Where to start
Four ways in. Press play, pick up your instrument, and see where the evening goes.
FolkScore Backing Group
Bring any tune and get chords that suit it, then play along with a band: two chord instruments of your choice, a bass, a bodhrán and the tune itself, each with its own volume.
- Harmonium, guitar, bouzouki or accordion, plus an electric or double bass, simple or walking
- Standard guitar, DADGAD with capo, bouzouki and ukulele chord boxes
- Hear the tune slowly, practise one part, speed up each time round
- Paste ABC free, or photograph a page from a tune book
Learn by Ear
The way tunes have always been passed on: any tune played to you a phrase at a time, with a gap for you to play it back.
- Loop a phrase, or build the tune up phrase by phrase
- Slow it down, then speed up a little each time round
- Keep the dots hidden until you need them
FolkScore Harmony and Counterpoint
Give any tune a second part, written out under the tune, then play your part while the tune plays.
- A traditional harmony, or a busy counterpoint with a line of its own
- For second fiddle, mandolin, whistle, flute, viola or cello
- Print both parts with chords and guitar chord boxes
Drone & Bodhrán
A drone humming in your key and a bodhrán keeping time underneath. The quickest way to sound like you're in a session.
- Shruti box, pipes, melodeon, harmonium or organ drone, major or minor feel
- Bodhrán grooves for reels, jigs, hornpipes, slides, polkas and more
- Set the tempo and off you go
Find, write down and name your tunes
Everything here feeds straight into the Backing Group, so whatever you end up with, you can play along with it.
Tune Viewer
Open your own folder of tunes (PDFs, photos or ABC), find any tune in a second, build a set and read it full-screen.
Open your tunes → FreeSession Scribe
Play a tune in a few times and get it written out as sheet music and ABC. Your recordings never leave the page.
Write a tune down → FreeThe Best Version of You!
Play a tune several times and get one recording stitched together from your best bars, with the slips left out.
Make your best version → CreditsSession Composer
Choose a type, key and mood, and get a brand-new tune in that style, as dots and ABC.
Compose a tune → FreeTune Name Generator
Every new tune needs a name. Get one built from the patterns real tune names follow.
Name a tune →How the tunes go
The rhythms, the ornaments, and the tune in the right key for your instrument.
Tune Types
Reels, jigs, slip jigs, hornpipes, polkas, slides, strathspeys, waltzes and mazurkas: the rhythm, the feel and the speed of each, with a bodhrán.
Hear the difference → FreeOrnaments
Cuts, taps, long and short rolls, crans, slides, triplets, trebles and double stops, each played plain and then ornamented.
Hear the ornaments → FreeTransposer
A tune written out for B♭ clarinet, trumpet or saxophone, E♭ alto sax or F horn, or moved into another key, with a check that it fits your instrument.
Transpose a tune →Tuner, fingerings and chord charts
Quick reference for the instruments that turn up at every session. Tap anything to hear it.
Tuner & Tuning Fork
Listens through your microphone, with a needle to tune by and a tuning-fork A. Fiddle, guitar, DADGAD, mandolin, bouzouki, cello and more.
Tune up → FreeTin Whistle Fingerings
Every note on the stave lined up with the holes to cover, for D, C, B♭, G and low D whistles and more.
See the fingerings → FreeRecorder Fingerings
Every note on the stave lined up with the holes to cover, thumb hole and double holes included, for descant, treble, tenor and sopranino, in English or German fingering.
See the fingerings → FreeGuitar Chords
Chord boxes for standard, drop D, DADGAD or any tuning you type in, with the chords for your key picked out.
Open the chord chart → FreeMandolin Chords
Chord boxes for mandolin in G D A E, with the chords for your key picked out and a tap to hear each one.
Open the chord chart → FreeUkulele Chords
Chord boxes for standard G C E A, low G, D tuning or baritone, with the chords for your key picked out.
Open the chord chart → FreeBouzouki Chords
Chord boxes for the Irish bouzouki in GDAD, GDAE or ADAD, leaning on the open drones that give it its sound.
Open the chord chart → FreeTenor Banjo Chords
Chord boxes for the four-string tenor banjo in Irish GDAE or standard CGDA tuning.
Open the chord chart → FreeFive-String Banjo Chords
Chord boxes for open G, double C, sawmill or open D, with the short fifth string drone shown where it fits.
Open the chord chart → FreeFingerings on the Neck
Any scale laid out on the fingerboard and on the stave, tap a note to hear it and see everywhere it can be played. For guitar, mandolin, ukulele, bouzouki, tenor banjo and five-string banjo.
Open the guitar neck → FreeMelodeon
Push and pull notes, scales, chords and basses for one-row and two-row boxes (D/G, G/C, C/F) and the Irish B/C and C♯/D button accordion.
Open the button chart → FreeAccordion
The piano accordion keyboard and the C-system or B-system chromatic button accordion, with the Stradella bass laid out and the chords for your key picked out.
Open the chart → FreeConcertina
The Anglo (30 or 20 buttons, C/G or G/D) with push and pull notes, and the fully chromatic 48-key English, with scales and chords picked out.
Open the button chart → FreeFiddle Fingerings
Where the fingers go in any key, with high and low fingers marked, in first, second or third position, and the scale to hear and play.
Open the fingerboard → FreeFiddle Double Stopping
Two-string chords for the fiddle in first position, mostly on the G and D strings, with finger numbers and a tap to hear each one bowed.
Open the chart →How it all fits together
Get a tune in, add the chords, play it with the band.
Fair and simple
Almost everything is free, for good. Two things cost a little, because each one is done by an AI that has to be paid for.
Free, always
- The drone and bodhrán
- Chords, chord boxes and backing for any tune you type or paste in
- Harmony and counterpoint parts for any tune you type or paste in
- The tune viewer, sets and session mode
- Writing a tune down with Session Scribe, and every download
- Tune names, as many as you like
- Learn by Ear, Tune Types, Ornaments and the Transposer
- The tuner, every chord chart and fingering chart, the squeezebox layouts and fiddle double stops
Paid with credits
- Reading a photo or PDF of sheet music into the Backing Group or Harmony and Counterpoint
- Composing a new tune with Session Composer
Credit packs from £2.99, and the same credits work for both. No subscription, and a reading that fails costs nothing.
Questions
No. Tunes you save are kept on your own device. If you buy credits you get a short code that holds them.
Yes, and once you've opened a page it keeps working with no signal, which helps in the back room of a pub. You can add it to your home screen like an app.
No. Session Scribe listens and works everything out inside your browser. Nothing you play is sent anywhere.
Every instrument is made in code as it plays, so there are no recordings to download and it starts straight away.
Traditional tunes are fine. For anything else, only read or share music you have the right to use.
Graham Vincent, a violin maker in South West England, who wanted a backing band at home. Support the site or read more about it.