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Show HN: Cadence – A guitar theory app

cadenceguitar.com

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Re: Show HN: Cadence – A guitar theory app

#81

Post by Anthony-G »

epiccoleman wrote: post #77
Anthony-G wrote: post #72

Earlier quoted context omitted.

Thanks. As a beginner guitarist just starting to get into ear-training, that all sounds like good advice. However, I’m curious as to what you mean by “Put on a loop”? I also looked up Transcribe! and see that they have a Linux installer (32-bit in addition to the 64-bit!) so I must try it out: https://www.seventhstring.com/xscribe/download.html

By "put on a loop" I mean "play a sequence of known chords in a loop" - so that you can practice playing and singing notes in context (i.e. in context of a song, jam, etc). There are tons of backing tracks available on YouTube, but a loop pedal is more versatile, allowing you to play arbitrary chord progressions and workshop them. Transcribe! is a seriously great piece of software, it's got everything you need to get…

Thanks for the clarification about playing to a loop.

I have an iPhone and was thinking I could probably learn enough Garageband to create some simple loops that I could play along to. I’m currently at the stage where I’m still working on my timing and developing a solid rhythm (which doesn’t come naturally to me) so until now I’ve been focussing on strumming chords.

I’ve been following Justin Sandercoe’s lessons and was recently learning to play “A Girl Like You”¹. Up until this lesson, Justin always told the learner exactly what notes to play in a riff but for this one, he left it up to the learner to figure it out themselves. He gave enough clues for a beginner like me to figure it out (e.g., that notes are in the C minor pentatonic scale and that they go up and down followed by a big jump up, etc.). I had to listen very carefully and it took me a while but with the clues, I eventually figured out how to play the riff. I got a much greater buzz from learning this way, instead of simply being spoon-fed the notes so this has sparked my interest in ear-training and transscribing.

A looper pedal does sound like something that would be useful in the future when I start to learn more lead parts but I don’t think I’d benefit from it right now. Thanks, also, for the Hub Guitar recommendation. I hadn’t come across that site before and it looks like a good resource.

There’s a lot of bad shit in the modern world but if you want to learn music, it’s a great time to be alive: there are so many great resources for learning, good quality guitars are cheap, my €120 Spark Go modelling amp can emulate more tones than I could ever want, my smart-phone can be a metronome, tuner, ear-trainer, or digital audio workstation – and with Apple Music play 90% of the music I might want to listen to.

¹ https://www.justinguitar.com/songs/edwyn-collins-a-girl-like...

Re: Show HN: Cadence – A guitar theory app

#82

Post by epiccoleman »

Anthony-G wrote: post #81
epiccoleman wrote: post #77

Earlier quoted context omitted.

By "put on a loop" I mean "play a sequence of known chords in a loop" - so that you can practice playing and singing notes in context (i.e. in context of a song, jam, etc). There are tons of backing tracks available on YouTube, but a loop pedal is more versatile, allowing you to play arbitrary chord progressions and workshop them. Transcribe! is a seriously great piece of software, it's got everything you need to get…

Thanks for the clarification about playing to a loop. I have an iPhone and was thinking I could probably learn enough Garageband to create some simple loops that I could play along to. I’m currently at the stage where I’m still working on my timing and developing a solid rhythm (which doesn’t come naturally to me) so until now I’ve been focussing on strumming chords. I’ve been following Justin Sandercoe’s lessons and…

You can _definitely_ learn enough garage band to make a simple loop! It's very easy to set up, actually - at least on desktop, and I'm sure it's similar enough on the mobile app.

You can mark a section on the timeline to loop, and if you record when you're in that state, it'll just continually record to that same section of track. You can also set it up to do a metronome count in before actually recording. So, if you can manage to stay on time for 2 or 4 bars in one go, you can just record some quarter note strums into your phone mic - bang, perfectly serviceable loop for practice.

You can even start out with just a loop of a single chord to get a sense for how different notes sound against it in context. When that gets boring, do a little I-V or I-IV loop and try to notice the change in feel of different notes in, say, the major pentatonic scale for the root note. Then try a twelve bar blues, and then, ya know, whatever. It's a lot of fun, I'll often just toss out a quick loop and noodle if I've got ten minutes between meetings or a long build or something.

Re: Show HN: Cadence – A guitar theory app

#83

Post by rixed »

apizon wrote: post #50
rixed wrote: post #28

Thank you, this looks nice and useful, will definitively give it a try. For now, the only thing to report is that some screens are too long for my iphone7 and therefore I'm missing the end of a few sentences here and there. Would send screenshots if I knew how to reach you.

Thanks for the feedback I'm not sure if it's allowed to post an email here so I'll refer you to the app itself: there is a "Support and contact" button on the settings page. I'm definitely interested in seeing those screenshots if you can as text is supposed to wrap around nicely

Just did. Couldn't do it from the iphone because it insists on reinstalling apple's mail app for every email links.

BTW, I believe you can leave an email on your profile, not sure if advisable though.

