Automated Jazz Band App
I’ve always had a hard time practicing rootless voicings in my left hand. I have no problem playing them with my right hand, but when playing with a bassist the pianist is supposed to play them with his/her left. The difficulty in practicing these voicings is that because they sound very different (dare I say ‘wrong’ to the untrained ear) without a bass note!
I tried crossing my hands and playing the bass with my right hand, but that was no good. I was looking into hiring a bassist to practice with me when I learned about the iRealPro app, which basically changed my life.
Not only does it have thousands of charts that you can download for free (in the forum), but you can put together your own arrangements right on your phone or tablet. Best of all, the app will play back any chart with piano, bass, and drums and it sounds really good for a computer.
This was totally worth the money for me. Now I pull up songs that I want to practice, open the mixer and turn off the piano, then hit play. Bam – I have my own automated trio and I can practice left-hand rootless voicings and hear how they fit into a bass line.
Excellent. Highly recommended.