What Is A Good Sheet Music Guitar Chord App For Iphone

"Y ou can't sing, you can't play, you look awful … you'll go a long way," was how KitKat portrayed the music industry's A&R process in its 1984 TV ad, albeit with the then-traditional fruit and flowers replaced by a four-fingered chocolate bar.

In 2015, not being able to sing or play is no barrier to making music for pleasure – yours, at least, if not the people within earshot – thanks to a generation of smartphone and tablet apps aimed at unlocking the creativity of musical novices.

They're not about making you a star, but rather about opening up our ancient, tribal instincts to make music rather than just listen to it. Here are 10 apps to try if you want to see what songs are lurking inside your brain waiting to get out.

Figure (Free)
iOS
Figure is the work of one of the most respected music/tech companies, Propellerhead Software, whose tools are used by a host of pro musicians. Figure is for everyone though: a tactile treat of an app to create electronic loops using drums, bass and lead melodies, with no prior knowledge required. You can also check out and remix other peoples' loops, and share your own.

Sing! Karaoke (Free + IAP)
Android / iOS
American developer Smule is at the forefront of the drive to get more people sharing the music-making process with one another. This is its app for home-karaoke singers: you can wail along to a big catalogue of tracks, and even duet with other users. A monthly £2.29 subscription gets you access to everything, while the chance to virtually sing with top stars can be a springboard to success.

Ninja Jamm (Free + IAP)
Android / iOS
Ninja Jamm was launched by pioneering label Ninja Tune as a way for fans to start making music with samples from artists including Amon Tobin, Mr Scruff and label founders Coldcut. You can buy "packs" of sounds from individual artists, then remix or create new tunes as you like. It's easy to start using, but with plenty of depth to explore as you get more confident.

GarageBand (£3.99)
iOS
In its desktop incarnation, GarageBand is a tool for all levels of working musician, but its iOS version is also a marvellous musical play-toy for novices. Stringing together drums, bass, guitar and piano to make your own tracks is easy – especially with its "smart" instruments – but the difficulty curve into doing more interesting and unique stuff is well judged too.

Magic Piano (Free + IAP)
Android / iOS
The second Smule app in this roundup, Magic Piano wants you to play along with a range of pop and classical songs on a virtual piano, including broadcasting your efforts to other people around the world – and even duetting with singers from the Sing! Karaoke app. Even if you have no ambitions to actually learn to play the piano, it's a brilliant stress-reliever.

Loopimal (£2.49)
iOS
The only app in this roundup that's specifically aimed at children, but it will bring a big smile to the face of parents too. It's a colourful, character-based sequencer for kids: they drag coloured shapes into place on a timeline to trigger different sounds – and animations for the animals on-screen. They can have up to four at once: essentially a four-track music tool where the "tracks" are a gorilla, a pig, a sloth and an octopus. Absolutely fab.

Scape (£8.99)
iOS
Not so much you making the music, as the music making itself. This is a "generative" music app made by musician Brian Eno and his development partner Peter Chilvers, whose previous collaboration Bloom is also worth a look. Scape creates ambient music by getting you to choose backgrounds and position shapes on them. It's excellent working music, and an interesting insight into the area of generative music – read this 2012 interview for more on Eno and Chilvers' aims.

Music Maker Jam (Free + IAP)
Android / iOS
The Magix Music Maker series has a long history before the smartphone and tablets era, but it has made the leap well. This app sees you arranging loops and samples – as well as your own vocal recordings – into songs. There's a catalogue of samples to choose from, with more available a sin-app purchases from chiptune to metal.

DM1 – The Drum Machine (£4.99)
iOS
If you're interested in touchscreen music-making, any of developer Fingerlab's music apps are worth buying: the company is one of the most inventive in this area. DM1 is a good introduction: a drum machine that combines faithful sounds with intuitive controls: fun to mess around with, but also a good app for working on early ideas if you're a more experienced musician.

Simply Piano by JoyTunes (Free)
iOS
Finally, a more traditional "learn to play" tool, focusing on piano. It gets you to prop your iPhone up near your piano or keyboard, and then work your way through a series of lessons. The app uses the iPhone microphone to listen to what you're playing, and rate your skills. It's not the first app with this idea, but it's one of the most accessible and fun.

Those are my choices, now tell us about yours. Particularly if you have some Android recommendations: there are plenty of very good music-making apps on Android for more experienced musicians, but a dearth of good ones for novices.

Note, DJing apps were left out of this piece as they will have a future roundup to themselves. The likes of Pacemaker, Edjing and Djay will have their time in the sun, but not just yet.