Our last feature in “Product Spotlight Week” are Apps for your iDevices. These are hand-picked selections from the Brookline Music School Guitar staff. Enjoy!
iRealBook: 
iReal Book is an app for iPhone, iPod Touch, iPad and Android that contains a collection of hundreds of chord charts of jazz standards, jazz classics, latin, brazilian, pop classics and more.
TabToolKit:
TabToolkit for iPad, iPhone and iPod touch is an incredibly powerful music notation viewer with multi-track audio playback. The app includes an audio synthesis engine that enables you to listen to and control the audio for all instrument tracks individually. TabToolkit makes learning how to play your favorite songs on guitar, bass, keyboard, drums and other instruments easier and more fun.
Subdivide:
- Crisp, loud sounds.
- Highly accurate time.
- Brilliant tempo and subdivision indicators.
- Set the volume on many different subdivisions.
- “Tap Tempo” feature.
- Mixed meter support (3+4, 2+3, etc).
- Save your own presets.
- Simple, intuitive interface.
AmpliTube:
AmpliTube iRig is a combination of an easy-to-use instrument interface adapter and guitar and bass tone mobile software.
With AmpliTube iRig, you can plug your guitar into your iPhone/iPod touch/iPad and jam anywhere with world class guitar and bass tone right in the palm of your hand – from the leader in studio-class guitar and bass software.
Simply plug the iRig interface into your mobile device, plug your instrument into the appropriate input jack, plug in your headphones, amp or powered speakers, download ‘AmpliTube FREE’ version for iPhone or for iPad, and start rocking!
You’ll have at your fingertips the sound and control up to 4 recombinable simultaneous stompbox effects + amplifier + cabinet + microphone just like a traditional guitar or bass stage rig!
Add amps and effects as you need them — you can expand your rig with up to 11 stomps, 5 amps, 5 cabinets and 2 microphones in the AmpliTube iRig app custom shop.
iStrobeSoft:
Peterson Strobe Tuner’s popular StroboSoft tuning application for the iPod touch and iPhone. iStroboSoft™ offers the unmatched accuracy of a mechanical strobe tuner for the highest degree of precision available in a software tuning application.
Plug in and tune your electrics and acoustics quickly and easily with 1/10th cent accuracy. (External mic required for iPod touch.)
Peterson Tuners has offered tuning solutions for over 60 years and is the only company specializing in hardware and software tuning products for all levels of musicians.
The Amazing Slow Downer:
If you’re a musician who likes to learn new songs and techniques by listening to the same piece of music over and over but wish that the music could be played a little slower, then you’ll enjoy Amazing Slow Downer for iPhone and iPod touch.
You can repeat any section of the music at full speed, slow it down or even speed it up by changing the speed between 33% (1/3 of original speed) and 200% (double speed) without changing the pitch!
Change the tuning or musical key? No problem, Amazing Slow Downer handles that as well.
Setup seamless loops by touching the “Set” buttons during playback.
Amazing Slow Downer is the ideal tool for an musician, transcriber or dancer wanting to improve their skills.
PolyRhythm:
PolyRhythm was developed for all professional musicians, regardless of
instrument, whether composing, performing or conducting!
The app produces the most common rhythmic overlays (such as 5:3) using two different clicks accompanied by a display of the score.
Available rhythmic overlays range from 3:2 to 13:4 on a systematic basis with adapted speeds for best study results.
“PolyRhythm, your special metronome for complex rhythmic structures!” – Wolfram Winkel, author and co-developer, lecturer for rhythm and percussion at the University of Music and Performing Arts Munich
Playing By Ear:
Play By Ear is a (FREE!) musical ear training application that helps you develop the ability to hear pitches and play them back on your instrument by ear. Rather than force you to press buttons to indicate the notes you’ve heard, Play By Ear uses pitch recognition so you can play the notes back on your instrument (piano, guitar, trumpet, etc). Using your instrument to play the notes allows you to develop your ear training skills in a method that most closely matches how you’ll actually play music. Regardless of your current skill level, Play By Ear’s customizable interval, chord, and melody exercises can help you to improve your ability to play by ear.
Do Re Mi Ear Training:
A Solfège practice partner on your iPhone! Do Re Mi Ear Training helps you develop pitch recognition, memory, and transcription ability by playing musical phrases for you to repeat back.
Unlike other ear training apps, Do Re Mi doesn’t just play simple intervals or one note at a time, but lets you choose the length of the tune you want to practice on. Progress through 50 ascending skill levels, or choose your own custom practice settings!
Perfect for music students or musicians who want to take advantage of spare moments to brush up on their music theory or transcription skills.
Do Re Mi has tons of customizable settings that let you work on intervals, relative pitch, perfect pitch, and use a variety of notation types to fit the standards at your school. Also control tune length, speed, scale (including all standard modes), and more!
Guitar Toolkit:
Essential guitar utilities, including an amazingly accurate tuner and a library of over 500,000 chords, all on your iPhone or iPod touch. One of the highest rated applications in the App Store.
FEATURES
- Direct support for 6- and 12-string guitar, 4-, 5- and 6-string bass, banjo, mandolin, and ukulele with a full chord library, standard and alternate tunings for each instrument.
- Highly accurate chromatic tuner using the iPhone microphone (or iPod touch with microphone headset).
- Precisely accurate metronome with avisible flash option, tempo tap pad, 13 sound effects and 12 time signatures.
- Massive chord library (over 500,000 chords) for quick and easy reference: strum chords to hear what they sound like. Includes chords for alternate tunings.
- Chord finder: simply touch the notes on the fretboard that make up a chord, and GuitarToolkit tells you what that chord is! This is a lot of fun and a great way to learn about those great-sounding chords you’ve been playing.
- Scales references in standard or alternate tunings: use the interactive fretboard to touch each note and hear what it sounds like.
- Supports “lefty mode” which adjusts chords and scales to reflect a left-handed instrument.
Celebrating our favorite six-stringed instrument, the Brookline Music School honors the Guitar with a month of fun and free activities.