Accompy

What it is

Accompy is a practice app for Android. Open a piece, choose your instrument and play from the score while an orchestra plays every other part. The score follows the music and turns the page for you. Record yourself while you play, then listen back to your sound with the orchestra. The app is in English.

Problem it solves

Practising alone, you only ever hear your own line. Whether you are in tune with the harmony, or coming in at the right moment after a long rest, only shows at the rehearsal or the lesson. Recorded backing tracks are stuck at one tempo and one key, and accompaniment apps charge a subscription or play only part of a piece for free. Accompy brings the rest of the ensemble home, at the tempo and key you need, for free.

Who it is for

• Adult string and wind players getting ready for an orchestra rehearsal, a chamber group or a lesson.
• Students learning their first pieces with a band behind them.
• Singers learning notes and rhythm, in a key that suits their voice.

Core loop

• Choose your instrument once: thirty of them, from violin, cello and double bass to flute, clarinet, saxophones, trumpet, horn, tuba, guitar, harp, piano, mallets and four voice ranges.
• Open a piece and press Start. After a count-in the orchestra comes in and leaves your part to you.
• Loop the bars that are hard, slow them down and bring the tempo back up.
• Record a take and listen back with the orchestra. Tomorrow, the home screen opens on the same piece, at the same tempo and section.

Main features

• A score that follows the orchestra, turns its own pages and lets you tap a bar to start from there.
• Your part in your own key: clarinet, saxophone, trumpet, horn, guitar and double bass players read a part written for their instrument.
• Listen first, to hear the whole piece with the solo before playing it yourself.
• A metronome through the piece, a count-in of one, two or four bars and a key change of up to five semitones.
• A level for each part of the orchestra, and your own part played softly as a guide when you want it.
• Recordings with a balance between the orchestra and your sound, a timing nudge for Bluetooth headphones, and sharing a take mixed with the orchestra.
• Import your own MusicXML score from MuseScore or another notation app and play any part of it.
• New pieces arrive without an app update.

Product decisions

• The orchestra is played from the score, not from a recording. Changing the tempo or key never spoils the sound, and adding a piece only needs a checked score.
• The app does not grade you. There are no streaks, scores or badges, and finishing a run does not open a result screen. What it keeps is your practice: the piece, the section, the tempo and your note.
• Practice records and recordings follow your Google account, so a phone at home and a tablet on the music stand pick up from the same place.
• The pieces are public-domain classics arranged for the app.

Pricing

Free, with no ads and no purchases, and nothing is locked. Signing in with Google is required to keep your recordings and practice.

Next hypotheses

Measure which instruments players choose and whether looping a section leads them on to recording a take. After that, test an orchestra that follows the player's tempo.

Support and privacy

• Contact: hello@mrlatte.net or the contact page
• Privacy policy: The privacy policy explains what the app keeps with your account and on your device, what it downloads and sends, and how to delete it.
• Delete your account: In the app, open Settings and tap Delete account. Without the app, email hello@mrlatte.net from the address of your Google account and ask us to delete your Accompy account.