Best piano app for iPhone?

ShiroKuro

I used to have an app on my phone that was just a keyboard with one piano sound, I think it was called a chord finder. I don’t really remember but I used it if I wanted to play a melody or voice out a chord and I was away from my piano. At some point the app wasn’t updated and it got deleted from my phone during iOS updates. Now I don’t have anything on my phone like that.

So I’d like to find something to replace what I used to have. I don’t need anything that’s specifically a learning tool, I just want access to a keyboard that I can open up and play a few notes, chords or passage, say if I’m looking at a score on my iPad during lunch and I want to hear how it sounds.

I found one that I thought might be ok, but it required a monthly subscription, which I definitely don’t want. I guess I’m ok with a one-time purchase fee though.

Do you have any apps you could recommend?

TIA!

HeartKeys

Pianoteq. It’s my go to instant app. I frequently use it when I hear a song and want to play along with it.

HeartKeys

Here’s me a moment ago twiddling on the app. This was also what I’d do in an airplane or public areas waiting for something, using earphones.

It was helpful for me to learn or reinforce chords etc. it also helped me stay consistent with my PACT.

(Rereading your original post, perhaps you’re seeking something different. But in case this is helpful!)

[

iternabe

@HeartKeys Thanks! There is one trick that I had to google to figure out: "On the iPhone/iPad screen, left hand side, swipe from the edge just above the keyboard and a larger keyboard will slide in." After that it works wonderfully just like your video demo.

iternabe

And another one: hold the "Drag me" button and drag left/right to shift the range, or drag up/down to get more/less keys on the same screen.

This is really neat!

HeartKeys

iternabe yep, and another trick is, for holding sustain (which I had trouble with), is to play a demo MIDI they already have, pause it, and usually sustain/soft will stay.

ShiroKuro

@HeartKeys thanks for the recommendation!

Do you have the free version? The explanation of in-app purchases in the App store is sort of vague, it just shows that it either costs $0, $40 or $140 ???

iternabe

ShiroKuro It's free. The free version will say it's demo, so some keys may be disabled, and the keyboard sound will be disabled after some time. In reality, non of those limitations cause any problem for casual use. If you use it long enough (> 30 minutes, I believe) in one session, you may need to close the app and relaunch it.

It's the same with the desktop version of Pianoteq, too.

ShiroKuro

Ahh, ok, thank you both, @iternabe and @HeartKeys !

I suspect the paid versions are full of functions I'm not interested in, so I'd rather not pay!

iternabe

ShiroKuro I suspect the paid versions are full of functions I'm not interested in, so I'd rather not pay!

The paid version is for digital piano players who want to replace their DP's built-in sound engine with Pianoteq's modeling engine by connecting their phone/tablet to their DP with a wire. At the basic ("Stage") paid level, it just remove the time limit and makes all keys functional. Higher levels ("Standard", "Pro) added features to "tune" the digital piano.

macuaig

GarageBand is free, built for iPhone/iPad, and as simple or deep as you may like. It used to be preinstalled, but I think you have to go get it now in the App Store.

Open GarageBand, hit the “+”, then select keyboard.

ShiroKuro

macuaig Totally forgot about GarageBand! It's already on my phone, yay! I'll stick with that! Thank you!