Practice Studio
What it’s for
Practice Studio is where you practise with a band. Pick something to work on and play along. Many exercises come with real band recordings, guitar, bass and drums, composed and arranged by Ged Brockie and played by Ged with Gary Fimister on bass and Dave Stewart on drums, with the chords in front of you as they go by. The rest use a generated groove in your choice of six styles, with walking bass for jazz, at whatever tempo you set, so the band waits for you.
Then keep score of the one thing that tells you you’re improving: tempo. Log the tempo you played cleanly, or load a recording of yourself and Practice Studio reads the tempo you actually held. Every item keeps its own history, and the Progress tab shows each one climbing towards its target.
Anything you build elsewhere can come here: send a key’s chords from Key Builder, or a progression from Progression Lab, and it becomes a practice item with the backing ready to go.
Who it’s for
Anyone who wants practice to add up to something: a regular routine, a list of what you’re working on, and a record that shows the work paying off.
Free and Pro
Pro Practice Studio is a Pro app. Your practice list, sessions and notes are kept in your account, so they follow you to any device.
Free members and visitors who aren’t signed in see a short description and the pathways strip.
Getting around
Three tabs across the top: My Practice, your list and the item you’re working on; Exercise Library, everything you can add; and Progress, your tempo history. ? How this works opens a short summary at any time.
Above the app, the pathways strip offers four guided routes: Build your practice list, Play along, Check your tempo and Watch yourself improve.
My Practice
On the left is your practice list. Choose an item to open it; + Add Practice Item takes you to the Exercise Library, and the line under it shows how much room your list has left. Remove an item with − on its row.
The item opens under Now Practising, with its key and style, its target tempo, and whether it plays a Live Recording or Sample Playback.
The backing
Press ▶ Start Backing Track and play along.
On a live recording, the band’s recording plays in a standard player: play, pause, and drag to any point. Under it, the Chord Sequence is a bar-by-bar guide to the changes.
On everything else, the backing is generated, and you set it up yourself:
- Style — Jazz Swing, Blues, Bossa Nova, Funk, Pop or Rock, or Roots Only: the root of each chord on beats 1 and 3 with a brush kit, so the changes are easy to hear. Sequences sent from Key Builder start on Roots Only.
- BPM — type the tempo, or drag the tempo slider.
- Volume — the second slider.
- ▶ Play — start and stop.
The Chord Sequence below shows the progression bar by bar, with the chord that’s playing lit as the backing reaches it.
Mix and tone
Set the band the way you want to hear it, right under ▶ Play.
Mix
- Drums — set the level, or press Mute to practise with bass only.
- Bass — choose the sound. Auto picks one to suit the style: upright for jazz and bossa, fingered for blues and funk, picked for rock and pop. You can also choose Upright, Fingered or Picked yourself, or Off to play the bass line yourself. The slider beside it sets its level.
Tone
- Drums and Bass each have their own Low and High (bass and treble), from −9 to +9 dB. Warm up the upright, take the edge off the cymbals, or add bite so the bass cuts through on small speakers. Double-click a slider (double-tap on a phone or tablet) to set it back to 0.
- Reverb — places the whole band in a room, from dry at 0 to a large space at 100.
The upright bass is a sampled double bass with four dynamic levels and four takes of every note. It follows how hard each note is played, and repeated notes never sound identical.
Your mix, tone and reverb are kept in your browser, so the band sounds the same when you come back.
The ⚙ Preferences panel in the dock works here too. Its Bass buttons, the Bass, Drums and MST faders, the five-band EQ with its presets, and Reverb wet, Room size and Compress all act on the backing band. Reverb wet and the Tone row’s Reverb are the same control. The EQ is the one you set for your speakers or headphones in every app; the band’s reverb, room size and compress are its own, so changing them here leaves Chord Lab and the other apps as they were. Stereo width is greyed out here, because the bass and drums sit in the centre.
Chord Reference
Items sent from Key Builder also show the Chord Reference: the diagram, notation and TAB for every chord in the key, in order, so the shapes are in front of you while you play.
Logging your tempo
- Load a Recording — record yourself playing on your own, on your phone or computer, then load the file (MP3, WAV, M4A, AAC or OGG). Practice Studio reads the tempo you held and logs it to the item. The file is analysed in your browser: your audio is never uploaded or stored. If the recording has no steady pulse to read, nothing is logged and Practice Studio tells you why.
- How to Record — tips for getting a clean tempo reading.
- Log a Session (no recording) — type the tempo you played cleanly today and press Log BPM.
Practice Studio reads tempo only. It doesn’t mark your timing, notes or pitch. For bar-by-bar timing against the music, record a take in Sight Reader (Pro).
Latest Tempo shows your most recent tempo and how it compares with the item’s target.
Session History and Notes
Session History lists every session on the item, newest first: the tempo, and whether it was logged by hand or read from a recording. Tap to inspect → opens a session. We keep your tempo log and notes, not your audio, so keep your own file if you want to listen back.
Session Notes is for what clicked, what needs work and what to try next time. Notes save as you type (the line under the box says ✓ Saved to your account once they’re safe) and are kept in your account with the item, so they’re there on any device you sign in on.
Exercise Library
Every exercise you can add, with a search box and two rows of filters: by type (All, Progressions, Scales, Voicings, Technique) and by style (All, Jazz, Blues, Bossa, Funk, Modal, Chromatic). Each card shows the chords, a short description, its level (beginner, intermediate or advanced), its style and target tempo, and whether it plays Audio – Live Musicians or is Sample Based. + Add puts it on your list; items already on your list show ✓ Added. The bar along the bottom shows how many items are on your list, and Start practising → takes you back to My Practice.
Progress
Your totals (Practice Items, Total Sessions, Read from recordings, At or above target), then Tempo by item: each item’s tempo over time against its target, with your best.
Works with
- Diatonic Key Builder — → Practice Studio sends the key’s chords as a practice item, with Roots Only backing and the Chord Reference.
- Progression Lab — → Practice Studio sends your progression as a practice item.
- Sight Reader — for reading pieces and recording a take against the music, with bar-by-bar timing.
- My Library — your practice items are listed there with everything else you’ve saved.
Related concepts
Try it
- Open Exercise Library, choose Blues, and + Add an exercise marked Audio – Live Musicians.
- Open it in My Practice, press ▶ Start Backing Track, and play along with the Chord Sequence.
- Play it cleanly three times and Log BPM.
- Record yourself on your phone, Load a Recording, and see what tempo you really held.
- Open Progress in a week’s time.
