iReal Pro is a door opener and an invaluable tool for all musicians, particularly to those of us that make music alone. Without iReal Pro many of us would not have any exposure to the jazz standards that we love.
I don't use iReal Player Pro to improve my chords vocabulary. Also I have already improvised some short noodling in between using ear and chords already learnt
There you go-depending on your eyes and not your ears! However- and I am a really old guy,75- I earned a lot of money because I could sight read and improvise over changes. Times are different now. But whatever remnants of the old days are still here, I think as far as earning money from playing, reading skills are still valid. I believe in -especially in these COVID times-playing with recordings of the masters. I play sax, but i enjoy playing along with fx. The Ray Brant trio or Ahmed Jamal or Basie. It´s all cool whatever you do to improve! Bright Moments, Bob
Bob! Thank you for watching and I love the support from you! It means a lot to see your great comments each video I upload! I totally agree with you and this app is great for so many things! Just some opinions I have but no hate to the app just my thoughts and I’m glad you commented!
I'm with you, Bob. I earned a few extra bucks as a singer because I could sight read, and I had a good ear. Some situations called for one or the other, some for both. The old teachers taught that you must learn to use your eyes and ears, and learn to improvise. A well rounded musician does all these things.
Indeed Bob is completely right Michael! A well rounded musician should do all of these things for sure. Thank you for your comment as I want to learn from you all. I could always get better! Thanks for watching! Stay Saxy!
I’m not a jazz musician. I’m a guitarist who’s learning to play lead lines across chord changes. I don’t know how to transcribe by ear nor am I interested in spending time learning boring ass jazz songs that I’ll never bother listening to let alone learning outside of the context of using this app. Why are jazz musicians consistently such insufferable elitists with this type of stuff. I’ve made huge progress using this app and even got a whole bunch of new chords shapes and ways of using them in a musical context. Best money I’ve ever spent on my musical education.
I use it not to look at but just leave maybe the drums n bass tracks playing. The other cool thing is send it to midi throw it in your DAW, no you don't see the chords then but you can adjust a few things and get a better backing track. 1 issue is for some weird reason the piano parts have no dynamics you can see it in your DAW velocity is static but you can adjust or randomise velocity in a DAW simply . So sending it to your DAW is a nice way to get some fine tuning and if you use something like bitwig it can randomised by chance anything from individual notes, say the highhat choose a note and then how often it's likely to hit on a certain beat same with dynamics so you can easily. So you can create a lot of surprises
interesting take. because I taught myself music through apps, (ableton) I'm so visually biased. trying to teach myself to play piano, this has been a major hurdle for me. Might try to ditch the screen and give my ears and hands only a try
Though I do disagree with most of the points you made, I've seen the way you've responded to different viewpoints, you're a good guy. This video is well made and I understand why you don't like the software, but I don't believe it would really hinder a player from playing with other people, and while I understand why you think that way, I just have to disagree with you there. Really though, I love your videos and you deserve more subscribers.
Thank you so much Tuna! That means a lot to me and your support is what keeps me going. I really don't hate the app haha I just don't use it for those reasons and I am always willing to listen to people and their sides because I could always get better. Thanks so much again and thanks for watching!
I’ve used ireal for over a decade as my backing trax for a solo jazz guitar act. Audiences don’t care, they focus on the beautiful melodies I play on my vintage Gibson. Let’s face it, venues have all but disappeared, and the remaining ones play pennies … so the only way to make any decent money is as a soloist over trax. I have almost 1000 custom arranged songs - standards, bosses, smooth jazz, R&B, pop etc, to over all types of audiences. The market for live jazz is teeny tiny and shrinking rapidly, so unless you are 0a prodigy, it’s a dead end. The world has changed, iReal is an invaluable tool to keep gigging.
Also, playing along with and transcribing original recordings is great, but there's never any time for YOU to take a solo. Jazz improv is like a blank canvas and backing tracks are the only source of this for practicing on your own.
