Being a hobbyist or gigging musician in the 2020s is quite a bit different from when I learned to play a few decades ago. One big difference is that the modern first-world guitarist has access to a fair bit of helpful technology. Below are four apps I love and use regularly!
- Pro Metronome (iPhone/iOS)
- MobileSheets (Android, Windows)
- MuseScore (Linux, macOS, Windows)
- Reaper (Linux, macOS, Windows)
Pro Metronome
One of my personal guitar heroes is a fellow named Tommy Emmanuel (https://tommyemmanuel.com/). He is easily among the best known and most accomplished guitarists in the world. Despite his elite status he says he regularly practices with a metronome. Well, if it’s good enough for Mr. Emmanuel, it’s good enough for me, and it should be good enough for you too. I’ve spent most of my guitar life eschewing metronomes but since practicing with this app my playing — both solo and with the band — has definitely improved. http://eumlab.com/pro-metronome/
MobileSheets
Once upon a time musicians used to carry around three-ring binders filled with the lyric sheets and chord charts that made up their repertoire. I still have mine, though it sits rather forlornly on a shelf alongside other now-unused books like my copy of DOS for Dummies (which I loved). Instead of the binder I now carry a humble Android tablet and run MobileSheets, an outstanding application that organizes and displays digital copies of all my lyric sheets and chord charts. I’ll eventually dedicate a whole article to the awesomeness that is MobileSheets, but for the time being rest assured that if you need something that can organize your set lists and even transpose song chords with a tap or two, MobileSheets for the win. It runs on Windows and Android. https://www.zubersoft.com/mobilesheets/
MuseScore
Here on ImperfectGuitarist.com all the tablature and musical notation pieces you see were created with MuseScore. It is a free music notation program that can trade blows with the best of them (cough! Sibelius cough!). If you don’t read music but need something to help you create your own tablature, you can’t go wrong with MuseScore. Or if you want to do something significantly more involved, MuseScore is still a great bet. There is definitely a learning curve, but I’ve never regretted taking the time to learn how to get around in this great app. MuseScore is freely downloadable from http://musescore.org.
Reaper
ImperfectGuitarist.com will one day have at least one article on home recording, but some of the nuances and details that surround using an app like Reaper are far beyond the scope of this article. Suffice it to say, Reaper is among the most powerful yet most affordable DAWs (digital audio workstation) available today. I use Reaper to mix all the recordings on ImperfectGuitarist.com. Download a fully-functioning copy of Reaper from https://www.reaper.fm/.
That’s my list of a few music apps I love and use regularly. I hope you found this helpful or interesting, or maybe both! If you have any comments feel free to drop me a line at imperfectguitarist@outlook.com.
