iHearit

University of Regina

2011-06-26T11:37:00.003-04:00

Thanks to Shanan for letting me post about iHearit in the University of Regina blog. U of R is where I did my B.Ed. degree, and though I'm living in Toronto now, I have great memories of U of R, the music department and the education department. To my Regina friends, I'll be back in August and I hope to see some of you then...

v1.6 Now Available on the App Store

2011-06-15T19:56:00.000-04:00

iHearit's new feature is in-app recording. This is perfect for recording rehearsals and performance for later study / transcription / analysis. The way it was before (and still is with any other slow-down app) you had to use Voice Memos or some other app to record, transfer the audio files to your PC/Mac, then transfer it back through iTunes to your iPhone/iPod Touch/iPad. With iHearit you can record and analyze right away. You can now easily transcribe musical vocabulary from lessons, gigs, etc. - in short, anywhere where musical inspiration is hitting you and you have your iPhone.

Enjoy!

iHearit reviews, new update soon

2011-04-19T00:34:00.001-04:00

These links are courtesy of a musician friend who just bought an iPad and was searching for music apps. iHearit is being recommended by musicians to other musicians, which is something that makes me feel quite warm and fuzzy:
http://saxymoni.com/2011/03/ipad-apps-for-the-professional-musician/

http://www.quora.com/Sacha-Adam

And for those who own iHearit already, a bit of news for you - we have another update in the works. I won't spoil the surprise, but lets just say it's an exciting and very useful feature that no other transcribing app for iOS offers yet.

v1.5.2 released - universal compatibility with all Apple devices and OS versions

2010-12-09T21:30:00.000-05:00

v1.5.2 was released on the App Store today, and brings back into the fold users of iOS 3.1.3 (ie 1st gen iPhone and 1st and 2nd gen iPod Touch). The new app binary works on any iPod Touch, iPhone, or iPad regardless of hardware or OS version, and delivers new iOS4.x features (like iPod library import) only to devices that can support it. I call it the "No Device Left Behind" policy and will have Laura Bush speaking on an extended world tour as a part of my new publicity campaign. OK, just kidding about that last part.

Trent

v1.5 released on the App Store

2010-11-09T08:25:00.000-05:00

You can now import songs straight from your iPod library, making learning the music you own easier than ever. Enjoy!

Trent

v1.4 now live on the App Store!

2010-10-21T01:15:00.000-04:00

The latest version of iHearit is now live on the App Store. Please try out the touch and drag movable loop points and let me know what you think! I've done some lifting with them and find it to be a very useful feature. I think drummers and bassists in particular will enjoy being able to line up exact loops of grooves they want to study and play along with. Enjoy!

v1.4 coming soon!

2010-10-05T09:56:00.000-04:00

Version 1.4 is being worked on and is nearly done - the main new feature is movable touch and drag loop points. This is an awesome feature which will let you set loops to very specific lengths ie 2 bars, exact phrases, with millisecond accuracy. In it will also be a bug fix for songs where the last portion of a song goes missing. I still haven't figured out why this happened on some songs and not others, but we do have the fix already implemented and will have it out very soon. Thanks to the users who brought this to my attention.

Trent

iHearit 1.3 now on the App Store!

2010-08-30T16:08:00.002-04:00

What's New in this Version:

- you can now upload songs into iHearit using iTunes and cable (wi-fi method still works)
- iTunes songs now compatibile - no conversion needed (m4a, mp4, m4r, m4v files now work natively)
- new sample clip included: Kelly Jefferson Quartet's 'Everything is Beautiful' (composed by Mark McLean) from his brand new album, 'Next Exit'
- fixed an orientation bug when device was flat on a table

Thanks for your support :)

Learning music like babies learn speech

2010-08-25T00:59:00.000-04:00

My 22 month old son is constantly listening to the world around him and mimic-ing the sounds he hears. We've all seen this happening, but as a dad who is seeing the progress he is making daily, the results are quite astonishing. How many adults do you know who learn a foreign language in 2-3 years? Not very many, I'd bet. And yet this is something that every baby on our planet does. It's absolutely amazing and yet for the most part we totally take it for granted.

