While we Ubers would love to stay in a world of snail mail and landline phones, the
future is gently tugging us along. We haven't given up our 90’s heritage, but
we have fully embraced the smartphone and all it has to offer.
There are tons of great practice tools (many FREE!) available for
smartphone users that are so easy to get and use. Here are some of our
favorites:
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LIZ:
MOBILE METRONOME
Price: Free
Platform: Android
First,
the price is right: zero dollars for a metronome that isn't clunky to lug
around and doesn't need AA batteries. It gives plenty of options on
meter, beat subdivisions, and beat accents. Since a metronome is indispensable
for any musician, you might as well put it on the one thing you carry
everywhere anyway!
ANNA:
AMAZING SLOW DOWNER APP
Price:
14.99
Platform:
Android & iOS
I have a
whole folder full of helpful music apps on my iPhone, but by far the most
practice-changing for my students and me is the Amazing Slow Downer app.
It's also the most expensive app I have ever bought, at $14.99, but it's
absolutely worth it. Here's why.
With
this app (or desktop application), you start by uploading a song from your
music folder or various other sources (such as Drive, iCloud,
or Dropbox). You are then able to manipulate it in a number of
different ways:
- Slow
down or speed up the song without changing the key. The tone will sound a
bit funny, but this is great for either practicing along with an orchestra
or piano accompaniment at a slower tempo, or for figuring out the notes of
a fast song by ear.
- Change
the key of a song without changing the speed. Again, it'll sound a bit
off, but this is especially useful for singers who need a song pitched properly
for their voice to really shine. It could be useful to a horn player, too, if
you're trying to play a pop or jazz tune that's out of your range otherwise.
- The
"mix" function: parts of a song are often panned to
the left, right, or center of the mix. For instance, the melody or lead
vocals might be stronger in your left speaker than your right, to give
the impression of someone standing to the left playing or singing. A
great example of a group that does this a lot is the Beatles. If you
want to play along with a song but not hear the melody, this is a good way
to do it (if the song was mixed that way). If you want to hear only the
melody or another specific part, that might be possible too.
You can
export your edited version of the song in order to share it with others, among
other additional features. Get this app and explore what it can do!
MARY JO:
When the topic of this month’s blog post was batted
around I thought, “gee I guess this will be a short one for me” because I don't
really use any apps other than a metronome and tuner app on my iPhone.
But then as I was sitting in rehearsal this past weekend I had a terrible page
turn. Instinctively I reached into my purse for my trusty iPad, opened
the ForScore app and pulled up the same piece, turning to the next page I
needed. Using the ForScore app is so second nature to me that it didn't even
cross my mind when the topic of this months blog was brought up! I chuckled to
myself as I realized I almost exclusively use this app when performing.
And when combined with my favorite scanner app, Genius Scan, and my trusty web
storage, Dropbox, and my Airturn pedal, it's a powerhouse music library,
organizing, display system that I can't imagine freelancing without!
Platform:
ALL
Most people these days have heard of cloud storage and
even Dropbox. You can get a free Dropbox account and by inviting your friends
to join or installing the shortcut on your computer or mobile device can earn
more storage. We have opted to pay a yearly fee of $99 for 1TB of
storage, which is more space than I know what to do with. The Uber
Quartet also uses Dropbox. We love the large storage capacity and the
ability for all four of us to be able to access all our files, videos, audio,
sheet music at the same time wherever we are in the world!
Price: $6.99 Full version | FREE version available
as well
Platform:
Android and iOS
My husband and I use this app daily. You can
scan pictures and documents and save your scanned files as jpegs and most
importantly PDF’s. You can make multiple page files, so those pieces of
music that are more than a page can be scanned and combined as you scan it
rather than one page at a time. You can crop your scanned
image, with perspective even! Files can be saved to your device, opened
directly in other apps on your phone or saved to your cloud storage of choice,
in my case, Dropbox.
Price: iPad
$9.99 | iPhone $6.99
Platform:
iOS
This is probably the most used/industry standard music
reader for Apple products. Unfortunately, it is not available for any
other platform. I. LOVE. THIS. APP. It basically changed the way I do a
lot of my freelancing. Any music that is a PDF can be opened and
viewed. So all the times a church director sends music ahead of time, or
when that show you just got hired to play sends you the link to the PDFs in an
email, you can open that music in the app with a simple click and start to do
work right away. You can organize your entire library of sheet music by
changing the titles, adding composer names, instrumentation, and even setting
up tags so you can search your library more quickly. For example,
anything that has to do with horn quartet is tagged with UBER, so when I'm
searching for a particular piece that Uber plays I can limit the search by that
tag. You can even add/attach an MP3 file to that piece of music.
