Music Learning Apps
In this selection of music apps that I use regularly, only a few offer random functions. Those are most often found in creative rhythm apps and not in the ones designed for practicing. Some melody and harmony training music apps rely on randomly generated exercises to train pitch or chord hearing (e.g., EarMaster).
Ear Training Apps
EarMaster
It has random flashcard-like functions for training intervals, scales, chords, etc.
Metronomes
Time Guru
The author, Avi Bortnick, calls it a “self-muting compound time metronome.” It is one of the few apps with a random setting slider to mute certain notes.
“Time Guru is the only metronome with the ability to mute its sound at random, in patterns, or both, so that you can assess whether you tend to rush or drag. Time Guru periodically leaves you on your own so that you strengthen your own internal sense of time, rather than relying on the constant, rigid, external time keeping of a metronome. Sometimes the training wheels should come off! It is the ultimate tool for becoming a rock-steady time guru.” avibortnick.com/time-guru/
Tempo Advance
Tempo Advance by Frozen Ape is a classic with many options that don’t get in the way:
Impulse
A novel approach to the classic metronome:
Polynome
A complex metronome:
TupletTrainer
A tool and a method offering a unique approach to complex rhythms:
Elastic Drums
Elastic Drums is a drum-machine-like app with extensive sound-tweaking capabilities. Some random play functions have been added:
PercussionTutor
www.percussiontutor.com, my own creation: a library and practice app with rhythms from Cuba, Puerto Rico, the Dominican Republic, Peru, Brazil, and West Africa, expanding to other cultures (e.g., Flamenco). The Batá section contains a random dialogue between the iyá and itótele drums.
Apple
GarageBand, etc., but these tend to be distracting if a timekeeper is all that’s needed.
Play Along
These apps are useful for creating automated backing tracks based on chords. Band-in-a-Box is one of the oldest in that genre, but it’s expensive and only works on PC and Mac. iReal Pro and especially SessionBand are cheaper and often more useful for designing short exercises on scales, etc.
Band-in-a-Box
Automatic chord and melody generation was introduced in 2014:
Impro-Visor
Impro-Visor (short for “Improvisation Advisor”) is a music notation program designed to help jazz musicians compose and hear solos similar to ones that might be improvised.
A free academic software project with auto-generated rhythm-section accompaniment.
iReal Pro
SessionBand
SessionBand offers a great choice of styles recorded by professionals. It sounds more authentic than iReal, and the only negative point would be a limited choice of chord voicings.
Soundslice
The soundslice.com technology is used on many websites and offers state-of-the-art tools for combining audio, video, and sheet music:
NomadPlay
NomadPlay is a French company specializing in play-along recordings of classical pieces. The website and app likely use the soundslice technology.
Music Creation
BandLab
BandLab is a full-fledged DAW that can be used on iOS, Android, and PC/Mac in a browser:
TextMusic
TextMusic is an app based on Jianpu numbered musical notation. All musical elements are written in plain text. Compositions or scale exercises can be quickly designed and exported to standard MIDI.
Others
Solfège
Sight Singing on iOS and Android records and evaluates your singing.
