Sessionist app beta launch (CP)

Poststructural Pub
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Hi,

Over the last few years I’ve developed an app based around learning the tunes (with real audio guide recordings) with a focus on ‘learning to learn’ by ear and muscle memory rather than by reading music or learning notation. It’s available from https://www.sessionist.ie. It’s also a social app, where you can swap music, playlists and your own audio recordings and version preferences with your musical friends.

Because it serves a lot of real audio, almost like a Spotify or Netflix kind of thing, it will have
costs, and it will eventually have to be bought (one-off purchase, not a monthly or annual subscription, probably €2.99). But it will always have a generous completely free tier even after that.

Until then it’s in the Beta test phase. That’s where you come in, if you’re interested? It really needs good players of tin whistle, Irish flute, low whistle and uilleann pipes (chanter) (plus fiddle, mandolin and concertina, more instruments will be added) to test the app, and contribute / lend the real audio performances to serve as guide audio for other people trying to learn that tune later on.

Each version of each tune for each instrument needs a recording at several different speeds…because the rule is that real audio must be real. It can’t be pitch shifted or sped up etc. Everything you hear must be real on the app. And it’s a huge task that will take the community years. But first we need to see that the whole technical process works.

Here’s what you can do:

  1. you register and login to the app.
  2. go to a tune you already know and pick your favourite version (based on Jeremy Keith’s TheSession. org catalogue), and you go into “Practice” Mode.
  3. Then, you play along to the tune to a backing rhythm or guide performance in another octave, so that only you are playing the tune in your octave. Then at the end, the app tells you how many of the notes you got “right”. And if you got them all right, it asks you if you want to “contribute” the recording as a guide for others. If you agree, it uploads the recording, it gets moderated and then published so that everyone who comes to that tune version, speed and instrument will hear your performance of the
    tune…replacing the midi sound which frankly is the bane of these apps, and needs to be replaced for the entire tune catalog as soon as possible so that people can learn with real audio.

The recordings remain your own property. You are only loaning them to the community. You can delete them at any time or if you delete your account. Sessionist can’t use them for anything else - like training AI.

Important Privacy note for anyone joining this beta test: for beta testing ONLY some diagnostic stuff that defaults to no after Beta, is set to yes. These are standardised metrics that upload device performance data from the app to the cloud that, when taken en masse, will help decide some of the optimal scoring settings and pitch detection settings (in short - they are about deciding where the line is to say users “missed” a note or “hit” a note). No actual audio from your microphone is ever uploaded through this or any other part of the app. These beta diagnostics are just sheets of numbers only. And worth mentioning - no audio recording is ever uploaded from the app in beta or any other time unless you are explicitly sending it to a friend, or contributing it as guide audio.

About me. My name is Niall Kelleher. I made bags and bellows for uilleann pipes full time until my elbow gave out, and so for the past few years I’ve been building this full time. It’s not an app that can be launched and forgotten about. It needs a full time developer, which I am happy to do. Not least because there are a lot of new features to add to it like scoring of ornaments, recording new versions with multipart melody, student / teacher functions, and the big one - polyphonic instrument support - like hearing guitar, accordion chords etc (right now it’s set up to listen for the one note at a time).

You can follow the beta at Beta News & Bug List — Sessionist — Android and Windows are open to everyone, no cap. iPhone and iPad run through TestFlight which is an extra download. I’m at niall@sessionist.ie

Thanks all,

Niall

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Thanks for sharing this. I installed it on my iPhone and had a quick peek. Looks like a useful app to me. I will have a proper play after work.

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Looks cool. I will check it out.

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Nice wee app! I’ve tried it out a couple of times and I think it will help me play by ear better. One small thing - Is it possible to slow down the practice tune, or is that defeating the purpose? I tried to play Inisheer and It was even faster than I’ve heard in most sessions.

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Thanks! Yes you can click one of the little boxes near the practice button in Tune Details… it defaults to 100%, but you can set it to 50% or 75% etc. You’re not expected to practice at 100% straight away. You should build it up so that your finger tells you what to do next instead of your eyes. That’s the idea of it so give it a go : )

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Ah! I wondered what those boxes were for. Excellent. Thanks very much

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Would you explain the differences between “learn” mode and “practice” mode and how to best use the learn mode? Or perhaps point us to a site with instructions? I was hoping to listen to the whole tune slowly in learn mode but only got one chunk and couldn’t seem to advance.

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Sure. Learn mode is a listen and repeat thing. The app plays you a short phrase of notes and then it’s your job to repeat the same phrase back. When you get it right it should move on to the next bar.

If that’s not happening it could be that you’ve selected one bar in the tune details page where the learn and practice buttons are? Click the x at the bottom of the little track that shows all the notes to clear it. When you click learn or practice without any selection of the little sections that make up the tune, it should take you through the whole tune.

Learn is a mode without timing pressure. You just have to play the right notes in the right sequence. But you don’t have to play them in any time. Meant to help your fingers develop the muscle memory.

Practice is when you have to play the tune at a regular tempo. Right notes, in the right time (though you can set the speed as low as 25%).

The idea is that you don’t speed up until you can get close to all the notes right in practice mode at each speed.

When you can get all the notes right at 100% speed the tune gets added to your repertoire in the app.

I will add this as a help note to the tune details page for others. Thanks for letting me know it was a question

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I find it frustrating I cannot paste the password in on my iPhone. I use a password manager and my password is long and awkward to manually type. It didn’t seem to let me paste a password when logging in.

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Sorry about that. I thought that was already fixed.

I have added a way to login with your Google and Apple ID for the next version coming this weekend.

I will also check why that paste bug is still there and fix it. Sorry for the annoyance

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No problem at all, perhaps I need to update the app for the fix to apply. I will see if there is an update option.

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Thanks for the explanations on the Learn and Practice modes. I was looking for a way to listen to the whole tune first to get it in my head, perhaps at even 60-80% tempo. But I understand the phrase by phrase idea behind Learn mode. It does look like you can play the tune all the way through on the first “page” or screen you land on when click a tune. Though not sure if you can slow it down there or only in Practice mode. In any event, I’ve enjoyed toying around the app, but have not yet tried to play along with it. Will have to do so!

Just for your info, I had a similar password problem where I had my iphone remember my password when I created it on the website, but it could not be automatically added in on the app. So I had to manually type it in and I forgot what it was so had to reset!

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@Niall_Kelleher fantastic job building out a tune listening / scoring / streaming engine :clap: :clap: :clap: Saves me the hassle of going in this direction in my own music practice app. Will soon check Sessionist out and share some feedback from a fellow app developer!

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Great stuff, thanks. I would love to get your thoughts on it. I will have the webapp out this week so you can try it without the effort of downloading. And my compliments on ceolmate.app to you too.

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