You can use forScore to display all types of written music, from traditional piano or c-instrument sheet music to chords and lyrics. The app comes with a fair bit of classical music, and you can buy additional music packs. The true power is in importing music into forScore, which means you can scan your sheet music collection and display it on the iPad screen in an organized fashion. Because the forScore app has a metronome that can scroll your music automatically, the app can make it even easier to play. This makes it one of the best apps in the App Store for musicians, whether performing or simply aspiring to perform. The biggest strength of OnSong Pro is the editor and markup language that can make writing a song fairly easy. Each song starts out with some metadata, which are lines of text that contain the song’s title and information about the song. The bulk of the text is dedicated to the music, which is laid out in the standard intro, verse, pre-chorus, chorus format. One cool aspect of the OnSong Pro editor is doing away with the need to repeat anything. OnSong Pro includes a Flow feature that allows you to arrange sections in order without repeating the text. Another cool feature of the markup language is how it deals with chords. Instead of marking the chord above the lyric, you notate it within the lyrics. You can then choose how you want the chords displayed. OnSong Pro even displays editable chord charts to help you out when playing the song. OnSong Pro also includes performance tools such as a metronome, support for playing backing tracks, the ability to use a foot pedal to scroll through the music, among other nice additions. While not as stage-friendly as forScore or OnSong, it is a perfect fit for those who want to get serious about writing music. Notion can handle tasks like transposing into a different key, importing MIDI files, handwriting recognition for composing with a stylus, and support for chord, tab, and full music notation. The breakdown of the song into parts can sometimes make the musician’s job a little tougher. Often, tablature combines some of what the rhythm guitar with the signature lead licks to give you a single instrument interpretation of the song. But with the individual tracks isolated into their own tab, you can break down the song and decide how to put it together. Although Songsterr is available as an app, the Songster website provides a better value for those who aren’t interested in paying a monthly subscription fee. You are able to view the tablature and hear the playback without a subscription on the website. If you want to use Songsterr to learn songs, you may want to switch to the app and pay the monthly fee for extra features like half-speed mode, loop mode, offline mode, and the ability to use apps like AmpliTube for a mobile practice studio while you learn the song. The library isn’t quite as extensive as the one found in Songster, and you won’t get all the bells and whistles. Still, if you want a way to kickstart learning that song, GuitarTab on the iPad is a great alternative to apps like Tabs and Chords or Tab Pro that force you into an expensive subscription service. GuitarTab also offers in-app extensions that allow you to remove the ads, print the music, transpose to a different key, among other neat features, but the ads aren’t as intrusive as most guitar-oriented websites, and the basics of looking up and playing tab won’t cost you a dime. MusicNotes is the iBooks of sheet music. It stores your music, and it helps you learn it. You can play the music and slow down the beats per minute to make learning it easier. MusicNotes supports traditional sheet music, c-instrument or lyrics/chords music notation, and tablature. The app comes with a half dozen songs as examples. If you want to build your library, create an account on the MusicNotes website.
