Pan flute journey -

or Have a look at My Pan flute journey e-book

If you're new here, you may want to subscribe to my RSS feed. Thanks for visiting!

Handy tools for you panflute experience.

Is there any piece of software of special tool that you use for your practice?

or maybe you love a program that is so handy and great and want to share with us? feel free to let know then

There are loads of pieces of software out there which can help you musically in many ways, not all of them are good and handy, in fact the majority are a piece of junk I have found myself.

I always used the computer and still use every time I practice or play or try to create a melody with the panflute, the sole reason is because, first when I practice I always record myself, so I can play back what I have been playing and then whatever the result I will get an idea of what I am doing at the moment.

I stumbled some good handy tools and programs I use every now and then with my panflute playing experience, there are the basics ones, like a metronome and recording software. I used to use a mechanical classic metronome, which, if you prefer to stick to the classic, go for it, in fact the one I had was good and did the job , however , it lacked of the technology and the practical use that you can only find in computer software.

So then I started to use a metronome program, not only you can customize in a second, you can change the sounds played for the beat, and the sub beats to the sounds you like so it’s easier for you to feel at ease as well as  following the beat and timing.

Then I always wanted to have a backtrack along my playing, playing solos is great and it really enhances your abilities to create a melody but it can get really dull after a while, don’t you think?

I came upon another good piece of software which makes it all easy and automatic for you, including the harmony and instruments, and apparently it’s used by many professionals, I don’t play a keyboard, but the program comes with los of styles and substyles so you don’t have to worry about creating your own stuff from scratch though you can I am sure and that it must be a nice creative experience.

To record my clips, and practice I use Sonic Foundry SoundForge, this program is a recording, multi-track professional software, if you have a decent microphone, you don’t have to spend millions of pounds actually to get a decent one, you can record your stuff at a really good quality so you can listen to it and improve your ear too. Then if you think you succeeded this time, you can play with the effects, like adding reverb, equalization and even master it to create a clip or a track.

One other cool and extremely useful and customizable app I use is this one:

Fine Metronome, it’s a metronome with customizable beats, you can choose what sound to play for the bear and sub beats, you can play at any meter and up to a tempo of 250!, it also comes with a flash animation with a number for every beat, a visual metronome so you can look how your timing is while you hear the clicks of the beat.

And finally, this is one of my favourites, you probably heard of it, as it is quite popular among both Mac users and Windows users, Band in a Box 2009, it’s multi-track amazingly complete piece of software, the program basically allows you and gives you all you need to create backtracks and whole songs, starting by inputting the chord progressions to edit the melody in real time, along with music notation and much more, the version comes with tons of different styles and substyles, and there is loads of resources and tutorials out there and in the main homepage so if you get stuck and confused by the so many features you can always ask and read the documentation.

One of my favourite ways to spend my time after some practice is to choose a song, most of the time a jazz song, and either improvise something or play-along the melody while I have the backtrack playing in the background, it displays any score,it’s one of those elemental handy apps you can’t miss in any musician’s repertoire, I would give it a five-star.

I use sometimes other apps, mainly music notation editors, I never liked to have a sheet music in front of me and I always try to save paper in any possible way, so instead of getting the score off a book or bought from somewhere I try to get the midi file, or create one myself or get on a pdf.

I use Sibelius as my main preference, Finale the main competitor is quite good too, but I find Sibelius much handier and well designed than the last one.

Here are some links that you can check and you may find some handy applications to suit your needs.

If you think this post added a value to yourself and/or  your panflute music experience , make sure you subscribe to RSS, what is it RSS? you can do it by clicking  the link at the bottom of the page or just here, anytime a new update or new post is post you will be automatically notfied, either by e-mail, or by just clicking at the bookmark on the toolbar in the explorer.

http://www.finemetronome.com/download.html

http://www.sonycreativesoftware.com/soundforgesoftware

http://www.pgmusic.com

You might also like

• No Related Posts