WOL Worship

Rehearsing Software Tool February 28, 2011

Hey everyone Brian Charpentier shared this software tool with me and I thought it be a big help to all of us in our rehearsing time.  It’s called iRehearse and here is a brief description on what it does:

iRehearse Software, v. 1.2
Platform:  Mac and PC
Cost:  $14.99 (full version)

iRehearse software is a great tool for preparing to play a worship set. This software offers several tools to help musicians practice along to existing MP3 music files. This software allows you to create and save playlists, change the key of the song, loop a section of the song, slow a song down to examine specific musical parts, and more. Here’s an overview.

CREATE A PLAYLIST
iRehearse allows you to create a song list by importing MP3s either through the menu system or by simply dragging and dropping MP3s into the playlist window. Once created, a playlist can be saved and recalled.

CHANGE THE PITCH
I know we often change the keys of the songs – in the Pitch area you can change the song key by moving the pitch 9 semi-tones in either direction. For instance, if the original song is in the Key of B but you want to practice the song in the Key of D, the Pitch setting can easily be set to +3 semi-tones and the song is now in the Key of D. Once set, the new Pitch setting can be saved for that song by simply saving the playlist. (NOTE:  Although the music will be in the correct Pitch, the vocals may sound very odd.)

LOOP A SECTION OF THE SONG
The Loop section allows you to repeat a specific section of a song by placing “Mark In” and “Mark Out” settings on the sound wave. This settings can be moved in very small increments to achieve perfect placement. Once set, you can use the Play Loop button to repeatedly listen to that section. With another button, the loop settings can be cleared. Using this Loop section can allow you to work out a specific musical part.

CHANGE THE TEMPO
Another section that can help you work out a specific musical part is the Tempo section. This section allows you slow down the tempo of the music in 5% increments so you can hear the specific notes more clearly. Once you have figured out the part, you can practice it at slower pace and increase it slowly until you can play it at it’s original tempo. The Tempo and Loop sections work very well together.

iRehearse is also available in a free “demo” version, but not all functions are available (such as saving playlists) and the software will quit every 30 minutes. There are also other similar programs available that offer the same sort of features (such as Transpose). Some are free; some are platform specific.

Here’s the link: iRehearse

Hope this help,

Andy