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App Recommendation for playing Piano grips/chords

WagTheDog

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Howdy iPad musicians!

First of all - being new here I want to say hello to all of you!

I have a special request:

Being a singer in a band I sometimes need to play short piano or organ fill-ins.
To do so I use my iPad in combination with a Midi keyboard. Works fine so far.

Here comes my question: I want play a few complex piano chords just using one finger trigger for each chord.
The reason why I want to do so is that I am a decent singer but a awful lousy piano player.

Does any one of you know an iPad Piano app where you could freely program chords and play them just with one finger?
(More in detail: The piano grips must be freely programmable rather than choosing chords from a scale).

As an alternative to such an app I could try to get samples from the grips/chords and use an MPC app (like iMPC) to trigger them.
This would not be my preferred option but it would also work.

Any suggestions appreciated!

Regards
Peter
 

Mickey330

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Hi and welcome to the forum. It's good to "see" you and we hope you enjoy your visits.

Take a look at "PChord (Piano Chord Finder)" (link: https://itunes.apple.com/us/app/pchord-piano-chord-finder/id564188907?mt=8). It appears you can program chords for various songs/reasons, save them and then play them by just tapping a button. It takes a bit of set up so you can easily find chords. Cause if you don't, you'll have all the chords and it will take time to find the one you want.

It makes a nice piano chord sound on the iPad, I don't know how it will sound coming out of your external MIDI keyboard. But, you can get a Lite version for free (the full version in an in-app purchase of ($3.99, USD).

IN the full version, I t appears you can save time in creating the chord list by preparing a text file (using just letters/numbers for the chord names) and then emailing it to the iPad for importing into the app. May save time in building a chord list for each song. It's something to look into...

I also saw an app called "Chord Bot" (link: https://itunes.apple.com/us/app/chordbot/id394754767?mt=8). It's $4.99 (USD), yet it also have a separate, free, Lite version so you can check it out. It's a bit more complicated (for me) and I can't figure it out right now. But, maybe it'll do for you?

I like the PChord app. Enough so that I bought the full version. So, my thanks to you for raising the question. :)

Hopefully, my research results will be what you want or someone else will be along to tell what they have. Good luck in your search. Now, I'm going to "play" with my new app! :D

Marilyn
 
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WagTheDog

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Hi Marilyn,

thanks for your answer!
Both apps come very close to what I would like to achieve.

Unfortunately both apps require that you define the chord from a predefined list of possibilities.
As I do want to play a chord in combination with a bass note I would require some kind of
"grip programming" on a keyboard (not just a single chord).

Anyway your reply is very appreciated - thank you!

Regards
Peter
 

twerppoet

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Have you looked at Garage Band?

The Smart Keyboard lets you play variations on chords with one finger. The bottom part of each chord bar lets you play the three major notes of the chord individually. By changing the Key in settings you should be able to find a combination with both the chords and the notes you need.

SmartKeyboard.jpg

Much, much more complicated, but really cool app is Seline Ultimate. It would take a bit more effort than one finger chording, but because this (unusual) keyboard is configurable you can tweak it for the song. With a little help from your bandmates you could set it up so that the three finger chord and other notes you need are easy (well, easier than a real keyboard) to play.

Even if you don't end up using it, I suspect you'll enjoy playing with it anyway. It's a pretty cool synth concept.

Good luck.
 

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