Re: Show HN: Cadence – A guitar theory app

#85

Post by Libidinalecon »

epiccoleman wrote: post #18
jealousgelatin wrote: post #3

Ui looks nice mate! I’d consider myself an eternally intermediate guitar player. Hit a level of competence and haven’t had the time/drive to move past it. Slightly unrelated, but I’ve always found the current ear training apps to not really translate to helping me pick out songs by ear. I’ve always wanted an app that focuses more on learning songs by ear, finding the root not and chords/melodies, vs just isolated int…

My experience with ear training is that you really need to connect it to your instrument. If you're on the train where you can't play, obviously it can't hurt to train interval recognition and chord quality - but the ultimate point of training your ear is to build that connection between what you hear in your mind and what comes out of your fingers on the instrument. If there's one "secret trick" exercise for guitar…

I also think it just takes your ears much longer to develop than your fingers on guitar if you start from zero.

Even zero though is highly variable. I have noticed how some children have amazing intonation when randomly singing and some are quite bad.

I think trying to copy Steve Vai would be as valuable as trying to copy the way Lebron James plays basketball. Of course, a ton of practice is involved but these are the supreme outliers in terms of being gifted at their task.

For many new guitar players, I would suspect transcribing lines is like trying to dunk the ball when you are only 5'5". I can transcribe anything on guitar 40 years later but I remember the immensely frustrating experience of not being able to transcribe anything. Reading how all the "greats" would do this. My ears just took a very long time to develop. Like 15-20 years long.

Any ear training was just a demoralizing experience for me because I really started from absolute zero with no ability to hear or sing anything note wise. I can remember all the hours I practiced various modes and scales. They were just finger patterns. It took so long to actually be able to hear them.

Re: Show HN: Cadence – A guitar theory app

#86

Post by Anthony-G »

epiccoleman wrote: post #82
Anthony-G wrote: post #81

Earlier quoted context omitted.

Thanks for the clarification about playing to a loop. I have an iPhone and was thinking I could probably learn enough Garageband to create some simple loops that I could play along to. I’m currently at the stage where I’m still working on my timing and developing a solid rhythm (which doesn’t come naturally to me) so until now I’ve been focussing on strumming chords. I’ve been following Justin Sandercoe’s lessons and…

You can _definitely_ learn enough garage band to make a simple loop! It's very easy to set up, actually - at least on desktop, and I'm sure it's similar enough on the mobile app. You can mark a section on the timeline to loop, and if you record when you're in that state, it'll just continually record to that same section of track. You can also set it up to do a metronome count in before actually recording. So, if you…

I upvoted your comment earlier but I figure thanking you explicitly for that advice would be more courteous. So, thanks!

Re: Show HN: Cadence – A guitar theory app

#87

Post by apizon »

deckar01 wrote: post #73
apizon wrote: post #71

Earlier quoted context omitted.

Thank you for the feedback There is supposed to be a short transition window when playing a new sound to prevent the popping issue. Is it on the "Note names" lesson recap? Also if you don't mind sharing your version of iPhone/iPad, I'm concerned some older devices might have performance issues since the audio is synthesized in real time, maybe increasing the window could help. As for the audio being completely broken…

iPhone 17 Pro Max (iOS 26.0.1) I have reproduced the pops everywhere I am able to manually trigger notes. I was fiddling with the guitar tones, then opened from the background when the audio broke. I tried repeating that, but no repro.

Thanks for the info, definitely not an older device then ;)

I'll see what I can do to fix that but can't reproduce at the moment I'm affraid (using iphone 12), maybe simulator will help. Will also add some better handling of audio when the app goes in the background as that might be what causes bug number 2.

Re: Show HN: Cadence – A guitar theory app

#88

Post by apizon »

999900000999 wrote: post #75
apizon wrote: post #74

Earlier quoted context omitted.

Technically the framework I'm using (flutter) is cross platform so I guess it could be possible but I'm affraid a few of the libs I use such as the ones for the audio are not and either way it would still need some adaptation to work well. Not entirely impossible that I do it in the future but clearly not at the top of my list for the moment sorry!

Ya Flutter ! Are the accounts cross platform. Can I buy it on Android and use it on iOS

You definitely can yes :)

I'm using RevenueCat for purchases and it also handles all the cross platform stuff

Hence why it could also technically work on the web with the same credentials but as I said, that's a story for another day...

Re: Show HN: Cadence – A guitar theory app

#89

Post by apizon »

Mumps wrote: post #84

bit late, but hopefully you still see replies: Any chance you could please add a filthy lefty setting? That is, mirror the chord diagrams. It would be so nice.

You're the third one to ask for it since this post so it will definitely be in the next update (in a week or so) as it should be quite easy to implement

Re: Show HN: Cadence – A guitar theory app

#90

Post by tommixvim »

sschmitt wrote: post #17

Pretty good! Translation by AI? First lessons quite well, but first quiz in German "Welche dieser Noten ist... ganze Tonoberhalb?" makes no sense.

I came here just to ask this question. I was really struggling to understand what that could mean. I’ll use the English version then. :)
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