Played the melody over the resulting backing trackĬhanged parameters (tempo, style, time signature…) which stimulated spontaneous artistic choices by adapting a piece on the fly.Īvoid starting with a blank file until you are more familiar with editing. Here's what we did.Įntered them into iRealPro which I shared with them. For example, I made an iRealPro track of the famous Bach Minuet for my students. It's just more fun to play with a groove which leads to longer practice sessions.īy the way, iRealPro is not just for jazzers. Increased confidence and more secure memory follows from understanding the structure and harmony of a piece as shown in the app independently from the written page. Bach to a rock beat kind of works.Ĭonnections can be made between music theory harmony and actual music by, for example, playing a piece mostly by memory but following along with the chords in the app. Rhythmically compelling contemporary styles can make historically important pieces seem more relevant to students e.g. So, it's a good remedy for bad "pause and fix" practice habits. Just as in real ensembles, backing tracks don't wait for stumbling musicians. Like a metronome, the automated tracks insist on a steady beat but the styles are much more inspiring for playing along. Keep in mind, however, that the unedited tracks found there can be made by anyone and so do not necessarily contain accurate chords for a given tune. Many more tunes in a variety of genres can be downloaded from a forum that is accessible from inside the app. The files are easily shared with students or bandmates in an iRealPro format (playable only in the app) or converted to mp3 or MIDI formats. So, if you are a piano player, you can turn down the piano track in order to better hear yourself. The mix can be adjusted to emphasize or deemphasize particular instruments. On any given tune, you can change the key, tempo, style, time signature… The library of tunes you build can be organized in the playlists that synch with all your devices. It comes with a collection of jazz exercises but you'll want to create your own custom tracks. Apple and Android smart phones, tablets, Mac computers… The accompaniment to the jazz charts are passable, but some of the arrangements that accompany the pop charts sound like they were churned out by a cut-rate wedding band.RealPro works on multiple devices i.e. The styles offered by iReal Pro are just as limited. For instance, for the piano track you can choose an acoustic piano, electric piano, or vibraphone. And within each instrument, you have just a few variations. Regrettably, you don’t have the option to choose better-quality instrument sounds that you may have added to your Mac-via GarageBand or Logic Pro X, for example. Background tracks use the Mac’s built-in software instrument sounds, which are only okay. Instrumentally, iReal Pro is pretty limited. You can additionally export tracks as audio or MIDI files or email charts as HTML files that other users can import into their own libraries. While arranging a tune, you can change time signatures, enter repeats, create sections, and mark sections as an intro or verse. Just pull up the editor and enter in the chart area the chords you like. While the forums provide you with plenty of material, iReal Pro also includes an editor so that you can create tunes of your own. With iReal Pro’s editor, you can edit existing charts or create new ones from scratch. No melody lines or lyrics are included, which I suspect is how the app’s developers get around any copyright issues-after all, if you could copyright chord progressions, the Blues bin at the local record store would hold exactly one album. Click one of these links and the charts are automatically added to iReal Pro and gathered in a playlist. For example, choose the Jazz forum, and you’ll find links to a load of jazz standards. And you should, because it’s within those forums that you’ll find links to the tunes you really want to play. However, when you first install the app, you’re cleverly asked if you’d like to visit the iReal Pro forums. This isn’t much to start with, and it certainly doesn’t reflect the content of the real Real Book. Pick a tune on the left, and you can read the chart for that track on the right.īy default, you’re supplied with 50 exercise charts. When you press the Play button you hear clicks (the count-off) that indicates the song’s tempo the highlight moves through the chart as the song plays, so you know which chords to accompany. By default, the currently playing measure is highlighted in yellow (though you can change the highlight color as well as the color of the background “paper”). And on the far right are the chords and arrangement for the selected song. Just to the right of that is a list of songs in the selected library or playlist. Along the left side of the window is a Library pane where you choose from among libraries and playlists of tunes.
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