Hello

First Look

Daily goal

From Pat’s method

Your path

Progress

Your rank

Practice time

Minutes per day, last 14 days

2 weeks agoToday

Accuracy

Your last 30 pieces

Notes to watch

The notes you miss most often. Spend an extra minute finding them on the neck.

Timing

Badges

More

Practice

Settings

Untimed warm-upStart each session with one piece that waits for you

Learn

Data

First Look · beta · built with Pat

Free practice

Type
Rhythm
Time
Range
Position
Extras
Mode

Tuner

Play any single note and let it ring. The needle shows how sharp or flat you are.

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flatin tunesharp

Calibrate timing

Phones and Bluetooth headphones add a small delay. This test measures it so the app doesn’t mark you late when you’re not.

  1. Use the setup you practice with (same headphones or speaker).
  2. After four count-in clicks, play your open low E right on each of the next eight clicks.

How to practice

Sight reading is playing music correctly the first time you see it. The only way to get good at it is to read a lot of music you’ve never seen. Most books give you three pages per skill. First Look gives you as many as you want, and never the same piece twice.

Pat’s method

  • One change at a time. You stay in one key and one kind of rhythm for a long time, often weeks, until it’s automatic.
  • Then speed up. Same material, 15 bpm faster.
  • Then a new key. Flats first (F, B♭, E♭, A♭, D♭), then sharps (G, D, A, E, B).
  • Then new rhythms. Eighth notes, syncopation, 16ths, triplets and swing.
  • Expression last. Accents and dynamics come after the reading is solid.

A session

A session is one untimed warm-up (optional) and four pieces with a click, no stopping. That’s Pat’s lesson routine: “four pieces, let’s go.” It takes 5 to 10 minutes.

When you miss a note

Keep going. In a real band the music doesn’t wait. Missing a note is fine; stopping is the habit to break. Your results show which notes and bars to look at afterward.

Read ahead

The highlighted note is where the beat is right now. Your eyes should already be on the next one or two.

What the colors mean

NowRightRight after a missWrong or missed

Kicks charts (Book 2)

Big band guitar parts mostly show chord symbols over slashes: comp through those however you like. The written rhythms are kicks, accents the whole band hits together. Only the kicks are graded, on timing.

Getting the mic right

  • Use headphones for anything with a click, so the mic hears your guitar, not the metronome.
  • Keep the phone or iPad within a few feet of your guitar.
  • Run Calibrate timing once with your usual setup.
  • The mic hears pitch, not which string you used. Staying in position is on you.

Skipping ahead

Already comfortable with a step? Tap it on the path and take the skip-ahead challenge: two pieces at 85% or better and you jump there.