IRealPro is very useful as a tool for experimenting by testing out songs in different keys and different tempos. Yes, the chords are sometimes wrong, the swing is often not there. But it’s still a useful tool, like a dictionary. IRealPro is not resolving all problem, it’s not the only tool you have, and you have to learn it’s limitations. (By the way, I think you should remove the guitar backing, it’s very annoying and it’s reducing the quality of your presentation. It’s like the TV stations, they are adding some background music to whatever they are presenting and by that cvovering up the message. Are they afraid of that we otherwise would fall asleep?)
Thanks for watching! I understand your points and think that they are valid. I wanted to share my opinions on the app and am not going to bore you with a video talking about how great the app is because it's already been done. Thank you for the guitar critique, will be noted for sure. Not afraid at all haha as you commented I don't think you fell asleep. Stay Saxy!
iReal sounds good for those who have kids and can't really go out every single night to jam with other people, although it is not as good as playing with real people, it looks like a good option.
Valid arguments but it sounds more like when you're ok with playing using iRealPro (or any backing track generator/music) you're ready for the next level. Still, I do agree with the auditory argument; the ear is the most important bit to freedom while playing. But it's hard to start out that way. As a tool, it can help you to improve for many minutes over a single chord (or two chords) without your musician friends getting bored. ;-)
Send it's midi to your DAW and edit away choose better sounds adjust timing and add stuff like a vocal or something. It'll get your basic drum n bass stuff over easily and you can even check out the chord structure they use
To a certain extent I would say yes i you are looking at the books and reading the changes, if you only use the backing tracks and learn this way it is better.
So you create a video that spends most of its time trashing iReal, and then get to the very end to state all the positive things about it? Wouldn’t it have made more sense to create a video showing the helpful ways it was intended to be used, with guidance on how NOT to abuse it? It’s a tool that serves it purposes when used properly, and doesn’t deserve to be dumped on just because some use it as a crutch. The fault is in the user, not the tool.
Thanks for watching! I'm not going to make a video on how great the app is because people have already made videos on that. I never said I hated the app I just wanted to share my opinions on why I as a professional saxophonist choose not to use the app. The whole video I keep mentioning that its a revolutionary app lol but there is pros and cons to everything. I appreciate the comment and understand your point of view. Stay Saxy!
I disagree you can put your own changes in I real pro and makeup your own ideas If I want to learn atune I go on RUclips and listen to it So I do not have a problem if I hear an odd chord I use it for timing That is my opinion Timing should be on front burner not back burner
I totally agree. The app of course is not evil but you'll see that if you play with just a bass player or a piano player, that you have basically no strong rythmic feeling and form feeling. So the app is good to have a little bit of fun and if course you get better by playing on it. But you'll progress much faster using only metronome on 2 and 4 et things like that, you'll be much more free. All depends of course what you wanna achieve
Thanks for watching and thank you for the support! I didn't want to upset people with my opinions but of course this will always happen but I don't hate the app I just felt that these were the reasons why I don't use them.
Indeed you can! Really a great app but I choose to try to challenge myself in different ways and I totally understand your points as they are completely valid. No hate towards the app again just my opinions and thank you for watching Bob! Stay Saxy!
Carlin! Lol yes lots of comments for sure. For sure I totally agree with you. Thanks for the support and always being there for a friend. You're the man!
I don't get the point of this. Obviously, practicing alone and practicing with other people are completely different things. Playing with others is great, if and when they're available-but otherwise, why deny yourself tools like this? At the very least, it's important to learn to stay in tempo, and this is much better than playing with a metronome.
Wow, just so wrong. The most powerful way to work on a song is to break it into small pieces and figuring out vocabulary and how to play the changes for small groups of chords from the progression. This is where selecting, looping, and controlling the tempo comes in really handy. You can't do that with backing tracks on RUclips. Your points about using the ear and interacting with other musicians are fine, but it's not either or. Figuring out vocabulary and how to put it together is one facet -- and this is where iRealPro is a fantastic asset -- and playing with others in another.
