Appmuse

The first release had some issues, but it is obvious a lot of work has gone into this new version. It is pretty straightforward, and music notion with the Apple Pencil works well. The website has some good, short teaching videos. I’ve only used this for a short while, but I’m very pleased with the product now. Show more

I'm a beginner so I was nervous about getting enough value from the $49.99 price tag. Feature one is turning my handwritten notes into something recognizable that I can see. Check. Feature two is playing back what I write. Check. Feature three is being able to export what I wrote to other apps/devices in a variety of formats. Check. Support doesn't mind answering my mindless questions about music and the app. Check. I can see - and have read/heard from other users - that there are amazing features that I will be able to use as I grow so this has given me new enthusiasm to write music. Definitely worth the price. Lisallynne Kirk Show more

This app is the musical equivalent of the iPhone, in terms of its fundamental power to change the way things are done. Before there were personal computers, I wrote sheet music with a pen or pencil. It was slow going, and if I made a mistake, I would cross it out (messy) or even use “white out” to try to redo it. Software for composing on the computer has made it possible to produce beautiful sheet music, but I find the process to be slow and laborious. Using QWERTY keys, or even a mouse, to pick a note value, pick a time value, and insert the note on the staff, feels more like programming than composing. With MusicJot, I can write music in the ‘normal’ way, using handwriting, and have MusicJot translate my handwriting into professional quality scores. Amazing! I commute by train, and I can use the time to compose with MusicJot and my iPad, listening to what I write through headphones. Later, I can transfer what I wrote to Logic as a MIDI file, and build the composition even further on my desktop computer. The ability to create TABs will be a welcome addition to this program, because so many modern guitar players do not read sheet music. (An old joke – how do you stop a rock guitar player from playing? Put sheet music in front of him.) Of course, version 1.0 of the iPhone didn’t have 3G support or a front-facing camera. I’m very happy to use the app now, and will look forward to new features as they are rolled out. I have been composing and recording music for many years, and along the way a few technologies have been ‘game changers.’ With MIDI, I can “type” a song on a keyboard (musical keyboard or computer keyboard), produce the sound of an endless array of instruments, transpose, speed up, slow down, and “correct” mistakes. With Digital Audio Workstations (Logic, ProTools, etc.), I can record, edit and mix to my heart’s content, in my own home, without spending hundreds of thousands of dollars on equipment or on studio time. And now with MusicJot, I can use my handwriting, an iPad and a pen to create musical scores. This is fantastic – highly recommended. UPDATE. Version 2.0 is much more stable and responsive. The first release did used to crash on occasion, which was frustrating. Also the developer has added guitar chord diagrams, and the ability to split a note into two tied notes, which is helpful when inserting chord changes. Show more

My review is from the perspective of a novice scholar of music notation. I've played guitar for many decades, but virtually always by rote. I recently made up my mind to return to learning music theory through books designed for guitarists. It then occurred to me that it would be nice to have an app for my iPad that enabled and simplified writing musical notation to preserve ideas born during my practice sessions. I found MusicJOT, which greatly exceeded my expectations in that not only can the app turn my chicken scratch notes into professional looking musical notation, but it will play the lines back to me immediately. So even a beginner can benefit from this software. Of course MusicJOT is loaded with tools that are presently beyond my training in music theory to use, but I look forward to learning how to use them effectively as I progress. For those who are already fully fluent in musical notation, this software offers limitless opportunities to realize your ideas in a publishable format. In sum, I highly recommend this product for beginning music theory students, particularly for class assignments, and for advanced musicians alike. This app is by far more the most sophisticated and powerful program I own. Show more