In the institutionalizing of music education we've almost completely ignored this most tried-and-true method of learning vocabulary. But why is that? I believe there has been an unnecessary and unhelpful academic stigma placed on the natural process of learning by copying or mimic-ing each other. It is often seen to be distasteful and even contrary to the principal of developing "originality" of expression. It's a false dichotomy, however. No one says Isaac Newton's thoughts were unoriginal because he expressed them in the same language that Shakespeare and Chaucer used. The elements they all used (the letters and words of the English language) were the same, but their combination of them and end expressions were completely different. The same goes for learning scales, tetrachords, arpeggios, interval patterns, licks, etc. which are elements of our common musical vocabulary. It's practically important to be able to recognize and use these elements to carry on a musical conversation. Repeated listening, and with the benefit of slowing music down, helps to promote recognition of musical elements. Mimic-ing / playing along with music you want to learn is the first chance to practically apply new vocabulary. With recognition of the elements and the context they are presented comes the opportunity to start using the same elements in new contexts, much like using words to construct sentences in conversations.

In music it seems there's often a lack of distinction between the practical process of learning a language and one's long-term artistic goals and ambitions. We as adults often hesitate to directly mimic musical language (the way babies would) because we are afraid that if we do we might become a "clone" of the person we are copying. To follow this logic to it's natural end, we would say that to become the most original musician we can, we should not listen to any music by other people. Poets should not read other poets, novelists are no longer allowed into libraries and bookstores, you get the picture. It's ridiculous. Babies don't get caught up in this like adults do, but why? Well, for one thing, they don't have ambitions of speaking like Barack Obama when they start saying their first words, or writing like Ernest Hemingway when they start to spell.

Transcribing a musician is a bit like getting into their head for that moment. By slowing down their music we have more time to observe the choices our favourite musicians make and the elements of their language, note by note and phrase by phrase. It's very similar to what our son is doing now. He doesn't have the benefit of manipulating the speed of our speech (though we often slow down and simplify our language for him). But he is getting a lot of repeated exposure from every direction to our language. Then he repeats the words and phrases he learns to see how they fit. This is especially neat to see - there are some word combinations he comes up with that are, well, very unique. He, and every other toddler, can be completely original without even trying because he is experimenting with and thus mastering the elements he's working on.

So the next time someone says "You're being like a baby", you may just want to say "Thanks".

Dave Liebman on Transcribing

2010-07-30T11:31:00.003-04:00

This is an excerpt from a great article on transcribing from Dave Liebman, master saxophonist, educator and and general renaissance man:

"WHY TRANSCRIBE?

How does one learn tone, nuance and develop a true and believable jazz sense of rhythm? Certainly there are exercises and method books which can help a student attain these goals, but there is a built in elusiveness to these concepts since they are virtually impossible to notate in any convincing fashion. The best approach is exact aural and tactile imitation-the first stage of all artistic growth. For jazz, the most valuable form of imitation is a direct master-apprentice relationship in which the live model (master)demonstrates directly to the student demanding immediate and exact repetition until mastered before moving on. Learning in this way becomes a natural outgrowth of constant exposure and reinforcement on the spot. But without that opportunity, I have found transcription is the next best method. Some musicians object to transcribing as stealing other people’s ideas. My contention is that in one way or another, whether it be as detailed as I will describe or as casual as Charlie Parker supposedly standing outside of a club in Kansas City hearing Lester Young and then going home with phrases in his ear and mind to practice and recall, most artists have done something of this sort. And the
best players are usually the ones who will tell you immediately that so and so was their main inspiration and they began by copying him. This is a process-a means to and end and to my mind very necessary..."

Read the full article on Dave's website.

Also see Dave's mention of iHearit on his blog post from April.

iHearit App Store Reviews

2010-07-27T11:10:00.002-04:00

Thanks to all of you who have written positive comments for iHearit. Here are a couple of the more recent ones:

Great learning tool.

imarose2

Version 1.1 - May 24, 2010

This applications works perfectly to help you learn your part or 'lick'. It is quite simple to load the songs. The one challenge I had was trying to figure out the volume control, after that was figured out, everything worked like a charm. I look forward to being able to accelerate my musical skills using iHearit.

Kind of a bargain...

