IReal Pro

[MarkRhodes]

Oh yes, the comping is awful, lol. I just turn it off completely.

How is that done? I have iReal Pro on my phone but all I know how to do is change keys and the tempo. I think I would use it more if I could just hear the bass and drums.

[grahambop]

How is that done? I have iReal Pro on my phone but all I know how to do is change keys and the tempo. I think I would use it more if I could just hear the bass and drums.

select the ‘mixer’ icon (4th one from the left at the bottom of the screen), then slide the piano level to zero.

also you can touch ‘piano’ in this mixer screen, and select other sounds e.g. vibes, Rhodes etc. Some of these might sound a bit better than the piano.

You can also swap the bass for a tuba, I haven’t tried that yet.

[mr. beaumont]

select the ‘mixer’ icon (4th one from the left at the bottom of the screen), then slide the piano level to zero.

Yep, I fire the piano player every time I open the app. Bassist ain't bad. Drummer's a bit boring, but serviceable. I actually really like practicing with only the bass.

[grahambop]

You can replace the drummer with a click, hadn’t noticed that before.

[grahambop]

also check out the ‘teacher’s hat’ (mortarboard), you can make it auto-change key or tempo at each chorus.

[greveost]

How is that done? I have iReal Pro on my phone but all I know how to do is change keys and the tempo. I think I would use it more if I could just hear the bass and drums.

Just pull the volume down all the way, as I think I mention in the video as well

Edit: oops, someone already mentioned it.

[rpjazzguitar]

In the shows I go to in the SF Bay Area and in NYC, I often see the musicians reading.

If they weren't reading, they'd have to play songs they all knew, which is limiting.

A more personal point -- I know about 100, maybe 125 tunes, which is nowhere near enough. My ears aren't good enough to transpose all of them to any key on the fly without making mistakes. I work on that, but I'll never get it to the level of the NYC wedding musicians of my youth. Should I give up music? I'd rather rely on IRealPro for the tunes I should know, but don't, and continue playing.

[christianm77]

In the shows I go to in the SF Bay Area and in NYC, I often see the musicians reading.

If they weren't reading, they'd have to play songs they all knew, which is limiting.

A more personal point -- I know about 100, maybe 125 tunes, which is nowhere near enough. My ears aren't good enough to transpose all of them to any key on the fly without making mistakes. I work on that, but I'll never get it to the level of the NYC wedding musicians of my youth. Should I give up music? I'd rather rely on IRealPro for the tunes I should know, but don't, and continue playing.

I think people sometimes use charts out of fear. Fear of fucking up, looking a fool in front of your peers, fear under the spotlight. Fear of failure.

Mistakes are not the worst thing. Really. It’s worse to play without feel for instance. A background gig is not going to fall apart because you played the wrong chord. The world won’t stop turning. It’s fine. Try and get it on the next pass. Maybe the bass or piano will help you out.

I respect honest mistakes a lot more than someone insulating themselves from risk. Mistakes are important because it means you are learning. Failure is the most important teacher. If you never allow yourself to fail, you can’t grow.

It helps to have the supportive environment - people who don’t get pissed off with you etc. And I hope I am supportive myself in that situation.... this learning experience doesn’t need to be Whiplash like. A chilled background gig with players who are open to a little risk.... well I think it livens up a routine gig.

Look if you are playing a standard, a sentence or two about the form and the bridge can be all you need - ‘it’s AABA F major, starts on ii and goes to Ab in the bridge.’

Imo the reason why we learn a zillion tunes is not because we want to learn a zillion tunes, but because we want to practice learning a tune by ear a zillion times. And lessons learned under pressure stick.

It’s the same as transcription. The licks don’t matter. What matters is the speed and fluency of the process.

Transposing is a good one too. Singer gigs are always good for that...

Also when you learn a tune, try teaching it someone else without a chart....

Again these things are more common in the trad and mainstream worlds where the repertoire is based around a narrow set of harmonic movements. But I do think they do this in NYC too.

[rpjazzguitar]

I think people sometimes use charts out of fear. Fear of fucking up, looking a fool in front of your peers, fear under the spotlight. Fear of failure. .

One long term, well known pro whose name you might know, told me that he likes having a chart, even for tunes he knows, saying "it frees me up". This is a guy who could easily function as a NYC wedding musician who knows every tune and doesn't care what key he plays them in.

Most players won't admit liking to have a chart, but he does.

