-to-day goals and helps you achieve them.
Perfect Ear – iOS and Android
Perfect ear is an ear training app, not only that, it helps you to master intervals, chords and scales perfectly. It also has interval and rhythm exercises, scale identification, sight reading, pitch trainers, guitar trainers, fretboard trainer and a corner for music theory. It’s your perfect app to develop your musical skills and it’s available for iOS and Android users.
Vocaberry – iOS and Android
You can learn to sing in tune with the vocaberry app by taking singing lessons as well as hints and guidelines to make you a better singer. There are different songs with different levels of difficulty and you’ll be required to sing along and keep up, you’re rated and scored on your pitch and timing, you also get points for hitting notes. You can track your progress Vocal warm ups and karaoke sessions are also available offline on this app. This is your go-to app if you want to be a pro singer.
HumOn – iOS and Android
This is one simple music creating app that believes that everyone can make music. It allows you to just simply hum into your phone, pick your genre of music, and the app does the rest by transforming it into a whole musical piece. You can arrange and edit the notes and lyrics of the song, you can also add a rap or an additional lyrics on top of the one that you’ve already created. You can save your work as an mp3 file and even share it to YouTube or other platforms.
SmartChord – Android
This is a very rich app that all musicians especially guitarists and other stringed instrument players would find useful and helpful; there are more than 15 tools on this app. From chords, to chord progression, to chord names, to arpeggios, to scales, to circle of fifths! There is a metronome, a tuner, ear training options, song book (which enables you download sheet music for almost sall songs available online), tone generator and instruments. There is even a transposer so you can transpose any piece of music to any key of your choice. The SmartChord app is your all-in-one app as a musician.
Backtrackit – iOS and Android
Backtrackit is the app that helps you learn how to play songs, create backing tracks with live chord progressionns to play and sing along to. It also has features like looping, metronome, EQ and key/Bpm control. Music tools are available to help you practice like singing exercises, guitar and piano scales and chords etc. It breaks down music, shows you what key the song is played on and shows you the chord(s) that was played there. It allows you slow down specific sections of the song so you can hear it well and undrstand it better especially if you’re trying to master a chord or riff, it also enables you to remove the vocals or lead instrument in a song and replace it with your own recorded or played performance.
Remixlive – iOS and Android
This is an amazing app with over 26,000 sounds to play with; it enables you mix effects, beats, loops and samples, you can import and edit your samples, play with drums and keyboard, arrange your work on the timeline and get updated about new content weekly. When you’re done, you can save your work as an mp3 file and upload to SoundCloud or save on your device.
