Backing Tracks: Ballads

Category
Music

Description of App

Musicians - in need of some accompaniment while practicing? Look no further than Backing Tracks: Ballads! Guitarists - use this tool to help you master the fretboard and develop fluidity in playing up and down the neck!

Energize your practice sessions with Backing Tracks: Ballads. This tool will provide you with a fun practice companion with FOUR DIFFERENT tracks recorded at THREE TEMPOS and in FOURTEEN keys (a total of 168 tracks)!!

The four tracks included are:

  1. An acoustic style ballad
  2. A soft ambient style ballad
  3. A retro classic style ballad
  4. A mellow piano ballad

Each of the tracks was recorded in CD-quality audio at 128 kbps in the following keys:

A major, A minor
B major, B minor
C major, C minor
D major, D minor
E major, E minor
F major, F minor
G major, G minor

Just select a button above a key letter on the interface for the major key tracks, or select a button below a key letter for the minor key tracks.

In addition, the CHORD PROGRESSIONS for each of the fifty-six tracks are provided. Just tap the "Chords" button and the key-specific progression will appear.

Finally, for guitarists, the five positions of the pentatonic scale are provided for each key. Just tap the "Scale" button and a handy reference page will appear.

(Tap the "x" in the top right corner to close either the chord progression or scale screen).

Version

1.1

Free or Paid

Paid

Apple Watch Support

Not Known

Device(s) App Was Tested On

iPhone

Accessibility Comments

It's a mess, alas. You can use parts of this, but the info that might be useful to novice players is totally inaccessible, and the rest is hard to work with. It's a little bit of trial and error: mostly because of the unlabeled buttons. Not worth the fuss really.

VoiceOver Performance

VoiceOver reads most page elements.

Button Labeling

Few buttons are clearly labeled.

Usability

Some parts of the app are accessible with VoiceOver, but not enough to make it usable.

Other Comments

If you are attracted by the learning potential here, give this a miss: it's not easy to work with and frustrating. I have used the tracks successfully and the tracks themselves sound pretty good, but getting the key I wanted and the speed I wanted was too much of a fuss and a bit of trial and error. Maybe, the developer would have responded to some inquiries, but their support page seems to be busted. . I bought it because you can change tempo on the backing tracks, but it's not worth the fuss.

App Store Link

https://itunes.apple.com/us/app/backing-tracks-ballads/id427293917?mt=8

Developer's Website

http://vievace.com/?page_id=20

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