PracticeX
Get PracticeX
For violin, viola and cello

See your pitch in color.

Add your own printed music as a photo or PDF, and play. When you finish, every note shows whether it was flat, in tune or sharp, right on your page. Scales work too, no score needed.

App StoreDownload for iPhone Web appUse it now in Safari or Chrome Google PlayClosed beta: join here

No account. Your recordings stay on your phone.

A report card for a D major scale: 83 percent of the notes in tune, two stars, what went well and what to try next.

Six days between lessons. A child can spend all six practicing the same wrong note. It's hard for a parent to catch, and almost impossible to watch a tuner while playing. By the next lesson, all that hard work has put the wrong note into their fingers, and that's tough on everyone: the child, the teacher and the parent.

PracticeX doesn't replace the teacher. It fills the days between lessons.

Three ways to practise

Scales first, then your own music, and a tuner for the double stops.

Scale practice

Play a scale or an arpeggio. Every note is coloured on the staff, flat or sharp, with a report card on what went well and what to try next. Each take is kept, so you see your progress.

A report card for a D major scale: 83 percent of the notes in tune, two stars, what went well and what to try next.

Your music

Add the pages of a piece, a PDF or photos, and play it. The colours appear on your own pages, bar by bar, and each note of a double stop is judged on its own.

A printed page of violin music with a color band under each staff.

Chord tuner

Single notes and double or triple stops, live: the name, the cents and a gauge for every note you are holding.

The chord tuner showing a double stop: each of the two notes with its cents and a gauge.

How it works

Three steps. You listen while you play and look afterwards.

Add your music and play

Add your own music as a photo or PDF, then play from it. A clean printed score reads best. Scales work too, with no score needed at all. If you like, bow the open strings first (violin G-D-A-E, viola and cello C-G-D-A) and it checks your tuning too.

A scale on the staff with a color band under every note; red marks the notes that were sharp and blue the notes that were flat.

See

After the take, a color appears under every note: flat, in tune or sharp, with the number of cents where it matters. A short report card says what went well and what to try next.

  • flat
  • in tune
  • sharp
A report card for a piece: stars, what went well, and the bars that need work.

Practice the notes that keep going wrong

Play it again and your takes stack up. A note that is off in most takes is a habit; one that was off once was a slip. You spend your time on the habits.

Takes of a piece or scale stacked as layers, with a frame around the notes that keep going wrong.

Made for how string players listen

A string player is not a piano. These are the things we tried to get right, and that teachers tend to ask about first.

Pure thirds

A good major third sits about 14 cents below the piano’s. PracticeX judges thirds in scales and in double stops against the pure third, so a well-tuned third is not marked wrong. You can switch to equal temperament in Settings.

Double stops, note by note

In your own music, each note of a double or triple stop gets its own color. A note it cannot tell apart is hatched in gray, never given a color it might not deserve.

Your reference A

Choose A = 440 to 444 Hz, or let PracticeX estimate the A you actually played to from the whole recording. An orchestra at 442 is set once.

The ear comes first

The results appear after you play, not while you play. Students learn to hear the pitch, and the colors then confirm or correct what they heard.

Color-blind friendly

Choose blue and orange, or blue and yellow, instead of blue and red. Every child sees the difference between flat and sharp.

Open strings in pure fifths

Open strings are tuned in pure fifths from the A, the way string players tune by ear. The tuner and the results judge them that way, unless you choose equal temperament in Settings.

We are building this with string players and teachers. If something is judged differently from how you would teach it, tell us.

Screens from the app

Every picture here is a screen of the app, made from a test recording.

  • A report card for a D major scale: 83 percent of the notes in tune, two stars, what went well and what to try next.

    The report card: what went well, what to try next.

  • A scale on the staff with a color band under every note; red marks the notes that were sharp and blue the notes that were flat.

    A scale on the staff, with a color under every note.

  • Takes of a piece or scale stacked as layers, with a frame around the notes that keep going wrong.

    Takes stacked: the notes that keep going wrong.

