LIVE JAZZ STANDARDS PLAY ALONG APP

Overview

When you start Quartet you’ll see the Home screen with an A-Z listing of all the jazz standards that are included in that volume of the app.

Tapping on any song art will take you to the main Chords screen for that song.

At the top and bottom of each Chords screen there is a blue header and footer with all the options and settings for the current song. By default these are displayed, but can be hidden to show more chord detail by tapping the circular ‘down arrow’ in the footer – useful for smaller devices.

Header
On the right hand side of the header you have the Save to Playlist button, Export button, Favourites button and Song Configuration button

• Save to Playlist – allows you to save this song to an existing playlist, or create a new one. Click here for more on playlists.
• Export – allows you to export the audio for use in other applications.
• Favourites – tapping this adds the song to your favourites list making the song easier to find.
• Song Configuration – this is where you can turn on a 1-bar or 2-bar count-in, transpose the chords for use with Bb or Eb instruments, set the numer of repeats the main part of each song is played and set the instrument mix you want to hear.

Footer
The left-hand side of the footer has the Play, Rewind and Looping buttons. Then you have the song Key and Tempo adjust buttons. On the right-hand side you have the 4 main viewing screens for the song: Chords, Piano, Guitar and Ukulele. Far right is the button to hide the header & footer.

• Looping – allows you to set which bars you would like to loop. Click here for more on looping.
• Key – adjusts the pitch of the song by +/- 6 semitones away from the recorded key. Tap on the button to reset.
• Tempo – adjusts the tempo of the song in +/- 1 BPM increments. Tap on the button to reset the tempo or to quickly adjust the tempo using the slider. Tap outside the pop-up to set the value and close it,  the +/-  buttons can then be used to fine tune the tempo if required.

• Chords – the default view of the song showing the chords and bars with a moving playhead.
• Piano – animated piano keyboard showing the current chord being played as  well as the next chord to be played
• Guitar – animated guitar tab view showing current chord being played as well as the next chord to be played.
• Ukulele – animated ukulele tab view showing current chord being played as well as the next chord to be played.

Alternative Mixes

The default sound you hear is the TRIO mix – the song comprises the usual jazz trio mix of Piano, Bass & Drums.

You can choose the QUARTET and other alternative mixes from the Song Configuration screen (tap on the gear icon, top right, for any song).

There are 8 alternative mixes available for each song – so you can remove one of the main instruments allowing you to play along.

The default TRIO mix is already loaded into the app – the other 7 mixes are downloaded over WiFi from our servers when you need them (to keep the app download size managable).

To the right you will see a small cloud icon and a progress bar will appear as an alternative mix is downloaded into the app. This usually only takes a couple of seconds depending on your internet connection. Once downloaded, the mix is stored on your device so you won’t have to download it again.

Repeats

Every song in Quartet includes a main Repeat section which can be set to repeat a pre-determined number of times by the user.

The song always plays the Repeat section at least once but you can set the number of times the Repeat section repeats in the Song Configuration screen. The Song Configuaration is displayed by either:

• tapping the gear icon (top right in the header),
• tapping the small grey, circular Repeat icon at the top right of the Chords screen, or
• tapping the Count-in display at the top left of the Chords screen

The bars that make up the Repeat section are highlighted in light grey (see screenshot below). The Repeat section does not include the song Intro or End bars.

Repeat section
In the Song Configuration screen there is a switch to turn off repeats – the track will then just play straight through from Intro to End (including one pass throught the section marked Repeat). With the switch turned on, you can then change the number of times the Repeat section repeats from 1 to 20 using the -/+ buttons shown.

When you close the Song Configuration screen, any changes you have made are saved. The number of repeats set are then shown at the top of the Chords screen on the right hand side, for example:

If the switch is turned off so that there are no repeats, this will display ‘Repeat x0’

Repeat Counter
Once you have set the number of repeats, Quartet generates one continuous score with all Repeat sections displayed one after the other. This allows smooth vertical scrolling of the Chords screen as the song plays.

A Repeat Counter on the left-hand side show which particular Repeat section is currently being played:

Looping

You can loop any section of a Quartet song to help with practicing – you can also slow down the tempo to help with those tricky sections.

With the song not playing, tapping on the Loop button (bottom left) will cause all bars to be highlighted – the whole song, including Intro and End sections, will now loop over and over when you play the song (to cancel, tap the Loop button again).

To modify your selection, see below…

With all bars initially selected, tap any bar to set the looping Start bar. In this example bar 17 has been selected. A default selection of 4 bars will then appear (bars 17 – 20).

Next, tap the last (End) bar you wish to loop – bar 22 in this example. The song will now only play between the Start and End bars shown (the six bars 17 to 22) when you tap Play.

If you now tap another bar this will select a new Start bar (and highlight a default 4 bars) and then wait for you to select a new End bar.

