I've been looking for ways to create your own backing tracks with chords. I would be using these for the Irish tunes I'm learning. I like being able to play along with a chord-based backing track rather than just a drum beat. I found three options: Strum Machine, Musicca Chord Player, and TheMajor7.
My criteria is:
-Must be quick and easy to use.
-Should have cool sounds like jazz, reggae, Latin, et cetera.
-Should have 6/8 and 9/8 time signatures that could work for Irish tunes.
-Should have a count-in option.
Of the three sites I found, Strum Machine checks the most of these boxes. It is the easiest to use, it has 6/8 and 9/8 Celtic time signatures, and a count-in option. The designer of it definitely has fiddle tunes in mind. Strum Machine also has cool features such as auto speedup (allows you to set it so that it increases by a certain BPM each time through the tune), auto finish (allows you to set the backing track to automatically stop after a certain number of times through the tune), and medley (allows to string multiple tunes together into an Irish session style set). Strum Machine is the one I'll be using the most.
The only bad thing about Strum Machine is the sound options are limited and are primarily from a bluegrass perspective. This is probably fine for most users who play bluegrass, old-time or Irish trad, but I like pairing an Irish melody with a style that is outside the norm.
I wanted to test out Strum Machine's 9/8 Celtic slip-jig rhythm and its medley setting, so I created a medley of 2x through Redican's Mother and 2x through Hardiman the Fiddler. Here's how it turned out.
Musicca Chord Player is my second favorite so far. It's definitely coming from a pop music angle though. What Chord Player has going for it is it's fairly easy to use and it has a decent variety of style options. Plus I really like how when it changes to a different section it changes up the pattern. That adds a level of fun and excitement to the music. I'm probably in the minority when it comes to this, but I've been enjoying playing Irish reels to the Chord Player's reggae style(s).
Unfortunately, I couldn't find a way to turn on a count-in beat, which is strange. It starts right away when you click play so you either have to start in progress or wait for it to come around again. Chord Player will also just loop forever until you stop it. I didn't see a way for you to set it to only loop three times, for example. And you can't put together medleys like you can in Strum Machine. Chord Player also doesn't have 6/8 time, but you can mimic 6/8 time by doing 3 beats per measure and then doubling the overall number of measures.
Lastly there's TheMajor7.com. Although it takes a little longer to create the backing track than the other two (unless there are shortcuts I haven't learned), TheMajor7.com is probably the best for creating jazz style backing tracks. I didn't like TheMajor7's 6/8 time whatsoever, so I won't be using it for any jigs, but I will likely use it for playing tunes in 4/4 time.
Here's an example of the Irish reel The Old Bush first played with a reggae backing band using Musicca Chord Player, followed by a jazz backing band from TheMajor7.com.
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