[christianm77]

Please bear in mind is not how *I* do it in my wokring life... Mostly, I do it the way most people here do it, a mix of tunes I've learned, and stuff I'm reading. I have been in circles where everything is primarily aural, but like I said more on the dixieland side of things, maybe some standards stuff... it requires musos who are on the same page.

[sgosnell]

I don't completely understand the problem with iRealPro not swinging. Have you never played with anyone who didn't swing? I don't actually use the accompaniment much, but I don't expect it to swing when I do. If you have the proper feel, you can swing by yourself, whether the rest of the band swings or not. iReal won't teach you to swing, but that's not its purpose. It won't make you a ham sandwich, either, not even if you say 'sudo'.


The last sentence is a Linux joke. If you don't use Linux, and few of you do, just ignore it and get on with your life.

[rpjazzguitar]

This thread triggered some stray thoughts.


A couple of friends of mine are playing in a band where the leader wrote and arranged all the tunes. Not simple stuff. Lots of hits and some of the tunes have unusual time changes.

They're now trying to play a night's worth of music without charts. Two of them can do it and two of them can't. Oddly enough, the composer is having trouble remembering his own tunes. My guess is that composition and memorization are different skills.

At the other extreme, I play in a horn band where one of the other guys arranged one of my tunes. I have to play it from memory. I find the chart very confusing -- even though I wrote the tune. Partly, that's because the chart has odd numbers of bars per line and starts motifs in the middle of a line. I mention this only because it also suggests an odd relationship between reading a tune and knowing it from memory.

[boo]

I always thought, the better the player the better (s)he can handle even bad comping.

That said iRealPro should really work for a fine player. And IMO it could really be improved if there would be a mode where it accidentally drops or inserts beats, plays wrong cords, rushs or drags, or gets completely lost etc.....

[ronjazz]

christian, let's not make the perfect the enemy of the good. I am a full-time, lifelong gigging musician, not a jamming or casual one. I need to be able to play what the leader or buyer wants, period. iRealpro is a great tool for professional musicians who know how to wield tools. Whether is swings or not is irrelevant, since no fake book chart swings, that's dependent on the players. The real world is where I like to live, not inside my perfect imagination. I always prefer to play with great players who know the tunes I call, but that is not reality most of the time.

[greveost]

Oddly enough, the composer is having trouble remembering his own tunes. My guess is that composition and memorization are different skills.

Yes, if you compose a very complicated piece, for example with the help of a sequencer, and then seldom listens or play it, someone who playes the piece repeatidly, and makes an effort to remember the piece will most likely remember it better than the composer.

the other extreme, I play in a horn band where one of the other guys arranged one of my tunes. I have to play it from memory. I find the chart very confusing -- even though I wrote the tune. Partly, that's because the chart has odd numbers of bars per line and starts motifs in the middle of a line. I mention this only because it also suggests an odd relationship between reading a tune and knowing it from memory.

Yeah, not the same thing.

[greveost]

I think people sometimes use charts out of fear. Fear of fucking up, looking a fool in front of your peers, fear under the spotlight. Fear of failure.

Yes, there is a sense of security having a chart in front of you.

[christianm77]

christian, let's not make the perfect the enemy of the good. I am a full-time, lifelong gigging musician, not a jamming or casual one. I need to be able to play what the leader or buyer wants, period. iRealpro is a great tool for professional musicians who know how to wield tools. Whether is swings or not is irrelevant, since no fake book chart swings, that's dependent on the players. The real world is where I like to live, not inside my perfect imagination. I always prefer to play with great players who know the tunes I call, but that is not reality most of the time.

Well there are some traditions, some circles of musicians that operate this way. It’s not idealised in that sense. Dance bands for instance. Some bands I have played with have no time between tunes and expect you to transpose at the drop of a hat. That’s proper training that is. You just have to listen out and have a go. I might not know all the tunes, but I can lughole them....

But of course it’s also great to learn to read charts too.

iReal is pernicious because it nudges the needle further in that direction. It becomes normalised. People have to use it because it is expected.

You nor I nor anyone here is to blame for that.

And I expect I will be using it tonight for a couple of tunes. At least I can glance at the changes for a few seconds and memorise the changes. That’s better I suppose. I still feel cheap tho haha.

[christianm77]

Yes, there is a sense of security having a chart in front of you.

Nice and comfortable. Safe. Easy.

[ccroft]

Some of you may not know this: it's waaayyy harder to learn a new tune at 65 than it was at 25. Charts and iReal deff come in handy.