Totally understand your point but I think the point of me not using the app, being told by not just myself but Chris potter when I studied with him is that using this app makes you too comfortable with being able to stop music in instances. From his words if you do that you will never truly be able to flow through the changes if you practice chopped up. I think it can be a great tool if you use it appropriately. But if you rely heavily on stopping it every time you mess up or cant figure out how to play a certain chord it will definitely come out in your playing. Plus the point of separating building vocab versus playing with people makes no sense. Just completely wrong. Oranges with apples. Vocab is internally and human interaction is through composed. Nothing to do with the other. Irealpro doesn't react with what you play and does less to react to certain tensions you play. It is very limited in that, which makes vocab more difficult to understand. Again makes no sense to compare that but I understand where your coming from. Its a big leap to go away from the app because it requires a lot of focus and energy to develop everything by ear and with people. I dont personally because it holds me back. Jamming at smalls you can tell who practices by ear and piano versus with the app. Lack of ideas and development of solo is usually the obvious culprit. Drop the needle and force yourself to listen to the changes as they go. Transcribe them and go to a piano to break it down there. Then play along with the record and see what the musicians did and learn from them first and make your own ideas! Not trying to say this is the best way but this came from Walter smith III, chris potter, ben wendel, melissa aldana and many more who I studied with that would agree with me on this one. Happy holidays!
So much garbage and baloney in this video. IRealPro is ONE tool, and a very powerful one, for learning and practicing tunes. First of all, if you really don’t want your students to actually see the changes, just tell them not to look at the phone while playing. Actually, it’s no sin to actually see, learn, and know the correct chord progressions and then take your nose out of the book. And who has access to “friends they can jam with” any old time? IReal gives you the ability to get busy learning and practicing tunes any time. And the idea of the mechanical nature of ireal ruining your ability to work with live players is bullcrap too. After all, every rhythm section is different anyway. You have to be adaptable anyway. IReal doesn’t ruin that ability. Doing everything by ear will take you only so far. It’s okay to initially learn tunes by reading them from fake books. Eventually you can take your nose out of the book after you have learned the tune correctly, not just the way one artist did it on one recording. Bottom line - Learn and practice the tunes correctly first, THEN take your nose out of the book and get creative. F- on this video. Nonsense. Garbage.
Thanks for watching and thank you for your point of view you make good points! I wanted to share my opinions on the app and to each their own. Stay Saxy!
Do NOT -- repeat NOT---- listen to this guy! He is WRONG! IReal Pro is EXCELLENT. If you are a beginner/intermediate and even advance player ---- IReal Pro is a superb practice tool. This guy is a typical teacher with misleading information, based on his own biases. IReal Pro has thousands of tunes and is a superb education in jazz standards and Latin tunes. It is not a professional backing track application, but rather a learning tool. And last but not least ---- IReal Pro is very affordable.
Not much of a crutch. Have you used the app or looked at it? Most people don’t have access to a bass player a piano player and a drummer to jam with at any time. While iReal pro has its limitations it is valuable to those of us that want to jam at home etc. iReal pro isn’t teaching me how to play the changes or what notes are available to me.
@@vladimirlopez7840 I agree that it can be a good tool. But when one begins to rely on the app in order to know changes, or using those changes as a reference without actually learning or listening, it's a problem
iReal Pro is a door opener and an invaluable tool for all musicians, particularly to those of us that make music alone. Without iReal Pro many of us would not have any exposure to the jazz standards that we love.
Use aeberdold or phil winkilson's playalong, they really swing and ireal don't
@@joaovitordecastro1772 Nonsense, and also those are a lot more money and you have to buy dozens of books and recordings.
I don't use iReal Player Pro to improve my chords vocabulary. Also I have already improvised some short noodling in between using ear and chords already learnt
it's not good for you, it' perfect for me
There you go-depending on your eyes and not your ears! However- and I am a really old guy,75- I earned a lot of money because
I could sight read and improvise over changes. Times are different now. But whatever remnants of the old days are still here,
I think as far as earning money from playing, reading skills are still valid. I believe in -especially in these COVID times-playing
with recordings of the masters. I play sax, but i enjoy playing along with fx. The Ray Brant trio or Ahmed Jamal or Basie.
