Warm-ups and Killer exercises

When not developing software I like to play the drums. Unfortunately I must admit that flailing away at the kit to some random Spotify playlist is a lot more fun than practicing hand technique. And that shows...

However, the latest months my practice pad has seen the daylight again (figuratively speaking; a Swedish December doesn't offer much sun). The reasons for this are George Lawrence Stone, Sonny Igoe and Tommy Igoe - or more precisely the killers and great hands warm-up.

Drummers discussing drummers and drumming (nowadays most often in Internet forums) keeps recommending the Stone Killers and Igoe's Great Hands or Lifetime Warm-up, and that ten minutes a day can make a huge difference. Well, I can afford ten minutes a day, I thought. And it made an immediate difference. Not that my hands are great (yet), but I actually started to enjoy practicing rudiments again!

Now, as a developer I couldn't help but try to improve on these already great concepts. First and foremost, such sequences should always be available, in the pocket. Second, though well thought out, I found the number of repetitions and ordering non-intuitive sometimes.

So, the new version of the Rude Practice Pad contains a generic sequence feature, initially used for three different Stone Killer exercises, a Six Stroke Roll Pyramid and Longlife Warm-ups in two levels of difficulty.

And there are more sequences to come. I'll implement them if I can just leave my practice pad!

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Rude Practice Pad - How to use the drum training app

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Mail of the Month - November

Time for some frequent questions again. Some of them so frequent that they are already included in the FAQ (in one form or another):

Where are the notes? I can only find charts with chords - in the description but notes were to be seen...

It is quite clear from the app description that the app contains chord sequences only -- due to copyright the melodies cannot be included. However, for "original" Real Books, please visit www.skrivarna.com/p/fakebook.html and www.skrivarna.com/2014/02/automatic-indexing-of-pdf-real-books.html to automatically import and index these.

Nice app Good app, but is it possible to transpose a score? How?

You can find the transpose function in the menu, in the lower or upper right corner depending on device (the icon is three dots). The "transpose" menu will change key of the currently selected song, while the "settings" menu allows you to transpose all the songs (to get e.g. a Bb Real Book).

Fakebook No lyrics! And no songs included that anyone would want to hear! Big disappointment.

Due to copyright melodies and lyrics cannot be included, but they are very easy to import. Please have a look at www.skrivarna.com/p/fakebook.html. And "no songs included that anyone would want to hear"? Seriously? Maybe you should look for something else than a Real Book app.

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Django Fakebook

Just a quick heads up for all guitarists and Django Reinhardt fans: there are now PDFB scripts available for indexing the Django Fakebook at www.skrivarna.com/p/fakebook.html. Big thanks to Fakebook user Arnim for the great idea.

Other books that you would like to have indexed? Just let us know, send a mail to fakebook@skrivarna.com.

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Mail of the Month - September

Can't help but publishing one of the best and nicest Rude Practice Pad reviews (so far):

Excellence: you can get an App for that. I've been playing drums and percussion for 43 years and still enjoy practising and performing rudiments. I believe they are the road to brilliance (and a great way to gather a crowd in a music shop, incidentally) and that calls for regular practice/repetition to develop muscle memory and neural pathways. Practice is most effective when it is enjoyable, and it is most enjoyable when the musician themself calls the shots. Step forward this App; nothing further needs to be said.

What can I say but Thanks!

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Mail of the Month - July

Though simple, and created mostly for novelty and nostalgia, the VL-Tone app has for a long time been one of the most popular synth apps on Google Play. Some user comments say why:

VL-Tone On My Phone! I still have my VL-Tone from when I was a kid and this app is a superbly crafted salute to it. In fact, with the touchscreen its effortless to jam out, compared to working those old clackity keys... well done! Most fun I've had since I found the vst plugin

 One-liner history lesson:

With Casiotone, they made wonders, Midge Ure, Frank Tovey, Martin L Gore, Billy Currie.

 And the balanced review:

Very solid Not stupid, not awesome.

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To Bb or not to Bb

Just a heads up for those of you playing bass or Bb instruments. There are now ready made PDFB scripts for importing and indexing The Real Bass Book (F Clef) and The Bb Real Book at www.skrivarna.com/p/fakebook.html.

