Jammit Teaches Musicians to Play with the Masters
When you were a little kid, you killed it on air guitar. You stepped it up in middle and high school when you fretted perfect AC/DC on Guitar Hero’s toughest level. You won’t even mention what you did to Rock Band. But you’re older now, and the Wii stays stashed behind the TV (except for a few nostalgic Saturday nights, every weekend…). You’ve got an actual guitar, with six strings replacing five multi-colored plastic buttons and a strum bar.
While a few years ago you may have been stuck choosing between paying for a private instructor or teaching yourself the chords via a crummy YouTube video upload from John Doe’s mobile, today there are countless mobile apps whose sole purpose is to channel your inner rockstar using a variety of different methods. But none are quite as legendary as Jammit.
Jammit’s unique selling proposition is twofold. First, it allows you to isolate instruments in your song of choice. That’s because Jammit founder Scott Humphrey spent years acquiring rights to the original master recordings. These recordings are multi-track, meaning they can be set individually to keys, drums, vocals, guitar, and bass. If you’re listening to Nirvana, you can choose to hear and see chords for Kurt Cobain on guitar, or if you’re learning bass, you can block out Cobain and strum solo with Krist Novoselic. Thus, you get the feel of being in a live recording studio, allowing you to delve deeper into the music while adding your own style.
Second, Jammit lets you slow things down–without getting pitchy. This is the feature that makes its learning potential invaluable. Partnered with the app’s “now” button, which bookmarks your place in the song as you’re jamming, and its repeat bars, looping, and note-for-note transcriptions in both standard notation and tablature, Jammit offers a compelling combination of capabilities for both novice and established musicians.
If you’re still not convinced, Jammit also allows you to completely remove original riffs from the song and record yourself into it. Read: you, too, can play with Cobain.
Currently, the app boasts master recordings from Nirvana, Lynyrd Skynyrd, Rush, The Allman Brothers, and R.E.M, among others. The website states new tracks are added each week and allows you to request tunes from your favorite bands. Bands are also coinciding their new album releases with their subsequent master recordings on Jammit, as Lamb of God just did with Resolution.
It’s way cooler than air guitar in your jammies.
Here’s a demo (to Rush’s “Limelight”):
Jammit Lets Budding Rock Stars Play Along With, Isolate, And Record Over The “Masters”