This app is a great new tool for composers. Anyone serious about having a tool easier to use than the big, expensive palette-driven desktop packages and one you can use on a train or plane should consider this app. This is not a toy, it is a full-featured composing tool for mobile users. The handwriting is magic and although it makes some mistakes, the developers appear extremely committed to continual updates. The interface is clean and easy to understand. The tutorials are clever and explanatory. I have contacted them with questions already and they have been very responsive. All the updates appear to be free. I don’t like getting lured into an app by a cheap price only to find that I have to spend more money just to get the thing doing something useful. Their approach seems more honest to me. I especially like the layers feature, which I’ve never seen before. When you’ve got lots of expressions and dynamics and slurs, it is easier to enter new stuff when you can hide all of that and just see the notes. I also think the palette (non-handwriting) aspect of the app is very well done. Dragging pitches up/down and durations left/right is super easy. They even have a little interval indicator when dragging pitches which is pretty cool. So you can drag a bunch of notes up and you can see how far (intervallic distance) you dragged before you even let go. Never seen that before. They’ve got the right approach to a monstrously difficult genre. Show more

I have been a composer since I was 8 years old and am now 77. I was in a music composition dept for 40 years asa prod of composition. For me, working with a pencil, even on an iPad Pro is organic and natural. I use Dorico 3 now and am amazed at the progress they are making at being comfortable and and transparent; but, sometimes there is nothing quite like a pencil. I have tried several iOS notation programs and they just didn’t work or were clumsy musicJOT is the first program that I feel comfortable with and doesn’t get in the way. I give it a 5 showing faith in their future updates. There are few missing functions that I hope will find their way into the program. As it exists it is more useful for sketching on the iPad Pro then moving to dorico 3 through XML for detailed work than any other program. Show more

Extremely Frustrating app to use. Nothing works the way it should and it crashes constantly.

Guess I should have done more research before wasting my money on this. There are pitched percussion options, but no options to write snare drum, bass drum or any other non-pitched percussion. Show more

I love the idea of the app but it is impossible to use. It seems the more notes you add to a score the more it crashes. I have reached the point in a project where if you try to do anything it crashes automatically. Adding a note, zooming in and out, selecting a note causes it to crash. It only has two staves with lyrics and like fifty measures, so it is not like a full piece. But if you start a new project and add notes and whatever, it works fine... for a while. So there is clearly an issue with the amount of material that is added to a score affecting how it performs. There has been 2 or 3 updates since I have been unable to add anything, and none have fixed the problem. I paid $30 for the app and I can’t use it. Show more

Waste of $30. There are better apps with more features that are priced less. This one isn’t total crap but considering it’s price and it’s lack of basic features it’s not worth the money. Show more

I was staying away from this app for awhile to let it get its bearings together, and honestly I was just frustrated with all the crashes and difficulty using it. But I came back to it today after about a year of not bothering with it to see what updates have been made since when I did contact customer support they got back to me very quickly and resolved one my issues with the app. For one it runs much smoother than before, and I'm having less issues writing the notes and getting them in the system correctly. But unfortunately about part way through a new project it crashed and scrambled the notes once I opened it back up and basically ruined my project. It does have a lot of potential, I really want to like it, but for now I'm not completely sold on it or the price I paid for it. Thankfully it looks like it has a dedicated team working on it. Show more

I have been using this app for over a year now. The developers continue to improve and refine it. All music composition programs are complicated – notation is a very tricky medium. Finale requires study and practice to use. Sibelius requires study and practice to use. MusicJot requires study and practice to use. Learn each category of operation separately before trying to compose the next great symphony. If you have to figure out each step as you go, then you are going to make mistakes. If you make mistakes, you’re going to blame the program. Learn to operate the program in the same way that you learn to play on an instrument. First practice, then perform. At least, that’s the way it works for me. Great app! Show more