  • A printed page of violin music with a color band under each staff.

    Your own printed page, with the colors under each staff.

  • The same page with a ring around every note the app read; uncertain notes have a dashed ring.

    The notes it read from your page. Check them, and fix any it got wrong.

  • A report card for a piece: stars, what went well, and the bars that need work.

    A report card for a piece, with the bars that need work.

  • The chord tuner showing a double stop: each of the two notes with its cents and a gauge.

    The chord tuner: single notes and double stops, live.

For teachers and youth orchestras

Give your students something to bring back to the lesson: not “I practiced”, but a picture of how the practice went.

Write to us
  • Assign a scale or an excerpt. Students play from their own copy of the part.
  • The student saves the result as a picture and sends it to you: the staff, the colors and the cents in one image.
  • Teaching many students, or a whole section? Studio codes are planned. Write to us and tell us what your studio needs.

Free while we launch.

Everything in the app is open, with no account and no ads. We are listening to teachers and players before we set a price.

Now: free

US$0

  • Scales, your own music and the chord tuner, without limits
  • Takes stacked, to find the habits
  • Several players on one phone: a family or a studio
Start free

PracticeX Pro

Later

Early users get a founding benefit when Pro starts.

  • When the free version gets limits, Pro keeps everything unlimited
  • Family Sharing: up to 6 people

Before anything changes, the app says so. Nothing is charged without your OK in the App Store.

Prices are in US dollars; the store shows your own price. You pay, cancel and restore through the App Store (or Google Play): you can cancel at any time and keep Pro until the end of the period you paid for.

Android: closed beta

PracticeX for Android is in a closed test on Google Play. It is free to join, in two steps.

Email my Gmail address Open the test link

Send it to practicex.app@gmail.com

  1. Email us the Gmail address your Android phone uses for Google Play. We add it to the tester list and write back.
  2. Then, on the phone, open the test link, tap “Become a tester” and install PracticeX from Google Play.
  3. Before you start, update “Android System WebView” and Chrome in the Play Store.

Questions

Which instruments does it work for?

Violin, viola and cello. You pick yours once in Settings, and the app uses its open strings, its range and its clef (alto clef for viola, bass clef for cello). Violin is the instrument we have tested most; viola and cello are newer, so tell us what you find.

How accurate is it?

For the pitch, it measures how far each note is from where it should be, in cents (a cent is a hundredth of a semitone), and shows the figure under the notes that are out. For your own music, it reads clean printed music best. Faint photocopies, pencil marks and curled pages are harder. It rings every note it read, so you can check them, and you can fix any note by hand. A note it is unsure about is not judged.

Does it work offline?

Yes. Listening to your playing and reading your music both happen on your phone, so you can practice without a connection.

What happens to my recordings and my music?

There is no account. Your recordings are analysed on your phone and are not uploaded, and neither are the pictures of your music. The one exception is optional: to look for a checked copy of a piece, the app sends only the pitch of each note it read, with no pictures, no sound, no names and no title, and the server keeps nothing. You can turn it off for any piece. Read the privacy policy

My Android phone is old. Will it work?

The Android app needs a recent Android System WebView. If the app says yours is too old, update Android System WebView and Chrome in Google Play. The Android app is in testing; until it is out, you can use PracticeX in Chrome on the web.

What does it cost, and how do I cancel?

Right now everything is free, with no account and no ads. A Pro plan will come later, after we have heard from teachers and players; the app will tell you before anything changes, and early users get a founding benefit. You never pay without confirming it in the App Store (or Google Play), and you can cancel there at any time.

How old do you have to be?

Many players are children practicing with a parent, and a parent’s phone is fine. The app asks for no name, e-mail or account. The feedback form and the requests we answer by e-mail are for parents, teachers and players of 14 or older.

Hear it. Then see it.

Try it now: two sample pieces are ready, or play a scale.

App StoreDownload for iPhone Web appUse it now in Safari or Chrome Google PlayClosed beta: join here