Learning an excerpt? You can assign your own sound clip to the file so while
practicing you can listen or even play along. While viewing your music
you can add notes, either by writing on the screen with your finger or stylus,
or by using the type function. You can add symbols which include almost
every kind of musical symbol, including dynamics, articulations, fermatas, etc.
The app has a built in metronome which can play sound, pulse visually or do
both at the same time. One of the best features is that you can email music
to another musician directly from the app, and here's the kicker, you can
send the clean copy OR a copy with all your annotations and notes. How
cool is that? The app can display in bright white or sepia, and you can
change/edit your page turns to suite your needs. For those times when
it's almost impossible to reach around and touch the screen to turn the page I
find my Airtun pedal the next invaluable piece in my technological
armory. More about that below. I've barely touched on all of the
neat features of this app, but I hope I’ve peaked your interest. It is,
in my opinion, well worth the money. While I use this app most often on
my iPad, once I upgraded my 4S to my 6Plus I took advantage of the expansion
and downloaded it for my phone as well.
AIRTURN PEDAL (http://store.airturn.com)
Price: $99 and up
There are several options, but I love my pedal.
I have the base model and have had zero issues. I sync it to my iPad, my
iPhone and my husband has been known to take it to use with ForScore Mini for
some of his gigs. Highly recommend and it's made in the USA which is
always a big selling point in our family.
KELLY:
SOUNDCORSET
Price:
Free
Platform:
Android
The app
I use most for my own practicing is called “Soundcorset.” I love Soundcorset
for many reasons. It is free. It is a tuner/metronome/recording app
all in one. I love that I can turn on the metronome and press record to
get some quick feedback on my rhythm. Once I close the app, it deletes
all the recording files, so it doesn’t take up space on my memory. I like
the way the clicking sounds.
PLAY ALONG FRENCH HORN
Price:
Free
Platform:
iOS
A
student introduced me to this app as her favorite practicing app. Aside from
that I am always looking for fun ways to get my students to practice, and this
is a very engaging app. The “Play Along French Horn” allows
students to play along to an online song while reading the music one note at a
time. It won’t let you move on until you play the correct pitch, and it
unlocks new songs as you successfully perform the easier levels.
FRENCH HORN RACER
Price:
Free
Platform:
iOS
The
other app, which is the most popular among my students is the “French Horn
Racer” app. This is a really cool concept. Each time they complete a “round” of four
sets of accurate notes (within a certain time frame) their race car goes faster,
and after so many round of that they get a better car. It’s cute, and a fun way
for a young player to put a lot of face time in to the horn.
On Saturday, April 23, the Uber Horn Quartet spent the day with Bruce Atwell, the UW-Oshkosh Horn Studio and guests at HORN DAY, a day-long clinic for horn players of all ages. The day began with a group warm-up session led by Professor Atwell, followed by a horn choir reading session. Right after that, Uber presented a masterclass on the four areas of horn challenges. Accuracy, Dynamic/Articulations, Range, and Endurance were the four topics covered in the hour-long session.
Next, Mary Jo led an exercise in dynamics and articulations. Continuing with the Twinkle tune, Mary Jo pointed to one of a series of signs and the group had to play that phrase either FF, MF, or PP, overly emphasizing the dynamic changes. The second part of that was to provide a set list of articulations, either tenuto or staccato and have the students emphatically play whichever articulation was being requested. The final exercise was to have one Uber point to a dynamic and another Uber point to an articulation, changing the selection at erratic moments throughout the song and seeing how quickly and obviously the group could change both. It was a lot of fun for everyone! Mary Jo’s take-away: when you feel like you are exaggerating, you are probably only doing the minimum necessary amount of work.
Thirdly, Liz led the group in a chat about range. Liz presented an etude exercise that will help students work on developing both the upper range and the lower range. Liz began by playing a lip slur on the F horn between third space C and D. Using C as a pedal tone, she continued to move higher by step returning to C. All of the students played the exercise together. Next she played a low C and descending, repeated the same exercise. She pinpointed that the goal is to always keep the tone centered.
The day was punctuated with joint performances of the Uber Horn Quartet and the UW-O Horn Day Ensemble. A big special thanks to Bruce Atwell for his organization and arranging the day and we hope to see all the participants at a future horn event!
