Essential Songwriting Apps for Android & IOS
Whether you are a seasonal or novice songwriter or somebody trying to break free from writers block, a mobile application to help you write songs is a helpful tool to have. Sometimes you don't always have time or access to a pen and pad to scribble your down your thoughts. This is one of the many reasons why having a dedicated mobile app for writing songs is useful.
This is comprehensive list of the current best songwriting mobile applications available for both Android and iPhone devices.
Evernote - Free
Did you know that professional song writers such as Ed Sheeran and many more artists, use a regular note applications on their phone to help them create songs?
A regular note taking application such as Evernote is an essential application to have for all songwriters.
The main feature of Evernote is to use it as a notepad, which right off the bat makes it a perfect app for writing lyrics. You can take notes in a bunch of different formats, including text, sketches, photos, audio, video, PDFs, and web clippings.
You can even scan pieces of paper with your phone camera and upload them to Evernote, so if you have songs that you’ve written on paper and don’t want to take the time to type them up on your phone, this is a really nice feature.
You can also combine notes into folders in Evernote to make whole notebooks. If you have a bunch of lyrics that you plan to put on an album, you can combine the lyric files and turn them into a notebook so they’re in one place where you can access them quickly and efficiently.
Evernote syncs to all your devices so you won’t have to worry about losing your work, but you will need an internet connection to use it in order for it to upload and save. You also have the ability to share your work with others pretty easily.
Evernote is free, but if you want more space you can purchase Evernote Premium which allows you 10 GB of new uploads each month, offline access, the ability to annotate PDFs and save emails to Evernote, the ability to scan and digitize business cards, and unlimited device syncing, among other features. I recommend this app to everyone; it’s fantastic and I can attest to that because I’ve used it before for my own lyrics. Be sure not to pass it up.
Evernote is available on Android and IOS as well as Windows and Mac. This means can use the builtin cloud share technology to carry your notes across all platforms.
Songwriter’s Pad - Free
Songwriter’s Pad is another really great, versatile tool for lyricists and even musicians.
Something different about Songwriter’s Pad that I’ve noticed is that aside from a rhyming dictionary, dictionary, and thesaurus, Songwriter’s Pad as a search function where you can generate ideas based on emotion. Songwriter’s Pad will give you ideas and phrases you can use for your songs based on whatever emotion you choose.
Additionally, of course, no lyric writing app would be complete without a rhyme dictionary. Songwriter Pad’s rhyme dictionary requires internet, but this means that the database of words is exceptionally bigger than offline rhyme dictionaries since it’s directly connected to the internet.
Songwriter’s Pad also has a dictionary and thesaurus; again, internet or data is required to use them.
Another neat feature of Songwriter’s Pad is the chord notation feature. If you play an instrument or want to add chords to your song lyrics, you can do so with Songwriter’s Pad. You can also use the built in recorder to record your lyrics or chords in the audio player portion of the app.
If you're looking for high quality recordings it might be time for you to get a studio microphone.
This app also has a place where you can add information about the song, such as the author, copyright date, publisher, and the key and tempo of the song.
On top of all this, Songwriter’s Pad syncs to the Cloud so you’ll never have to worry about losing your completed songs or your basic ideas. You can also export your songs.
This is an app that I would also recommend to anyone. The app comes free and you can write two songs with it before it asks you to upgrade to the Pro version which gives you unlimited access and the ability to write all the songs you want in the app.
Lyric Notepad - Free
Lyric Notepad is an amazing app for songwriters, musicians, and rappers. It is a great all in one tool for anyone who wants to mess around with lyrics. Lyric Notepad features a built-in recorder, rhyme matching, a syllable counter, measure mode, word lookup, a metronome, and a notepad.
The notepad is a collapsible page that hangs around on your screen in the app so that you can go from feature to feature quickly and easily and then navigate back to the notepad with the touch of a button.
Once you’re done typing, Lyric Notepad goes through the text you’ve written and checks for matching words. Any matching rhymes will become color coded.
The recorder enables you to record your voice with your phone's inbuilt microphone, an instrument, or whatever else, and attach it to any part of your lyrics in the notepad. This way you won’t forget the melody or what chords go with a certain part of your song.
The word lookup feature allows you to find rhymes for your lyrics, and like the notepad, is a collapsible page that you can go back to with the press of a button without losing your place on the current page you’re on.
With the syllable counter, all the syllables in each line of your lyrics are counted and the number is shown on the left side of the screen.
Measure mode allows you to break your lyrics up into quarter measures, which simplifies things for when you practice your lyrics. You can set the lyrics to scroll at a certain BPM.
The metronome function syncs the lyric measures and the background of the app so you can use it as a visual aid if you go by seeing more than hearing.
I would recommend this app for any lyricist. It’s amazing, and it’s free.
If you don't have a laptop or computer it is still possible to record and produce music.
I have also written a detailed list of the top android that you can use to produce music straight from your phone.
Rhyme Time Professional - Free
Rhyme Time Professional, by MNSC, is a rhyming dictionary, as the name suggests, but aside from that, it has a notepad for you to use to work out your songs and ideas.
