Does anyone have a recommendation for a good IPhone banjo app? Archived posts seem to refer to apps that are no longer viable, etc. Looking for metronome mainly, but if there is a “banjo friendly” app out there that does a lot more, that would be awesome. Thanks!
I don't know of any, but I'm subscribing to this topic, so that IF anybody has one, we'll BOTH find out about it.
I don't have a METRONOME app, either, but I'll ask my grandbaby, who is studying orchestral violin.
MetroTimer for a metronome
GuitarTuna to tune the banjo
Cleartune will give you all the notes to tune to, not just for a 5 string like GuitarTuna
Among metronome apps, I'd recommend EUB Pro Metronome for sure.
If you don't mind spending $10, Peterson's iStroboSoft is the gold standard of tuning apps, but there are loads of good free ones available. Lately, the one I've been using most is "Helix Tuner", but Pano Tuner Lite, insTuner Free, and CarlTune are a few among others I've found well worth downloading.
I've never seen much sense in instrument-specific apps for tuning.
Edited by - Dan Gellert on 06/07/2023 17:01:04
My stock answer:
Instead of the 200 year old technology of the metronome I would like to recommend an iPhone app to learn how to have perfect timing. In my years of teaching I've found of course that some people have a good sense of rhythm and some don't. The need to stay in time never goes away once you can actually play your instrument. Now most people with a good sense of timing don't even need to know about eighth notes as opposed to sixteenth notes, triplets, etc. They can just feel it. On the other hand I've had students who could play a whole song note for note but with bad timing and it just makes for a train wreck when others try to play along! Anyway getting back to this app, that by the way is called RHYTHM SIGHT READING $3.99, I've had great success with it fixing students timing problems. And the beauty of it is that at the same time it teaches how to read all different rhythm notation symbols that you could come across in tablature or standard notation. This also helps those that have a great sense of rhythm but can't play off of written music because they can't figure out these timing symbols, this app fixes that. The thing that is amazing is that it tests you on your accuracy with a visual report up to a tenth of a second. You can also learn to play ahead or behind the beat for that drive or laid back feel. Finally another thing, it has is infinite patience which I do not possess
Here's a way that gets you a tempo "body clock", so to speak. Go to the website below and start picking out songs that you are very familiar with and whose tempos are even numbers, I'll call them example songs. Either write them down are memorize them in numerical order. Once you have this list use it to gain a concrete knowledge of what each tempo sounds like in your mind. Finally use this to your advantage by first, knowing the tempo number of the song you want to kick off and second, hearing the tempo of the example song on the list in your new "body clock" mind.
https://apps.apple.com/us/app/rhythm-sight-reading-trainer/id396302174
Edited by - mmuussiiccaall on 06/07/2023 18:52:52
Thanks for the replies and advice, I will check all these out. I have a wind up metronome it really like, but not great to haul around while traveling (like the banjo is convenient, lol). Cheers!
C.F. Martin: best metronome ever invented. 
quote:
Originally posted by rmcdowMetroTimer for a metronome
GuitarTuna to tune the banjo
Cleartune will give you all the notes to tune to, not just for a 5 string like GuitarTuna
I also use MetroTimer. Of the free apps (I'm not so much a cheapskate as wary of giving money to random app developers) it is by far my favourite.
This one has been good for me for a long time:
apps.apple.com/us/app/metronom...599833596
