Mapping Tonal Harmony Pro App Reviews
There is a big difference beatween version 5 and 6, Unfortunately 6 is only available for iPad and not for OS or Windows. The video tutorials are all based on version 6 and when you open version 5 is a little bit frustrating as you dont have even a third of the possibilities available on V.6 PLEASE MAKE THE UPDATE FOR COMPUTERS!
I have several complaints about MDecks and this product 1. They are not supporting their product in any platform. I have asked them two simple questions via Facebook Page, Facebook Messenger, their e-mail several times and they haven’t returned to me whatsoever. What is the point of opening a social media or an e-mail account if you will ignore your paying customers? This is very poor of you! 2. This is the version 5.1 and yet there is a version 6.9 for iPad which has way better features. This Mac OSX version being not updated for a long time is another con for me. This version actually is not very good. 3. MIDI Export feature is not working at all. You can select the location to export but nothing happens after that. 4. MIDI integration is a must for any educative product. So I don’t like this version since I can’t use it with my midi keyboard.
This app is a really great tool to help learn about western chord progressions. However, it would be great if the creator updated it like the iPad version to greatly increase functionality. I hope he sees this message and updates the app because I bought it when I watched the tutorial for version 6.0 and I was much more impressed with said version’s usability.
Midi Export
the design of the software is amazing. this can change the world if midi exporting is available. so we will be looking for this upgrade. thanks
New Version
Where is the version 6 for Mac OS?
This is just the iPad App of the same name in a medium sized window. You dont even have the option to go full screen. For a portation of the app like this, 10$ are clearly overpriced. Id recommend buying the iPad version insted, which is half the price and offers a better user experience.
I am glad Ive tried this app. Beautiful layout, great ear training tool and organizes harmony like Ive never seen before. Just a couple of hours using it and I have learnt many things about harmony I did not know or was not clear about. The voice-leading is solved in real-time which is pretty cool and it does not repeat the same solution every time. Theres info on chord scales and the jazz voicings seemed to be using tensions available for each function. You can enable, disable, fade out or in cadences and alternative cadences, view the chords functionally and in any key. The audio files are analyzed on the map, and you can listen to them while the map shows you the harmonic progression. You can see the bass movement content in the progression (also in real time), create your own progressions, use inversions, pedal points… Simply wonderful. Probably the best app to study tonal harmony. I wish there was a midi export option, or a way to print my own progressions from the app. I would recommend it to any music student and teacher. Great stuff! Thanks.
i really like this app, great for learning the logic of harmonic progressions, composing, the best out there. elegant interface, i really appreciate the jazz voicings in addition to traditional harmonies and movements. i do wish more bars available for composing (i can only get 8, but perhaps im missing something). would be cool to add guitar fretboard/voicings. very functional, ability to do all inversions, lock bass lines, instant transposition. all around great app for musicians.
I love the midi export function… As a guitarist, I find it very useful for creating piano voicings… Great visual for someone new to harmonic language… Love it!
Needs update for M1 macs
Many features are currently broken most importantly there is no sound. Additionally the map itself has no text of chord symbols. Update 2024: Every year or so I open this thing up to see if it will work. Today I found out the no sound issue was due to some interaction with this software and my audio interface, when using a bluetooth headset it is now working. With the audio issues and others I initially pointed out working, I’ve moved the rating up to a 4. As an amateur musician, this app is a goldmine for thinking in functional harmony and a very interesting concept. I believe this app could actually be a lot bigger if the UX execution and features were rethought. This is primarily a play along app for Jazz musicians but I think it could be an even better tool for composers, especially if other types of harmony were introduced such as riemannian harmony and other forms of non functional harmony.
Program crash loading MusicXML files
Cannot import or load xml files via Editor/Analyzer Version 2024.8.20 (2024.8.20). Apple M2 Pro Sonoma 14.7 16 GB
An absolute work of genius
This is, without a doubt, the most incredible musical training software/musical software period, that I've ever used (and I've been around long enough to have seen Led Zeppelin on their second tour of the US). Yeah, you have to put in some work, and no, the UI is not at easy as taking a selfie (which is gonna scare away most americans anyway) but the app enables you to explore and experiement, and tells you what works and what doesn't. Musical theory is no longer theory - it's sounds, sounds that evoke emotion, and this app, if you take the time to learn it, will teach you how to replicate those sounds. I have all of MDeck's apps and a lot of their books, and I'm not even a jazz dude (stoner/doom metal is me) but running progressions by brilliant musicians through Mdecks and seeing how and why something works, is absolutely incredible. I can spend hours fussing around on this thing. It's an incredible piece of software and if you want to open the world of music, this is the key. Thank you!