I do get what Christian is talking about. There's some truth there, but he kinda sounds like somebody my age. So... OK Boomer! :-)

I'll do a public service and let other N.Americans know that 'lugholing it' would be playing by ear.

[unknownguitarplayer]

I find that a lot of players fall between 2 extremes:

1) Players who think their ears are better than they actually are - “...I don’t need the chart, I’ll hear the changes”. They might hear about 60% of them and dribble around the rest. After the tune is over, they’ll give you a detailed explanation of what they (incorrectly) thought the changes were and why.

2) Players who take a fakebook chart literally, and play those changes literally, chorus after chorus, regardless of what the melody, bass line, soloist or other players suggest.

There’s no shame at looking at the changes from ANY source to get the road map of the form, outline of the bridge and anything “unusual” about the tune, and even better, some sense of the melody, even if you’re not going to be playing it. The rest is ears, instinct, inspiration, taste and time in the shed.

[rpjazzguitar]

Warren Nunes told me that if he heard a song on a jukebox one time, he'd know it for the rest of his life.

The NYC wedding musicians of my youth were never stumped and could play anything in any key. The leader would signal with fingers up or fingers down (number of sharps or flats) and count it in.

But, in a story I've recounted here before, I was in a group with two well known guitarists, one a college professor of jazz guitar, when Stella got called in F. Neither one got it on the first chorus. One got it on the second, one (the professor) on the third.

In my small corner of the music world, I'm rarely in a situation where I'm expected to play random tunes from memory. Even on standards gigs, there are often arrangements which have to be read. Even the leader/arranger is reading.

There's a pretty high level jam I go to occasionally at a local restaurant. B3 kicking bass. The guys sitting in never use charts, but the B3 player has IRealPro on his phone sitting on the organ. And, depending on who is there, they stick with pretty common standards so that the young horn players have a chance of knowing the tune. For example, when I called I Should Care, they asked me to pick something else. We ended up with Another You. The horn player who runs that jam seems to know every tune that's called -- and he has a jazz Grammy.

I did a horn/guitar/bass standards gig recently. The leader was on sax and called all the tunes. He played from memory -- which, of course, is easier when you're calling the tunes. I knew a lot of them, but I was glad I didn't need to find out exactly what I meant by "knew". The bassist had a tablet with the RB charts and we both looked at that. Didn't miss a chord all night as a result, which is better than I'd have done without it. Embarrassing? A bit. But, I certainly felt that sense of security another poster talked about. Oh, and having the RB chart rather than the IRealPro chart allowed me to play accurate melody on tunes I didn't know well. I could have stumbled through the melodies without the chart, but there's that added sense of security.

That horn player, btw, was the same one who has to read his own compositions in the band I mentioned.

[guitaroscar]

I have one problem with programs like ireal pro and Band in a Box. When I was learning the basics none of these things existed. I would have to get a 60 minute cassette and play the changes over and over. Naturally all this comping got boring so I would vary the chords and the rhythms.

By the time I had made my practise tape I knew the sound of the chord progression really well. I knew what part of the progression I was in as I developed an inner sense of time. Take a blues for instance. I would intuitively know if I was in the first 4 the second or the 3rd.

Not to mention all the chord practise I got. This was invaluable.

We tend to spend so much time practising our soloing and yet on the job, most guitarists comp for 95% of the time. In my present gig I comp for a saxophonist almost all the time. Those hours laying down chord changes were well spent.

Now, when the student uses iReal pro or BIAB they miss out on all this valuable practise. Sure, there are other ways to get it but will they do it?

I have met a lot of young guitarists who can solo quite well but can't comp for nuts.

I am sure the older players who had to make their own rhythm tracks will understand me even if they may not agree.

Having said this I should add that I do use these programs. But I think too much technology can be a dangerous tool in the hands of the student who is early in their journey.

[steve burchfield]

Fake books and their electronic versions have the danger of becoming crutchs that thwart the memory development that is desirable for developing musicians. In a jazz town like Kansas City the better jazz guitarists do not bring fake books with the several organ trio plus guests jam format that was popular when I lived there. They know enough standards by memory to cut most gigs. But with some singers and new people doing some new tunes or different than standard keys its nice for someone to have an electronic fake book. I was going to school in Boston at Berklee when the Real Book was first coming out. Some of the people responsible for it were Berklee teachers at one point in their lives. It was a big deal to some writers that copywrites were not being paid and some I think were just glad that lots of people ere exposed to their writing. Memory development is very important in becoming a well seasoned pro who knows many common standards by heart, but of course its good not to have too many clams and train wrecks on the bandstand too!