RGRGGR

Version 1.1 - Mar 13, 2010

Actually pretty kick a** for the $.
A fraction of the price of comparable software programs I've seen(@$40-50).
Seems to work as advertised.
wi-fi sharing works well to with my laptop.
Nice one.

Version 1.2 is on the App Store today

2010-07-23T00:45:00.000-04:00

What's new:

- easier to upload songs - new browser based uploader
- bug fixed where only left channel of audio was heard
- new sample song excerpt included: Ernesto Cervini Quartet featuring Joel Frahm

More updates are in the works...

iHearit is a "Cool Tool"

2010-04-12T23:53:00.001-04:00

iHearit is being featured in the Cool Tools section of this month's International Musician.Click here to see their writeup.
Thanks everyone for your support and I look forward to sharing more app updates soon!

Version 1.2 coming soon...

2010-04-04T20:05:00.001-04:00

The next version of iHearit (Slow Down, Loop & Transcribe) will be coming soon and includes a new and simplified song uploader. The new uploader is browser-based so that it will look and act the same across all platforms.

Also included will be a sample mp3, courtesy of my friend and excellent jazz drummer, Ernesto Cervini. The clip features a solo excerpt by the amazing NYC based tenor-saxophonist Joel Frahm, who is tearing it up on one of Ernesto's original compositions.

Need Support? No problem.

2010-01-31T23:24:00.000-05:00

iHearit appears to be working well for the vast majority of users. If you are having troubles doing anything with iHearit, feel free to contact me directly:

Skype: aliciaandtrent(dot)reschny
Ph: one,four-one-six,four-six-one,seven-six-two-five
email: trent(at)trentreschny(dot)com

If you phone, please don't phone after 10pm Toronto time (EST, or GMT - 5 hours).

Cheers,

Trent

How to transcribe music? Slowly...

2010-01-22T00:50:00.001-05:00

Have you ever been at a rehearsal where a musician suggested taking a song or piece at "tempo di learn-o"? It's a funny expression that belies the truth about how we really learn. Transcribing music is a slow-motion process that lets one absorb musical vocabulary at the real speed of learning - slow! I've heard it said that composers in the classical era learned melodic, harmonic and rhythmic vocabulary as well as arranging technique by hand-copying scores of the masters who came before them. That's a very slow process which virtually no one has chosen to undertake since the advent of photocopiers. For all the speed with which we can now electronically transmit our ideas, the process of truly absorbing them has remained in the very human domain of "slow". Michael Brecker, whose playing has never been described as being lacking in the speed department, said in this interview that he is "slow" in adding new vocabulary. He's referring to himself, but who would we be to say that we are faster learners than Michael?

Wherever musical language has grown, it has been a communal process. Jazz musicians are so accustomed to gleaning ideas from each other that a lingo has developed around it, with terms like "lifted" and "stolen" used to describe it. It's funny that these 'criminal' sounding terms are applied to the same process that every baby/child goes about when learning to speak. They certainly are "borrowing" vocabulary that they've heard before without any expectation of putting it together in fresh and unique ways. And yet they inevitably do. In learning jazz vocabulary, one can use the formal process of writing whole solos out, and it can also be done in bits and pieces. The key is that we make the connection of why a certain sound fits a certain context. It's a relatively slow process which requires trial, analysis and repetition. Just like learning how to talk.

Luckily, there are now tools (like iHearit) to make this slow process a little easier. Because transcribing is all about using your ears, iHearit has a very visual interface to complement this. You can see the waveform, timeline, and zoom in and out with touch gestures.

Happy music learning, and remember to take it slow:)

iHearit Poster for your Studio / School

2010-01-12T23:00:00.000-05:00

If you like iHearit and want to let other musicians know about it, you can put this poster up at your school/studio/bandroom/ etc.

Thanks everyone for spreading the word!

How to use M4P / M4A files you've bought from iTunes...

2009-12-31T11:29:00.003-05:00

iHearit can't play m4a files yet (ie. songs purchased on iTunes), but you can convert your m4a files to mp3's within iTunes. Go to 'Preferences' (iTunes menu on Mac, or Edit menu on Windows) to make sure that your Import Settings are set to convert files to mp3. I recommend using the Highest Quality setting. You can now convert any song(s) in your library to mp3 by choosing that option in the context menu (right-click or Apple key).

