iPad and Chord Tracker...

[Jay B.]

Hello folks,

Bottom Line Up Front (BLUF): Is it worth getting an iPad just to use this app? If you have much experience with it, can you give us (me) your opinion?

Background:  I recently purchased a PSR-S970 and am enjoying returning to making music. Check my other posts for the story. My wife and I both have Samsung tablets that are about 4+ years old and the batteries are going bad. I generally avoid the Apple ecosystem for my own reasons. The Chord Tracker app is the only Yamaha app of interest to me, and the only reason I would consider getting an iPad. Narrowing the application scope even further, I am an ex-professional musician that used to learn tunes directly off recordings when necessary. Most Pop songs I can play after a couple of passes listening to them. If Chord Tracker is accurate enough, I could use it for more complex or time-consuming tunes, such as Jazz. Would it work well in this way?

Interested in your experiences,
Jay B.

[Al Ram]

I have an iPad and downloaded Chord Tracker.  However, i do not use Chord Tracker.  The main reason i do not use it is because my understanding is that it is limited to songs you have loaded inside your iPad.  Since i do not load songs on my iPad, i therefore don't use it. 

However, i use other apps similar to Chord Tracker that are not for iPads but for Windows computer. Those other apps are not limited to songs in your computer, in fact they can also analyze songs from YouTube and provide you with the chords.

If you are trying to avoid iPads (for whatever reason) you may want to look into these other apps for Windows.  I do not use similar apps for Android devices, so i do not know.

I am not at home right now, but when i get there tonight, i will send you the names of the Windows apps if you would want to consider.

thanks 

[Jay B.]

@ Al Ram:  Al that may be a good path to pursue. I only need this when I know it will take too long for me to transcribe/learn the tune by ear. I would appreciate the referrals and let me know which are your favorites...

Jay B.

[Al Ram]

I use:

Digital Music Mentor
E-Chords
Chordify

There are many more . . . . just type chords in google and you will find a bunch. 

These 3 are good for me.

thanks 

[frozzers]

@Jay B. I'm not exactly sure how you would work with Chord Tracker so it may be of no interest to you but have you looked at iRealPro?

It basically gives you chord lead sheets of many jazz, pop, rock, blues and country standards which the program outputs as backing tracks that you can play using a wide variety of rhythms. The tracks are comprised of piano, guitar, bass and drums and you can change the volumes or mute them individually as required.

Generally, the chords for each song will have been entered directly from commercially available sheet music so you can expect them to be accurate. If you can't find a particular song in the database, you'll probably find it on iRealPro forum. If it's not there and you have the sheet music, you can create a chord lead sheet yourself.

I'm doing a jazz piano course at the moment and I need some specific turnaround chord sequences to practise to. It only takes a couple of minutes to set up a sequence and once done, I can transpose it into any key I like. The same is true for any song you load up.

Here's the link if you're interested:

https://irealpro.com

I should add it's mainly for iPhone, iPad or Mac but it looks like there's an Android version as well.

Chris

[Brian 007]

Hi,

Biggest disadvantage is that I found was I had to purchase all the tracks I wanted chords for through Apple
never found a way to sideload them


Brian007

[Jay B.]

@ frozzers - thank you for that suggestion, it looks like a very good app for people that need to practice along with backing tracks. I have a bunch of sheet music chord charts, etc. already and sight read fairly well. What I want is an app that can listen to music pieces that are not likely to have published sheet music and at least lay down a basic chord chart onto a score that I can later tweak with more complex chords and voicings.

@ Brian007 - that would be a deal killer if true. I am already having trouble getting my S970 to play any file from my MP3 library. I have to use a phone or tablet to play through - not a big deal at this point, though.

Jay B.

[Rick D.]

Jay,

Chord Tracker only works on songs you have on your iPad. So if you have no music on your iPad it won't find any. I have 200 albums on my iPad all ripped from CD's I own. This is all done through iTunes. Once you have the songs on your iPad, Chord Tracker will find them. The program works really well, for what you would like to do with it. I have been doing the same thing as you for years. It speeds up the learning curve.
NoteStar is another handy app to use on the iPad, which breaks down sheet music you buy through them into backup lead, and vocals which you can eliminate the parts you want to play yourself and just have the vocals, if you can't sing like me.
Another app I use is Musicnotes to buy sheet music from. You can also scan all your own sheet music to PDF's, and upload them into Musicnotes. This way you can digitize your whole library and leave the books at home.

Hope this helps,

Rick D.

[pjd]

I have imported MP3 files (non-Apple) into iTunes and then my iPad. Chord Tracker works fine with them. So, you don't need to purchase songs from Apple. (You can import WAV into iTunes, too.)

That said, Chord Tracker has its limitations. It does pretty well with simple chords/harmony, but isn't very accurate with jazz and gospel chords. In the case of alternate root chords ("slash chords") it usually gets the root note correct and the upper chord is just ker-phlooey.

I wouldn't buy an iPad just to use Chord Tracker. If you have a PC or Mac, perhaps there are other alternatives?

All the best -- pj

[frozzers]

@Jay B Ah I see now what you want to do.

Have a look at Chordify which works similarly to ChordTracker. I've used it a few times and been impressed. If the song you want is, for example, on YouTube, Chordify will find it and then provide you with a chord sheet which you can download and manipulate as you suggest.

It's not free but there's a free trial so you can decide whether you want to sign up later. And, you don't need an Apple product to use it.

https://chordify.net

Cheers

Chris