GuitarApp Is Not Just Another Guitar and Bass App – Here’s Why!

GuitarApp launched on April 11 and here’s why it’s different. There are so many apps for learning guitar and bass but let’s face it, the best guitar content already exists and it’s all on YouTube thanks to the amazing creator community! This was the realization the team behind GuitarApp had when they set about building an app for life-long guitar learners.

The guitar community on Youtube collectively has over 15 billion views, so instead of reinventing the wheel, GuitarApp supercharges the standard YouTube experience for guitar and bass players of all levels by making great content more discoverable. GuitarApp organizes the latest and greatest guitar/bass videos from Youtube into explorable dynamic feeds such as Music Theory, Technique, Guitar Courses, Song Lessons, Gear and lots more! There’s something for all players, from complete beginners to music theory geeks and even guitar builders. There is no limit to what you might discover in the app because the content updates daily!

GuitarApp also includes the most important tools you need as a gigging guitarist, bassist or bedroom enthusiast. There’s a professional-grade chromatic tuner for guitar, ukulele, bass and mandolin. There is an elegant metronome that also caters to complex time signatures and subdivisions. The app also includes a huge interactive chords, scales, and arpeggios library for guitar bass, and ukulele. You also get a neat little drum machine that allows you to select from preset beats or make your own to help get your creative juices flowing! It’s available for free on the Apple App Store for iPhones and iPad. A Mac OS version is in the works and other platforms will follow!

GuitarApp was founded in Dublin, Ireland by Mikel Gainza, Dan Barry, Lorcan O’Toole, and Bryan Murphy but the team are no strangers to building great apps for guitar players! They all have pedigree in the business and decided to get the band back together to launch GuitarApp! Get it free on the app store today!

Visit online at guitarapp.com

What do guitarists like Jimi Hendrix, Django Reinhardt and Muddy Waters have in common?

How about piano players like Elton John, Erroll Garner and Jerry Lee Lewis or multi-instrumentalists like Paul McCartney and Prince? They all learned to play music by ear.

In fact, almost all the entirety of pop, rock, soul, funk, blues, hip hop, metal, grunge, country, bluegrass and folk music from around the world has been created and performed by musicians that never read sheet music or tablature and often had a comparatively limited knowledge about classical music theory.

Most conventional ear training programs and tools for musicians, however, are based on sheet music and concepts like “intervals” and “scales”. It’s a read and play format, originally designed for classical music. But music is sound and the key to playing successfully in almost all popular or folk music is to connect your ear directly to the music.

Reel Ear Web Apps, a small start-up in Valencia, Spain, has just released a new suite of ear training apps on their website reelear.com. These ear training apps help musicians develop the crucial ability to hear a melody or chord progression and then sing it or play it back, without having to learn to read or write sheet music and without the burden of abstract music theory.

According to Reel Ear Web Apps Director Mattie O’Boyle, “We set out to correct what we perceived as three main deficiencies in ear training education. The first being the tight interdependence between ear training and sight reading. This has continually proven to be a burden on most musicians interested in popular and folk styles of music. The second is the fact that almost all ear training programs offer limited ear training materials while the real needs of students often exceed the paucity of that practice material. The third, and perhaps most important, that traditional ear training curriculum is linear, forcing students through a predefined funnel, often at a predetermined pace, without taking into account whether all the material is the adequate level for each student at each moment, or that it is even relevant for the individual student’s musical aspirations and goals.”

The Reel Ear Web Apps are style independent, skill level independent and instrument independent. Therefore both music students, as well as music teachers, can the apps to each learning moment and align each practice session to the student’s particular musical interests and goals.

Currently, the reelear.com suite of ear training apps focuses on Melody, Harmony and Arpeggios. Musicians choose the musical variables they want to work on, like Pitches, Note Durations, Speed, etc., and the apps then produce random call and response musical dictations based on their choices. Students listen to each musical phrase and then they sing it back, or play it back on their instrument. Because each dictation is random, students can not anticipate what they are going to hear, which accelerates the development of active listening skills, but because the dictations are based on the student´s choice of variables, each phrase is relevant to the student’s immediate musical goals, skill level and interests.

