Tomplay Sheet Music 4+

Such a wonderful way to make music

Since moving from New York to a remote part of the country I had to leave the community orchestra I used to play with. Finding other musicians during Covid was impossible, especially as a wind player. Using Tomplay has been a wonderful way for me to explore the core clarinet repertoire. I love that you can slow down the score and speed it up - it allows me to master the fingerings. Now having spent much time with Tomplay, I have much of the core clarinet repertoire under my fingers. I have found a pianist and now I can bring to the table an advanced set of skills. When we get together I am much further on in my understanding and ability to play the music. Tomplay allows me to do all that embarrassing ground work in isolation before I come to the first rehearsal. I am confident that if there any mistakes are made at the first rehearsal it is not me. Also it’s a great way, after playing the music at the rehearsal, to come back and further refine things that I’ve learned. Because of my annual subscription, Tomplay offers a free transcription service. If there is a piece of music that isn’t available for clarinet but that’s available on another instrument I can request them to create a clarinet version. I could even specify whether I’d like it for A clarinet or B-flat clarinet. It’s a wonderful tool. I love it. I’m so happy that I bought it.

Really takes the edge off of the pandemic shut down

I am very glad that I discovered Tomplay. Like many people, I am an orchestra musician who has not been able to play with other people in person since the shutdown begin. Virtual performances are interesting but you’re not playing with other people at the same time. Some of these Tomplay pieces really get you almost there; especially chamber pieces like string quartets. Some of the accompaniments have very synthesized or distorted sound quality, but others sound quite good, and playing the chamber ensemble pieces with the music playing directly from my iPad, despite not being the best speakers in the world, was better than putting an earpiece in my ear because it’s more realistic to have the sound coming from outside. The first time I played a Beethoven string quartet this way, it was such a realistic experience that when I screwed up, I actually instinctively apologized to the virtual people in my iPad! And I have to say, when I got to the end of that first one, I think I got a little emotional… Ludwig would’ve been happy. It’s not perfect, but I’m giving it five stars anyways just because it fills such an important hole.

Developer Response ,

Thanks for your comment. We are happy to hear that you have a great time playing with our interactive music scores. We are currently working on re-recording some older music scores, but the process takes some time, specially with some studios closing or in limited capacity for Covid reasons.
In the meantime, please do not hesitate to flag us any quality issue you notice from your side https://tomplay.com/contact

It’s fun!!

It’s nice being able to hear the music as well as reading the notes to focus on nuances as one learns a new piece of music. Lots of features here that help the musician out, like being able to slow things down, choose what instruments one would like to hear and being able to record and annotate different fingerings and things. I’m both a cellist and classical guitarist so it’s nice to be able to find new music to work on in different areas, and the subscription is great for being able to just download new songs without even thinking about paying for song by song.

The downside that I see is that the sound quality is compromised when slowing down a piece, but I am working off an old iPad for now until a new model arrives in a few days- keep in mind an iPad 4 may not cut the mustard here, and then of course one could also be like me and download lots of songs, play all day and still feel like there’s so much to work on!! But then again, that’s also what makes it fun, by having so much to look forward to practicing. Good times, and I’m happy I downloaded this app