IBMA was awesome!

WOW! IBMA was such an amazing experience for Team Tunefox, and it was so great to meet everyone involved in our bluegrass community.

If you swung by our booth, thanks so much for saying hey! Sharing the joy of learning music with you is why we exist, and it’s so cool to hear what your dreams and aspirations are as musicians as well as what you’re currently struggling with in your practice.

We started Tunefox to share what we think are the best learning and practice methods.

We believe that a big part of becoming a great bluegrass player is getting off of tab as soon as you can, so you can embrace the music you’re playing and learn faster and faster.

Something we learned at IBMA is that many people are already learning by ear, but they’re searching for a more organized way of practicing and learning songs.

We’re creating a middle ground between learning from tab and learning by ear that isn’t found anywhere else. Most people learning bluegrass understand that you can only get so far by learning with tab, but learning from a recording can be very overwhelming and scary.

Tunefox gives you two super useful tools to get your learning by ear faster:

• Memory Trainer - Loop a measure you’re working on and watch more notes be covered up each time the measure plays. This will train you to listen to both TuneFox and yourself to make sure you’re playing the right notes instead of looking at the tab. Plus, you can combine this feature with the Speed-Up option to achieve ultimate practice efficiency.
• Hide the Notes - A more tedious way to learn by ear, but much easier than just listening to a recording and trying to figure it out. In TuneFox, you can see what string the notes are on, and you can set your difficulty level by adjusting the slider.

You can find these features on the Tunefox web program in "More Settings" in the bottom right corner.

Use these tools and you’ll be well on your way to becoming a self-sufficient bluegrass banjo player. You won’t need tab anymore, and you’ll be shredding at your local jam sessions. If you can embrace practicing ear training on a regular basis, you’ll be amazed at the results.

How do you learn by ear? Do you have a method or practice regimen? Let us know in the comments!