Hear it
Ear Training
Develop your ability to recognize intervals, scale degrees, chords, progressions, and melodies.
Your daily practice space for getting better at music.
From first chords to gig-ready charts. Practice a different musical skill every day—or the one you love. Learn songs, train your ears, sight-read, compose, improvise, and more.
100% free · No account required · No ads · Nothing to install
What do you want to practice today?
Your practice changes every day. Your music app should too.
Learn it
Learn Songs
Slow down songs, loop the hard part, isolate instruments, explore chords and melody, then practice what you are trying to hear.
Read it
Sight Reading
Read unfamiliar notation generated over real chord changes—fresh exercises every session, not a chart you already know.
Create it
Compose
Write and experiment with musical ideas using notation, playback, and a lead sheet editor.
Play it
Improvisation & Play-Along
Solo over generated or imported changes, work through improvisation lessons, or learn a solo by ear with the looper.
Master it
Scales, Arpeggios & Technique
Build vocabulary and technique through structured patterns, progressions, and exercises you can actually play.
One app. Your whole musical practice.
Most music software is built around one job: a looper, an ear trainer, a notation editor, a backing-track player, or a tuner.
Music Buddy is built around the musician.
Some days you work on your ears. Some days you learn a song. Some days you sight-read, compose, improvise, or work on technique.
Music Buddy gives you a place to do all of it.
A different musical workout every day.
Illustrative, not a prescribed schedule. The point is that practice can look different tomorrow—and the app is still the right place to go.
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Mon
Ear Training
Intervals, chords, progressions, singing
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Tue
Learn a Song
Slow down, loop, isolate, analyze
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Wed
Sight Reading
Read and play fresh notation
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Thu
Composition
Write and develop ideas
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Fri
Improvisation
Play over changes
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Sat
Technique
Scales, arpeggios, patterns
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Sun
Explore
Analyze, create, practice something new
Turn a song into a practice session.
The value is not a looper, a stem splitter, or a chord analyzer separately. It is the workflow those tools create together in Song Looper.
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1
Find a song you want to learn.
Upload the recording into Song Looper.
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2
Analyze it.
Hear tempo, structure, chords, and melody instead of guessing at them.
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3
Slow it down.
Pitch-preserving speed control keeps the notes where they are. A speed ramp gradually brings the loop back up to tempo.
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4
Loop the difficult section.
Stay on the change you cannot quite play yet.
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5
Isolate the instrument you are trying to hear.
Separate vocals, drums, bass, and other parts, then mute or solo the line you are working on.
Requires Chrome or Edge with a GPU (WebGPU). Song Looper checks this before enabling stem splitting.
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6
Explore the chords and melody. Learn the solo.
Study the harmony, follow the extracted melody, and learn the line by ear.
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7
Practice it. Save it. Come back tomorrow.
The session stays on your device so you can pick up the same loop, the same song, the next day.
Serious tools for serious practice
Grouped by what they help you accomplish—not a catalog of unrelated features.
Learn songs
Song Looper brings looping, pitch-preserving speed control, speed ramp, stem separation, chord analysis, and melody extraction into one practice session.
Develop musicianship
- EarPro — intervals, chords, progressions, singing
- Scales, arpeggios & practice patterns
- Metronome
- Chromatic tuner
Create and read music
- Lead sheet editor — melody, chords, guitar TAB, printing
- Sight reading over generated changes
- MusicXML import
- ABC notation
- Playback
Teach and organize
- Lessons & lesson plans
- Library with sharing
- Practice Goals and activity tracking
Why Music Buddy
- 100% free — no paywall, no ads.
- Browser-based — no desktop install.
- Local-first library — songs and lessons in IndexedDB; keep working offline after load.
- Share via links — send encoded links to import songs, exercises, and lessons.
- MusicXML & ABC — bring charts from other tools, including folk and traditional tunes.
- Community forum — ask questions, share tips, and discuss features with other musicians on Discourse.
FAQ
Why is Music Buddy free?
No ads, no account, no catch. I'd rather make practice tools than run a business, and a local-first browser app is cheap to host, so it costs little to share. Consider it a gift.
Do I need to install Music Buddy?
No. Music Buddy runs in your web browser. Open the app and start practicing.
Does Music Buddy work offline?
Your songs, exercises, and lessons are stored locally in the browser (IndexedDB), so you can keep working after the app has loaded.
What instruments does Music Buddy support?
Music Buddy is appropriate for all instruments. Standard notation and lead sheets with playback, plus a chromatic tuner, work for strings, winds, keys, voice, and more. Guitar players also get extra features such as guitar TAB, scales mapped to the fretboard, and guitar lessons.