With these additions the library now contains all variants (C, Bb, Eb, Vocal and Bass Real Books) of the most common jazz standards collection. There's also the fun Slick Book, with some classic pop and soul songs.

Any ideas of other books to add? Drop us a mail!

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At last: Fakebook annotations!

As a lot of you has told us, Fakebook is a great app. It comes with a large part of the jazz repertoire and by importing your own PDF books, sheet music or chordpro files it can carry all the songs needed. For any gig. All the time. In the pocket. 

However (as you also told us), there's one thing the trunkful of binders could do that the Fakebook app didn't. Annotations.

We all need a reminder from time to time; in which order to take solos, the number of vamps, where the intro starts... And sometimes a visual clue, marking a repeat or a tricky passage, makes all the difference of a performance. A trivial task for pen and paper - not possible with Fakebook. 

Until now.

Apart from a lot of other nice updates, the new Fakebook 1.4.0 features annotation. Choose from a fineline red pen or a half-transparent marker and scribble along! And you can write, draw and mark not only in PDF docs, but also on the built-in jazz charts, chordpro lyrics sheets or any other files you may have imported.

So, it's time: Get rid of all those papers! Get out and play!

Fakebook, available now on Google Play and Amazon.

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Andronome - Greater Than Ever

Now, available on Amazon and Google Play, the long-awaited update of the Andronome metronomes!

The plain and simple Andronome has for quite some time been the musicians favorite metronome, thanks to the great design. Now, on the latest Android Kit-Kat versions, this is greater than ever - the BPM number and the blink literary takes over the whole screen. And no extra charge, the standard Andronome is still completely free (gratis and without ads)!

Also the Andronome+ version ($0.99) benefits from the makeover. With direct access buttons for each function, it is now quicker than ever to adjust the presets or enable/disable sound, blink and vibration. The page indicator at the bottom hints at the next (and previous) song, while the "preset lock" prevents accidental changes in the heat of the gig.

Professional, familiar and greater than ever. Get it now!

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Mail of the Month - April

Some really nice, Rude comments directly from Google Play:

This app is essential for, and will benefit, beginner through advanced drummers. Easy UI. Swipe left and right to scroll through rudiments, and swipe up and down to control bpm. OR hit your phone's MENU button to open a self explanatory list of features, including my favorite: "EXAMPLES". Click on the EXAMPLES button and you're taken to a website with detailed instructional videos pertaining to the rudiment you are currently studying. Metronome is 100% accurate (let it go through one cycle to adjust itself)

Or, as a Rude Rhythm user writes:

This is my new favorite app!

But just as important as all the great reviews is the user feedback that helps us to improve. Like this comment below a four star rating:

....but horrible sound. It's the drum app with the worst sound I ever heard. I tried more than a dozen of Drum Apps but this sound is without any quality... Anyway it's one of the best Rhythmcollections I've ever seen, a must have for any drummer. Thank you, but please try to update, to amiliorate this sound....

Some investigation shows a problem with the playback engine that will be fixed in the next release, thanks to this helpful drummer.

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Fakebook - the Real Vocal Book - Part 2

An earlier post (here) discussed how the Fakebook ChordPro file import feature can be used to store and show lyrics together with the chords. However, as we all know, for some gigs only the Real Vocal Book will do.

And now you can have both! With the Fakebook PDF import and automatic indexing, getting the Real Vocal Book into your pocket is only a few clicks away. Check out the Fakebook import page, where you'll find links and instructions how to import and index the original Real Book, the Real Vocal Book as well as the transposed Eb Real Book. And don't forget to check out The Slickbook for some instant West Coast 70-80's nostalgia - some really great tunes!

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Automatic Indexing of PDF Real Books

Working with music in PDF books can be really troublesome. Indexing and naming the individual songs in a large collection is something few applications handle well. To be honest, the Fakebook app was no exception, and importing e.g. a complete Real Book would be a timeconsuming chore.

Until now!

