For musicians of all skill levels, learning new songs can often require a whole lot of paper. Whether you prefer printing out tabs from the Internet or purchasing a myriad of magazines and books, the end result is stacks and stacks of sheet music that can be both costly and inconvenient. But the iPad offers musicians an interesting new option, as the combination of portability and power (plus a user-friendly multitouch interface) lends itself very well to the act of reading and performing sheet music. And it certainly doesn't hurt that the iPad is the perfect size to sit upon a traditional music stand.
Agile Partners hopes to be the first to take advantage of the iPad's potential in this particular market, as it gears up to launch an enhanced version of its popular iPhone tab/sheet music reader, TabToolkit($9.99). The app may be available for those who pick up their iPads this weekend, if not shortly thereafter, and it's clear that the developer sees the tablet as something that could completely change the way people consume sheet music.
"It will let us do things that just wouldn't have been possible on the iPhone, and not just technically," says Jack Ivers, principal at Agile Partners. "This is going to be a transformational device, and we're already seeing that in publishing; that this is changing the face of publishing already. We think the next most likely world that the iPad is going to transform is going to be the music space."
TabToolkit has already been acclaimed on the iPhone for a variety of unique features, including letting you hear how individual instruments should sound in a song, showing finger placement on guitar and piano for each note, and automatically scrolling through lines as you play. While the iPad version will maintain all of these useful abilities, Ivers says the device's distinct features actually make this new iteration the best possible tab and sheet music-reading experience for musicians.
"It's not just a larger screen; it's really the ideal way to consume guitar tablature and sheet music," asserts Ivers. "The iPad is not just a bigger device -- it sits between the iPhone and the MacBook Pro, as a portable device -- but it's important to bear in mind that the touch interface is actually far superior to desktop and laptop computers right now. If you're going to move around a tab or a piece of sheet music, there's no better, easier, or more comfortable way to do so than to touch the screen."
As seen in the these images, TabToolkit takes sharp advantage of the iPad's large display and unique user interface constructs, letting you view multiple lines of music at any time and easily access various controls. Popover menus, in particular, get a lot of play in TabToolkit, as a single touch now grants access to things like playback speed and volume, scrolling and size options, and many other variables that previously required additional effort to access on the iPhone. Ivers believes iPad users accustomed to using iPhone apps will be taken aback by how distinct many upgraded apps will be, as developers must truly start fresh to create the best possible experience on the tablet.
"I think the reimagining of the apps is what will surprise people. I think people will be surprised that the apps are not just bigger, but they're different. They're going to look different, and have features that are surprising," says Ivers. "[You have to] reimagine the application, to try to forget everything you used to know about the application, and reimagine how it would be implemented on this platform."
Beyond the actual tab viewing function, which includes a new vertical scrolling option (only horizontal scrolling was available on the iPhone), the library interface has also been completely overhauled, offering a multi-pane view that makes it easier to show a lot of information on a single screen. TabToolkit comes with a starter pack of more than 20 tabs, while others can either be imported into the app (in a variety of file formats) or eventually purchased from within via the upcoming Tab Store feature. Tabs and sheet music can also be easily made into favorites (and accessed through an accompanying filter), or sorted in a handful of other ways.
Claiming that TabToolkit is "breaking new ground as the first music rendering engine for the iPad," Ivers appears confident that his company's app will live up to its lofty goals, and fully utilize the iPad's functionality to redefine the way musicians learn songs.
"We think we can be at the forefront of that transformation because we've got a tool that does it very well, starting with a market that is highly interested in this," explains Ivers. "If you're a guitar player and you want to learn to play a song, this is just about the best tool you can use."
