Free iPad Music Apps For Teachers – Part 1

19 Free iPad Apps for Musical Creativity: Play, Improvise and Record Music

Really, there are so many apps available it can be hard to know where to begin and once you find something that looks useful, it’s difficult to assess it properly until you’ve download and installed it on your iPad. iPad music apps that are free can take away the risk of choosing a dud and they can be useful when book-listing apps for students on a tight budget.

Over time, I’ve collected quite a number of free apps on my iPad. Generally speaking, paid apps are nearly always better – they are ad-free, there are fewer necessary in-app purchases to make the app functional, there are more features and they’re better-supported (something that’s often overlooked when deciding between free vs paid).

The following list of apps fall into the “creativity” category. This is the first post in a 5-part series – there were simply too many to list in a single post! The five parts are as follows:

• Part 2 – 14 Free iPad Apps: Play A Musical Instrument
• Part 3 – 7+ Free Apps for Discovering The Orchestra
• Part 4 – 28 Free Music Toolkit Apps for Teachers
• Part 5 – 8 Free iPad Apps for Ear-Training and Literacy (coming soon)

Hokusai

• “Audacity for iPad”
• Record, edit, trim, fade in/out, cut copy paste
• Links with Dropbox

Soundcloud

• Record, share and discover music

Loopesque Lite

• 32-step circle sequencer
• Create beats and patterns
• Arrange music
• Upgrade to the paid version to save and export projects

Mugician

Synthesiser with a layout that’s ideal for guitarists.

Groovemaker Free

Remix loops in real-time

Create electronic, dance and hip-hop tracks

Sounddrop

Music and physics combine

Draw lines on the screen and watch/listen to the balls as they bounce off each line

Pattern Music

Create your own loops and patterns

Variety of instrument sounds

Each loop is created via a tone matrix grid

Jampad Plus

Play and record keyboard

Drum patterns

Soundprism

Create melodies and chords

Includes recording function

Falling Stars

Similar to Soundrop, but more advanced

Create music by dropping “stars” on to leaves and other plants that you draw on the screen with your finger

Good variety of sounds

Can have multiple stars falling at once and you can adjust their speed

Up to four projects can be saved

Finger Stomp Lite

The lite version of Finger Stomp

No export of recordings, less flexibility

S4 Rhythm Composer

Drum pattern sequencer

Can export as WAV file

Pocket Wavepad HD

Cube Jam

Import songs from your music library

Play along, improvise, record a solo, adjust tempo and pitch

Export your own mix

Especially for younger students

Loopesque Kids

Improvise musical patterns with gorgeous graphics

Monkey Drum Free

Create, play and remix rhythms

Arpie

Nice little app, but limited since you can’t save or export your creations

Good for discussing pitch, speed and gravity!

Dropophone

Create loops with “drip-drop” sounds

Another one with very limited use

Singing Fingers

Sing or play while you draw on your iPad screen, then run your finger over the drawing to hear your performance

Lots of uses in the music classroom

Article by a music teacher who uses Singing Fingers with her students

Singing Fingers Youtube video: