riffstation

[phxguy]

Anyone familiar with or use riffstation.com? I have been using it to get the chords to various songs I am interested in and very pleased with that aspect of it but don't use it for anything else. Is there something I am missing out on?

[Jusca]

Originally Posted by phxguy

Anyone familiar with or use riffstation.com? I have been using it to get the chords to various songs I am interested in and very pleased with that aspect of it but don't use it for anything else. Is there something I am missing out on?

In terms of musical skills, you'd be missing out on ear training if you're dependent on riffstation to figure out the chords for you.

[ljguitar]

Originally Posted by phxguy

Anyone familiar with or use riffstation.com? I have been using it to get the chords to various songs I am interested in and very pleased with that aspect of it but don't use it for anything else. Is there something I am missing out on?

Hi phxguy…

Nice tool if it works as slick as the demo. Is it useful to you? If so, nothing wrong with using it.

When you ask about missing out, do you mean are there other capabilities of the app you are not seeing?

I do arranging, and beyond my music major during college, and the extra 17 credit hours of music theory I amassed in the process, I've used Amazing SlowDowner to lift and transcribe passages out of recordings when I'm in a hurry and just am not hearing the important bits without an 'assist'.

[JonPR]

Originally Posted by phxguy

Anyone familiar with or use riffstation.com? I have been using it to get the chords to various songs I am interested in and very pleased with that aspect of it but don't use it for anything else. Is there something I am missing out on?

As you may know, it's not programmed to recognise anything but maj, min and dom7s. If that's all the song contains, then - in my experience - it's impressively accurate, but if there's some other kind of chord in there then it will get it wrong. I.e., it won't just say "unknown" or "?" - it will actually guess the nearest chord type out of the small selection it knows.
As long as you're aware of that potential for error, it's OK.
And sorry I don't know any other thing it's good for, as that flaw put me off it altogether. (I tried the demo on a few songs; it was fine for some, but hopelessly inaccurate on others. So what's the point in that?)

I use Transcribe for learning songs, which will only guess chords if you ask it, and has a much bigger "vocabulary", and gives you a few possibilities. It doesn't look as cool, and won't list the chords as the track plays - which is where Riffstation impresses to begin with. But that's because Riffstation's apparent cleverness is only a front; its confidence is misplaced.

[ljguitar]

Originally Posted by JonPR

…I use Transcribe for learning songs…

Hi JPR…

These days I just go to YouTube and grab a guitar and capo and hammer it through till I get it.

As mentioned previously, our ear is our best friend.

Since I started learning from phono records (the original arms-n-needle connections) and then cassette tapes, then DVDs, now YouTube.

In the process of transcribing and teaching guitars I learned to read hands from the audience side of the guitar. It's not that hard as apart from jazz, chord progressions of most music are quite predictable.

It's so much easier these days than dropping needles repeatedly in the right section of a 78rpm or 33rpm (or 45rpm) spinning disc.

[Pixelfergus]

I've used it to change the key of a song on the fly if you
don't like the present key, it's a time saver

[JonPR]

Originally Posted by ljguitar

[size=2]Hi JPR…

These days I just go to YouTube and grab a guitar and capo and hammer it through till I get it.

Yes, that too, except I find it easier to "hammer through it" after recording it into Transcribe. It just saves time to be able to isolate short sections easily. I'm still using my ear!
Normally, I'll get a rough idea by running through it at full speed, and then go back and slow down parts to confirm (or correct) my guesses.

It's a little like, yes, I could walk down to the shops to buy stuff but hell I've got a bike, so I'm going to cycle. OK, it's lazy, but it's quicker - and I'm still getting the exercise.
What I would not do is ring someone up and ask them to go and buy stuff for me (they'd probably get the order wrong).

Originally Posted by ljguitar

As mentioned previously, our ear is our best friend.

Since I started learning from phono records (the original arms-n-needle connections) and then cassette tapes, then DVDs, now YouTube.

I guess I always "cheated" because I used a 2-speed tape deck in the old days (starting 50 years ago!). My ear was hopeless then, and if I'd had to do it from vinyl at full speed, I just wouldn't have done it. (OK, 45s could be taken down to 33 - which changed the key -and 33s could be taken down to 16 (octave down), but only if you had a player that ran at 16; I didn't.)
I might even have lost interest in the whole guitar playing business, because I wouldn't have been able to take sufficient control of my learning.
The tape deck was how I discovered that doubling the speed (raising the octave) made the bass line clearer, helping identify chords.

I didn't do it in order to train my ear, of course. That was just the lucky by-product of the exercise.

[Finger Stylish]

Originally Posted by ljguitar

Hi JPR…

As mentioned previously, our ear is our best friend.

AMEN

I'd throw ability with quality practice and effort in there as well.

[phxguy]

Thanks for the feedback. I wasn't aware that it only recognized major, minor and dom7s. I totally agree that ear training is great but I seem to be a bit lacking in that department unless it is a very simple song. At my age (66) and for taking up guitar later in life I don't have an issue with getting a little help with the chords to a song so I can work on how to play the song.

[caissiel]

Been using Riffstation for a year and after playing guitar for 50 years the improvement this year has been much better then ever did before.
I have gained much more confidence and it has helped me in my goal to master the lead part of my songs.
I do admit to having to check the chords the program indicates. But for beat and chord transposing its a killer.
I discovered that in the time to transpose and modify my songs for my voice, and be able to sing them in a Jam, has been the true value of the program.
I play the MP3 or the adapted UTube live performance of a song and able to transcribe it to my voice.
I did find that live performance video really helps me in learning new songs using Riffstation.
Popular songs that I did for years one way were fixed using Riff and now I play them with greater satisfaction.
Even helped with new country songs that just come out and did impressed many friends.

Sent from my B1-710 using Tapatalk

[Music2Jam]

find Riffstation to be great along with Song Surgeon these software are so useful with my guitar training, though I am still not that good with guitars, I use these 2 helpful software, I am using 2 it is because there features that Riffstation does not have and Song Surgeon has.