I've never been great with musical instruments. In fact I'm so bad that I once tried blowing into the end of a violin trying to get a note. As a result, I'm often a bit scared about reviewing musical applications but I was pleasantly surprised with how beginner-friendly ScaleMaster is.
The Palm program allows you to experiment with different scales to perfect your musical compositions and harmonies. Like I said, I'm a bit of a novice when it comes to playing music and I never realised just how many different scales there are. There are over 100 listed in ScaleMaster and they originate from all four corners of the globe.
It's easy to become bogged down in technical jiggery pokery in many music apps, but what I like about this program is its simplicity. You simply choose one of the scales from the drop-down list, pick from one of four clefs (treble, bass, alto or tenor) then choose a virtual instrument to help you learn the scale. All the notes in the scale are then displayed through a clear, colourful depiction of that instrument. The instruments available are the piano, guitar, drums, mandolin.
You get a few options to tinker around with, such as volume settings, notation appearance and the ordering of the scales. I would have liked to have seen audio previews of the scales when you highlight them from the drop-down list, but generally I really enjoyed using this one (although my favourite instrument, the bassoon was missing from the virtual instruments).
Whether you're a beginner or a musical genius, ScaleMaster provides a great way of learning scales on the bus.
Download ScaleMaster 1.5 in