Great but glitchy, not intuitive
Love this program, however not clear as to why the groove templates will sporadically default to "Jazz Waltz" as the only available groove after having selected say "Samba". Sometimes they return after restarting the program. Also not clear how to: 1) remove measures in a composition (should be able to click on the measure and delete it or right click and select "delete this measure") As a workaround after adding unlimited measures via the "Progression Edit" menu; when trying to loop say 44 measures, the program crashes and upon restart there is a message: "the map layout has changed, can no longer play..." 2) how to remove chord progressions ie. if I want a Dm7 to exist for 2 measures and I have measure one with Dm7 and measure two with Fm7; being able to click on the measure and type the delete button or right click and have the option to delete would be great. Right now you'd have to replace the Fm7 wth the same Dm7. While this is a work around it is distinct from having the Dm7 as a tied note/chord instead of Dm7 chord play every four beats (assuming 4/4 time) If I am missing something here I'm open to learning more. If these issues could be fixed or address its a 5 star program given the capabilities.
good luck finding link to developer
The add on tunes apear to be converted from the ireal app along with the same mistakes( Strayhorns Lotus Blossom) Waste of money.
Game Changer
This app is a game-changer for musicians! The interface is so user-friendly, and it's packed with tons of valuable content. You can explore chord progressions, cadences, and even delve into advanced harmonic analysis. But here's the best part: it's interactive! You can compose, improvise, and get real-time feedback. Plus, they keep updating it! Trust me, if you're into music theory, this app is an absolute gem. Grab it and let your creativity soar!
needed to refund
so hard to use. Why have to pay more for edit or jazz standatd progressions. literally can do nothing for $30.
brilliant
the amount of thought and musical knowlege put into the development of this app is incredible. and the developer keeps improving it. great learning tool if you take the time to learn all its intricacies.
Outsanding new version
This app is incredible. Sounds so much better than any other backing track app I've used. The theory behind it is brilliant! As a jazz player, I really appreciate the work that was put into creating this tool. Great improvements on the new version. Congrats!
Form Error
Very simple 32bars tunes get "Form Error". I don't use any repeat sign. Where do you find inconsistencies? What do you want? Version 8.9.1
App was good latest set of updates ruined it.
Classic case of bloatware. App constaly loses setting wont load. Screen stops responding. Was a great app used to recommend it. it is now total trash! do not buy. They need to return to original simple format and release a second app with all the crap once they can get it to work. I would really think I need a refund its so bad.
Thanks!
Great tool for study.
APP RULES
Fantastic App! & great video info on their website the only reason for 4 stars instead of 5 is the incredibly slow release of Version 8 for OS :(
This app is not good
I really want to like this app, but it is not good. Every time I open it I either get so frustrated with the workflow that I quit, or it crashes and I've wasted enough time that I don't even bother opening it up again. Oh, and the ratings are now skewed becaues they removed them all. I came back to the app store to redownload the program to see if that would stop it from crashing (it didn't) and see that all the reviews (including mine) had been removed.
Really good for learning!!!
It's kinda crazy that there is barely any reviews! This app does have a learning curve but once you know what you are doing it's great. I am a college student studying jazz guitar and I use this app everyday. Great for practicing along with standards. Great for writing songs. Great for learning and understanding theory. And Version 8 is coming out! This app is awesome and continues to impress. 10/10 would recommend!!
great app!
Yes it has a bit of a learning curve but what you have access to once you understand the functional layout and input it is amazing. seriously! For fifty bucks its Massive
Overly Complex UI & Really Steep Learning Curve
This is such an unintuitive UI: it's way more complex than it needs to be. There is a steep learning curve for this. Chordbot & Suggester gets the job done w/ a much more streamlined & user-friendly UI. If you do a google search for reviews on this program you will see that many other people echo the same sentiment that I've described. Wish I never downloaded this or that I could've tried this out for some time before purchasing. I'm currently asking Apple App Store for a refund.
I don't regret the purchase but...
... I thought this was for creating playalongs, which is one thing this app does, but just for that alone, this doesn't meet my expectations and certainly doesn't stand up to IReal Pro. MTHPro only offers two time signatures... WHAT? just 3/4 and 4/4. OK. well I believe MTHPro would probably offer longer tune durations than IReal but not certain of that yet. The playback doesn't match the quality and versatility of IReal but it is different. The analytics looks all cool and is theory in a nutshell so MTHPro does offer it's unique qualifiers. It's an amazing app in it's own ways, I suppose but leaves me high and dry with the play along part.
Fantastic Harmonic Program.
This is a comprhensive harmonic app. Styles and genres to help you learn and choose harmonic progressions in your compositions and improvisations.