Looping with track playing
You can also have a track playing before you set up looping. This time, when you tap the Loop button, the default 4-bar loop selection will appear – starting at the bar in which the playhead is currently.

If you wish to you can then select a new Start bar followed by an End bar and the song will then continue to play until it reaches the new highlighted section when it will then start looping.

NEW

Search +

We have now added ‘Search+’ to all volumes of Quartet. Now you can search the complete Song Library of all 6 volumes of Quartet and listen to audio preview samples.

You can also add any song as a favourite just by tapping on the heart icon.

You can create playlists from any of the 650+ songs – and these will be synced across all your Quartet apps.

Search+

The Search+ screen shows all the songs in the Song Library. Use the Search box to type in what you’re looking for – whether it’s an individual song, a style, songs by a particular artist, time-signature or bpm, etc.

For example, you can search for ‘Coltrane’ and the list will be filtered to only show songs by, or associated with, Coltrane. If you then wish to save these songs in a playlist, tap on ‘Select all’ then ‘Save selected’. You will then be given the option of adding the songs to an existing playlist or to add them to a new one.

The app icon tells you in which volume of Quartet a particular song is located. If you don’t have that app volume the icon will be ‘greyed-out’, but the song can still be previewed by tapping the small white speaker icon in the preview column. (The preview sample is streamed over the internet so a WiFi/mobile connection is required).

Favourites
Tap on the heart icon of any song to mark it as a favourite. This will then be synced across all your Quartet apps. Tap on the ‘Save Favourites’ button if you wish to then save this list of favourites as a playlist.

Playlists
You can select any songs in the list to be added to a new or existing playlist – tap the small square box in the Select column. Use the Search function to help you locate the songs you want. When ready, tap on ‘Save Selected’ – and choose either ‘Add to existing playlist’ or ‘Add to new playlist’.

My Playlists

Tapping on the ‘My Playlists’ button will show all your stored playlists.

There is a sample playlist included in each version of Quartet when the app is first installed. This playlist can be modified or deleted if you wish. This sample playlist contains several songs available in that particular volume of Quartet.

To view or edit a particular playlist, tap on either the artwork, the info text or the arrow on the right hand side of each playlist.

Tapping on the play button in the Autoplay column, will open up the chords screen for first song in that playlist.

Tapping play for the first song will then start the playlist. All songs will automatically play, in order,  with a short gap of 5 seconds between songs. You can pause song play at any time.

Playlists can exported (or imported) from the ‘My Playlists’ screen. For example, if you’re in a band, you may wish to share a set list with other band members.

To export a particular playlist, tap on the icon in the Export column and a popup will appear with a range of options including sending an email with the playlist as an attachment or ‘Save to Files (to save the playlist to your local storage or iCloud).

To import a playlist, tap on the Import icon in the blue header (top right) and bring the playlist into the app via the Files app.

To delete a playlist, tap on the red trash can icon and then confirm in the pop-up that appears.

When the first song in a playlist is shown, you can manually advance to the next song (or go back to the previous song) by tapping the ‘<‘ and ‘>‘ arrows that appear in the song header.

Songs in a playlist that are from Quartet app volumes that you don’t have (or are uninstalled) will not appear when the playlist is running – the app will advance to the next song in the list you do have.

View/Edit Playlists

When you select a playlist you are taken to the View/Edit Playlist screen (image below)

Once your Quartet apps are synced with each other, tapping on any song artwork, text or ‘>’ buton will take you directly to that song, ready to play. Closing the song chord screen will then bring you back to the playlist.

In the Info section at the top, you can rename the playlist, turn off the autoplay function or get to the first song in the playlist by tapping the white play button.

The Song section below that shows the songs in the playlist (in this playlist example named ‘Getz’, 82 song are listed). To delete a song from the playlist, tap on the ‘X’ in the Remove column.

Below the songs that make up the playlist are all the remaining songs in the Quartet Song Library  (from all 6 Quartet apps). To add a new song from the Song Library to this playlist, tap the ‘+’ button in the ‘Add’ column.

To change the order of songs in your playlist, tap, hold then slide up or down the ‘3 line’ button. Release when in the right location.

Exporting Audio

2. Export this song as separate parts

This option allows you to access the multitrack, individual, high-quality (wav) parts or ‘stems’ that make up the song. Tapping the button downloads a zip file to your device containing a GarageBand-ready project file.

If you have GarageBand installed on your iOS device, then tapping on the zip file will unzip the contents and automatically open the song in GarageBand (see image below).

If you prefer to use the separated parts in a different application or DAW (Digital Audio Workstation) of your choice (such as Logic Pro, Ableton Live, Reaper, Cubase, etc.) perhaps on a Mac or PC, then copy the zip file across to that device and unzip it there. In the ‘Media’ folder you will see the individual wav stems, e.g. DRUMS.wav, BASS.wav, PIANO.wav, SAX.wav.

Please note: this multitrack export option delivers the song in the native tempo and key.