A blessing and a curse, I have mixed feelings about kids using smartphones in practice. Sometimes when I’ve used mine, it’s felt more like it was using me. But on the whole, I believe the benefits outweight the drawbacks, as long as they’re used with discipline. Here are some tools to aid and accelerate progress in the practice room.
Tonal Energy Tuner – There are a lot of tuners on the digital marketplace, mostly tailored for guitarists. This one is my pick mostly because it has an encouraging smiley face which gets happier the longer you play in tune. Different difficulty settings are useful for beginners and experts. It also has a great metronome, with fun animations instead of just a blinking light like most others. Essential.
Drumgenius – Described by a friend as “the dopest metronome ever,” this app contains a library of over 500 drum loops, grouped by genre. The tempo for each is widely adjustable and everything loops seamlessly. I have learned a ton about different styles of drumming, and have greatly enriched parts of my practice which might otherwise be tedious. You can’t not play with attitude when a hip-hop beat is backing you up, or ride the big wave when bebop scales are pushed to 308bpm with a real drummer.
iReal Pro – A library of chord changes for a trove of tunes played at every jam session on the planet. Every jazz musician I know has this app. You can transpose easily, edit existing and create new charts. Practice with the playalong feature can feel kind of blasé, but it does the job.
Amazing Slow Downer – A no-frills but highly effective tempo adjustment too. It integrates with Apple Music, making virtually any jazz head or solo more accessible. It takes some practice to figure out how to use it, but once you get the hang of it, it becomes a terrifically effective tool for learning jazz.