Advertisement

Best music notation apps for iphone or ipad

For any musician, flashes of inspiration can come at any time. You need to jot down that melody that comes across your mind when it hits. To help you out with that, have a look at these notation apps that you can use in your iPhone or iPad.

List of the best apps

1.forScore

Paid: $14.99

forScore is an app that will automatically read all your sheets so you can edit them and create new compositions. You will also of course be able to create your own music, and share it with all your friends. 

  • Website:http://forscore.co

  • Age rating:4+

  • Category:Music,Book

  • Publisher:forScore, LLC

  • Size:34.88 MB

  • Genre:Not available
  • Vishal Kadam

    by Vishal Kadam

    This app has all the tools you need. It is easy to use and you can take it anywhere, so you can write or edit music whenever inspiration strikes. The  More

  • Zac Johnson

    by Zac Johnson

    To the reviewer named Vishal Kadam, what are you talking about?? Do you even have ForScore?? You can NOT write music with ForScore, it is NOT an app w More

  • Zac Johnson

    by Zac Johnson

    Not for writing music at all!!!

  • Jay Wilson null

    by Jay Wilson null

    ForScore does, in fact, have music writing capability. There are various stave templates which you can use as a basis for writing, or you can create s More

  • Jack Yi

    by Jack Yi

    The app is quite is easy to use. My bandmates dig it. It's as if this app really makes songwriting and music reading go hand in hand with each othe

     More

2.iWriteMusic

Paid: $5.99

iWriteMusic is an easy and fun to use music notation app with its simple user interface, which supports most of the major notation elements and has data & sheet sharing features. 

  • Website:Not Available

  • Age rating:4+

  • Category:Music

  • Publisher:Not available
  • Size:Not available
  • Genre:Not available
  • Ismael Calderón

    by Ismael Calderón

    iWritemusic is a good optuion to anyone trying to compose music on a mobile device. However, in my case this app has been crashing and i coould not complete my project on it. :(((

3.GarageBand

Free download

GarageBand is a music making software and app for Mac and iOS respectively. It offers a sound library with software instruments, presets for guitar and voice, and virtual session drummers. Users can access piano and guitar lessons.

  • Website:Not Available
  • Age rating:Not available

  • Category:Music

  • Publisher:Not available
  • Size:Not available
  • Genre:Not available
  • Carl Russell

    by Carl Russell

    Digital music production has been something that I wanted to try out for a while. When I started college they provided us with iPads that were loaded  More

  • Andrea Roberts

    by Andrea Roberts

    LMAO this is not a music notation app!!!

4.Frettable

with in-app purchases

Frettable is an easy-to-use platform which will automatically transcribe instrument recordings into sheet music and tabs using your device whether online or offline. It also can provide you the music sheet within seconds. 

  • Website:https://www.frettable.com/
  • Age rating:Not available
  • Category:Not available
  • Publisher:Not available
  • Size:Not available
  • Genre:Not available
  • Kyle Presca null

    by Kyle Presca null

    Frettable can transcribe audio from live recordings within the app to music notation. Works for single instrument recordings only, but can create music notation for a variety of instruments: piano, guitar, vocals, brass, and woodwinds. Can then sh

     More

5.Guitar Pro

Paid: $69.95

The famous music composition software that allows you to transcribe your favorite songs, or simply read the thousands of tabs already available on the Internet.

  • Website:Not Available
  • Age rating:Not available
  • Category:Not available
  • Publisher:Not available
  • Size:Not available
  • Genre:Not available
  • Linda Rs null

    by Linda Rs null

    This is a great on-the-go version of Guitar Pro. Really helpful to write your track and end your composition in the desktop version. It is also really useful to read all pre existing GP files but you can NOT edit them. You can download tabs from y

     More

6.Notation Pad

with in-app purchases

Notation Pad is a free app which enables you to read, compose, edit, playback scores and write lyrics on your mobile device. This is designed for beginners who want to learn about music scoring. 

