Handy dandy app
I came across this app by sheer chance and find it an excellent resource for developing on ideas.
Not a great practice resource
This is easily a brilliant app for a music theory nerd (myself included), but it lacks a lot of practice functionality. There is also a bug involving “practicing” across all keys and modes, which will only change the key, not the mode. If this bug were fixed and a list of scales which could all be practiced in the same screen, I would not hesitate to give 5 stars, but as it stands, the app doesn’t warrant it in my eyes.
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Great knowledge Terrible interface
There’s an ungodly amount of great information in this app, but with such a terrible interface, no learning tools, or introductory information to help understanding exactly what you’re looking at, the app can’t be said to be worth the price. Only buy if you have a solid foundation of music theory already held in mind.
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Great but..
It’s a fabulous musical aid. Thank you.
Would be nice to hear the scale...source patterns against the chord or subs.
Would love to switch off the metronome before playback.
Would be nice to hear the scale...source patterns against the chord or subs.
Would love to switch off the metronome before playback.
🧠
Impressive but not very practical, it is a chore to use. At this stage I don’t see the benefit of having an app for things that should probably just be learned in your head. Cool Swiss Army knife though...
Best thing ever
I am so excited. These mdecks apps seem to be about the most powerful tools for learning music that I have ever encountered. All for a few bucks. My only regret is that I didn’t have these resources 30 years ago.
Unintuitive
Not a very intuitive interface at all. Absolutely watch the tutorial videos.
Interesting and useful, some room for improvement.
It is indeed an interesting model for exploring scales and modes. I would recommend it to anyone interested. An iPad on a music stand with tools like this is really helping me start to piece together my heretofore fragmented knowledge of tonal music.
I’d like to see some custom descriptions in the info pane. For example in the case of harmonic minor, it could describe its character and relationship to natural minor, rather than just filling in the numbers in a default sentence about number of modes/transpositions (of course, it could still revert to the current form as default in cases without specific overrides). It would also seem helpful to allow tapping to play notes on the key/fretboard, and perhaps the staff as well. Might run the risk of being fiddly on smaller models, but on the 12.9” iPad it should work pretty well without requiring any changes to the layout.
The interface can still occasionally be a bit unintuitive. I think I’m fairly used to it now, and I don’t know what it was like before, but having brought one of the mDecks bundles, I’m afraid the UX & UI is generally not as great as it could be. I’ve had more problems with Mapping Tonal Harmony Pro, perhaps I’ll get ‘round to reviewing that as well.
The graphics could do with a bit more polish; not a big deal, but things like notes on the staff look a bit blocky... seems like a quick pass by a dedicated designer might not go amiss. I’m not a big fan of the general colour scheme or typography, but that’s pretty subjective and also not really important.
I’d like to see some custom descriptions in the info pane. For example in the case of harmonic minor, it could describe its character and relationship to natural minor, rather than just filling in the numbers in a default sentence about number of modes/transpositions (of course, it could still revert to the current form as default in cases without specific overrides). It would also seem helpful to allow tapping to play notes on the key/fretboard, and perhaps the staff as well. Might run the risk of being fiddly on smaller models, but on the 12.9” iPad it should work pretty well without requiring any changes to the layout.
The interface can still occasionally be a bit unintuitive. I think I’m fairly used to it now, and I don’t know what it was like before, but having brought one of the mDecks bundles, I’m afraid the UX & UI is generally not as great as it could be. I’ve had more problems with Mapping Tonal Harmony Pro, perhaps I’ll get ‘round to reviewing that as well.
The graphics could do with a bit more polish; not a big deal, but things like notes on the staff look a bit blocky... seems like a quick pass by a dedicated designer might not go amiss. I’m not a big fan of the general colour scheme or typography, but that’s pretty subjective and also not really important.
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Could be so much better
This app has a lot of potential but in my opinion there are a couple things that make this mostly something that I won't use very much.
First, when choosing a scale as a main structure it does not show you all the triads available. You first have to choose what type of triad you are searching for, then it will show you only that triad. It seems like a miss to not see all the minor and major triads listed without going to the browser.
Second thing is melodic patterns. There is no option to force chord tones on beat 1, or beats 1&3, etc. this makes patterns sound ambiguous instead of outlining a chord.
First, when choosing a scale as a main structure it does not show you all the triads available. You first have to choose what type of triad you are searching for, then it will show you only that triad. It seems like a miss to not see all the minor and major triads listed without going to the browser.
Second thing is melodic patterns. There is no option to force chord tones on beat 1, or beats 1&3, etc. this makes patterns sound ambiguous instead of outlining a chord.
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Greatest Conceptual Music Tool
I’ve always wanted to make an app to explain music via color and geometry.
It’s just so mind numbingly brilliant how music can explain everything in life and this app is a direct interface for the means visualize it
It’s just so mind numbingly brilliant how music can explain everything in life and this app is a direct interface for the means visualize it