It´s all cool whatever you do to improve! Bright Moments, Bob
Bob! Thank you for watching and I love the support from you! It means a lot to see your great comments each video I upload! I totally agree with you and this app is great for so many things! Just some opinions I have but no hate to the app just my thoughts and I’m glad you commented!
I'm with you, Bob. I earned a few extra bucks as a singer because I could sight read, and I had a good ear. Some situations called for one or the other, some for both. The old teachers taught that you must learn to use your eyes and ears, and learn to improvise. A well rounded musician does all these things.
Indeed Bob is completely right Michael! A well rounded musician should do all of these things for sure. Thank you for your comment as I want to learn from you all. I could always get better! Thanks for watching! Stay Saxy!
I’m not a jazz musician. I’m a guitarist who’s learning to play lead lines across chord changes. I don’t know how to transcribe by ear nor am I interested in spending time learning boring ass jazz songs that I’ll never bother listening to let alone learning outside of the context of using this app. Why are jazz musicians consistently such insufferable elitists with this type of stuff. I’ve made huge progress using this app and even got a whole bunch of new chords shapes and ways of using them in a musical context. Best money I’ve ever spent on my musical education.
I use it not to look at but just leave maybe the drums n bass tracks playing. The other cool thing is send it to midi throw it in your DAW, no you don't see the chords then but you can adjust a few things and get a better backing track. 1 issue is for some weird reason the piano parts have no dynamics you can see it in your DAW velocity is static but you can adjust or randomise velocity in a DAW simply . So sending it to your DAW is a nice way to get some fine tuning and if you use something like bitwig it can randomised by chance anything from individual notes, say the highhat choose a note and then how often it's likely to hit on a certain beat same with dynamics so you can easily. So you can create a lot of surprises
Uhhhhhhh. If I don't know what DAW is, perhaps the next person also doesn't either?
interesting take. because I taught myself music through apps, (ableton) I'm so visually biased. trying to teach myself to play piano, this has been a major hurdle for me. Might try to ditch the screen and give my ears and hands only a try
Though I do disagree with most of the points you made, I've seen the way you've responded to different viewpoints, you're a good guy. This video is well made and I understand why you don't like the software, but I don't believe it would really hinder a player from playing with other people, and while I understand why you think that way, I just have to disagree with you there. Really though, I love your videos and you deserve more subscribers.
Thank you so much Tuna! That means a lot to me and your support is what keeps me going. I really don't hate the app haha I just don't use it for those reasons and I am always willing to listen to people and their sides because I could always get better. Thanks so much again and thanks for watching!
I’ve used ireal for over a decade as my backing trax for a solo jazz guitar act. Audiences don’t care, they focus on the beautiful melodies I play on my vintage Gibson. Let’s face it, venues have all but disappeared, and the remaining ones play pennies … so the only way to make any decent money is as a soloist over trax. I have almost 1000 custom arranged songs - standards, bosses, smooth jazz, R&B, pop etc, to over all types of audiences. The market for live jazz is teeny tiny and shrinking rapidly, so unless you are 0a prodigy, it’s a dead end. The world has changed, iReal is an invaluable tool to keep gigging.
Also, playing along with and transcribing original recordings is great, but there's never any time for YOU to take a solo. Jazz improv is like a blank canvas and backing tracks are the only source of this for practicing on your own.
Você conhece outros apps, como o Progressions? Recomenda algum?
Hi Roberto!
Well yes, there's one 😉
ruclips.net/video/E6MK1K1TzXc/видео.html
I'm the developer. I hope you enjoy it.
iReal is an app of the people. Support the proletarian plight!
Thanks for the comment lol big brother
Hey how come I didn’t get a stay saxy response
Stay Saxy!
IRealPro is very useful as a tool for experimenting by testing out songs in different keys and different tempos. Yes, the chords are sometimes wrong, the swing is often not there. But it’s still a useful tool, like a dictionary. IRealPro is not resolving all problem, it’s not the only tool you have, and you have to learn it’s limitations. (By the way, I think you should remove the guitar backing, it’s very annoying and it’s reducing the quality of your presentation. It’s like the TV stations, they are adding some background music to whatever they are presenting and by that cvovering up the message. Are they afraid of that we otherwise would fall asleep?)