This freeware Windows app will also convert m4a's to mp3's if you are on a PC without iTunes.

A sticky link has been added in the top right for this too.

iHearit Version 1.1 Released

2009-12-28T11:07:00.002-05:00

v1.1 of iHearit was released today. Here are the changes:

- added support for .mp2, .ogg, and .aiff files
- fixed bug with display in Tethering Mode
- fixed bug with audio files under 1 second in length

I've been getting some good feedback from users to make iHearit even better. You can add your suggestions on the iHearit Changelog.

Press Release: iHearit Now Available on App Store!

2009-12-03T02:52:00.009-05:00

iHearit - the iPhone app which lets you slow down music without changing the pitch, set loops, and navigate a song by touching its wave image has been released today. Trent Reschny has created iHearit from the perspective of a musician wanting a simple, elegant and portable way to learn more about the music he/she loves.

A better muse trap:

"Musicians have always been looking for a better way to learn music by ear - especially to try recreating those styles and moments we find so inspiring. Before my time, musicians used reel to reel tape recorders to slow music down to half speed. But the recordings always sounded strange because they were an octave too low. I've purchased digital boxes to do this, but they were clunky and unintuitive. With iHearIt, you can touch the song to start and stop it, zoom in and out by pinching your fingers, and set loops with one touch. And it's all done on your iPhone. It's simple, effective and portable."

Musicians can use iHearIt to:

- hear, learn and practice along with melodies, rhythms, chords, lyrics, and beats in slow-motion
- master difficult passages with the loop feature and then slowly increase the speed, even to faster than original
- transcribe licks, patterns, jazz solos, lyrics, etc. much more easily
- study the phrasing, time feel, and articulation of the masters
- transcribe any other recorded audio like lectures, meetings, masterclasses, speeches, etc.
- see what different sounds look like as waveform images

"Desktop programs exist, but navigating with them is less intuitive and they're not as portable. And they can cost 10x more. iHearIt works with touch gestures, fits in your pocket and costs $4.99 (introductory price). Every musician from student to pro can learn a lot using iHearIt."

"There are already plans to add new features, and I'm listening to suggestions. Future upgrades will be free."

iHearIt on the App Store (iTunes required)

iHearIt Demo Video

2009-10-08T22:10:00.004-04:00

App has been submitted to Apple, and more from Lucas Pickford in the forum.

2009-08-19T01:00:00.005-04:00

iHearit has been submitted to Apple, and I'm expecting a week or so for them to approve it. Phew!!! It feels good to be at this stage, but also makes me feel a bit antsy now that I have nothing to actually do except wait for them. So in the meantime, I'm adding the other lists of Lucas Pickford's transcriptions with links into their appropriate categories on the forum. This guy is a prolific lifter - check them out. Or try searching the forum now for a jazz artist you're into - I bet you'll find some lifts that will interest you. Next post should be the big announcement :)

more at the forum from Sonny Stitt, Hank Mobley

2009-08-09T02:01:00.002-04:00

New in Saxophone Solos: a second lift from each of the classic albums "Sonny Stitt Sits in with the Oscar Peterson Trio" and "Soul Station".

Songs from the "crack shack"...

2009-08-08T02:16:00.003-04:00

My good friend Steve Smith sent me the links to his transcription images and movie file for a very nice rendition of How Deep is the Ocean played by Bill Evans with his trio. Check this out - it's quite an amazing lift of a wicked solo! And what is the "crack shack" you ask? Learn all you need to know here :)

New Links, Goals for this Site

2009-08-05T23:21:00.005-04:00

I got an email from my friend (and tax accountant) Don DiCarlo who is a wonderful jazz pianist. He mentioned a couple sites with great transcriptions: one is Lucas Pickford's site. His site is an amazing wealth of content, from an amazing musical contributor. Check it out! I'll bring more of these types of sites to your attention as I hear about them.