Can I split a song into stems for karaoke or practice?
Yes. In Song Looper, you can separate a mix into stems such as vocals, drums, bass, and other parts, then mute or solo tracks—handy for karaoke-style singing, quieter backing tracks, or focusing on one instrument while you learn.
Can I slow a song down without changing pitch?
Yes. Song Looper includes pitch-preserving speed control, looping, and a speed ramp that gradually increases tempo as you repeat a section. Slow the hard part, loop it, then bring it back up to speed.
What can I practice with Music Buddy?
Ear training, song learning, sight reading, composition, improvisation, scales and arpeggios, technique, music analysis, play-along practice, and notation—together in one free app, so your practice can change from day to day.
Used by thousands of musicians and teachers
Join a growing community of people who practice, teach, and write music in Music Buddy every day.
Music Buddy News
Release Highlights
v2.9.1
Smarter substitutions, bug fixes
- More intelligent substitutions in the Play feature - fewer melody clashes
- When a Play chord has no substitutions, the theory modal opens directly
- Show substitutions at the bottom of the Play theory modal even when substitutions are off; choosing one turns them on for that chord only
v2.9.0
Band follows the melody, plus Four-to-the-Bar, band gets in the pocket better
- Play's rhythm section now follows the written melody: catch figures, thin under busy lines, and share one pocket
- Added Four-to-the-Bar (Freddie Green) drum style with quarter-note chops and walking bass
- Toggle Band follows melody in the harmony track settings
- Band gets in the pocket better
v2.8.0
Better melody extraction for fast passages, harmony substutitions, bug fixes, and more
- Better melody extraction for fast passages
- Harmony substutitions in the Play feature
- Bug fixes and improvements
v2.7.0
More playback improvements, bug fixes, and more
- More realistic instruments and styles in playback
- Groove now synchs with the drums for more gooving tracks
- Improved sax and guitar sounds in playback
- Fixed a copy bug in the editor
- Added double-dotted half note to the editor
v2.6.1
Bug Fixes
- Fixed small chord rendering bug
- Fixed a bug with synchronization of the extracted melody playback feature
- Fixed a bug with setting loop boundaries when speed is not 100%
v2.6.0
Harmonic Analysis Improvements, New Export Audio from Playback Feature
- Improved harmonic analysis capabilities in the Looper/analyzer feature
- Create intros and outros for your songs in the Editor
- Added a new export audio from playback feature
- Better chord detection in the Looper/analyzer feature
- Harmony track on playback now supports different chord voicings
- Lots more songs added to the Library
- Metronome now defaults to a simple click, with beep, woodblock, and other simple sounds alongside drum patterns
v2.5.2
Bug Fixes, Various Improvements
- Improved layout of pattern motion dialog on Scales and Arpeggios Teacher
- Fixed a bug in scales and arpeggios teacher
- Improved drum pattern library
v2.5.1
More EarPro levels and Bug Fixes
- Made lower levels for EarProeasier and added new levels
- More realistic drum patterns for playback
- Improvements to idioms and rests in Scales and Arpeggios Teacher
- Chord voicing improvements in Scales and Arpeggios Teacher
- Small improvements to the playback limiter feature
- Updated the radial chord diagram on the Analyze app
v2.5.0
New 'EarPro' module for ear training, interval training, singing practice, and more
- New 'EarPro' module for ear training, interval training, and more
- Added an Activity Summary page in Goals to track your progress
- Fixed a bug on Analysis page where some settings aren't persisted between sessions
v2.4.2
Bug Fixes, Minor Improvements
- Fixed a score field update bug, where changes weren't persisted to the score
- Fixed a bug with half-whole diminished scale diagram
- Clicking on the speed button while a loop is set resets the speed to 1.0
- More flexibility selecting combinations of chords and scales in Scales and Arpeggios Teacher
v2.4.1
Mobile Friendly, Improved Sharing, Color Coded Notes, Bug Fixes
- Fixed a bug with key transposition of enharmonics.
