Apps for the Music Therapist
Technology has enhanced the world, making adaptations easier than ever before. Music therapists have been utilizing technology in their sessions for the past few decades, but recently this technology has been ramping up, making it almost impossible for the modern music therapist to not use technology. An app is an application downloaded to a mobile device, and I have not yet met a music therapist that does not have an arsenal of apps in a folder in their phone and iPad ready to utilize in sessions to support client goals. Here is a collection of the best apps, in my opinion, for the modern music therapist and why they are useful in sessions to support client goals.
The Essentials
Pro Metronome
The metronome app is utilized by Neurologic Music Therapists (NMT)® in many ways.
Supports entrainment for regulation and sensory
Has a variety of subdivision
Sound options for sound-sensitive clients
Tap the bpm feature for real-time tempos
FREE!
Spotify
Pre-recorded music is utilized a lot in music therapy, and Spotify is a great tool for this. Spotify is a subscription based music app that lets the users have unlimited access to all songs on the market.
Radio access, Ai DJ, artist followings and more
Great for playlist creation for specific populations
Immediate access to almost every song in existence on the market
Guitar Tuna
Every music therapist needs a guitar tuner, and this app gets the job done.
App listens to guitar strings played
Shows how close or far away string is to being pitched correctly
Can tune acoustic guitars, ukuleles, basses, violins and more!
FREE
Assessment Tools
Decibel X - Pro Sound Meter
Some clients have goals related to their vocal volume or pitch. Music therapy can help with this by utilizing music to encourage a client to speak or sing at a certain pitch, or to help a client understand their own vocal volume.
An assessment tool
A professional sound meter
Takes average and max decibel level of sound
Shows vocal levels in live time with sound graphs.
FREE
Little Bee Speech Articulation Test Center Hive
Speech is a very popular goal for many clients.
An Assessment tool
Addresses articulation and phonology goals
Preferably for ages 2-5
Divides sounds into initial, medial and final sounds
Creates divided results into a fast and in depth report
Has a recording feature as well
Subscription service of $9.99 annually or $14.99 monthly for usage
Voice Analyst: Pitch and Volume
Voice Analyst is a similar app to Decibel X.
Can record speech on app
Measures and analyzes pitch and volume.
Will create live speech graph of decibels
App designed by speech pathologists
Create targets to see where a client is in relation to goal
Can save recordings for future data.
This app is $14.99
Clock
This app is pre-downloaded on every iphone, but it is an essential music therapy app.
Has timers
Can record client speech and motor speed
Can record sections of time via laps function while timing whole phrase
Great for accurate documentation data
This app is free to use.
Music-Related
LaunchPad
Launchpad is an electronic music creation software.
64 bright, colored squares that when pressed have different sounds/loops
Instrumental sounds/ loops can be stacked
Adaptive app
Can work on digit dexterity motor skills
Can promote creative freedom
FREE
Musescore
Musescore is a music notation app that is a free to use software.
Great for notation
Can stack as many staves as needed
Can be downloaded, shared and printed
Can also download and play audio of what was written
Great notating sheet music for clients
Garage Band
Garage band is a free music creation software.
Similar to pro tools in its setup of music production and creation
Can plug in instruments and record right from instruments
Also has loops of beats and instruments available
FREE
Chordify
Chordify is an app and website that houses a database of songs and immediate chords to them for automatic playing access.
Play chosen instrument with the original backing track.
Easy to follow along beat visuals of each chord fingerings.
Great for adaptive lesson students that love visuals
FREE and a paid version
Anytune
Anytune is an app that allows the music therapist to slow down, speed up, transposing, change the pitch, or looping chosen songs.
Great for client rhythmic regulation via entrainment
Can help attention goals via speeding up/slowing down chosen songs
Transposition is great to make clients range with artists
FREE with app purchases
Guitar Tabs
Music therapists have to prepare songs in advance for their clients.
Pre-made lead sheets
Immediate access - can pull up lead sheets in seconds
Can save tabs and access offline
FREE with paid version
Tenuto
Tenuto is an app designed for teaching music theory.
Can customize the exercises to target specific theory goals
Challenge modes available to beat previous scores
Tenuto is $4.99 on the app store
Sheet Music Direct
Sheet music direct is a website and an app where you can download sheet music to a variety of songs.
Access to huge database of sheet music
Can access in seconds
Great for clients learning with sheet music
FREE
Administrative
CamScanner
This is a great office tool for music therapists. It acts as a scanning machine, taking a picture of whatever needs to be scanned and scanning it in real time. Users can then take these scanned images and upload them to their computer for printing.
Great for written and signed documents that need to be uploaded
Great for digitally filing away client work or assessment data
FREE
Canva
Canva is a free to use website and app that allows users to create posters, websites, visuals, whatever the heart desires, and the app allows for highly personable creation experiences.
Offers templates, design tips and creative resources
Great for creating aesthetically pleasing visuals or presentations
FREE with subscription service available
Notion
Notion is a note taking website and app that is highly personal, giving the user the option to create whole databases, pages, graphs, and more.
Requires some time to learn the software
Can track information, create workspaces, input data, create graphs, etc.
Can personalize
Great for hyper-organized music therapists
FREE
Technology can be a lot sometimes, but I hope this list can inspire music therapists to enhance their technological arsenal. For any caregivers of clients, I hope you see just how much care and attention goes into being well prepared for your children. For clients, ask your music therapist about these apps if you are interested in them in your sessions or just for your personal use!
