Music Ed App Review for Sheet Music Direct

This review is for the music education app: Sheet Music Direct
Kid/Student Ratings: ***** 5/5

Teacher/Parent Ratings: **** 4/5

Educational Value: Excellent

Price: $FREE

Age Recommended: All Ages of established musicians 

Skills Developed:  Music Library Organizer, Key Transposer, Practice Helper

App Tested on iPad (available only on iPad)

Good Stuff about this app:  Well, well my life just became easier… again.  This app is really quite revolutionary.  I know I’ve said that before, but these developers never cease to amaze me. Gigging musicians will flip for this app.

With this free app (yes, free- no ads), you gain an instant music library right inside your iDevice.  Not only can you view the music, but you can push the play button and a midi plays it for you – at the tempo you want – in the key you want.  Aye!!

The songs already loaded for free into your library when you first use this app are ones in the public domain.  So, in order to get more songs, you have to click on the button that takes you to purchase more.  They are all regular sheet music prices.  Not bad at all.

For example; I opened the app today to write this review and I clicked on “The House of the Rising Sun”.  I put the speed on 76% of the original tempo set.  Then I changed the key to F(DM) because that will be easier for my voice.  The instruments I chose to hear were piano and voice.  Then I listened and watched.  Then I listened and watched again.  Then I went to the piano and played and sang.  I was a wiz!  (Piano is not my native instrument, but I can get by)

What a great tool.

Our Wish List:  This app has a tuner, a metronome, a transposer, a set list maker, play and pause, a mixer, etc.  What more could a gal ask for? Well…I am a musician, and if I’m like most I want to “write” on my music sometimes to remind me of something I need to do to play it better.  This app does not support any features like this.  Darn.  I just want a highlighter or something.

I’ve spent a couple of weeks looking through the possible music, and I will just conclude that more music will be constantly added to their site because no, not everything is available.  But I did find music that I use every day in my teaching studio, and for that I was happy.

My Love:  Just the fact that I can grab loads of sheet music and keep it all organized inside this app is a happy thought for me.   The transposing feature on here is the coolest!

Summary:  All-in-all we think this app is really pretty great for learning musicians and gigging musicians alike.    And, for those of us with big, giant filing cabinets in our music studios- the future is here!

Purchase Sheet Music Direct on iTunes for iPad only for:  $FREE

Have you already downloaded and played this app?  Leave us a comment and let us know what you thought.  -Rebecca