- Now mobile friendly and responsive
- Big improvements to drums - more drum patterns, better drum quality, and more realistic drum sounds - pick your favorite drummer1
- Import chord progressions from your Library into Scales and Arpeggios teacher
- Better sharing options - use AirDrop to share scores and lessons with others
- Added a new toggle to color code notes by chord fun ction to features that display the score
v2.3.1
Bug Fixes
- Fixed an issue with counting complex rhythms in the scales and arpeggios teacher
- More drum patterns added to the drum pattern library for playback
- Better drum quality in playback
- Added export to abc and musicxml notation in the Library
v2.3.0
Playback: Better bass, drum patterns, and more realistic sound, plus editor improvements
- Improved bass track playback to be more realistic
- Improved instrument quality in playback
- Added stylistic rhythmic variations to the harmony track
- Add new, more realistic drum patterns to the drum pattern library for playback
- Added feature to allow all scales in Scale and Arpeggios teacher to be played as pentatonic scales
- Fixed a bug with arrows showing the key transition for a transient key change
- Fixed a bug in Play feature where when the melody track is muted some notes in the loser registers are leaking into the mix
v2.2.2
Smart time signature changes
- Smart time signature changes
- Improved harmonic analysis to show temporary key changes, usually ii-V-Is in major and minor keys
- Redesigned the app home page to be oriented to the student's level and learning goals
- Incorporated Spotify's 'Basic Pitch' neural network for melody exraction
- Improved functionality of the stemming feature in the song analyzer
v2.2.1
Scales & Arpeggios teacher: Screen formatting improvements and more
- Screen formatting improvements on Scales & Arpeggios teacher
- Select the number of measures per line in Scales & Arpeggios teacher
- Fixed scaling bug when printing scores
- Fixed a beat count bug in the editor and Play features
- Improved drum pattern library
v2.2.0
Better melody extraction, Social Sharing, Guitar Lessons & Bug Fixes
- Various bug fixes and improvements
- Better automatic melody extraction
- Added 'duplicate' button to library items so you can duplicate a song, exercise, or lesson
- Melody extraction now has a 'copy' button so you can copy the melody to the clipboard and paste it in the editor
- Analyze settings persist after tabbing to another tab
- Song key on 'Play' feature now persists between sessions
- Added chords to the auto generated melody popup, cleaned up presentation of the melody
- Added social sharing features across various features in the App
- More guitar lessons and guitar lesson improvements - Beginning Guitar and intermediate guitar lessons
- New Activity Tracker in My Goals feature
v2.1.7
Bug Fixes
- Fixed a playback form bug in the editor and Play features
- Note highlights duration playback now matches the note duration
- Sharing by email now sends clickable links to the shared items
- Added a setlist sharing feature to the library
v2.1.5
Bug Fixes & Harmonic Slash Analysis
- Fixed a key transpose bug in the editor
- Added harmonic slash analysis to the Editor and Play features and scales and arpeggios teacher
- Added tempo ramping to the metronome
- Better persistance of configuration on analyze feature
- Removed links for Effendi Jazz Repo that are not in public domain
v2.1.4
Scales & Arpeggios: Transposing octaves up or down feature added
- Up/Down arrows added to the scale and arpeggio teacher to transpose the exercise up or down by one octave
- Speed ramping on the looping analyzer no longer stops when speed reaches 1.0 (full speed)
- Improvements to the musicxml importer and parser to handle more complex musicxml files
- Added feature to mute melody and harmony on scales and arpeggios teacher
- Some minor UI cleanup on Scales and Arpeggios teacher
- Cleaned up display of related scales/modes in modal popups in scales and arpeggios teacher
- Improvements and new features on the Editor
- Added 'solo sections' feature to playback, so you can take a few choruses to solo
- Added auto scrolling to the playback feature so the score scrolls as you play
- Like with scales and arpeggios, in playback you can now highlight (shift-click) measures to loop them
v2.1.3
Scales & Arpeggios: More songs, more modes, more practice
- Added more songs to the Effendi Jazz Repo and cleaned up song names
- Made some adjustments to the pattern generator in Scales & Arpeggios to make it more intuitive
v2.1.2
Exercise transposition now supported in scales and arpeggios
- Exercise transposition now supported in scales and arpeggios
- Added timer for time spent on learning songs with the analyzer goal
- Added 'high fidelity' option to the analyzer to improve the fidelity of time stretching
- Fixed bugs on goal planning/tracking page
- Created new facebook group for Music Buddy at https://www.facebook.com/groups/musicbuddy
v2.1.1
Bug fixes, select individual modes in Scales & Arpeggios
- Persist analysis data between sessions in Song Doctor/Analyzer
- Select individual modes in Scales & Arpeggios
- Better editor for creating custom scale patterns in Scales & Arpeggios
- More logical application of chords, chord functions, and chord qualities in Scales & Arpeggios
- Misc bug fixes and improvements
v2.1.0
Practice Goals: weekly targets, streaks, and gentle accountability
