Practice app advice

Twang

Can anyone give me some advice on a good practice app for my iPhone or ipad. I have been using a looper pedal up to now and this is great but I have to fit my pickup on every time I want to record something and re-record tunes just to change the tempo. Also I cant name my tracks on the looper so cant remember where songs are. I want something that is really quick and simple to use. To lay down chords, change tempo and store them. I dont want to waste time navigating through loads of other features. Good sound quality would be nice but definitely not a priority.

I’ve done some research but got a bit bogged down with it all. Is the ireal pro what most gypsy jazzers are using?

geese_com

There is a little bit of a learning curve but it might be worth checking out Loopy HD. I have used it before to record chord progressions to play over.

t-bird

I use one called Chordbot. There is a free version you can check out and if you like it, it's 4.99 to purchase. One of the rhythm options is swing - not especially GJ like, but it's fine when I'm working on licks/arps/etc. Very simple and easy to use.

stuology

iReal Pro is a great resource - almost any tune you want, in any key you want, with the ability to edit chord sheets, create setlists and print chord sheets as well. It does include recorded gypsy jazz backings which are a long way from being authentic but do at least give you enough to go on for practice. What it doesn't do is let you to record your own backing (as far as I know) so if that's what you are after then something like GarageBand might do the trick, although I've never tried using it for that purpose. I have used the voice memos recorded built into the iOS for this purpose and it works fine. You can also buy decent quality mics for iPads and iPhones which improve the experience.

To be honest, most of the time I find backing tracks on youtube. Another brilliant but highly underrated resource are the free backing tracks on dc-music school's website created by @dennis They cover a large amount of songs at different speeds plus they use soundslice so you can speed them up or slow them down or - best of all for practice - you can loop sections so if you want to practice runs on a Christopher or a 2-5-1 it's really easy to do. I don't know why I seem to be the only person who knows about this amazing and free resource ...

Twang

Many thanks for this. I’ve got the dc backing tracks so I’ll have a play with those.

Buco

In no particular order:

iReal pro, I usually just use the bass track to play along

Amazing slow downer, to my ears it has the best engine to keep the sound quality when slowing down a tune while keeping the pitch, usually use for transcribing but sometimes to play backing track if I need to slow it down.

Soundslice, I setup a "slice" with YouTube backing tracks usually so I can loop the section I want to woodshed

Bandinabox, kinda like iReal pro but on steroids, very realistic sounding computer generated GJ rhythm guitar and bass tracks, pricey though you'll spend around $200.

DC Music School backing tracks.

Guitare Improvisation channel on YouTube also has great quality backing tracks

Azazzell

https://www.audiostretch.com/ to record, slow down and loop backing tracks.

https://musescore.com/apps to notate, and it has decent playback (and it's free).