Software for Your Musical Instruments?

kko asks: "After looking for tuning software for my newly-acquired violin, I stumbled upon Tutor, which is an nifty violin tuner that also helps in developing your intonation and quick reading skills. What software have you used to aid your instrument practice, and how has it helped (or hindered) you? If you are an instructor, what do you think of instrument software in your student's learning process?"

From a Guitar player...

[zaguar]

One Instrument - My fingers. And secondarily, my time. I haven't played violin, but I play electric guitar, and I have never used any software. Seriously, you can just pick up guitar and teach it to yourself. Just print some tabs off the internet, put aside an hour of your time, and just enjoy yourself.

There is no need for software if you practice, and practice well.

Cubase!

[spinwards]

I have never improved faster than when I recorded myself.

It is much easier to identify your mistakes when you can just listen to yourself play.

It is also fun to take a break and record some origonal song ideas.

Nothing Spiritual About Software

[KidSock]

I used to play guitar a lot when I was ~15. Sometimes I would play for 10 hours straight until I was bleary eyed. It was only deep in a jam session that I thought my skills really progressed. Now, 15 years later, I started tooling around with Garage Band on my Mac. I got an M-AUDIO FastTrack USB to see if I could do some simple overbubbing. Sure it was fun but I've come to the conclusion that software assisted authoring is and always will be inferior to just playing your heart out. The spontanaiety of humans so much more interesting. Computers don't imitate art very well (unless maybe you're mixing techno or something mechanical like that).

Lots of things

[ericdano]

There are a lot of great programs to aid you in your musical quest. Programs such as Practica Musica [ars-nova.com] for ear training. There are a number of other shareware and freeware programs to help you.

For Piano, there are a lot of great programs. And they are ruthless. They hook up to your MIDI keyboard, and will evaluate every little detail of your performance.

For other instruments, it's really valuable to actually get together with a teacher. They can point you in the right direction. It's well worth the time and money. You can learn theory, and get your ear to hear things with software. But, to learn how to move the bow, or blow into an instrument, you really ought to get some REAL lessons. You can hear, and see how it is done, and ask questions, and if you are doing it wrong, the teacher will tell you.

Re:From a Guitar player...

[rblancarte]

Ignoring the major issues between Guitar and Violin (already pointed out), remember, some people learn different ways. Some learn by just doing, and others need some formal instructions. IMHO, this piece of software really looks interesting, and if I could pick up a cheap violin, it might make me want to get back into playing.

RonB