Strum Machine Reviews

The powerful sounding guitar has been replaced by a twangy sounding one. It would be nice to have both as options, instead of just removing the old one.

I was struggling trying to get Band in a Box to perform the simple task of giving me backing tracks. A friend told me Band in a Box is great and on that (bad) advice I spent $100 on it. It's so convoluted and tedious to set up. And then all of their Bluegrass backing tracks sound like just noise. I couldn't figure out how to get just a boom chuck strum with mandolin chops. And I couldn't get it to sound right in split time. I'm sure with a lot of work and study, it is possible to get it sounding great but I don't have time to master a programming language just to get some backing tracks. Anyway...

I heard about Strum Machine from Marcel and it seemed like an option, but I had some questions:
-Can I use it offline?
-Can I put in my own songs?
-Does it provide the solid rhythm I need?
-Is it easy to use?
-Can I use it on my ipad? And is StrumMachine easy to open and activate each time?

The answer to all of these is "yes". Strum Machine has been nothing but a joy to work with. It's so simple to set up and gives me exactly what I need for backing tracks. I can't say enough good things about it.

StrumMachine is pretty near perfect as a practice tool for any stringed instrument player. I can’t rate it highly enough! Ease of use. Adaptability. Stretches you and helps you grow (if you use the auto-speed-up function). Different keys. Easily add your own tunes. Use Bluetooth to pump it out to a big speaker, turn up the volume and jam! Great, GREAT app!

Easy to use, good library, continually improving, good sound.
Laptop and phone use for me to practice guitar and banjo.
Well worth it!

For learning new tunes, practicing improvisation, and building specific exercises, StrumMachine is great. It especially is useful in the time of covid where most lessons are over the internet where it is impossible to play simultaneously.

I love StrumMachine. I’ve been playing fiddle about 46 years. Now I can play with a guitar, bass, and mandolin. Being able to change the key of any tune is great. You can change tempo, even speed up mid tune! Bravo!!!!!

I love StrumMachine but your recent update has caused StrumMachine to freeze while using. Please fix this and StrumMachine will be fantastic again. Update they fixed the issue quickly and StrumMachine is once again FANTASTIC!!!!!!!!!

Fantastic app for honing timing and accuracy, and so configurable yet simple to use which to me is the biggest factor for my rating. I have enjoyed immediate day 1 results from using it and see this bring my go-to practice aid for the foreseeable future.

Great to use when learning new tunes or trying to improve on learned tunes. I use an iPad with external bluetooth speaker. Really helps to have realistic backing track when playing. Not as fun as playing with others but the second best option.

Perfect for learners— a real-sounding guitar track with perfect control over tempo and key (no capos!).

There are hundreds of old-time fiddle and banjo tunes already loaded, and defining your own is simple. Makes practice much more fun and productive.

I feel like StrumMachine has improved my clawhammer skills significantly after only a few weeks.

I started playing bluegrass around the start of COVID. As a result, I did not have an opportunity to play with anyone else. I thought that I was doing pretty well until I got Strum Machine. I now realize that I had a lot to correct. I was, well, awful.

After using Strum Machine for about an hour on Whiskey Before Breakfast, my playing got tolerable. That was a BIG improvement.

I expect to use it almost every day from now on. I can't imagine a better tool for learning to play.

I even found it easy to create a new version of Whiskey Before Breakfast that uses an Em that I use. I'll probably attempt to create a whole song one of these days.

Being able to slow the music down is an unbelievable advantage. Allowing it to automatically speed up is icing on the cake.

I absolutely hate using a metronome, but this is a type of metronome that is actually fun to use. I expect this to increase my bluegrass learning exponentially. There are no downsides as far as I can see.

This is a fantastic app. I have used this product since before it was even an app. It has helped me improve my speed, timing, and overall proficiency. It is easy to use, completely customizable, and Luke is amazing when it comes to customer support and taking your feedback into account. I can’t recommend this product strongly enough. It is great.

Wonderful app to help get me through quarantine and play solo accordion and fiddle, usually for Facebook live videos. It’s just a simple guitar strumming that sounds like 100% like a real guitar, either in 4/4 or 3/4. Also you can add a bass and mandolin if you want more backup instruments. I’ve already added probably 70 songs to the Cajun database and it’s so much fun to sit down and run through songs in different keys. Totally recommended 100%

StrumMachine is exactly what I needed, both for functionality AND for ease of use. It is highly intuitive, fast and easy to customize my own backing tracks, simple to sort them, and importantly, to find them again. It’s helping me so much with my practicing! The developer is also highly supportive and hard at work making it even better.

StrumMachine is so user-friendly but even better, it makes me so much more eager to practice. It has so many unbelievably cool features and so much customizability. It’s a thousand times more fun than practicing with a boring metronome (zzzz) and has super cool features like being able to change the key, the speed, to create medleys (new!), and to slow down the challenging parts. I adore StrumMachine and use it daily.

I downloaded this last week after my wife showed it to me. I’m having so much fun with it. I play banjo. I’ve saved a lot of songs they have on the sight, and I’ve added a bunch more they didn’t have. It’s very easy to add your own songs. It’s like having a jam available to you 24/7. The longest I’ve played with it at one sitting was 3.5 hrs. I may break that tomorrow during our snowstorm

I am a long time guitar player of various genres. Primarily these days I am in to Bluegrass flatpicking both Guitar and Mandolin. Without question, strum machine has done more to advance my music, not only in terms of skills but also in enjoying my practice sessions than any other tool. These days I don’t ever practice without first turning on Strum Machine and utilizing it’s many tools. Also, Luke and his team are constantly upgrading and improving the tool. Well worth the annual minimal fee!

Thank You for developing the Strum Machine app! I have been using it for about two years personally and with my fiddle / guitar students over the pandemic. It's made a world of difference when I am teaching kids and adults how to jam with others. And, StrumMachine has definitely helped those who have not been able to jam lately due to quarantine. Many of my students use it on their own during practices at home, and they say it makes the practice even more enjoyable! So thanks so much!

StrumMachine is absolutely FANTASTIC!

Strum Machine’s advertised purpose is as a practice tool, doing backing tracks that are much more interesting than a metronome. Perfect!

But wait, there’s more. Do you like using Nashville Numbers style charts for gigs? Strum Machine is perfect for that too. It has a very easy and intuitive editor to set up cleanly formatted NNS style charts. You can easily add lyrics into the notes field. And then easily build set lists. The whole shebang displays nicely on your iPhone, so you can clip your iPhone to your mic stand. It’s wonderful. It just works!

StrumMachine is an incredible tool to have in your pocket that will give you big returns in your playing. I particularly like being able to chart my own tunes for practicing. Bravo Strum Machine.