The new version of Fakebook (1.3.0, available on Google Play and Amazon) changes this. Thanks to PDFB script files downloading, indexing, filtering, sorting and naming is just a single click! The scripts are simple semicolon separated text files with all data necessary for the Fakebook parser to automate the boring work. Use them to extract a single page from a huge document or to import and index a complete song book.

The syntax looks like this:
PDFB1;playlisttitle;playlistcomment;url;
page;title;last;first;aka;style;tempo;signature;comment;
page;title;last;first;aka;style;tempo;signature;comment;

An example, extracting some Sonny Rollins songs from a scanned Real Book that is stored in the Download folder on the phone:
PDFB1;Sonny Rollins Book;;file:///sdcard/Download/therealbookvolume1.pdf;
24;Airegin;Rollins;Sonny;;Swing;;4/4;; 
340;Oleo;Rollins;Sonny;;Swing;;4/4;; 
359;Pent Up House;Rollins;Sonny;;Swing;;4/4;; 
506;Plain Jane;Rollins;Sonny;;;;;; 
510;Valse Hot;Rollins;Sonny;;Waltz;;3/4;; 

OK, but now you all say "writing these scripts still seems quite timeconsuming". Yeah, right.

That's why we provide more examples and ready made PDFB files for importing The Real Book (5th ed) and The Vocal Book on http://www.skrivarna.com/p/fakebook.html. Just select the Menu -> Import new songs -> Internet in the Fakebook app to get there.

More examples and book links will be added on request. And if you write a useful script, feel free to share it by mailing it to us or in the comment field below!

  

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On Request - a Bolder, Better Fakebook

The latest Fakebook update - 1.2.1, now available on Google Play and Amazon - is answering a few very specific user requests. We get a lot of feedback from musicians playing with the Skrivarna apps, always appreciated and very valuable. Your comments help prioritize features and make these tools even better.

We hope a lot of you will find these requests useful:

• Automatic removal of duplicates on import. Playlists sometimes have duplicates or may contain songs already in the database. Now Fakebook will check if two songs are exactly the same and then not add the duplicate.
• Bold sans serif fonts. On some devices, especially with the inverted screen colors, this makes the songs easier to read.
• Transpose info preserved on import. When importing song lists from iRealb/iRealPro, Fakebook now also keeps transpose info.

Furthermore, there are also a few small bug fixes and PDF parser improvements. Enjoy!

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Mail of the Month - January

At Skrivarna Software, these days most resources and attention goes to the Fakebook and Rude family of apps. So maybe it's time to give some kudos to the Andronome metronomes - small, simple, yet incredible useful:

Does one thing well  This is the app I was looking for. It's stable, easy to set tempo, and doesn't require any special permissions. Great job, developer!

Smart, clean, functional and AD-Free Simple and beautiful UI. Just shows the tempo. Touch to start. Tap or swipe to change tempo. Long press to stop. I don't see a metronome getting any better than this.

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NAMM Sale! Music apps for $0.99

To celebrate our presence at the NAMM Show 2014, three great Skrivarna Software apps will be on sale for $0.99!

The Fakebook music reader, the Rude Rhythm drum dictionary and the Rude Practice Pad rudiment training apps will all sell at the lowest price possible at Google Play - starting now. Go get 'em while offers last!

  

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Fakebook + PDF = True!

Some of you may have noticed that the latest versions of the Fakebook app added support for PDF import. Considering that PDF files are

• probably the most common format for storing and exchanging music,
• a simple way of adding melody and lyrics to your Fakebook library,
• widely available with (free and commercial) classical scores, jazz real books, pop songs

...this is a really useful feature.

Fakebook successfully imports most, but not all, PDF files. Some encodings are not yet supported and the import process is still quite slow. This means that adding a large score or a complete Real Book is rather cumbersome, especially as the songs has to be named manually. It works, but that's it.

However, you should know that there are some great improvements currently in the pipeline. A clever way of scripting the import process will take care of the boring work, indexing and naming individual pages of e.g. a scanned Real Book PDF. Currently in testing, expect the new version to be published in a few weeks.

So, don't hesitate to try out the PDF import feature and let us know what you think. Then stay tuned and watch out for updates, because A Change Is Gonna Come (Ain't That Good News)!

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