You name it, you can probably play it on the iPad. That's the genius of the blank slate: All it takes is an app, and your iPad can be just about anything musical, such as a guitar, a keyboard, a drum machine, some sheet music or a beatbox.

Heck, if you wanted to, you could replace your recording studio or create an entire rock band with nothing more than an iPad and a suite of apps. (Though you probably won't get lucky nearly as much as a traditional rock star.) And if cranking tunes out of a tablet isn't your thing, there's a host of neat, interactive apps that teach you how to play real instruments.

From synthesizers to loop creators, and from sheet-music readers to recording tools, here are some of the coolest iPad apps for musicians we've found in the App Store.

Made by Apple, the GarageBand app is simply stunning. The app packs a virtual piano, guitar, bass guitar and drum set into an easy-to-use music suite for recording songs.

Especially neat are Apple's Smart instruments, which contain preset chords and rhythms for each instrument, so anything you play can sound good. This way, people of all ages will be able to pick up an iPad and compose some neat tunes.

$5 Download GarageBand.