Guitar Toolkit: App Week

When the app store for the iPhone/iPod Touch came out, the marketplace was flooded with to do lists and other similar apps. Then people started finding 'creative' uses for the special hardware and processing power of the iPhone. One of the earliest examples is Agile Partner's Guitar Toolkit. There are essential tools that most musicians use on a regular basis such as tuners, chord books, and metronomes, and this app has them all combined, right in your iPhone. When I first saw this app, I couldn't believe that the microphone on the iPhone could compare to a real guitar tuner. I was pleasantly surprised! The app's built in tuner is more than sufficient for quick tunings, has presets for tunings such as Double Drop D, Full Step Down, and Hendrix's flat tuning. The only downside is the ONLY input is the iPhone mic, no plugging your electric into this for direct input.

The app also includes a chord book, which is practically worth the purchase price on its own. The chord book lets you scroll to a chord, see the fingering on the fretboard, reverse for lefties, break down by individual note, and other handy settings. It even lets you strum the display to hear the chord played. The app also incudes a metronome with 'tap to find the BPM' functionality and support for ALL these functions for different instruments. Bass, six string, mandolin, banjo, and even your ukulele. This is an app that has more than earned the $9.99 I paid for it.

Pros:

• Multiple Tools for $9.99 (a 'cheap' guitar tuner costs about $15)
• Support for many stringed instruments
• Accurate chromatic tuner

Cons:

• No way to plug directly into the iPhone
• Not a replacement for a proper tuner

Download Agile Partner's Guitar Toolkit here!

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