Jam: a backing band that plays any chord chart

A backing track generator that reads chord charts

Practising over a band beats practising over a metronome, but backing tracks never come in your key, your tempo or your tune. Jam plays whatever you write: type a chord chart the way it looks on a lead sheet, pick a style, and drums, bass, chords and a pad play it with real voicings, a walking or locked-in bass line and a drummer who fills into each section. Change a chord and the band changes with you.

How to write a chart

Up to 64 bars. Words Jam can't read, like section names, are pointed out and skipped, so a pasted chart never breaks. The free chord transposer reads the same format.

Ten styles, each a real band

Built for practice

• Loop any bars, from one tricky turnaround to the whole form.
• Transpose in semitones for singers and horn players, with the chart shown in the new key.
• Mute the part you play: bassists switch off the bass, pianists the chords.
• Count-in of one or two bars, and Free tempo to slow a song down while you learn it.
• Energy takes the band from sparse to busy; Take gives you another performance of the same chart.