COFFEE HOUSE - Singer-songwriters and iReal pro

[pdxdjazz]

iReal pro is a a great tool for Singer-songwriters.

It can be an in-your-pocket scratch pad for musical ideas.

A backup band (or rhythm section) for practice or performance.

You can easily add “Reminder” lyrics as a memory aid.
https://forums.irealpro.com/threads...-to-iReal-Pro-charts&p=20229.8283/#post-20229
https://forums.irealpro.com/threads/Can-you-shrink-the-font-for-writing-descriptive-text.16813/

Your iRp chart is ready to provide guidance for accompanists.

How do you use iReal pro in your song writing and small venue performance?

)BOB

 

[pdxdjazz]

It's been my experience (upright bassist) that solo musicians who usually practice alone sometimes begin to take “liberties” with the tempo. While they truly believe they are just being expressive and emotive, they fail to consider the possibility that they may be actually slowing down at the hard parts and speeding up at the easy parts.

This can make it “adventurous” for their occasional accompanists.

The way to avoid this situation is to practice against a steady time reference (in addition to your tapping foot).

The iReal pro player offers a range of choices from metronomic to full band, drums only or just a tasty bass line (my favorite).

https://technimo.helpshift.com/hc/en/3-ireal-pro/faq/194-mixer---change-playback-instrument/?p=ios

https://technimo.helpshift.com/hc/en/3-ireal-pro/faq/237-metronome/?p=ios

)BOB

 

[dflat]

We have had some feedback from our songwriters, especially those who do not play a chordal instrument (like piano or guitar) sufficiently to be able to accompany themselves as they play around with melody and lyrics.
They describe being able to try out different chord sequences, song forms and different playback styles to hear the possibilities as their song develops. Or as the song plays, they can test various lyrics for each of the verses, while having an idea of how it might sound after it has been completed.

Then export the song (iReal Pro format, audio, PDF) for their music friends or band for rehearsal or performance.

 

[MCJazzer]

Just ran into this thread, & even though it's a year & 1/2 old, I'd like to comment:

I LOVE iReal Pro, & I really can't imagine doing w/o it. Even though I'm now a retired music teacher/church musician, I use it (& have used it) in myriad ways:

+ when writing original music, to keep track of the chord changes, form, & to try out diff. rhythm patterns & tempi.

+ to write up a background track for a song at church, when I couldn't find a background track available to purchase. I've even written up a quick track (if it was a simple song) in the morning before church & used it in that morning's service.

+ for more involved arrangements, I've used iReal to lay out the basics of the arrangement, & exported the track as a Midi file, & then imported the Midi file into Logic Pro on my Mac.

+ for one pretty involved piece I wrote (a jazz piece w/ four horn parts & rhythm section), I used iReal to create the rhythm section parts. Interestingly, the bass & piano parts sounded fine in Logic imported as Midi files (using Midi instr. sounds in Logic), but the drum parts sounded much better exported out of iReal as audio files. Prob. has something to do w/ the Midi "mapping" of the drums.

+ another fun thing I've done is that if I like the drum part in one rhythm style, but I like the keyboard part in a different style, I'll just export Midi files of a song using the two diff. rhythm styles, import them into Logic, & just keep what I like & delete what I don't want. Just gotta make sure the tempo is the same for both.

+ when my friend that I play jazz with & I use

 

[MCJazzer]

Sorry - posted before I was done. Btw - the edit button (small pencil on the lower right) doesn't seem to allow editing - ?

+ when my flute playing friend & I get together to jam, it's just flute & guitar (or sometimes keyboard), so we use iReal for our background tracks. The massive amount of Jazz tunes available on the iReal Forum means we can almost always find any song we want to play.

+ when I taught the 12 bar Blues form to my 5th graders (I taught K-5 music), I used some of the iReal Blues rhythm styles to play the 12 bar Blues as a background track, while the kids played the chords on ukulele. We also played the melody of C Jam Blues on xylophones & recorders. And, we also used the C Jam track to have kids try their hand at improvising (usually on xylophones).

+ when I taught individual guitar & ukulele lessons, I used iReal to create background tracks for songs my students wanted to play.

Even though I'm retired from teaching music, I still use iReal, almost every day. My latest project is working to keep up my musical ear by figuring out chord changes of songs I like using only iReal & my ears (instead of using a guitar or piano to figure out the changes). I usually post them on the Forum.

Can't thank you enough for developing & continuing to improve this app. For someone like me - an educator, aspiring arranger & sometime composer, who is somewhat limited by my modest instrumental skills (I was a voice major in college), this app has been a Godsend for me.

Thx, Bill McDade

 

[MCJazzer]

The edit button seems to have deleted my first post. That's ok, it was mostly detailed info on diff. ways to import iReal Midi & Audio files into Logic Pro (Mac).There's prob. a diff. thread that I can find to post that stuff on.

 

[MCJazzer]

Again, SORRY - found what I thought had been deleted, here's what is germane to this topic/thread:

+ when writing original music, I use iReal to keep track of the chord changes, form, & to try out diff. rhythm patterns & tempi.

+ I've used iReal to write up a background track for a song at church, when I couldn't find a background track available to purchase. I've even written up a quick track (if it was a simple song) in the morning before church & used it in that morning's service.

+ for more involved arrangements, I've used iReal to lay out the basics of the arrangement, & exported the track as a Midi file, & then imported the Midi file into Logic Pro on my Mac for further work, additional instr. parts, etc.