Tempokeystudio - Webapp helps learning tunes - now with Youtube Import!

Declan Plummer, the app’s programmer, is constantly working hard to improve the app. It has recently become possible to embed videos from YouTube. You can now loop clips and adjust the speed and pitch.

 YouTube’s own tools are used for this. This means you can now not only listen to the music, but also watch the musicians and see exactly what they’re doing. Unfortunately, though, you can’t get a clean, continuous loop with this. Nevertheless, it’s an excellent way to learn tunes. It takes a bit of getting used to, but once you’ve got the hang of it, the work goes quickly. 

I’m really looking forward to seeing what else Declan will add to this app in the future. And best of all: this app is completely free! And as it is a webapp it runs in the browser on all devices.

You can get the app here

Little Session App (iOS and Android)

I just downloaded a (for me) new app to my iPhone and just started getting used to it.

 Little Session is a specialized mobile app created by developer Sébastien Allie, designed to serve as a comprehensive pocket companion for players of Irish traditional music.   

The app comes bundled offline with over 23,000 traditional tunes sourced from TheSession.org, covering reels, jigs, hornpipes, polkas, and more. It allows musicians to search tunes, display sheet music (with adjustable ABC notation playback and tempo control), organize sets, and recognize melodies in real time during live sessions. Its core highlight is real-time interactive fingerings and custom chord accompaniments for 19 different instruments.   

For backing players—especially Irish Bouzouki musicians—Little Session delivers targeted playback and practice tools:

• Real-Time Fretboard Visualization: Displays interactive fretboard diagrams tuned specifically for Irish Bouzouki, showing exact fingering positions and scales as the tune plays.  
  
• High-Quality Audio Packs: Includes dedicated downloadable sample packs for Bouzouki, producing authentic string playback instead of generic MIDI.  
  
• Tradition-Based Chord Accompaniments: Focuses on standard session-style open modal chords and modal modal-friendly voicings common in Irish backing rather than strictly formal music theory chords.  
  
• Chord & Rhythm Practice: Enables players to adjust playback speed, loop A/B sections, change key signatures, and practice rhythm and backing lines directly alongside sheet music.  
  

Available on iOS and Android as a one-time purchase without subscriptions, Little Session bridges traditional tune learning with realistic string-accompaniment tools. 

This is the link to the Little Session YouTube Channel 

Whether you’ve been using this app for a while or are just trying it out for the first time, please do leave a comment to let us know what you think of it and what tips you can offer to bouzouki players. And if you come across any tutorials or videos about the app, please do share the link here.

TempoKey Studio by Declan Plummer - Free WebApp

 This free web-app by Declan Plummer lets you import Audio files, slow them down, pitch them up or down etc. So it's a nice tool for learning tunes. I just tried it and have to say, it has all the features you need. As it it a web app it works on Mac, PC, iOs and Android. 

You can try it for free here and maybe have a look at his other apps and his bouzouki courses as well.

The Complete Irish Bouzouki App by Declan Plummer

 Declan from Top Score Music Academy made a new web-app. In this video he shows how it works and what it can do. Have a look for yourself. If you tried it please comment what you think about it.

Mandolin Scale Essentials Free App for iOS

Learning scales is one essential task for musicians. Now I found a free app which might help. It is called Mandolin Scale Essentials by Tobias Nasterlack. Ok, it is made for mandolin, but you can chose the tuning and put it to GDAD. Then you can chose a scale, maybe D Mixolydian and it shows the scale. It also shows the chords that go with this scale. How to fret these chords is not implemented.

You also can practice the scales with some Beats as background or with a metronome.

You'll find some more information here

Note-orious App - Find the notes on the fretboard

Note-orious is an app/game which helps you to learn the notes on the fretboard. It cost approx. 2€. You can use it for a lot of stringed instruments, also for GDAD tuning. It's fun playing around with it and it really helps to get to know the fretboard.

It is available for iPhone, iPad, Mac (Catalina and higher). Sorry not for Windows or Android. 

 

Website: https://note-orious.app

App Store: https://apps.apple.com/us/app/id1524820711 

 

Chordfinder app for iOS - Chord Library

This is a really cheap little which provides lots of chords for newbies, so maybe worth to have a look at. It's only 0,99€ so it's cheaper than the chordbook which is available, and it's more handy, because you can have access everywhere on your mobile phone.

https://apps.apple.com/de/app/chordfinder-for-bouzouki/id507236609

Fretmaster App - iPad - Learn notes on your fretboard

Some years ago I mentioned this app. I found it again and think it is really worth to try it.

Fretmaster can help to lern the notes on the fretboard. It's Easy to use and it's free.





To use it for bouzouki select mandolin and then click on the tune fork icon and alter the tuning to GDAD.

Then click on the play button. You will hear a note and see where it is on the fretboard. Now you have to tip on the correct note name on bottom of the page.

Here's a short video about the app:

Songbook app for iPhone/iPad

To collect all my songs I use an app called "Songbook" which I really like. One of the main aspects for me is that it supports the bouzouki. So I can define chords as I like and play them if I want to.

here's the link to their website: http://www.linkesoft.com/songbook/

here's a tutorial video on youtube:



and another one:

Fretmaster - iPad app - Freeware

Fretmaster can help to lern the notes on the fretboard. It's Easy to use and it's free.

To use it for bouzouki select mandolin and then click on the tune fork icon and alter the tuning to GDAD.

Then click on the play button. You will hear a note and see where it is on the fretboard. Now you have to tip on the correct note name on bottom of the page.

Chord Circle - iPhone App for free

This is just a simple app to help understanding music and the chord cycle. It also helps you to transpose chords. As it is free just give it a try.
Information: http://www.osirisguitar.com/clever-app-keys-and-transitions/

Chordpro buddy

Some time ago I bought this program for MAC on the app store. I was looking for a program to edit my songs with chords and a way to transmit them to the iPad.

This is what the developer's say:

ChordPro Buddy is an easy to use and elegant song editor for the Apple Mac OS-X operating system. With it you will easy edit, format, transpose, play and print lyrics, chords and tabs. It is an ideal and elegant tool for guitar players or other musicians. The storage format is the widely used, very simple and easy understandible "ChordPro" text format.

And I think, it is worth the money. If you find songs with chords above on the internet just copy them and import them to ChordPro Buddy. It will automatically transform the chords to brackets whithin the song text. This will give you the benefit to transpose the songs later, if you open them on the iPad. 

But how do you transmit them? That's really easy. Just send them to dropbox. You should create a new folder in your dropbox, in which you store all of your songs. You can even create subfolders. 

On your iPad you should use the app "Songbook". This app can connect to your dropbox account. Everytime you open it it updates from your Dropbox account, so you're up to date with your songs. 

Here's a video tutorial

And here's the product page:
http://www.gfapps.com/chordprobuddy/

And this is a tutorial for SongBook ChordPro



I will write a post for this iPhone/iPad app later.