  • Website:Not Available

  • Age rating:12+

  • Category:Music

  • Publisher:Not available
  • Size:Not available
  • Genre:Not available
  • Sandra Kennedy

    by Sandra Kennedy

    I just think that Notation Pad should be first on the list of the best notation apps for iPhone for so many reasons. First, the app supports a lot of  More

  • by Madison Mitchell

    I'm a music teacher and found out about this app on a vlog. I find this amazing as it is indeed helpful for people like me who can see, read and play  More

  • by Lauren Tran

    To me, this is great and one of the best free music notation software for iPad users. Really lit in what in can do to notate music

7.ScoreCloud

Paid: $2.99 Varies by plan

ScoreCloud is a music notation software created by Doremir Music Research AB. It supports most instruments, including voice. It has a free limited version but is also offered at two other paid versions.

  • Website:Not Available
  • Age rating:Not available
  • Category:Not available
  • Publisher:Not available
  • Size:Not available
  • Genre:Not available
  • Catherine Schmidt

    by Catherine Schmidt

    No doubt that my other friends dubbed this as music notation app as a Google translate, except that this is for music creation! I mean, it is as easy as playing an instrument of my choice and it will listen to what I am playing and create the sheet f More

8.Newzik

Paid: $8.99

Newzik is a paid Sheet Music Reader app developed SyncSing for iOS devices. The music app allows users to annotate scores with pencils, highlighters, or musical symbols, share them, transpose, and syncronize audio files and videos.

  • Website:Not Available
  • Age rating:Not available
  • Category:Not available
  • Publisher:Not available
  • Size:Not available
  • Genre:Not available
  • Matan Daskal null

    by Matan Daskal null

    After trying many other notation apps I find Newzik to be the top for mainly 7 reasons: - Organizations: Neat and clear organization windows, allowing More

  • by Jordan Elliott

    I'm sure that there's quite no other music notation app for iPad that's like what Newzik is. A lot of my music composing has been way easier since

     More

9.Stave'n'Tabs

with in-app purchases

Stave'n'Tabs is a notation and tab editor app which helps users in creating music. This app also enables users to practice their songs, improve compositions, manage projects, and share their scores and tabs with friends.

  • Website:https://staventabs.com

  • Age rating:4+

  • Category:Not available
  • Publisher:Not available
  • Size:Not available
  • Genre:Not available
  • Daria Key null

    by Daria Key null

    Easy to use and intuitive, not expensive, works with many formats

  • by Colins Edward null

    I've been using it for some years already and see how much it has improved compared to the first version. At first entering scores in the app seemed f More

10.Touch Notation

Paid: $11.99 with in-app purchases

Touch Notation is a music notation app developed by Kawai Musical Instruments Manufacturing Co. that features easy musical score creation and a wide range of functions. Musical symbols can also be entered by hand through it.

  • Website:Not Available
  • Age rating:Not available
  • Category:Not available
  • Publisher:Not available
  • Size:Not available
  • Genre:Not available
  • Roger Meyer

    by Roger Meyer

    Among all other music notation software, Touch Notation is one of the few that lets me draw musical symbols using my hand whenever I am using my ipad for creating a musical score. Imagine your simple gestures are powerful enough to be understood by t More

11.Notion

Paid: $14.99 with in-app purchases

Notion is an easy-to-use music creation tool where you can sync your music files across multiple devices. It has also been featured in various Apple campaigns including the 2014 YourVerse television commercials and has won several awards.

  • Website:Not Available

  • Age rating:4+

  • Category:Music

  • Publisher:Not available
  • Size:Not available
  • Genre:Not available
  • Sun Wu

    by Sun Wu

    Wow, I think it is as powerful as the desktop extension of this music notation software. It is like when I am at home I can write musical scores in my More

  • Frank Phillips

    by Frank Phillips

    I salute the devs of this app as they take into consideration every review of its users. In my opinion this is by far the best composition tool on IOS More

  • Andrew V null

    by Andrew V null

    on the surface this app looks good but honestly it has some serious bugs when importing midi files. and forget about playing in it while using a dampe More

  • Alexander Duncan

    by Alexander Duncan

    Great duplicate for my previous music notation software. I've been using this app for a while now as part of studying different notated pieces and

     More

12.MusicJOT

Paid: $29.99

MusicJOT is an easy to use music notation app where you can quickly write and compose music and watch it get rendered into a notated music, which can be exported in MusicXML or MIDI. 

