One of my very best friends in the whole world will begin her first teaching position at a high school in Green Bay, Wisconsin in a few weeks teaching band and choir as well as teaching at a few K-8 schools in the area. The school has given her an iPad to use in the classroom and she asked me for my favorite music education apps! So here we go!

Apps for Teaching

forScore  $6.99

forScore is a powerful music-reading app that allows musicians to annotate, record, rehearse, and share their scores in performance and rehearsals. It’s a wonderful app that I used throughout student teaching and I think it really helps with managing scores!

unrealbook $4.99

I haven’t used unrealBook, but it offers some features that my current favorite doesn’t that might be of use to you! The biggest one could be very useful in 1-to-1 classrooms where the teacher’s iPad could be established as the host iPad and all of your page turns and annotations are pushed instantly to every students device! What a great way to teach students how to prepare a score for performance!?

APS Tuning Trainer $2.99

This app has some of the most potential for success with students in middle school and high school in promoting careful listening and pitch sensitivity. It plays a note and then another note within a specified range away and you simply tell it whether the note is sharp or flat. The app gives suggestions for a training system to improve your intonation in 4 weeks! I think I’ll start tomorrow!

smart music free with subscription

You know all about Smart Music on the computer, but MakeMusic is working hard to bring our favorite music practice and assessment tool to mobile devices. I for one would have loved to used the mobile version when struggling through the french horn unit of my Brass Techniques class!

garage band $4.99

‘Nuff said!

Apps for the Teacher

While all the above apps are great for teaching and making the most out of student’s access to technology, there are a ton of apps to help teachers better improve the quality of their instruction!

twitter

No. Really. Twitter is my first stop for all things Professional Development. Whether it’s checking in with my favorite education tags  (#musedchat #edchat #ipaded) or looking for the latest news on the Common Arts Standards, Twitter is the best place to go! Currently, I’m using Twitterrific which is currently 50% off in the App Store, but really any twitter client will do! Just make sure to take advantage of the power of tracking tags and building your Personal Learning Network!

Feedly

Sometimes, teachers have a lot more to say than just 140 characters. Find tons of blogs to follow and keep up with them easily using Feedly, a great replacement for the now defunct Google Reader.

Apple TV or Airserver

Not an app, but still a really important part of using the iPad in the classroom. Unless you want to be tethered to the wall (you don’t), you’re going to need a way to let your iPad communicate with the projector. Apple TV works seamlessly, but my favorite is AirServer, which I’ve tried out, but not used on a consistent basis. AirServer provides all of the features of Apple TV (mirroring, audio, video, etc.) and adds some features Apple TV doesn’t include and is perfect for a classroom where you already have a computer hooked up to the projection system.

Finally, if you’re really serious about using the iPad as either a teaching device or in a 1-to-1 setting (I can’t remember which my friend is in…), I’d encourage you to look at the work of Dr. Russel at techinmusiced.com. The work he is doing in converting entire libraries of choral scores to digital formats for dissemination to students is really amazing, and I think he has a lot to offer anyone looking to expand their teaching repertoire using the iPad in meaningful ways.

I hope this list helps, but I am always here to help! Also, if you find another app you think I would love, tell me about it! I love finding new apps to try and think about how they might fit into my classroom workflow!