Rhyme Time’s database has over 100,000 words for you to choose from, along with their definitions and pronunciation. Rhyme Time enables you to hear the pronunciation out loud as well. Using the database and rhyme search doesn’t require internet, but hearing the pronunciation of each word and reading the definitions does require internet.
This app lets you choose different types of rhymes to choose from to help you find the right word. This includes perfect rhymes, half rhymes, vowel rhymes, consonant rhymes, head rhymes, eye rhymes, semi rhymes, rich rhymes, and oblique rhymes. Most of these I’ve never even heard of before, so the app seems to have a lot of flexibility and is quite the hidden gem.
When searching for the correct word, the results are sorted with the most commonly used words appearing at the top.
Rhyme Time Professional would be great for anyone who wants to write songs, poetry, or even just spice up their stories or essays with some less common word choices. It has a clean interface and is extremely easy to use. The app can be found on the Google Play Store at a price of $4. There’s a free version of Rhyme Time too if you don’t want to pay.
Rhymes for Rap - Free
Rhymes for Rap is one of the more unusual lyric writing apps.
Obviously, as the name suggests, Rhymes for Rap is mainly for rap lyrics. However, if you’re a lyricist in general, this app is a gold mine. Rhymes for Rap is a multi-syllable rhyming app. You simply enter a word in the search function, and it will come up with phrases that rhyme with the word.
For example, if you enter the word “deadbeat” into the search, Rhymes for Rap might come up with phrases like “red meat” or “lead feet.” If you search for something that rhymes with “end central,” it might come up with something like “death metal” or “next level.”
Rhymes for Rap lets you search for rhyming words and phrases up to six syllables long. It works great for one to two syllable words, but if you put in some longer words or phrases, you can get some crazy results. I tried this one out myself and ended up with some really witty rhymes. You also have the ability to favorite and bookmark different phrases for easy access later.
If you want to incorporate some really witty and potentially humorous lyrics into your songs or raps, this app is perfect. I haven’t seen anything like it and I highly recommend it to add a bit of interesting wordplay to your lyrics. Rhymes for Rap is free to download.
Rhyme Builder - Free
Rhyme Builder is a very simple app for writing lyrics. It gets the job done easily and has no frills.
Upon opening Rhyme Builder, you can start a new song or load previously saved songs. If you start a new song, it tells you to enter the first line. Whichever word happens to be the last word in the first line, from there, Rhyme Builder pulls up a list of words that rhyme with that word.
You can select a word from the list and then it adds it to your next line. You type another line and again, the list of rhyming words adjusts depending on what word is used last in the new line.
When you’re finished with your lyrics, you can save them in the app. If at any point you need to go back in and edit them, you can do so on the startup screen using the “load” option.
I tested this app out myself and came up with some nonsense lyrics that would probably fit a rap song. The app was really easy to use and straightforward. I would recommend it for someone who wants to come up with good rhymes at a quick pace because of how straightforward, simple, and non-distracting it is.
It’s a very fast way to write lyrics because the list of rhyming words appears as you type each line; you don’t have to go to a completely different page and search for a word that rhymes like you might have to in a rhyming dictionary.
You can get this app for free on the Play Store.
Write Songs - $0.99
Write Songs is another lyric writing app that has multiple features aside from just lyric writing.
It has a paid version that costs $0.99 or a lite version that i free.
Write Songs has a notepad for you to write your lyrics in, a rhyming dictionary, a normal dictionary, a thesaurus, a voice recorder, and even a song idea generator.
We’re all pretty familiar with the notepad and rhyme dictionaries by now, as well as the normal dictionary and the thesaurus. These seem to be the main staples for any good lyric writing app. Write Songs has them and they’re easy to use.
However, the song idea generator is something that I haven’t seen around too much. In the song idea generator, all you have to do is press a button and over 300 ideas will show up on the page. Things like writing a song about two groups fighting for something that doesn’t exist, or writing a song using only metaphors. I went through some of the ideas and most of them were really thought provoking and challenging.
Something else that I haven’t really seen much of is direct uploading to social media. In Write Songs, you can record voice recordings of your lyrics while they autoscroll down the screen. From there, you can upload your voice recordings directly to SoundCloud. You can also create playlists of these voice recordings.
One of the side features of this app is that it includes a section called “Classic Verses.” Each time you press the “next” button in this section, it gives you an example of a classic rap verse by people like Rick Ross or Tony Montana. You can use this to analyze what the greats did.
I’d recommend this app for lyricists and rappers especially. It’s definitely underrated.
The lite version of the app is free and the full version can be bought for $1.
Related Questions:
Will these mobile applications help my ability to write lyrics? These applications will make it easier for you to write down your ideas and have built-in tools to help you write better lyrics for your music.
How can I improve my music lyrics? Practice makes perfect. By practicing daily and continue to be more creative, is when you will improve your ability to write lyrics. Especially if you're writing lyrics for hip-hop as your rhyming ability will get better the more you practice.