[rpjazzguitar]

I live in the SF Bay Area.

If I wanted to go out to hear a standards gig with nobody reading, I don't know where to find that.

Now, I'm confident that somebody else will know, and I don't get out all that much -- but if it was a commonplace thing I think I'd know.

Even when I hear people play standards, there is often an arrangement with some of the players reading it.

[guido5]

Turn off the Keys and it is just a good bass/drums track to practice comping with. It is a tool. Nothing more or less. How you use it is your choice.

[Spook410]

.. there is often an arrangement with some of the players reading it.

That makes perfect sense to me. If you can put the music in front of you just by whipping out a large-ish phone, why not? Seems some want to use how many songs you have memorized as a metric for where you're at in the progression of becoming a jazz guitar player. Might have been true at one time. However technology has transcended that requirement. IMHO, memorization is a natural process. If you play/practice a tune a lot, you memorize it. If not, just choose it on a menu and run with it. Allows practice time to be spent on more important things.

[BickertRules]

In the early ‘90s I would take a Mac Plus with a primordial version of Band-in-a-Box to a “solo” gig at a hotel bar every Friday night. I had entered a bunch of jazz and pop tunes with my own changes and substitutions and saved them in playlists. Big tips ensued. Previously I was just doing the strumming guy singer thing with an acoustic guitar - close to my least favorite musical context. It was more fun to play with my robot backing band. Now Band-in-a-Box sounds better than a lot of guys in your contact list.

iReal Pro is tolerable, but really, if you’re going to do a lot of practicing at home on your own, Band-in-a-Box is worth the money - less than you would spend on a group of good players to back you for one night.

[cheat2win]

Warren Nunes told me that if he heard a song on a jukebox one time, he'd know it for the rest of his life.

The NYC wedding musicians of my youth were never stumped and could play anything in any key. The leader would signal with fingers up or fingers down (number of sharps or flats) and count it in.

But, in a story I've recounted here before, I was in a group with two well known guitarists, one a college professor of jazz guitar, when Stella got called in F. Neither one got it on the first chorus. One got it on the second, one (the professor) on the third.

In my small corner of the music world, I'm rarely in a situation where I'm expected to play random tunes from memory. Even on standards gigs, there are often arrangements which have to be read. Even the leader/arranger is reading.

There's a pretty high level jam I go to occasionally at a local restaurant. B3 kicking bass. The guys sitting in never use charts, but the B3 player has IRealPro on his phone sitting on the organ. And, depending on who is there, they stick with pretty common standards so that the young horn players have a chance of knowing the tune. For example, when I called I Should Care, they asked me to pick something else. We ended up with Another You. The horn player who runs that jam seems to know every tune that's called -- and he has a jazz Grammy.

I did a horn/guitar/bass standards gig recently. The leader was on sax and called all the tunes. He played from memory -- which, of course, is easier when you're calling the tunes. I knew a lot of them, but I was glad I didn't need to find out exactly what I meant by "knew". The bassist had a tablet with the RB charts and we both looked at that. Didn't miss a chord all night as a result, which is better than I'd have done without it. Embarrassing? A bit. But, I certainly felt that sense of security another poster talked about. Oh, and having the RB chart rather than the IRealPro chart allowed me to play accurate melody on tunes I didn't know well. I could have stumbled through the melodies without the chart, but there's that added sense of security.

That horn player, btw, was the same one who has to read his own compositions in the band I mentioned.

are you talking about tony peebles in the bay area?

[rpjazzguitar]

The restaurant jam was run by Tony Peebles, a great player and gracious jam host.

Tony has, I believe, a Grammy with the Pacific Mambo Orchestra.

[ronjazz]

- No melodies
- Robotic accompaniment (don’t practice with that shit, please, play with humans live or on record.)
- Playing ‘over’ standards (rather than learning to outline harmony in their lines)
- People start to think learning tunes is memorising chord progressions
- Bad changes very often
- excuse for people not to learn repertoire
- jazz gigs devolve into people staring at their phones just like the rest of modern fucking life

As a tool it is very useful, but increasingly it is becoming a crutch. A couple of these issues could also be identified from using the Real Book or Aebersold playalongs.

But iReal takes these problems, centralises them into one place and adds some more. It is another step down the line of the devolution of our music into ‘notes over chords’ and robotic, non swinging rhythm. More automation of the soul. More pseudo music.

(No wonder the technocrats think they can automate music with AI.)