  • Website:Not Available

  • Age rating:4+

  • Category:Music

  • Publisher:Not available
  • Size:Not available
  • Genre:Not available
  • Joseph Mendoza

    by Joseph Mendoza

    Downloaded this app but haven't used it for awhile already because it keeps on crashing so i always have difficulty using it. But, today i updated the app and checked if it improved. Yes it did, however, i still would not use this. Not worth your mon More

13.NotateMe

Paid: $39.99 with in-app purchases
NotateMe is a free app developed by Neuratron which provides a powerful tool for musicians as they can handwrite their compositions directly in their phones. Useful also for people learning or teaching notation.
  • Website:http://www.neuratron.com

  • Age rating:Everyone

  • Category:Music & Audio

  • Publisher:Neuratron Ltd

  • Size:13.63 MB

  • Genre:Not available
  • Joseph Smith

    by Joseph Smith

    PROS: I like that this is customizable. It lets me use my handwriting for easier and faster music composition. The interface is clear yet intuitive. N More

  • by Albert Phillips

    This app looks great for music annotation. It allows you to annotate via the app which is awesome.

  • Leonardo Andrade

    by Leonardo Andrade

    I think its a good idea. However i feel like this would have already been invented by now

  • by Jessica May

    What's so cool about this app is how it lets me use my hands while writing music on my iPad directly. Saves me a lot of time and let's me work more

     More

14.Flat

Varies by plan

Flat is an application for composing and editing music scores. It has a collaborative platform and can even be used offline. It can be used for free but requires a paid subscription for unlimited use and 24/7 support.

  • Website:https://flat.io
  • Age rating:Not available
  • Category:Not available
  • Publisher:Not available
  • Size:Not available
  • Genre:Not available
  • Romain Boces

    by Romain Boces

    Flat is a collaborative sheet music editor that lets you create music scores and guitar tabs! Create and edit your music score documents with your iPh More

  • by Jason Simmons

    This works perfectly for collaborations with me and my students as we can just pass on sheets real time and work with it for our classical composit

     More

15.Symphony Pro

Paid: $14.99

This app is perfect when it comes to song composition and music notation. You can write down your compositions on your sheets using the Apple Pencil, and the app will recognize everything and digitalize it. With more than 100 instruments available, this app has everything musicians will need to create songs. 

  • Shreya Yadav

    by Shreya Yadav

    problems though is that sometimes I would like to look over things on my phone rather than a physical paper. I came across Symphony Pro for my iPad an More

  • Katherine Wilson

    by Katherine Wilson

    The recent upgrades have improved the app plus i love the fact that i can use my i-pen on this. But i think they removed the plain sounds after the up More

  • Joan Peterson

    by Joan Peterson

    I love using this composition software. I'm not the type who really likes to spend too much time on my computer while writing my compos but since I

     More

 DID YOU KNOW

Did you know that musical notation is almost as old as writing? The earliest known writing system was made by the Sumerians around 3000BC, while the earliest form of musical notation, also by the Sumerians, was dated around 2000BC. Written in cuneiform, the artifact contained information on how to perform a piece of music. Since then, musical notation has come to include melodies, rhythms, note duration, the key in which the music is played, the manner in which the music is to be played, and many more.

It was Boethius, a 6th-century Roman philosopher, who assigned the first letters of the alphabet to the notes of a scale. Another primary specialist of this type of musical notation is Guido d’Arezzo, an Italian monk. He created the do-re-mi notation basing from a hymn to Saint John the Baptist, derived from the first syllables of each line: ut, re, mi, fa, sol, la, and si. He changed ‘Ut’ to ‘do,’ as it is easier to sing and pronounce. It is taken from the Latin word “Dominus,” which means “the Lord.” At present, various countries and regions have their own systems, but it is the Western musical notation that is the most widely-used notation in the world. This notation is composed of staves and noteheads. Because of the rise of interest of people in composing and reading music, sheet music writer has become a must-have for every self-composing singers, musician, and composers. And as technology develops, they released various software for music notation as well. A lot of musicians debate between Finale or Sibelius for being the best music notation software. It was proven that both are very powerful and does its job well, at the end familiarity wins out always.

Advertisement