Is there any kind of jam helper application?

Question

I can't stand it anymore - my friend just struck me again. We have arranged to jam tonight after work, but he didn't bring his guitar. Again. They all keep doing it occasionally.

The thing is I'm keen on jamming. I started to like it recently and I've noticed that it constantly improves my level of playing. Well, at least on improvising. And I think that it's not so interesting to jam along a song. At least when you need to choose a song manually.

It would be so great if there was an application, which facilitates jamming in some way. I saw a few back tracks generators which allow you to select chords and measures to play them and I wonder if there is something more. I have noticed, that my improvement probably caused by a need to play along with unknown and unusual rhythms, to determine the key of a song by the ear, to adjust my playing to any change of the player which plays accompaniment, etc.

So a perfect thing to play with would be an app, which can change something by itself. Or maybe there is a web app which allows to jam over the internet? (:

P.S. As you can see I meant an app which will play a backing track or accompaniment while I play some solo. I doubt there can be an app which will solo along my rhythm playing (:

P.P.S. I am a full time software developer, so I don't really have much spare time left to search a jam host to play. And as a developer I wish to automate whatever possible. My guitar playing is the only exception (:

P.P.P.S. I would mark the question with a "jam" tag, but there isn't one (which surprised me a little). So I chose the closest in my opinion.

Answer 1

This site doesn't do shopping recommendations, but naming three products will give you a start in finding the kind of software you want.

• The SoundTrek "Jammer" range
• PG Music's "Band In A Box"
• Hard Note's "Jump"

I have tried demo versions of two of these, from way back in the days when people bought computer magazines with cover CDs. I can't make a specific recommendation, but I can say that they do more or less what you describe -- provide an algorithmically generated backing over which you can improvise.

All of these (and others) have demo versions, which you should try before buying anything.

Answer 2

In addition to Slim's answer there's
iReal b
with apps for iOS and Android.
You can enter or download chord progressions of songs you want to jam along to. And there are a bunch of features you'll have to explore yourself, of course including transposing, and meter, tempo, and style selection.

Answer 3

iReal b is pretty awesome. It provides songs in different styles, but beware that if you want to get some special style, you need to buy additional packages.

My friend said "Band In A Box" is good, but I haven't tried.