- Added a new Practice Goals page with a weekly progress tracker, goal cards, and a timer for goal tracking
- Misc bug fixes and improvements
v2.0.9
Song Doctor: Melody modal fixes
- Added guitar tablature to the melody modal
- Added measure copy/paste to the editor - shift+click to select a measure, then ctrl+c to copy, then shift+click to select a measure to paste into, then ctrl+v to paste
- Fixed a bug where the melody modal would not show the correct tempo
v2.0.8
Song Doctor: Melody modal—TAB and clearer tempo
- Melody popup: tempo (BPM) number field uses a smaller font so values like 140 stay fully visible
- Melody popup: optional guitar TAB with the same position selector pattern as Scales & Arpeggios
v2.0.7
Score Editor improvements & bug fixes
- Drag note animation
- Chord harmony suggestions for notes in a measure
v2.0.6
Melody extraction improvements
- Improved melody extraction accuracy and reliability
- Added two new video tutorials for Song Doctor
- Improved the frequency grid in the Song Doctor analysis
v2.0.5
Scales & Arpeggios: Focus your practice on the measures that matter
- Click any measure in the Scale and Arpeggio Teacher to build a custom practice loop in seconds
- Mix and match non-adjacent measures so you can isolate tricky changes without rewriting the exercise
- Start playback with selected measures to hear only your focused loop, or leave nothing selected to play the full exercise as usual
- Selected measures are highlighted clearly, making it easy to see exactly what you are drilling before you press play
v2.0.4
Tutorials tab is live + smoother first-time song loading in Play
- Replaced the Help tab with a new Tutorials tab that plays YouTube videos directly inside Music Buddy
- Added a tutorials index so new videos can be added in one place without changing app code
- Added the first tutorial video: Music Buddy Overview
- Fixed a Play page issue where the first imported song from Effendi Jazz Repo could show the previous song instead of the newly downloaded one
- Improved song selector behavior so already-downloaded repository songs open with the correct saved song
v2.0.3
Bring scores in from anywhere—meter, rhythm, and staves stay true
- Fixed a printing bug
- Fixed a musicxml import bug
- Fixed bug related to showing beat counts in scales and arpeggios teacher mode
- Added links to additional musicxml files on 'Effendi Jazz Repo'
v2.0.2
Printing that lands on your music—not the homepage
- Print Score and Print Lesson open the actual sheet or lesson view, so you get clean notation instead of accidentally printing the welcome page
- Printed lessons show the right lesson link when you file or share a paper copy
v2.0.1
Scales & Arpeggios: Explore every mode on the fretboard
- Select the scale name below each measure and get popup showing all the modes of the scale. Click the mode name to see the scale diagram and the chords in that mode.
- Toggle beat counting on/off to show the beat count below each measure.
- Fixed a bug to ensure each measure is properly filled with notes.
- Added support for different time signatures and subdivisions to scale and arpeggio exercises.
v2.0.0
Analyze: Split tracks in the browser—then extract, blend, and export
- Isolate vocals, drums, bass, and more into separate tracks—right in your browser, on your machine, with nothing uploaded
- Solo, mute, and A/B each track with its own waveform so you can really hear what the analysis is listening to
- Export any isolated track to MP3 when you want files for the rest of your toolkit
- Zero in on the section you care about: your loop becomes the new song—trimmed, freshly analyzed, and ready before you split into individual tracks
- Build your own mix from the tracks you choose—then export a polished MP3 you can share or drop into any workflow
- Hear the analysis match your ears: run chord and melody detection on exactly the blend you created so the timeline reflects your custom mix
- A sharper, more musical view—waveforms, measure markers, and chord rows now line up perfectly, even right after you extract a passage
- We’ll let you know before a heavy split on a slower device so you’re never surprised by the wait
v1.6.0
Scales & Arpeggios: Richer Patterns & Musical Phrases
- Build more interesting lines with an advance sequence: mix forward and backward steps (like “two up, one back”) instead of a single repeating stride
- New pattern flavors: broken triads, wave shapes, lower neighbors, pentatonic runs, guide tones (smooth 3rds and 7ths over changes), and more
- Optional reverse of any pattern so you hear the same idea upside down
- Target specific beats for chord tones, with several ways to approach them—from a simple snap to chromatic, scale-wise, or classic enclosure figures
- Pattern menu items now show a quick hint of what each shape does, so you can explore without guessing
- Sprinkle in genre-style licks: turn up “Idioms” and the teacher weaves short jazz, blues, rock, pop, Latin, and country phrases into your exercise, matched to the genre you picked for chords
- Guide tones and target-beat options work together so practice stays musical, not just mechanical
v1.5.0
Scales & Arpeggios: Guitar Tab + Chord Toggles
- Scales & arpeggios: guitar tablature toggle with fretboard position selector
- Scales & arpeggios: chord symbols toggle moved to control panel for quick access
- Corrected a bug with how accidentals are used in a single measure
- Default direction for scales is now 'Both'