Session Buddies

Play along with any tune from thesession.org

Find a tune jigs, reels, hornpipes, polkas, slides, slip jigs and waltzes

My tunes

Favourites

    None yet. Tap ☆ Favourite by a tune’s name to keep it here.

    Played lately

      The tunes you play, or change a chord in, will show here.

      Kept in this browser. Safari can clear it if the page goes unvisited for a while, so save them to a file now and then; Open a saved tune brings them back.

      bpm per dotted crotchet

      What you hear

      100%
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      The flute, the concertina and the mandolin all play the tune: tick any of them, or several together as at a session. Untick them all to play the tune yourself over the backing.

      Melody

      Ornaments

      Strum

      Backing feel

      Bodhrán

      50%
      off

      Tuning

      Open strings ring in sympathy

      Your settings

      Every choice on this page is kept for next time, a reload included. Reset settings puts them all back to how they start, from the tempo to the tuning; your tunes and your chord changes are kept.

      Folds these choices into a short summary.

      Now —

      Chord
      —
      Next
      —

      Chords —

      Tap a bar to change its chord; the change holds every time that bar comes round. Bars you have changed are marked with a dot. The small print is the melody in ABC notation.

      The shapes Standard

      Highlighted strings ring open.

      About Session Buddies

      A session in your pocket. Name a tune and it is fetched from thesession.org and given a guitar and bodhrán backing. The flute plays the melody, and the concertina and the mandolin can join it or play it alone. Turn them all off to play the tune yourself.

      Getting going

      1. Find a tune by name, and pick a setting of it if you like. Or Paste ABC: a tune written in ABC, from anywhere, played as if it came from the Session.
      2. Press Play. Set the tempo, and how many times through.
      3. Choose what you hear: who plays, how the melody comes and goes, the strum, the bodhrán’s style, the tuning. Once you are happy, Hide folds them into a short summary; tap it to change them again.
      4. Tap a bar in Chords to change its chord. Save the tune, or make it a favourite, to keep your changes.

      Your settings

      Every choice on the page is kept in this browser for next time, a reload included. Reset settings, under What you hear, puts them back to how they start, with an Undo.

      Keyboard

      Space play/stop · F finish

      What’s new — the release notes, version by version.

      Bar

      Whole bar, or first half
      Second half