Thanks for watching! I understand your points and think that they are valid. I wanted to share my opinions on the app and am not going to bore you with a video talking about how great the app is because it's already been done. Thank you for the guitar critique, will be noted for sure. Not afraid at all haha as you commented I don't think you fell asleep. Stay Saxy!
Well said, dude. And yeah that guitar...like when it got REALLY loud all of a sudden? lol good points though.
iReal sounds good for those who have kids and can't really go out every single night to jam with other people, although it is not as good as playing with real people, it looks like a good option.
Valid arguments but it sounds more like when you're ok with playing using iRealPro (or any backing track generator/music) you're ready for the next level. Still, I do agree with the auditory argument; the ear is the most important bit to freedom while playing. But it's hard to start out that way. As a tool, it can help you to improve for many minutes over a single chord (or two chords) without your musician friends getting bored. ;-)
Thank you for your review. Can you recomend any budged program for jazz backing track?
Send it's midi to your DAW and edit away choose better sounds adjust timing and add stuff like a vocal or something. It'll get your basic drum n bass stuff over easily and you can even check out the chord structure they use
I'm bassist, irealpro has no melody line of the song... I don't feel the song when i jam along with those chords...
Do you put Aebersold in the same category?
To a certain extent I would say yes i you are looking at the books and reading the changes, if you only use the backing tracks and learn this way it is better.
Thanks for watching!
So you create a video that spends most of its time trashing iReal, and then get to the very end to state all the positive things about it? Wouldn’t it have made more sense to create a video showing the helpful ways it was intended to be used, with guidance on how NOT to abuse it? It’s a tool that serves it purposes when used properly, and doesn’t deserve to be dumped on just because some use it as a crutch. The fault is in the user, not the tool.
Thanks for watching! I'm not going to make a video on how great the app is because people have already made videos on that. I never said I hated the app I just wanted to share my opinions on why I as a professional saxophonist choose not to use the app. The whole video I keep mentioning that its a revolutionary app lol but there is pros and cons to everything. I appreciate the comment and understand your point of view. Stay Saxy!
I disagree you can put your own changes in I real pro and makeup your own ideas If I want to learn atune I go on RUclips and listen to it
So I do not have a problem if I hear an odd chord
I use it for timing
That is my opinion
Timing should be on front burner not back burner
I totally agree. The app of course is not evil but you'll see that if you play with just a bass player or a piano player, that you have basically no strong rythmic feeling and form feeling. So the app is good to have a little bit of fun and if course you get better by playing on it. But you'll progress much faster using only metronome on 2 and 4 et things like that, you'll be much more free. All depends of course what you wanna achieve
Thanks for watching and thank you for the support! I didn't want to upset people with my opinions but of course this will always happen but I don't hate the app I just felt that these were the reasons why I don't use them.
You can adjust iReal to give you just a bass player or just a piano.
Indeed you can! Really a great app but I choose to try to challenge myself in different ways and I totally understand your points as they are completely valid. No hate towards the app again just my opinions and thank you for watching Bob! Stay Saxy!
What a load of bull, and you expect a coffee 🤣😂🤣 Strange, back to music school.
Lots of great comments here. iReal is a shortcut in a lot of ways, useful but all shortcuts have their pitfalls. Cool vid man!
Carlin! Lol yes lots of comments for sure. For sure I totally agree with you. Thanks for the support and always being there for a friend. You're the man!
I don't get the point of this. Obviously, practicing alone and practicing with other people are completely different things. Playing with others is great, if and when they're available-but otherwise, why deny yourself tools like this? At the very least, it's important to learn to stay in tempo, and this is much better than playing with a metronome.
Agreed! You make some really great points and I’ve totally used iRealPro as a crutch in the past instead of actually learning the changes
Indeed it is hard to do the ear training and this app helps to rid the need to use the ear so beware!