Now, want my recommendation for a great jazz app? Drum Genius is amazing.

Such prissy BS. All of your points are applicable to many systems. And your solution is impossible at this time in many cases. 40 years ago, there were enough 6-night-a-week gigs for us to really learn the tunes and the feels on the bandstand. Now, there are none. I've been a pro player for over 5 decades, and I can swing my ass off with iReal Pro, in spite of the limitations of the "robots". By the way, there are as many live situations where live musicians can't swing as not. iReal Pro is not the problem; the breakdown of musical culture is.

[BickertRules]

iReal Pro is not the problem; the breakdown of musical culture is.

Amen.

[wintermoon]

The restaurant jam was run by Tony Peebles, a great player and gracious jam host.

Tony has, I believe, a Grammy with the Pacific Mambo Orchestra.

Ha, that's a name I haven't heard in awhile. When he was a student here he used to come to jam sessions where we were the house band. He sounded pretty good even then and was a nice guy. I'm pretty sure he was playing alto then. Heard he moved to the west coast but hadn't heard his name in maybe a dozen years until now.

[christianm77]

In I’ve posted this elsewhere but this is good advice on how to make iReal more of a helpful practice tool

The last year have been interesting in light of my previous comments. I’ve obviously had few gigs. Heres where I’m at:

1) I’ve forgotten loads of tunes

2) I’ve learned quite a few tunes and then forgotten them again

3) I now REALLY HATE backing tracks of any kind, human or machine. The idea of playing with another one makes me sort of depressed and like I’d rather not play. I don’t think I’m alone in this; after a year of basically no gigs, my friend (a great sax player) said ‘I want to murder Jamie Aebersold.’ I think this might be a little harsh, but I sympathise.

Drum Genius saves my life. It’s fun to play with.

4) I hate chord symbols even more than I did 2 years ago; but I do know how to read them.... that’s nothing to do with the Rona; just changing the way I view tunes and harmony.

Hmm, I sound a bit uncompromising above don’t I?

Well each to their own. While I think my points are correct, and represent general frustration with the way real books etc have come to dominate jazz teaching and practice, I think massive projection on my part obviously, these days I’m a bit more chilled out.

@ronjazz, yes, a good musician can swing on iReal. Is there value in practicing that? I would have to be convinced to make myself go through the torture haha.

For a pro on a gig, iReal is nice to use to try out an unfamiliar tune, with intention of learning it later. I don’t know what people use it for in terms of practice though. I use it for checking my work and comparing when learning a tune, and practicing reading charts.

For the less experienced I think I was somewhat concerned with the way people view jazz now; as the realisation of chord symbols. At least the old Real Book had the melodies....

Anyway I don’t think I said anything terribly controversial above, everyone I know who is a good straightahead player says pretty much the same thing, but I get it if people are annoyed by the tone lol.

[BickertRules]

For the less experienced I think I was somewhat concerned with the way people view jazz now; as the realisation of chord symbols. At least the old Real Book had melodies.

For the past few years, I have played with many young musicians in an “elite” university-level jazz education context. They all have iReal Pro on their phones, and with rare exceptions, they consider it the authoritative source for tunes (though the program actually contains no “tunes”), especially the rhythm players. I find this amusing and a bit troubling because, as you note, there are no melodies in iReal Pro. You call a tune, they reach out their finger and make a few taps and swipes, you count off and they disappear into their tiny rectangular glass wormhole, not to make eye contact again until the tune is over. Every song is is reduced to a harmonic sequence, whatever they play over a Imaj7 -> II7 in “Take the A Train” they will also deploy in “Desifinado”, with no reference to the melody of either tune, just fulfilling the demands of the chord progression. Occasionally, if I know the verse of a standard, I’ll play it solo as an introduction. Generally they just look at me blankly, probably wondering what the hell I am doing, as they wait for the moment when they can play the first chord symbol in the upper left corner of their screen.

I’m an older guy, in my late 50s, so I don’t want to go “get off my lawn” on these young players. But I think they are missing something important by using a source that doesn’t include the melody. I came up in the Real Book era, which has its own shortcomings, but at least when someone called a tune I could see the tune, and often I would make a note to really learn it later if it seemed intriguing or likely to come up again.

Probably the most educational gig I ever had was a weekly weekend restaurant duo gig with a pianist who - on this gig - played nothing but standards from memory, and never stopped during the set, we played continuously for 45-50 minutes - no time for flipping though Real Book pages. As we reached the final chord of a tune, he would ask something like “Do you know ‘Sometime Ago’?”. I often would answer “No.” He would reply with a wry smile “You will.” and launch into an introduction. I don’t think my attention has ever been that focused since and I learned a lot of great tunes.

