United StatesRandom Roots is a music practice tool that teaches you to internalize harmony at a deep level. It organizes & optimizes your progress as you become more fluent at expressing ideas in different keys. It is the gateway to that skill that all creative musicians seek: the ability to play ideas you hear in your head. HOW IT WORKS You start with a musical idea: maybe a simple phrase you're working on… or one your teacher assigns you… or a single chord voicing on piano… or just a note or two. Random Roots walks you through performing it in different keys. It throws a key at you… and another… and each time you hear and execute your idea in that key. It can feed them to you automatically, accompanying you in time, and it keeps track of dozens of exercise that you’re working on, and which keys give you the most trouble for which exercise. It makes your practice time highly efficient and effective. FEATURES • SIMPLE TO GET STARTED Use it right away. For free. • ORGANIZE YOUR PRACTICE Efficient learning requires working on lots of separate skills and revisiting each one often. Random Roots organizes all your exercises in nested folders and gives you instant access to the ones you're currently working on. • PLAY ALONG The app plays the root of each key, using your choice of instrument sound. • BUILD YOUR EARS The app lets you imagine the sound of what you’re about to play. That not only trains your ability to hear, but builds connections in your mind between the sound of the music, the fingerings, and the music theory. • CHOOSE YOUR KEYS Practice each exercise in exactly the keys you're ready for. • CUSTOMIZE EACH EXERCISE The app remembers your custom settings (keys, meter, tempo, form…) separately for each exercise and recalls them automatically. • AUTOMATIC & MANUAL MODES Have keys advance automatically in tempo… or whenever you’re ready, upon a tap of the screen… or a tap of your foot. • FOCUS ON YOUR WEAK POINTS Tell the app which keys you have more & less trouble with for a given exercise. Whenever you play that exercise the app will tailor the keys it shows you to optimize your progress. • ALL KEYS EFFICIENTLY Musicians traditionally practice all keys in the circle of fifths or chromatically. But those ways have serious drawbacks that impede learning. Random Roots gives you a more diverse & efficient workout. • A SOURCE FOR IDEAS The app comes with a number of sample exercises built in. You can download more online for free or create your own. • USE YOUR FEET Control the app with a bluetooth foot pedal to free up your hands. Plug & play ready. • LEARN UNCOMMON KEY NAMES Musicians often have to deal with chords like D#m7 and CbMaj7. Random Roots helps you get familiar with uncommon root names if you like. • CUSTOM SEQUENCES Practice phrases over any chord sequence you like… ii-V-I's, tritone substitutions, backdoor turnarounds, Coltrane changes… or enter your own. SUBSCRIPTION PRICING & TERMS Use the app for free as long as you want. You’ll get the full experience, but limited to half the 12 keys. For all-key access, there are two subscription options: $0.99/month $5.99/year First-time subscribers begin with a free 3-day trial period. You may cancel at any time. These prices are for United States customers. Pricing in other countries may vary and may be converted to your country's local currency. Your iTunes Account will be charged when the purchase is confirmed, after any applicable free trial period. Your subscription will automatically renew unless you turn off auto-renewal at least 24 hours prior to the end of the subscription period. Your account will be charged for renewal (at the duration and price you have selected) within 24 hours prior to the end of the current period. You can manage your subscription and turn off auto-renewal by going to your Account Settings any time after purchase. Terms and conditions: https://randomroots.app/terms-conditions Privacy policy: https://randomroots.app/privacy
Great tool for ear training and learning your fret board
This app is great, but I do have a few things that I want added. First of all, if we can manually select the highest and lowest notes in a range to play along with, that would be amazing! I use this to practice my four string bass and the E string doesn’t get enough love. I’d love to set the lowest note to an E and the highest to whatever I’m trying to learn. Second, if there could be a way to see the not being played depicted in major staff instead of just the key, that would be so so nice. That would add a whole aspect of sight reading as well as ear training. Other than those two minor things, I love the app and it’s been a huge help.
United StatesIt’s very good, but
Please, stop the subscription model. I’d pay $5 for this app, but I’m not subscribing.
United StatesSuper Resource
Very useful and helpful, this app saves a lot of time. It provides practice options and ear training capability I don’t know how I could have managed otherwise. Far better than flash cards as you see, hear, and finger in real time. For me this is the most valuable single practice resource to learn the mechanics of music. If you need to work on chord tones, scale degrees, or learning in twelve keys, internalizing any of that, this is fantastic. Very thankful for this!