Good but Mac Version is Lacking
Great idea but flawed execution. I have the Mac version and it seems broken compared to the iPad version. The quality does not match the asking price. The biggest problem is there appears to be no way to contact the developer except his responses to reviews, but also problematic are the following: 1. Can’t change style, everything sounds like a Jazz trio despite what tempo and style controls are set to. 2. Can’t import your own music, iPad version promises import of audio but Mac version lacks even MIDI import. 3. XML file format is non-standard (not MusicXML) and is unpublished (or at least I have not been able to find it). 4. Link to support provided in this review editor goes directly to the main page of web site, in short, there appears to be no developer support for this project. Items 2 and 3 put you at the mercy of only using content developer publishes. Note I’m talking about analysis of existing music, not what you create within the app. I bought this app based on a video showing an analysis of Bach’s Goldberg Variations. At best I feel I’ve been mislead. The developer needs to make it clear what functionality each version has either in the manual and website; preferably both.
buggy
ok. i'm trying to change the intial key from 4-flats (apparently the default) but the method that works on the iPad (using the keyboard) doesn't work on the Mac. Why? also, clicking the 'support' link in the App store doesn't go to mdecks support. trying to find 'support' on your webpage is an excercise in futility. i want to like this app, it has potential. you're not making that easy.
Jaw Dropping Incredible!
Version 7 takes this app to a whole nother level for songwriting, practicing and studying music theory. (Ignore negative reviews for Version 5 or earlier — this is a complete rework!) The software has evolved beyond its jazz roots to encompass all genres of music, including pop, rock and blues. It covers about anything you can think of, from noodling around with chord changes and voicings, to creating and printing out scores for other players. You can also use it as a "backup musicians" for practicing scales and songs. The more screen real estate you have the better because its nice to keep numerous panels open when composing; my experience was better on my iMac than my MacBook — but the app is still effective on either. If you have decent speakers connected (or headphones) the experience is even better, because the audio samples used for drums, piano, and bass are of very high quality. You can export MIDI to your DAW after composition, but I wish there was a way for it to send MIDI in real time via some sort of synch or port (there may be already, I just haven’t been able to do it). Important to note: the developer is updating this regularly, and it has improved a LOT since some of the earlier Version 5 reviews. Yeah, it sounds fantastic, but did I mention it also looks beautiful? Leonardo da Vinci would approve of the mapping screen and layout!
The app is great, but it is crashing since 7.2.5 release
Please review this last update since it is unusable since Oct 18th. Please review this update By the way, Congratulation for this innovative tool.
A Must-have App!
This is one of the must-have app to add in your tool box. The layout is easy to understand, yet the contents are so powerful. There are a tone of Jazz, Pop, Contemporary, AND MORE, exercises or workout to choose from. It does take a little bit of playing around with in order to really know what you’re doing and take full advantage of the App’s capabilities, but, trust me, this app is worth ever penny. I would hlighly recommend using this app with Tessitura Pro if you are serious about learning new concepts etc. In fact, I would like to see these two apps combined even if the price were to go up a little. In any case, buy this app right now, spend some time watching the tutorials, then, dive in and experience Tonal Harmony!.
Thank you for listening and updating, big five stars now
Great practice and learning tool and after the update the best tool for learning progression visually. An d great lesson packs too. Thank you
Misleading, and some disappointment but overall brilliant
The app has positive qualities, however ultimately there are problems. It’s misleading, because it is not the same as the iPad version. This is an older, outdated version and it seems they are not working to update it. Don’t be fooled. You cannot make long progressions. It is lacking features the iPad version has, such as modulation built in. Worst of all, the MIDI bouncing feature appears to have issues at first (though I resolved those by messing with it and manually making a folder and then manually adding the .mid file extension… still seems silly). That said this program, otherwise, is absolutely brilliant for teaching harmony. Absolutely brilliant. It’s so good for that that I have to say that I would have given this 1-2 stars for the severity of some of the above problems (IMO) but since it’s so great otherwise, I simply don’t really care that much.
Disappointed...
I purchased this thinking that I could load an audio file and analyze it. But thats completely false. Please be explicit about the feature differences between iPad and mac version. I paid for it and it can’t do what I want. I do not have an iPad. Thanx IT looks like it could have been great $10 later…and later
It’s decent, but it could be really useful if it was updated like the iPad version
This app is a really great tool to help learn about western chord progressions. However, it would be great if the creator updated it like the iPad version to greatly increase functionality. I hope he sees this message and updates the app because I bought it when I watched the tutorial for version 6.0 and I was much more impressed with said version’s usability.
2 Thumbs Up! Great Work!
I love the midi export function… As a guitarist, I find it very useful for creating piano voicings… Great visual for someone new to harmonic language… Love it!
Just the iPad App
This is just the iPad App of the same name in a medium sized window. You don't even have the option to go full screen. For a portation of the app like this, 10$ are clearly overpriced. I'd recommend buying the iPad version insted, which is half the price and offers a better user experience.