Apps for Musicians - Part Two

Welcome to Part Two of the Apps for Musicians posts! Part One focused more on apps that replaced devices that you may have once carried separately, so consider the following as bonus resources, rather than device replacements.

Fingering charts
Fingering (Patrick Q. Kelly - AppStore) - $7.99
If you take band or orchestra, have to deal with teaching other instruments or simply have an interest in learning other instruments (guilty as charged), this is a brilliant app. While not 100% accurate, it offers fingerings for woodwind and brass instruments, including alternatives and trills. If you have time and access to a computer, I highly recommend  http://www.wfg.woodwind.org/, but in lessons/rehearsals/on the run, this is ideal. It is sometimes awkward to make the note slide to the chromatic pitches (it's a sensitive sideways motion), but you get better at it the more you use the app. I believe the app is also available in reduced form for a lower price, by separating out the woodwind and brass fingerings into different apps if you only need one or the other, and he also has a string fingering app.


                                                 
Woodwind Fingering Chart (Adam Foster - Google Play Store) - FREE
This is not nearly as pretty as the AppStore app, and still appears to be in the developmental stages, but if it's free, it's hard to complain. It only includes flute and clarinet fingerings at this stage. It is not explicitly clear where each of the keys are unless you are familiar with the instrument in question (and the app got poor reviews from beginner instrumentalists for this reason).
There are also numerous free apps in the Google Play Store from Joseph Pavlick, and in the AppStore by Obie Leff. They are available on a per instrument basis, and look fairly clearly formatted. I haven't tried them for accuracy myself, but feel free to check them out!                                        



Music terms
Music Dictionary (Tomsoft - AppStore) - $4.99
I am yet to find a music term that has been discovered in a piece of music that hasn't been listed here. Easy to use scrolling interface. There are a couple of music dictionary apps for Android, but this one is so good I haven't worried about trying them yet. When I do, I'll let you know!


IMSLP/Petrucci Music Library
iClassical Scores (AppStore) - $1.99
IMSLPDroid (Google Play Store) - FREE
IMSLP is one of the most amazing resources for classical musicians on the interwebs at the moment. It is an insanely huge database of public domain music which has been scanned and uploaded to the website. You can search for works and download the PDF to the app for future reference. This app is best suited to a tablet due to the need to read music from it, but if you interested in searching on the run, it is still a valuable resource. I have used the Android version of this app, but my best guess is that the Apple version works in much the same way. You may find it useful to get yourself acquainted with the website itself, if you haven't already, before using the app, but it isn't necessary. You will need data access (3G/4G or WiFi) for this app.

Listening
Spotify (Spotify Ltd - AppStore and Google Play Store) - FREE+
Spotify is an amazing resource for recordings of all genres. The app itself is free, but unless you have access to a computer, you will need to sign up for a membership (monthly fee). The reason for this is that Spotify does not offer selective streaming to mobile devices, so unless you create playlists from your computer and listen to those on your mobile device (which you can do with a free membership) you will need to subscribe. Spotify is basically a database of albums, and there is a ton of classical music on there, usually several (or hundreds, if we are talking Beethoven symphonies) recordings of a single work. You can create playlists, which you can download to a mobile device for offline listening, and you can share with friends and through Facebook. If you are at the stage of analysing the nuances between different interpretations of a work, this is one way to access them without having to pay for them individually. You will need data access (3G/4G or WiFi) for this app.

Cloud storage
Google Drive (Google - AppStore and Google Play Store) - FREE
If you are already a cloud storage user, insert your preferred provider above. If not, and you already have a Google account (which you need to set up an Android device), Google Drive is easy to use and accessible from a range of sources. The app is available for both Apple and Android users. You will need data access (3G/4G or WiFi) for this app.

'Er, what does this have to do with music?' you may ask. Directly, nothing. But I use my Drive for many music and teaching related purposes. If you don't know what cloud storage is, the short answer is that it is data storage available to you that lives in cyberspace instead of taking up physical memory on your computer. Google Drive is also a word processor and spreadsheet creator, which was actually its function before it expanded to become general storage. Cool, huh?

I use my Drive to:
*Store worksheets for students (in PDF format)
*Store scanned sheet music so I don't have to carry books
*Store mp3s so they don't take up physical room on my device
*Share the above with students and teachers
*Keep teaching records (for students, Drive is great for keeping practice records)
*Keep lists of repertoire
*Maintain collaborative documents with teachers and students
*Back up resources I keep on my computer (such as student records, PDFs and Sibelius files)

Google gives you 5GB of storage for nothing, and you can upgrade for a fee if you need more.

There are many more examples of all of these apps, but these are the ones I have used successfully in my teaching and my own practice. If you know of others that are as valuable as these or you'd like to see apps from a category I may have missed, let me know, and there may be a sequel!