United StatesFantastic app!
Anton's app is incredibly helpful, no matter what instrument you play. As someone who kept procrastinating and putting off this phase of my learning, I can say I am incredibly grateful an app like this exists. Incredibly user-friendly, with a ton of options for flexibility. If you are like me and maybe not sure where to start, Anton even includes some basic exercises to get the new user going. I started (painfully slowly, I might add!) with those and worked my way into making my own gradually harder exercises. Every day is a new challenge. It's been a rewarding and extremely humbling process. Well worth the money. Thanks Anton!
United StatesGood but ...
A well built tool for getting comfortable playing in all keys. But I think most potential purchasers of the app will fail to see its subtle yet profound utility. Perhaps more explanation would help. Oh and please remove the random jumps to different octaves! It’s just really annoying. PS: The new version of the app allows one to limit the range of pitches in such a way that the octave jumps are no longer there. I have updated my rating to 5 stars accordingly. PSS: This app has been a big part of my ear training success. There are two things one needs to be able to truly play by ear: (1) The ability to automatically play in real-time what you hear in your minds ear; and (2) Good stuff in your minds ear. This tool has helped me accomplish 1. Wow wouldn’t be great if there was an app to develop 2! Nudge nudge ...
United StatesStellar Portable Learning
I am a retiree, and a low-level intermediate student of jazz guitar who just stopped in to praise Random Roots and its associated app, ScaleMate, to the skies. In time, I'd like to have learned more than just the "rules" fundamental to the study of harmony. Of course such rules (for example, those concerning the building blocks of given scale types or chord types) are the bedrock on which further learning is based; but beyond memorization of those critical nuts and bolts, my aim is to internalize principles governing the array of possibilities we have in manipulating those elements in original ways, if we understand their individual qualities and how they relate to each other...indeed, if we can ultimately sit still and "hear" them in myriad combinations, ideally at will. This kind of understanding deepens the listening experience, enhances skill in composition and performance, and makes the hallowed yet daunting prospect of improvisation (There! I said it!) a realistic goal for people who are drawn to this area of musical mastery. Random Roots and ScaleMate are extremely sophisticated theory-training tools whose breadth and depth of material, variety of exercises, many customization features, and ease of use make them invaluable for people at absolutely any level of music study. Just having been exploring and working with their full versions for the past few days, I can see they will play no small part in allowing me to meet the aforementioned objectives—and I sense they're even going to make it fun, or at least meditative, and definitely time-efficient, as I toil away at my as-yet admittedly-non-existent craft. A very detailed run-down of each app's specific features is provided on the App Store, within the apps themselves, and online; but in essence, these tools have deftly harnessed technology in the service of training one to HEAR what is true about harmony itself, and by extension to hear what is true about harmonic possibility, with increasing comprehension and ease. Is it ever too early for a student of music to begin HEARING what is, and what is possible, in the realm of harmony? The farther we venture along these lines, the more melodic and chordal selection becomes a matter of instinct and reflex rooted in overarching principle, rather than a matter of conscious choice restricted by the limitations of the literal range of riffs, runs and single-key-related skills we've slaved to master one by one. Random Roots and ScaleMate seem to have been devised with the express purpose of prepping us to go as far as we might like on this particular journey. The overall vibe of the apps is actually quite cheery. Written instruction is clear and abundant; other information—primarily related to theory, but sometimes to the workings of the learning process itself—is presented with evident forethought and considerable insight. The effect can be strangely like having a seasoned tutor guiding one on one's path to ever-deepening musical competence and appreciation. (Speaking of guidance, I note here that the developer of the apps has proven very responsive to general inquiries concerning their use.) The developer's professional experience in learning-acquisition research, jazz performance, and music pedagogy have come together in two apps whose range and utility I'm only just beginning to properly fathom. If you're studying solo, with a teacher, or in a formal music program—or if you're a pro-level musician who wishes to further hone your present capabilities—I heartily recommend that you look into how Random Roots and ScaleMate can bolster your efforts as you go. Regarding the matter of the subscription model on which the full versions of these applications are sold—a thought: While I do not feel the model is warranted in all cases, with such apps as these, I see my yearly fees as contributing in some small way to the upkeep of remarkable offerings—offerings whose independent developer, in this case, has conceived, created and sought to maintain them while electing inexplicably to make each available, annually, for less than the price of a city-folk cup of coffee. For what it's worth, I believe one would be hard-pressed to name another source anywhere providing training tools of this nature, scope, quality, and level of thoughtfulness at the yearly price points involved. But one could consider first getting a feel for Random Roots and ScaleMate with the free versions of the apps, to see where such explorations might lead. I rarely write reviews in connection with purchases, but I'd like to think this one might serve as an extra little "thank you" for a new study aid I've already come to value a great deal. Anyone who already sees what I suspect lies on the other side of earnest efforts at musical understanding...Any such person will be clear on why I attach the importance I do to the tools I have herein described. Now then, back to the music-theory salt mines!
