Skrivarna Software

Today Amazon announced the launch of Amazon Underground , a new app for Android phones and tablets. It has all of the functionality of the regular Amazon mobile shopping app including movies, TV shows, books and more, plus over ten thousand dollars in apps, games and in-app items that are actually free.  Preparing for the launch Amazon paired up with Skrivarna Software to make the Andronome+ Metronome available on Underground from day one. That's today! So, Underground this way , go grab your actually free professional metronome.  

The latest release of the Fakebook app (1.7.0, available now on Google Play ) adds automatic and manual backup, keeping your imported music and created playlists safe. The automatic backup uses Android's built-in mechanism for saving and restoring user data, which requires Google Play Services to be enabled and storage from Google Cloud. This solution is the easiest and safest to use, as changes are tracked in the background and user data is automatically restored when you buy a new device and reinstall the Fakebook app. In theory, at least... Unfortunately, not all devices has Google Play Services and the necessary transport and storage to the cloud, which makes Android automatic backup less than ideal. This is why Fakebook also comes with a simple to use manual backup. Just go to Database and backup  in the Settings  menu, then select Perform manual backup . After a few seconds (depending on the size of the database) you will be prompted to send the backup file to Dr...

Two new updates, 1.5.0 + 1.6.0, and the Fakebook app now looks better than ever! You should probably see it yourself, but new font versions increase the readability of chord charts while the "Android Material design" pushes menus and dialogues to the next level. And there's more: A new native parser increase the speed of importing PDF files. A lot! The new parser works on all devices running Android 5 (Lollipop) and newer. Key and pedal mapping. Choose scrolling, next/previous song, next/previous page, transpose up/down or start/stop the metronome. Available now, from Google Play and Amazon .

When not developing software I like to play the drums. Unfortunately I must admit that flailing away at the kit to some random Spotify playlist is a lot more fun than practicing hand technique. And that shows... However, the latest months my practice pad has seen the daylight again (figuratively speaking; a Swedish December doesn't offer much sun). The reasons for this are George Lawrence Stone, Sonny Igoe and Tommy Igoe - or more precisely the killers and great hands warm-up . Drummers discussing drummers and drumming (nowadays most often in Internet forums) keeps recommending the Stone Killers and Igoe's Great Hands or Lifetime Warm-up, and that ten minutes a day can make a huge difference. Well, I can afford ten minutes a day, I thought. And it made an immediate difference. Not that my hands are great (yet), but I actually started to enjoy practicing rudiments again! Now, as a developer I couldn't help but try to improve on these already great concepts. Fir...

Time for some frequent questions again. Some of them so frequent that they are already included in the FAQ (in one form or another): Where are the notes? I can only find charts with chords - in the description but notes were to be seen... It is quite clear from the app description that the app contains chord sequences only -- due to copyright the melodies cannot be included. However, for "original" Real Books, please visit www.skrivarna.com/p/fakebook.html and www.skrivarna.com/2014/02/automatic-indexing-of-pdf-real-books.html to automatically import and index these. Nice app Good app, but is it possible to transpose a score? How? You can find the transpose function in the menu, in the lower or upper right corner depending on device (the icon is three dots). The "transpose" menu will change key of the currently selected song, while the "settings" menu allows you to transpose all the songs (to get e.g. a Bb Real Book). Fakebook No lyrics! And...

Just a quick heads up for all guitarists and Django Reinhardt fans: there are now PDFB scripts available for indexing the Django Fakebook at www.skrivarna.com/p/fakebook.html . Big thanks to Fakebook user Arnim for the great idea. Other books that you would like to have indexed? Just let us know, send a mail to fakebook@skrivarna.com .