Musical Instrument Apps for Android and iPhone

On an iPhone or iPad, open GarageBand before you download anything else. Apple’s own app is free with nothing to buy inside it, and its App Store page describes keyboards, guitars and drums you play on the screen, with a recorder of up to 32 tracks behind them. Apple does not publish it for Android.

On Android, the closest free match is Walk Band, which puts a piano, a guitar, a bass and a drum kit in one app with a multitrack recorder. If you want one instrument and nothing else, Perfect Piano, Real Drum and Real Guitar are on both stores.

We read each app’s page on Google Play and on the App Store. The descriptions, makers and prices below come from those pages. Four of the ten apps on our old list are still instruments you can install.

Instrument apps by store

Prices and labels are the ones the US stores show. “Not there” means a search of that store, and of the maker’s own page on it where there is one, turned up no listing. The App Store column gives the price and whether the page lists in-app purchases.

GarageBand, and what Android has in its place

GarageBand’s listing calls its instruments Touch Instruments. You play keyboards, guitars and drums with your fingers, and Smart Instruments strum chords or play string parts for you. A guitar or bass can be plugged in and played through virtual amps. Extra instruments and loops come from a Sound Library that Apple describes as free.

There is no GarageBand for Android. Apple’s developer page on Google Play lists Apple Music, Apple TV, Move to iOS and a few others, and GarageBand is not among them. Anything on Google Play with that name comes from someone else.

Walk Band is the nearest thing in spirit. Its listing covers a piano keyboard, guitar and bass in solo and chord modes, a drum kit and a drum machine. A multitrack section records MIDI and voice tracks, edits them on a piano roll and converts the result to MP3. It comes from the maker of Perfect Piano and we found it only on Google Play.

If recording matters more to you than playing, BandLab is the other answer, and we cover it with the audio editors for Android.

Piano apps

Perfect Piano gives you an 88-key keyboard that can be shown as one row, as two rows or split between two players. The Google Play listing adds a chords mode, sounds that include grand piano, pipe organ and Rhodes, and recording to MIDI or AAC. A learn-to-play mode shows falling notes or sheet music. Both versions accept a MIDI keyboard over USB, so the phone can be the sound source for real keys.

Real Piano from Kolb Apps has a seven-octave keyboard, a chord mode, loops to play along with and 100 lessons. Pick it if you plan to use the same maker’s drum and guitar apps, whose listings promise the same mix of lessons and loops.

Drum apps

Real Drum is a drum kit laid out on the screen. Its listing says you choose how many pads and cymbals there are, their size and where they sit. It has more than 100 lessons, loops, a sequencer for building rhythms, MP3 export and MIDI support.

Drum Pad Machine is a grid of coloured pads that trigger samples, grouped in sound packs by genre, with tutorials that walk you through a beat. Read the price before you subscribe. The App Store lists its Pro plan at $7.99 a week, $14.99 a month or $46.99 a year. Fifty-two weeks at the weekly rate comes to $415.48.

Guitar apps

Real Guitar has acoustic and electric guitars, a solo mode and a chord mode, a 22-fret neck and a library of more than 1,500 chords, along with 100 lessons and a recording mode.

A guitar on a screen is fine for working out a chord sequence on a bus. It will not teach your fingers to fret a real string. If you own a real guitar, the apps you want are in our guide to the best apps to learn guitar.

Synth apps

On both stores. FL Studio Mobile is a paid studio that includes eight instruments, among them MiniSynth, SuperSaw and Transistor Bass, with an on-screen keyboard and drum pads. Roland Zenbeats is free to start. Its listing says the free version covers the essentials and a synth with 60 presets, and that a Roland Cloud membership unlocks everything from $2.99 a month. DRC models classic analogue synths with up to eight voices. It is a free download with purchases on Google Play and $8.99 on the App Store.

KORG Kaossilator is played by moving a finger across a pad, with a scale setting that keeps every note in key and a sequencer that layers five parts. It is $19.99 on either store, where the iPhone version is called iKaossilator.

Android only. FM Synthesizer [SynprezFM II] has 1,024 built-in patches, can load sounds made for the Yamaha DX7 and takes a MIDI keyboard over USB or Bluetooth. Google Play shows no adverts label and nothing to buy.

iPhone and iPad only. AudioKit Synth One describes itself as completely free and open source, with no adverts or in-app purchases and more than 300 presets. Minimoog Model D is Moog’s own app version of the synth it introduced in 1970, at $29.99.

iBone and MorphWiz

iBone is a trombone. Its listing says you touch or blow to make a sound and slide a finger to change pitch. Seven songs are included and more are sold in packs. MorphWiz, created by Jordan Rudess and Kevin Chartier, is a grid you slide your fingers across. Its listing says it was partly inspired by an instrument Rudess plays on stage with Dream Theater. Both are on the App Store only.

Which one to pick

• iPhone or iPad, any instrument: GarageBand. It is free and Apple’s.
• Android, several instruments in one app: Walk Band.
• A piano with a learning mode built in: Perfect Piano on either phone.
• Drums: Real Drum. Take Drum Pad Machine only on the yearly plan, if at all.
• A free synth: SynprezFM II on Android, AudioKit Synth One on iPhone.
• Pay once and make whole tracks: FL Studio Mobile.

What happened to the old list

• FL Studio Mobile, Perfect Piano, iBone and MorphWiz: still available and covered above. Our old article said iBone and MorphWiz work on Android. Today both are on the App Store only.
• Ultimate Guitar and Yousician: these teach guitar, so they have moved to the guitar learning guide.
• Simply Piano: still on both stores, from Simply Ltd. It is a course for people with a real piano or keyboard.
• Pro Metronome: still on both stores, free with in-app purchases. It keeps time and plays nothing.
• Metronome and Bongos: many apps share those names, and we could not tell which ones were meant.

Quick answers

Is GarageBand available for Android?

No. Apple publishes it on the App Store for iPhone and iPad and does not list it on Google Play. Walk Band and BandLab are the free apps closest to it on Android.

What is a good free piano app?

Perfect Piano and Real Piano are free on both stores, with adverts on Google Play and in-app purchases. On an iPhone, GarageBand’s keyboards cost nothing at all.

Is there a free synthesizer app?

FM Synthesizer [SynprezFM II] on Android and AudioKit Synth One on iPhone are free with nothing to buy. Roland Zenbeats and DRC on Android are free to start.

Which musical instrument apps are on both Android and iPhone?

Perfect Piano, Real Piano, Real Drum, Real Guitar, Drum Pad Machine, FL Studio Mobile, Roland Zenbeats, DRC and KORG’s Kaossilator.