MTI RehearScore 4+

My school is using this app for our production of Mamma Mia and it’s fine. I really like that I can isolate my vocal part when I practice at home. However, I don’t like that your phone has to open to hear the songs. Sometimes when I'm practicing, my phone will turn off because I’m not pressing any buttons and the music stops playing. When you have a smaller vocal part and only have the notes playing with out the background stuff playing, it can take a while to notice the app is off which wastes a lot of time. We use this app during rehearsals to and it annoying when we have to stop to turn the app back on. I also wish there was a way to see all the lyrics so you don’t have to have your script on you to practice. It’s also a little annoying because you have to have your ringer on and when you get a text it is distracting. It’s a solid app but really could be better if these things were changed.

Our school used this app to rehearse for Beauty and the Beast. Our music director cut lots of small things throughout the show, which is a feature not possible while just listening to the Broadway versions of the songs and therefore is helpful. However, everything else is very terrible. More MIDI instruments instead of the same annoying piano sound for every part would work wonders (even if the digital instruments sound awful)! Vamps don’t work right and it always sounds like something broke every time somebody has to frantically rush over to their phone to move on. Also, why does the software stop when your phone turns off? This in combination with the vamps issue means that somebody has to always sit by the phone connected to the speaker in order for everything to work right. Your ringer also needs to be on for some reason. Receiving a text means the music completely stops for a good two seconds. Rhythm always sounds off; it feels clunky and low effort and really throws off the more musically inclined members of the cast. Finally, why is there no good way to see the lyrics while playing the music? I feel like that’s a given.

TL:DR - In theory, this app could be really good, but is extremely low effort and misses many features that should be no-brainers for an app of this kind. Doesn’t have much going for it.

This app is not great. I’m very much a musical novice, but it lacks a number of options that I would think should come standard. It would be so great if you could change the software instruments of the singer channels and the accompaniment. It’s just a software instrument. Load up a piano, organ, flute, sax, guitar, synth, harp, whatever…MIDI technology is decades old. Heck, I’d be happy if the singers and accompaniment had different instruments. Also, it would great to have an “auto-advance” feature. I like practicing in the shower, and I can’t because there’s a vamp that I can’t exit without tapping my phone. It would also be great if the lyrics could toggled on and played on the screen like karaoke. I can’t really read a music score to save my life, but I can follow a (metaphorical) bouncing ball. That, and the fact that the app stops when your screen locks is super annoying. I like putting in my headphones and practicing my choreo, but I have to contend with accidentally hitting my screen in the middle of a move.

But we know this is just venting, because MTI has a duopoly over musical theater and they have very little incentive to fix anything, so I hope they can address some of these issues but I doubt it.