That being said, I think iReal Pro and Band in a Box can be useful practice tools, but they are not reference works.

[rpjazzguitar]

I use Irealpro regularly for practice.

13 repeats, key change by a 4th every chorus.

Play the head. Solo and comp in every key. The idea is to get past having to think about the names of the chords. And, that works pretty well.

I use bossa and swing rhythms and I find them adequate for my purpose.

I use it with bass full up, drums clearly audible and a little bit of piano.

[christianm77]

For the past few years, I have played with many young musicians in an “elite” university-level jazz education context. They all have iReal Pro on their phones, and with rare exceptions, they consider it the authoritative source for tunes (though the program actually contains no “tunes”), especially the rhythm players. I find this amusing and a bit troubling because, as you note, there are no melodies in iReal Pro. You call a tune, they reach out their finger and make a few taps and swipes, you count off and they disappear into their tiny rectangular glass wormhole, not to make eye contact again until the tune is over. Every song is is reduced to a harmonic sequence, whatever they play over a Imaj7 -> II7 in “Take the A Train” they will also deploy in “Desifinado”, with no reference to the melody of either tune, just fulfilling the demands of the chord progression. Occasionally, if I know the verse of a standard, I’ll play it solo as an introduction. Generally they just look at me blankly, probably wondering what the hell I am doing, as they wait for the moment when they can play the first chord symbol in the upper left corner of their screen.

I’m an older guy, in my late 50s, so I don’t want to go “get off my lawn” on these young players. But I think they are missing something important by using a source that doesn’t include the melody. I came up in the Real Book era, which has its own shortcomings, but at least when someone called a tune I could see the tune, and often I would make a note to really learn it later if it seemed intriguing or likely to come up again.

Probably the most educational gig I ever had was a weekly weekend restaurant duo gig with a pianist who - on this gig - played nothing but standards from memory, and never stopped during the set, we played continuously for 45-50 minutes - no time for flipping though Real Book pages. As we reached the final chord of a tune, he would ask something like “Do you know ‘Sometime Ago’?”. I often would answer “No.” He would reply with a wry smile “You will.” and launch into an introduction. I don’t think my attention has ever been that focused since and I learned a lot of great tunes.

That being said, I think iReal Pro and Band in a Box can be useful practice tools, but they are not reference works.

The thing is I used to think that was what jazz was even in the years before iReal; a bunch of chords to be used to improvise music. Chord symbols have that effect almost inevitably I think.

These days, I don’t know nearly as much repertoire as I would like, but what I know is more honest; based on the music not some second hand rendering of it into notation.

And the jazz musicians I look up to, young and old, all do it the honest way. Plus it just makes you a better, more listening musician. There’s no downside...

For myself I regret the wasted time, which is why I am a bit evangelical about all of this.

But honestly as with many things it depends on cohort and environment. I know many young student musicians who regard iReal with contempt. I think it’s that desire many young players have to connect with an actual musical tradition instead of symbols and numbers.

(OTOH jazz can end up being just historical recreation if you go too far with that... and people get dogmatic and culty about it.)

[pingu]

just to play devils advocate for a minute ....

I’ve learned a lot of how harmony ‘functions’ by looking at (good)chord symbols to tunes
you have all the alterations notatable F7b13 etc
and you also have slash chords C/Bb etc
it’s quite a powerful system ....

and with a bit of roman numeral analysis
it chimes in with how my mind works
I think , that’s just me

(I’m baffled by figured bass WTF ???)

of course it doesn’t show Rhythms

I’m a very slow music reader
but I do like standard notation for rhythms
even though it doesn’t show ‘feel’ or
‘swing’

[Doublea A]

Just downloaded the app iReal Pro to my phone and laptop.

There's a wealth of things I can do with this! I'm excited, anybody else play along with this? I gotta admit Im unable to keep to the tempo that a lot of songs are played in but I became very familiar with that option button, LOL

I love it.
I have been using it for years.
I use it learn songs, teach songs, and practice.
I have it as a backing track, a writing tool, an arranging tool, a rehearsal tool.
It is all that !!


Sent from my iPhone using Tapatalk

[Little Jay]

I used it to make all the chord sheets for my Amy Winehouse tribute band and everybody loved it. Very practical that you’ll find most songs in thru their forum which saved you work (but I almost always edit those).