Songtive is an Android app designed for budding musicians that want to harness their creativity whenever it hits them as well as get inspiration from other users’ work. Songtive is a composition tool that allows musicians to work with chords and notes from a piano, a guitar or a drumset as well as many more instruments, too. It’s a tool that allows users unlimited amounts of sounds and drumsets in order to compose whatever it is they like, and it’s something that a lot of musicians on the move will appreciate. An app focused around chord charts and styles, Songtive is a social app that allows for sharing of work with friends and has an almost collaborative feel about it, available on Android, iOS as well as in your web browser, this is a powerful and inexpensive tool to prototype melodies, styles and arrangements.
We’re focusing on the Android app here, and that can be downloaded from the Play Store for free here. When it first opens, the app will need to download some extra content, but this doesn’t take long.
Songtive can be a complicated app for those not familiar with this sort of arrangement and chord style, but luckily the developers have gone to great lengths to make it accessible to everyone. There’s a lot of content available on the Songtive website, and the app itself even links to an online tutorial as well.
There’s also a great video playlist on YouTube full of in-depth, step-by-step tutorials to watch as well. Although these have been designed for the iOS version of the app, the concept is fairly similar on Android, too.
Creating a new style or chord arrangement is really easy, all users need to do is hit the + icon on the main screen and they can get to work.
The interface for Songtive works fairly well, and a slide-out menu will have all the different parts that the app has to offer at a moment’s notice.
This leads us neatly on to the social element of Songtive, where we can see which songs and styles are popular depending on their date, which include some great tracks.
Hit songs like “Let It Go” have been composed by other people online, which allows users to take inspiration from this, try to perfect or learn how to play it in a different key, with a different instrument – or whatever they want.
The social element of Songtive goes much further than this of course, and allows people to comment, share other links and generally interact with each other around a common interest; making great music.
Users can also sign up for an account and save their styles and compositions for whenever they need them, perhaps back at home with professional software or in the studio.
Songtive has a great many features to offer users, including the ability to set rhythm and such through drumsets and dynamically adjust the BPM from 40 upwards.
When it comes to instruments, Songtive has a lot of boxes ticked, and it allows people to not just experiment with one or two of them, but with some of the best including the piano and the guitar.
While I am not a musician, and never even completed being able to play the guitar to a mediocre level, I can understood the roll that tools like these can play, and how important they can be. Musicians get their inspiration from all sorts of places and at all sorts of times, which makes being able to create something whenever and wherever you are with Songtive so powerful. Imagine being struck with a rhythm on the commute or traveling to a rehearsal or whatever and being able to prototype it using chords or single notes on the piano or even an electric guitar. This is the power of Songtive, it has a hell of a lot going for it, and it can help unlock the most simple of rhythms or patterns into something more realized and fully-blown. Connecting with others and seeing what they’re capable of is also a great way of making sure that people get inspiration from different places and have fun creating their next masterpiece.
Ratings
- Speed (4/5) – Songtive runs nice and smoothly, and while it takes some time to get started, the app runs well.
- Features (4/5) – Everything you could want in a music app is here, especially given its flexible, yet focused nature.
- Theme (4/5) – The interface is easy enough to follow and the app itself works well in terms of user interface and there’s little to complain about.
- Overall (4/5) – Some more interactive tutorials inside of the app would be nice to see, but Songtive offers users a wealth of free information, making this well worth looking into.
Pros
- Super-simple to download and setup without having to jump through any hoops or whatever.
- Allows for simple composition of songs, style sheets and chord charts all in one app.
- Gives users the opportunity to connect, share and almost collaborate on piece of music.
- Lots of free information out there to help new users get the most out of the app no matter their level of technical ability.
Cons
- Will seem confusing and unclear to those that aren’t musicians by trade or deeply involved as a hobby.
- Despite the in-depth videos and information on their website, an interactive tutorial included in the app would work wonders.
All-in-all, Songtive has a lot going for it, but without an interactive tutorial, more casual users might be put off by the app. Having said that, musicians that are looking for something to prototype new ideas and such no matter where they are, Songtive will do all of that and more. It looks good, works well and can help musicians connect together over common ground no matter where they are or what they’re doing.