Upon digging deeper, I am finding GarageBand to be more useful than I initially gave credit for. In addition to the live keyboard, I am finding the ability to create custom loops for classroom demonstration and playalong purposes to be invaluable. Today I used it for a class I am teaching on Latin jazz, and it was great to be able to play a percussion groove for the students and then solo the various instruments or hear them in specific combinations. I guess most people already know more about this app than I do and were scoffing at my rudimentary use of it as described previously, but anyhow, consider me impressed.

A few more apps and accessories I’ve been making use of lately:

forScore – this has long been considered the gold standard for PDF score reading apps. I never really saw much point myself, as there are any number of PDF reading apps including Adobe’s own, plus apps like unRealBook and Set List Maker described above. But I have to say, forScore really excels at what it does. It provides useful organization facilities, annotation facilities, and well-thought-out navigation controls. I still rely on unRealBook for access to my fakebooks, Set List Maker for overall band organization. But when I have some random pieces of sheet music I want to read on my iPad for whatever reason, forScore is now my go-to app.

Notion – this is the only reasonably full-featured notation app currently available for iPad, now that it’s main competitor has closed up shop. While it is quite rudimentary compared to MuseScore on Windows/MacOS/Linux, and I could not see using Notion as my main notation program, it does provide the ability to notate on the go, and that’s nothing to sneeze at. I can use it for demos in teaching situations where there is no white board but where I want to demonstrate something by writing it out, and the built-in playback is actually very good in itself. Notion plays very well with MusicXML, so you can develop a score in MuseScore then transfer it to Notion for to hear score-synchronized playback on your iPad, or start sketching a score in Notion then transfer to MuseScore for further work.

JBL Charge – earlier I mentioned the JBL Micro Wireless speaker, which is wonderful for the price and size. But it does not quite put out enough sound to be ideal for classroom or playalong (eg, iReal b) purposes. The Charge is the Micro Wireless on steroids. It costs over twice as much ($150) and is considerably bigger (about the size of my travel coffee mug, as opposed to the scone-sized Micro Wireless). But the Charge puts out correspondingly more sound. In this respect it is similar to the Flip – another speaker by JBL that came out around the same time as the Micro Wireless and was until recently considered the best of the portable wireless speakers. But while all small speakers tend to be extremely bright and treble-heavy, the Flip is rather more so than average, and the Charge is rather less so. Which is to say, the Charge is more neutral sounding – much more comparable to a small / bookshelf home stereo system or high end clock radio like the Bose Wave – while also providing noticeably better bass response (especially valuable for playalong purposes) than the Flip. The Charge also has an unusually powerful battery that – unlike the Flip – can be charged by USB. It even provides powered USB output to charge your iPhone, although this uses up its own charge pretty quickly.

JBL Micro Wireless (portable Bluetooth speaker) – for $60, this is easily the best portable speaker I have ever used, wireless or otherwise. It’s literally pocket-sized, requires no additional cords or power adapters, and It puts out a surprising amount and quality of sound (with real, audible bass!) for something this inexpensive and small. It also has an integrated audio cable with an 1/8″ plug that tucks away when not in use. I take this with me everywhere I teach and use it to play music for my students in the classroom, my office, rehearsal spaces, etc.

JVC Flats (lightweight headphones) – I’m no audiophile and won’t try to convince you that these $12 folding headphones will perform like headphones costing ten times as much. But if you are using the earbuds that came with your device, you will find the JVC Flats so much better you’ll have a hard time going back. I would never try to use the earbuds or the built-in speakers on my iPhone or iPad for transcribing music – it is just too difficult to hear the detail in the musc, and the bass is practically non-existent. But the JVC Flats perform just fine for this purpose.

STM Slim Small (shoulder bag) – this bag is perfect for an iPad and a small notebook or folder for music or other papers. It seems that most of the bags specifically designed for the iPad are a little too small to also fit a notebook of any kind, which limits their usefulness for classroom purposes. Yet larger briefcases are usually either too flimsy to provide any sort of protection or else so bulky that they defeat much of the advantage of using an iPad rather than a laptop. I’m somewhat of a connoisseur of bags, having tried and used dozens of different models for everything from laptops to camping equipment, from cameras to art supplies. This STM Slim bag (“Small” size) really stands out for me as very well designed.

– the last word, I believe, you meant to be “third”, not “triad”.