Some of you might be asking - why do you want to try to collect these things on your site when Google already catalogs the web on an ongoing basis for us, including transcriptions and everything else? That's a good question. First I wanted to create a site to go along with the iPhone app, but it's mainly because I wasn't seeing a central place to collect and share all this great work people have done. A site that can grow and expand and have contributions from anyone. There are quite a few sites where people were sharing their own stuff, or some stuff they collected, but not any active community sites where everybody can share theirs. That's how the iHearIt Forum is setup - it's both a forum and a permanent archive. It allows people to comment, explain, have conversations, and share insights as well as their transcriptions. I think that's a pretty useful addition to the transcription content itself. I'd like for this site to become like a YouTube of transcriptions :) Search for Herbie Hancock and 50 transcriptions with archived conversations about them come up. What an amazing resource that would be. Of course it's not like that now, I'm just trying to get the ball rolling. That's where you come in :) Any contributions big or small will help!

new solos by Charlie Parker, Dexter Gordon, Mark Eisenman, and Hank Mobley

2009-08-05T03:48:00.004-04:00

The first outside contribution to the forum came today from Bill McBirnie, the incredible jazz flutist from here in Toronto. It's not a flute solo, though, it's a piano solo by the very swinging Mark Eisenman (also from Toronto). It comes from Bill's record though, Nature Boy. He did it on the new and very promising Noteflight online music notation software. Thanks Bill!

Other solos I've added from my archives into the Saxophone section include Night in Tunisia by Charlie Parker, I Was Doin' Alright by Dexter Gordon, and If I Should Lose You by Hank Mobley. These are all classics and fun to play learn and play along with. I hope you enjoy these!

App is getting very close, 10 transcriptions added to the forum

2009-08-03T21:59:00.006-04:00

iHearIt the App for iPhone / iPod Touch is nearly complete. For those of my friends who have heard me talk about it or seen prototypes, rest easy - it will be here soon. I really think this will be a marvelous tool for musicians the world over to use. I've been using it recently for some lifting (an Eric Alexander tune) and I have to say, it works extremely well. I love having the iPhone on the music stand right next to my manuscript. Designed by a musician for musicians, and for an already amazing tech device that is quickly becoming ubiquitous, I think it has the potential to help a lot of people in their musical pursuits.

In addition to the App, I'm launching this website which will consist of this blog and a forum for iHearIt users. The forum is just as exciting for me as the App. It's an extremely easy to use place for musicians of all stripes and skills levels to share their transcriptions of solos and songs they are working on / have worked on. You don't have to own iHearIt the App to use the forum. Click the static link in the upper right corner of this blog, or here:

The iHearIt Forum

To kick things off at the iHearIt forum I've uploaded some of my transcriptions of favourite jazz solos by artists such as Chris Potter, Michael Brecker, Joe Lovano, Eddie Daniels, John Ellis, Lennie Tristano, Charlie Parker, Sonny Rollins and Sonny Stitt. There are more to come as I dig into an old binder - Sonny Stitt, Josh Redman, Hank Mobley, Chet Baker, Dexter Gordon, and Kirk MacDonald. I'll be adding these in the next couple of days. I'm also going to be calling on other musician friends to share some of their transcriptions. Hopefully we'll have a decent little collection started by the time iHearIt goes live on the App Store. Please tell your friends about it and let's build an amazing resource together!

App Description

2001-01-01T23:48:00.004-05:00

iHearit – let's you hear what you've been missing and makes learning music by ear way easier.

- slow down (or speed up) audio without changing the pitch (mp3, mp2, ogg, aif or wav files)
- loop sections as small as 1 second and as large as the whole song
- intuitively navigate and cue playback exactly where you want by touching a song's waveform image
- zoom in to very fine detail - down to 1 second across the screen (in landscape)

Use iHearit to:

- hear and practice along with melodies, rhythms, chords, lyrics, and beats in slow-motion.
- master difficult passages with the loop feature and then slowly increase the speed, even to faster than original.
- transcribe licks, patterns, solos, lyrics, etc. much more easily.
- study the phrasing, time feel, and articulation of the masters
- easily transcribe any other recorded audio like lectures, meetings, masterclasses, speeches, etc.
- see what different sounds look like as waveform images

iHearit includes an easy to use file uploader that makes it fast to load new songs for study using wi-fi using a Mac, PC or Linux computer.

Last but not least, you can view other people's transcriptions and/or share your own with other iHearit users and music enthusiasts on the ihearit.net forum (app purchase not necessary). Discover and develop our common musical vocabulary in a community setting. Visit http://ihearit.net and click on “Forum.”

