In reality ten minutes work a day for a few months will bring results although it is difficult to rush the process, so you probably are best served with a smartphone app that is convenient to use. Tempo is a good place to start for all platforms.Įar training can be intimidating if one assumes it’s driven by natural gifts rather than practice. If I had to recommend one particular app for a beginner student to spend money on, this is it.Īnother type of app that can be useful as part of a practice routine is a metronome, particularly one that allow certain beats in the bar to be silenced so as to facilitate rhythm exercises. This can be addressed by buying or borrowing a fake book (see below). This works very well and its only major shortcoming is that it does not include sheet music. An alternative is midi-based play-along software, and the market leader here is iReal Pro, which costs $12.99 or $19.99 depending on platform and is available for all Apple formats and Android (no Windows version). For many years the market leader was Jamey Aebersold who provides CDs with recordings of jazz standards by top musicians, which are great but expensive if you get addicted (there are over 130!). Having access to play-along backing tracks can really help build up your skills and confidence. ![]() There’s nothing like hearing yourself as you really sound although it can be a bit of a shock at first! Using either of these programs you can record yourself playing along with either a backing track from the likes of a Jamey Aebersold CD, or you can use an original version if you feel like it. If you want to use an Android device there is a free version of Roland Zenbeats which does the basics (I admit I’m not an Android user so I’d be grateful for any views you might like to share on preferred apps).There are obviously much sexier products for all machines but these are not really necessary for practicing. If you have a PC you can download Audacity. If you have any Apple product you can download Garage Band for free. You will need recording software otherwise known as a Digital Audio Workstation (DAW) and this costs nothing. It’s worth bearing in mind that a lot of the free apps described below have options for in-app purchases so you can end up spending money, but the basic functionality does the job. Wherever possible I have tried to identify a good free or extremely low-cost app as an alternative to more expensive options. It can be a bit confusing working out what software can best support jazz education, so here are some personal views based on personal experience or a trusted recommendation. ![]() If you go to our YouTube channel you will find more jazz education clips featuring artists such as Bill Evans, Kurt Elling and many others. There are 10 videos which take around 90 minutes to view in their entirety and some include a supervised performance by a group of students: I’ve uploaded some very useful videos that show the well-known jazz teacher JB Dyas of the Thelonious Monk Institute giving a seminar on Teaching Jazz Fundamentals To High School And College Musicians. Jazz education has been going for over 50 years and it works.
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