I like many others was disappointed when this program first launched. It was extremely buggy and this lead to frustration. I thought I wasted my money. However, with the recent updates this program has improved tremendously. The handwriting recognition has improved by over 60%(IMO), that’s huge. I experienced no crashes(thus far). The interface is a lot smoother than what it was. I still have to test how it performs when writing big symphonies, as previously there use to be lag and slowdown. The samples still need major improvement as it sounds , well, mediocre. I am writing this review as I feel 1.7 average rating is unfair to the developers as of January 2018. They have showed that they are willing to fix bugs and that’s a win on my end. I will update this review if things get bleak or better. I have reviewed this on an iPad Pro 10.5inch. I am currently studying in a music college , so you know how useful this app is to me. Show more

This app has real potential! The concept is one that any musician would want, much like Finale, but at a much lower price, and so fun to use on a tablet! For the most part, the interface does what I want/expect it to do. I will say, THE HANDWRITING RECOGNITION IS VERY IMPRESSIVE! However, I do have trouble getting the program to recognize polyphony and chords on a single track, which is a bit of a setback, especially as a classical guitarist. The app does crash fairly often, but I have a feeling it is related to the iOS 11 update. This app is still in it’s infancy, so I’ll cut some slack for now because I have huge expectations for what it will become. Show more

I wrote an earlier review of this app when it was crashing all the time and have come back to update the review. I hate just about everything about this app. You can’t move the note selection bar around to different parts of the screen, you can’t just swipe to advance the bar, you have to use tiny little buttons up in the left hand part of the screen. You can’t just tap to enter a note, you have to hold for a second, the only way to delete a note is to select it and then a tiny little menu appears at the bottom of the screen with a delete button. Even with plenty of real estate on an iPad Pro you can’t have the immovable note selection bar show rests and notes, you have to constantly switch between them which is a hassle unless you don’t use rests in your music. Handwriting notation is a nightmare. This was a total waste of money. I have hundreds of music apps, synthesizers, DAWs, effects and notation programs and this is by far the last on the list. Edit: This will be my final review of this product as I have just purchased Notion which is twice the program at half the ‘discounted’ price of Musicjot (it’s almost October 2017, the ‘sale’ was supposed to end in March). I am removing this app from my Pro and won’t be doing business with this company ever again. Show more

Didn't get the promotional price as advertised, was charged full freight. Oh well. Now the app closes itself after opening for just a few seconds. Controls are not very intuitive...broad learning curve to perform what should be simple tasks. Seems to be missing some important elements as far as repeat management (1st and 2nd endings, etc.). Save your money. Show more

I've tried to update MusicJOT about 10 times over a two week period on different wifi networks. It is a wonderful app. Please fix the download from the App Store iPad Pro 10.5" 512G Show more

I had high hopes for this, bit the bullet and spent my hard-earned money for something that constantly shuts down. Upon finally finishing a short project for my students that I was using to test it out, I transferred it to pdf to print out and it looks horrible. Don't waste your money. Show more

I am a composer and a student of music. I have been looking for an application like for a long time. Note To Developer: -The GUI needs a little more love. -Score Manager does not update after Save As. One must change the Sort to "manually" update the list. -The GUI definitely needs a little more love but I love the app' utility and functionality. -The exporting function needs better implementation with iOS. For example, I would love to be able to export MIDI directly to my iPad (iCloud Drive and the new Files app in iOS 11) or to Cubase for iOS. Currently I have to save the MIDI as a draft email and then go into Mail where I can save the file or Import into Cubase. -I love the Save As feature but even when I rename a score it creates a new score as a Save As. -I use this app side by side with iBooks or Notes so I'd love to see better support for Split View and Slide Over. For example, I notice the toolbar disappears when I enter Split View. Show more

My go to software for music is still my ancient copy of Finale 2.6.1 or something. Corrupt and full of non working features it still does what I want. I can't get MusicJot to do what I want. I try to correct something and I wind up adding notes. I use help and it tells me nothing that I need. I try to put in an eighth note and I get a quarter note. I try to erase and I add notes. I use the pencil in other apps without a problem but this app seems counter intuitive. My needs are simple but so far MusicJot isn't answering them. Thirty bucks wasted. Pete the Grouch Show more