I am terrible at remembering the chords because of ireal :D mcfly backing tracks are way better :D
but it's such a pain to search backing tracks when you have it there in all keys on ireal
Wow, just so wrong. The most powerful way to work on a song is to break it into small pieces and figuring out vocabulary and how to play the changes for small groups of chords from the progression. This is where selecting, looping, and controlling the tempo comes in really handy. You can't do that with backing tracks on RUclips. Your points about using the ear and interacting with other musicians are fine, but it's not either or. Figuring out vocabulary and how to put it together is one facet -- and this is where iRealPro is a fantastic asset -- and playing with others in another.
Totally understand your point but I think the point of me not using the app, being told by not just myself but Chris potter when I studied with him is that using this app makes you too comfortable with being able to stop music in instances. From his words if you do that you will never truly be able to flow through the changes if you practice chopped up. I think it can be a great tool if you use it appropriately. But if you rely heavily on stopping it every time you mess up or cant figure out how to play a certain chord it will definitely come out in your playing. Plus the point of separating building vocab versus playing with people makes no sense. Just completely wrong. Oranges with apples. Vocab is internally and human interaction is through composed. Nothing to do with the other. Irealpro doesn't react with what you play and does less to react to certain tensions you play. It is very limited in that, which makes vocab more difficult to understand. Again makes no sense to compare that but I understand where your coming from. Its a big leap to go away from the app because it requires a lot of focus and energy to develop everything by ear and with people. I dont personally because it holds me back. Jamming at smalls you can tell who practices by ear and piano versus with the app. Lack of ideas and development of solo is usually the obvious culprit. Drop the needle and force yourself to listen to the changes as they go. Transcribe them and go to a piano to break it down there. Then play along with the record and see what the musicians did and learn from them first and make your own ideas! Not trying to say this is the best way but this came from Walter smith III, chris potter, ben wendel, melissa aldana and many more who I studied with that would agree with me on this one. Happy holidays!
You lost all credibility when you slurped your coffee.
Hahaha yes not my strong point even though I’m Colombian and grew up drinking it practically at birth. Thanks for watching!
No excuse for bad manners.
I'm sorry greg it was justa joke but I understand your frustration with me.
So much garbage and baloney in this video. IRealPro is ONE tool, and a very powerful one, for learning and practicing tunes. First of all, if you really don’t want your students to actually see the changes, just tell them not to look at the phone while playing.
Actually, it’s no sin to actually see, learn, and know the correct chord progressions and then take your nose out of the book.
And who has access to “friends they can jam with” any old time? IReal gives you the ability to get busy learning and practicing tunes any time.
And the idea of the mechanical nature of ireal ruining your ability to work with live players is bullcrap too. After all, every rhythm section is different anyway. You have to be adaptable anyway. IReal doesn’t ruin that ability.
Doing everything by ear will take you only so far. It’s okay to initially learn tunes by reading them from fake books. Eventually you can take your nose out of the book after you have learned the tune correctly, not just the way one artist did it on one recording.
Bottom line - Learn and practice the tunes correctly first, THEN take your nose out of the book and get creative.
F- on this video. Nonsense. Garbage.
Thanks for watching and thank you for your point of view you make good points! I wanted to share my opinions on the app and to each their own. Stay Saxy!
Exactly right, Bob!
Do NOT -- repeat NOT---- listen to this guy! He is WRONG! IReal Pro is EXCELLENT. If you are a beginner/intermediate and even advance player ---- IReal Pro is a superb practice tool. This guy is a typical teacher with misleading information, based on his own biases. IReal Pro has thousands of tunes and is a superb education in jazz standards and Latin tunes. It is not a professional backing track application, but rather a learning tool. And last but not least ---- IReal Pro is very affordable.
please don’t slurp
I agree, If you are trying to become a professional musician, don't rely on this app. It's a crutch
Not much of a crutch. Have you used the app or looked at it? Most people don’t have access to a bass player a piano player and a drummer to jam with at any time. While iReal pro has its limitations it is valuable to those of us that want to jam at home etc. iReal pro isn’t teaching me how to play the changes or what notes are available to me.
@@vladimirlopez7840 I agree that it can be a good tool. But when one begins to rely on the app in order to know changes, or using those changes as a reference without actually learning or listening, it's a problem
annoying..............