Music teachers who incorporate the apps into their ear training programs also see benefits in terms of student retention.

At Reel Space Folk Music School, in Valencia, Spain, for example, the school increased student retention by 12% the first year they used the apps in the classroom, and then by 23% more, the next year with they expanded the use of the apps into weekly ear training homework assignments. As Maria Vazquez, the educational psychologist at Reel Ear Web Apps, explains “when a student learns, that moment is reinforced by a small release of dopamine in the brain – so learning feels good. We design our ear training apps to accelerate each student’s music learning journey, and, as they progress, they feel good moving towards their own musical competence and creative freedom.”

reelear.com is located on 29 Joaquin Benlloch Street, in Valencia, Spain and it promotes music education, courses and tools that are particularly relevant for musicians playing both folk and modern styles of music.

A truly live online collaboration tool for creators to connect music creators across the world: Live Audio Connections. Easily. Anywhere.

January 23, 2019 – Winter NAMM Booth 1840, Hall E – Sessionwire Communication Inc. is proud to release their updated online collaborative creation, social media and sharing platform for musicians, songwriters and producers: www.sessionwire.com. Sessionwire is the first live online music production environment that comes with a growing community of like-minded musicians and creators, and enables musicians to work with their own macOS recording software and connect with other musicians and producers anywhere in the world. Sessionwire is now available as a subscription service and offers a 14-day trial period. A full membership subscription to Sessionwire is $15 monthly or $150 annually. After the trial, Guest members can continue enjoy the use of the software for free, however there is no outbound calling available for Guest members.

Live Audio Connections. Easily. Anywhere.

Create and record live with other music creators over the web, regardless of location. The member portal at www.sessionwire.com provides registered members with a profile and the ability to network and connect with other Sessionwire users. Once members have an account they may download the proprietary Sessionwire Studio app for MacOS and do any or ALL of the following:

• Stream live, studio-quality audio between MacOS recording apps
• Connect with other music makers using live video, voice and text chat
• Manage online session flow with studio-style talkback
• Build a personal brand with a Sessionwire Profile
• Share files directly using secure, direct, drag-and-drop file transfer
• Conduct Live, interactive songwriting sessions with others from around the globe, or produce live bands remotely
• Coach producers, or be coached by producers at another location
• Conduct talent auditions remotely
• Receive or teach vocal, guitar or other music instrument lessons in real-time
• Review/Supervise live mix sessions, compositions, writing sessions and mastering sessions
• Record or manage voice-over production, overdubs, podcasts and more
• Save money on travel expenses, time, and expensive software or hardware production from another location

“We are the first to offer a truly live collaboration tool that provides an easy to use, studio-style collaboration experience that is combined with a social networking platform for connecting with other music producers around the world. We built Sessionwire to break down barriers between music creators and to provide them with tools that lets them save time, travel, money and reconnect with one another in a truly human way.”
Robin Leboe, Sessionwire Communication Inc.’s Founder

“Sessionwire will connect the musicians of the world like nothing else before. Sessionwire looks like a dream becoming real for ‘caveman’ musicians like me, who need simplicity to connect on the recording format they are using – to finally be able to instantly connect and share music files on the internet. I’d love to eliminate sending MP3s via email to other musicians to put into their DAW and have the file changed. Only then, to get their performance sent back to me as an MP3 and have to drop it into my DAW (which is GarageBand). The fact that you keep Sessionwire LIVE is an amazing approach.” says Sessionwire user Randy Bachman, from The Guess Who, Bachman-Turner-Overdrive, Randy’s Vinyl Tap and more

Easy to use and affordable for everyone

Sessionwire’s low subscription pricing offers access to a wide spectrum of music makers. Sessionwire Guest accounts also allow session guests to connect for free!

• 14-day fully functional trial period. No credit card required!
• All Sessionwire Studio features for $15 USD / Month
• All Sessionwire Studio features with an annual discount, $150 USD per Year
• Guest memberships are free and can receive calls from subscribers!

