The world has evolved and seems to center on a go, go, go attitude. Piano players, whether seasoned players or novices, need ways to practice and play on the go with their own busy lives. The music and technology industry has answered this need with a variety of apps like GarageBand and accessories. Since as we all know, hauling around a baby grand just isn’t possible.
Line6 Mobile Keys
Line6 Mobile Keys is an app available on Mac and iOS systems. Line6 Mobile Keys is a USB 25 or 49 key keyboard that plugs into your device. The keys respond no matter how hard or fast you hit them, which is important to feel like a ‘real’ piano. You can use this keyboard with many apps like GarageBand. This allows piano players to experiment with writing their own music and practice on pre-recorded pieces.
GarageBand
GarageBand is an app compatible with MAC and is found in the iTunes store. It allows its users to create music tracks with pre-recorded audio. A newer feature is the Music Lessons portion of the app. You can learn tracks by watching and audio or video instructions and following along to finish the lesson.
JoyTunes
JoyTunes was developed by Yuval Kaminka, who has a Masters Degree at Israel’s Weizmann Institute of Science. He got the original idea by trying to get his nephew to practice and found he lost interest because he wasn’t instantly good at it and didn’t want to wait to get better. JoyTunes is aimed at younger kids and has a point system with rankings to encourage players to practice to get more points.
GO:PIANO
GO:PIANO is a portable keyboard with built-in speakers that comes with Faber Piano Adventures to get younger kids interested in playing. It is capable of using Bluetooth audio and MIDI Support that you can connect to your tablet or smartphone. There is also a pedal that comes with the GO:PIANO.
Cases
If you don’t want to mess around with the cords you can always bring a small keyboard along, especially for long-term trips. You can buy either hard or soft carrying cases for the portable keyboards. They provide easy storage and a convenient way to keep everything in one place. The hard cases provide more protection against bumps and extreme weather conditions.
There are many options for piano players who want to squeeze some practice time in on the go. The market keeps evolving to meet the demand and it hasn’t disappointed so far.
Eileen O'Shanassy is a freelance writer and blogger based out of Flagstaff, AZ. She writes on a variety of topics and loves to research and write. She enjoys baking, biking, and kayaking. Check out her Twitter @eileenoshanassy.
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Timbo
July 29, 2018 at 4:55 pm
After reading about GarageBand, I visited myself the official website of the app. Its dashboard has more settings than in real cheap price piano. The preset of guitar and voice feature itself is very amazing.
If the apple company makes mac book’s display a capacitive touch display then this app will give the real piano experience as it will be able to create sound according to hard and soft touch.