Notes:

- the first time you open a compressed song file, iHearit takes a minute or so to create the waveform image. Subsequent openings are very quick.
- uploading songs to iHearit requires a wi-fi connection
- currently supports mp3, mp2, ogg, aif and wav file formats

iHearIt Changelog

2001-01-01T00:10:00.005-05:00

You can request features here by adding comments.

v1.3 - Released Aug 27th, 2010

- you can now upload songs into iHearit using iTunes and cable (wi-fi method still works)
- iTunes songs now compatibile - no conversion needed (m4a, mp4, m4r, m4v files now work natively)
- new sample clip included: Kelly Jefferson Quartet's 'Everything is Beautiful' (composed by Mark McLean) from his brand new album, 'Next Exit'
- fixed an orientation bug when device was flat on a table

v1.2 - Released July 21st, 2010

- easier to upload songs - new browser based uploader
- bug fixed where only left channel of audio was heard
- new sample song excerpt included: Ernesto Cervini Quartet featuring Joel Frahm

v1.1 - Released Dec. 28th, 2009

- added support for .mp2, .ogg, and .aiff files
- fixed bug with display in Tethering Mode
- fixed bug with audio files under 1 second in length

v1.0 - First Release - Dec. 3rd, 2009

How to Upload Songs (detailed)

2000-01-01T16:08:00.116-05:00

Uploading songs into iHearit is easy and can be done in two ways:

Method A) Wi-Fi:

1) Turn on your desktop or laptop computer - the one that has songs on it you want to upload into iHearit.

2) On your iPhone/iPod Touch open up iHearit and touch the Upload button in the middle at the bottom of the screen.

3) You should see an address in blue on your iphone that looks something like http://192.168.0.5:8080. the numbers can be different, it doesn't matter. Enter this address into the URL bar of a browser on your desktop /laptop computer. It could be any browser: Safari, Firefox, IE, etc.

4) You should see a page come up that says iHearit Song Uploader. There are two buttons near the top of this page. Click the one on the left that says "Browse" or "Choose File" (it's different on different browsers). Pick a song file from your computer by double clicking it. You may have to navigate to get to whatever folder(s) your music files are in.

5) Click the other button near the top of your desktop/laptop screen that says "Upload"

The song you selected will be put into iHearit on your iPhone.Go back to the "Files" window (bottom left) to choose a song to work on.

Troubleshooting Notes:

- Your songs can be in any of these file formats: mp3, m4a, mp2, wav, m4r, m4v, mp4, aif or ogg.
- You have to leave iHearit on and in the Upload screen while you choose and upload songs from your desktop/laptop.
- Your device needs to be connected by wi-fi to the same network that your desktop / laptop computer is on. You will see an error message if your device is not connected to wi-fi.
- It doesn't matter if your desktop/laptop computer is connected by wi-fi or ethernet, as long as it's on the same network which your device is connected to by wi-fi.
If you have any questions outside this, it's probably best to call me: one -4 one 6- 4 six 1- seven 6 two 5.

Method B) iTunes with docking cable
note: this method requires iOS 4 or greater on your device

1) Start iTunes on your desktop/laptop computer (the one that has songs on it you want to upload into iHearit)

2) Connect your device to your desktop/laptop computer with its syncing/docking cable

3) Click your device on the left hand side of the iTunes window (see pic below)

4) Click the "Apps" tab on the top of the iTunes window (see pic above)

5) Scroll down to see the "File Sharing" section (see pic below) and 6) Click on iHearit (see pic below)

7) click on the "Add..." button (see pic above) and navigate to and select the song(s) you want to upload to iHearit. You can upload many songs at once this way.

Troubleshooting Notes:

- Your iPhone/iPod Touch will likely want to backup when you first connect the phone to iTunes - this could take a while depending on your system and how long it's been since you backed up.
- Your songs can be in any of these file formats: mp3, m4a, mp2, wav, m4r, m4v, mp4, aif or ogg.

If you have any questions outside this, it's probably best to call me: one -4 one 6- 4 six 1- seven 6 two 5.

Cheers,

Trent

iHearit Demo Video

2000-01-01T02:26:00.002-05:00

Click here to see iHearit in action on an iPhone 3G.