Tuner and metronome apps are incredibly important in developing as a musician. In music, we’re often aiming for accuracy and precision. Our goal is to recreate the music on the page or in our head. It’s like trying to hit the bullseye on a dart board. Both tuners and metronomes help us to identify how far we are from hitting that bullseye.
It used to cost $30, $40, $50 or even more to have a quality tuner and metronome, but luckily that’s not the case any more. Tuner and metronome apps are now often free or cheap, and there are tons of them out there.
As for free metronomes, I like Pro Metronome on Google Playor the Apple Store. It’s full of options and settings including different pulse tones, the ability to tap in a tempo. Both of these can make practicing much more convenient.
When it comes to tuners, I really like Chroma in Google Play. It has a really quick response and is very accurate. Unfortunately it’s not available on Apple Devices. I don’t use any apple products, but friends tell me that insTuner is available in the Apple Store and works really well for them on their devices.
My favorite app, though, is not free. It is cheap though! It’s called Tunable. It’s available on both Google Play or iTunes. I like this app because it combines both the tuner and metronome functions in a single app. I don’t have to swipe back and forth between different apps to practice. For me, that convenience is worth a few bucks. The app has a tone generator to play along with long tones and hear the pitches you’re trying to play. It also has a record feature that lets you quickly play something and then listen back to it to see how you did.
Let me know if one of these apps work for you! If there’s something else that would help you become a better brass player, or if you’d like to set up a lesson, don’t hesitate to reach out. Best of luck in all of your creative musical activities! Thanks for reading.