To learn more about Sessionwire and to check out testimonials from musicians who are actively using the platform, please visit: www.sessionwire.com

To check out a live Sessionwire experience from artists Eric Parker (composer for Star Wars trailers) and Adrian Crutchfield (sax player for Lionel Richie, Prince NPG horns), please click the video below:

About Sessionwire Communications Inc:

Sessionwire is taking a fresh new approach to the challenges of web-based musical collaboration by providing a truly live, remote production environment for its members. Sessionwire combines a web app with key social networking features and a macOS app that offers live video chat and studio quality audio connections between platform members, regardless of the type of macOS recording software they use. Sessionwire provides an affordable, live collaboration experience, second only to being in the same room at the same time. For more information, please visit www.Sessionwire.com

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For over 40 years, composer, bassist, and author Josquin Des Pres has been a major player in the music industry.

From producing, writing and appearing on songs for artists like Gipsy Kings and Jack Johnson, to writing musical scores for popular TV shows like Ellen, Oprah, Tyra, and American Idol, his music is well known throughout the world.

Des Pres, however, may be most well-known for his impactful contributions to the music instruction world. Having written 18 books, including books for aspiring musicians with advice on the music industry and different careers available in music, his most successful are ones on bass and guitar instruction, including Bass Fitness and Guitar Fitness. These two successful instructional books provide bass and guitar players with a variety of finger exercises to develop techniques to be successful in music today, and to help musicians increase speed, improve dexterity, develop accuracy and promote finger independence. Now, after more than 25 years since the original Bass Fitness premiered, Hal Leonard is happy to present the Bass Fitnessand Guitar Fitness apps.

The Bass Fitness and Guitar Fitness apps bring the variety of finger exercises into a digital format that is easy to follow, even for non-tech savvy users.

Presented in a chronological format, users will move up chromatically in half steps through the exercises until they’ve mastered the fretboard exercises. Each exercise in the apps also features a Transport panel below it, allowing the user to listen to the exercise as it should be played, while allowing the user to then record themselves while playing the exercise. From the Table of Contents section, users are able to track their progress through the app exercises.

The Bass Fitness app is available for $6.99, while the Guitar Fitness app is available for $4.99. Both apps are available for iOS.

When I first got a iRig Pro from IK Multimedia, I thought it was the greatest thing in the world.

Finally, something small and powerful that can fit in a gigbag, and yet at a moments notice, turn my iPhone into a mobile recording studio. What could get better than that? Well, I found out about a month ago when the iRig Pro I/O was released.

What’s So Different?

The iRig Pro I/O is the next generation of the iRig Pro, and has a number of upgrades. First, it has a 1/8″ stereo headphone out with preamp and level control which make it compatible with the most recent iOS devices (that’s right, someone thought of including a headphone out!!!). An added feature is when you use the optional DC power supply, the iRig Pro I/O will charge your iDevice while in use. Finally, the iRig Pro I/O features a new MIDI out jack that gives you even more flexibility and control over your MIDI gear.

What’s That Mean In Context?

For me, it means that the moment you’re inspired, it takes no time to grab your phone, plug in the iRig Pro I/O, get a good sound and start recording. Which is exactly what I did last Thursday. I had some time and wanted to get a final version of an arrangement I wrote recorded. Plugging in the iRig Pro I/O to my computer and firing up Garage Band was a breeze, and the 1/4″ / XLR input allowed me to grab the DI off of my amp. I then quickly set the input level (with the help of the gain control and the colored lights on the unit) and then I was off.

The tone of the bass and the amp recorded brilliantly. As quickly as I set up, I was done. Previously using any other recording gear, it would’ve taken a bit more time to dial everything in and get it working. And even then, nothing else I’ve used prior had an XLR input, so that would’ve required either an adaptor or pulling a direct signal from the bass.

In Summation

The iRig Pro I/O from IK Multimedia is a great tool. The added features of this model bring in more usability and expand the capabilities of what you can record with this unit. The quality of the recording is top notch, set up is a breeze and it is still small enough to fit in the accessory pocket of your gigbag. I can’t see using anything else…well, until they improve on this amazing device.

Street price for the iRig Pro I/O is $149.99 and is available now. Visit www.ikmultimedia.com for more information.

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