This week I've chosen an app that I use in teaching pretty much every single day. There are many metronome apps out there but I have found this to be simple and effective and importantly, it's free! It covers all the common time signatures - 4/4, 2/4, 3/4, 6/8 etc; has an aural and visual emphasis on Beat 1 and also contains a "tap tempo" function. This is really useful if you're trying to calculate the speed of a song or note down a comfortable tempo when you're just starting out with your time-keeping.

Download Steinway Metronome here

Over the past few years, my iPad has become a key tool in my teaching. I thought I'd list a few iOS apps that I find helpful.


1. insTuner Free (£free)

This comes in a free version and a full version which includes a tone generator. Nice GUI, simple layout, accurate tuner of any instrument, with a fine-tuning mode where you can really refine your tuning and check the intonation of your instruments. That can be particularly helpful on cheaper ukuleles which often suffer from poor intonation.



2. Steinway Metronome: (free)

This is an excellent free metronome App with plenty of time-signatures, an emphasis on Beat 1 and a tap tempo function. This can be useful if you want to calculate the tempo of a song you are learning.



3. Rhythm Calculator (£2.29)

With this App you can enter any section of rhythm in any time signature at any tempo, and it will play it back to you. It is laid out in a similar way to a mathematical calculator and is intuitive and easy to understand. Helpful if you are trying to work out a tricky rhythm in an exam piece, for instance.



4. Tenuto (£2.99)

This App contains a series of music education games, testing your music theory and Aural knowledge. The great thing about this App is that all the games are fully customisable so you can alter them drastically for each pupil at any level of ability. 



5. Staff Wars (£2.29)

A brilliant way that young students can learn the notes on the stave by playing a simple Space Invaders style game. I have found it particularly useful in schools where you can create a full class scoreboard, encouraging some healthy competition between classmates.



There are many other great Apps available for music education but these simple utilities are probably my most used in an average instrumental lesson!