United StatesStellar Portable Learning
I am a retiree, and a low-level intermediate student of jazz guitar who just stopped in to praise Random Roots and its associated app, ScaleMate, to the skies. In time, I'd like to have learned more than just the "rules" fundamental to the study of harmony. Of course such rules (for example, those concerning the the building blocks of given scale types or chord types) are the bedrock on which further learning is based; but beyond memorization of those critical nuts and bolts, my aim is to internalize principles governing the array of possibilities we have in manipulating those elements in original ways, if we understand their individual qualities and how they relate to each other...indeed, if we can ultimately sit still and "hear" them in myriad combinations, ideally at will. This kind of understanding deepens the listening experience, enhances skill in composition and performance, and makes the hallowed yet daunting prospect of improvisation (There! I said it!) a realistic goal for people who are drawn to this area of musical mastery. Random Roots and ScaleMate are extremely sophisticated theory-training tools whose breadth and depth of material, variety of exercises, many customization features, and ease of use make them invaluable for people at absolutely any level of music study. Just having been exploring and working with their full versions for the past few days, I can see they will play no small part in allowing me to meet the aforementioned objectives—and I sense they're even going to make it fun, or at least meditative, and definitely time-efficient, as I toil away at my as-yet admittedly-non-existent craft. A very detailed run-down of each app's specific features is provided on the App Store, within the apps themselves, and online; but in essence, these tools have deftly harnessed technology in the service of training one to HEAR what is true about harmony itself, and by extension to hear what is true about harmonic possibility, with increasing comprehension and ease. Is it ever too early for a student of music to begin HEARING what is, and what is possible, in the realm of harmony? The farther we venture along these lines, the more melodic and chordal selection becomes a matter of instinct and reflex rooted in overarching principle, rather than a matter of conscious choice restricted by the limitations of the literal range of riffs, runs and single-key-related skills we've slaved to master one by one. Random Roots and ScaleMate seem to have been devised with the express purpose of prepping us to go as far as we might like on this particular journey. The overall vibe of the apps is actually quite cheery. Written instruction is clear and abundant; other information—primarily related to theory, but sometimes to the workings of the learning process itself—is presented with evident forethought and considerable insight. The effect can be strangely like having a seasoned tutor guiding one on one's path to ever-deepening musical competence and appreciation. (Speaking of guidance, I note here that the developer of the apps has proven very responsive to general inquiries concerning their use.) The developer's professional experience in learning-acquisition research, jazz performance, and music pedagogy have come together in two apps whose range and utility I'm only just beginning to properly fathom. If you're studying solo, with a teacher, or in a formal music program—or if you're a pro-level musician who wishes to further hone your present capabilities—I heartily recommend that you look into how Random Roots and ScaleMate can bolster your efforts as you go. Regarding the matter of the subscription model on which the full versions of these applications are sold—a thought: While I do not feel the model is warranted in all cases, with such apps as these, I see my yearly fees as contributing in some small way to the upkeep of remarkable offerings—offerings whose independent developer, in this case, has conceived, created and sought to maintain them while electing inexplicably to make each available, annually, for less than the price of a city-folk cup of coffee. For what it's worth, I believe one would be hard-pressed to name another source anywhere providing training tools of this nature, scope, quality, and level of thoughtfulness at the yearly price points involved. But one could consider first getting a feel for Random Roots and ScaleMate with the free versions of the apps, to see where such explorations might lead. I rarely write reviews in connection with purchases, but I'd like to think this one might serve as an extra little "thank you" for a new study aid I've already come to value a great deal. Anyone who already sees what I suspect lies on the other side of earnest efforts at musical understanding...Any such person will be clear on why I attach the importance I do to the tools I have herein described. Now then, back to the music-theory salt mines!
United States
show touches on screen, useful for instructing via video (under advanced options)• Additions to help features & FAQ • several minor bug fixes
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