January 2020 New Features & Updates!

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Hi all! Here are the updates that went live in January.

Song Tagging

You can now tag your songs freely to help organize what you're working on, your exercises, and your repertoire. Tags can be added when creating or editing a song or exercise, and will display in various views across tuneUPGRADE. This was a major feature to add which I plan to continue to develop on top of - for example, being able to filter by tags and create smart songs leveraging tags, books, and other song data.

Metronome

A metronome has been added to the practice screen. Click the 'metronome' button to show or hide it. Tempo and beats per measure are stored along with your song, so the next time you practice, the metronome will remember what tempo you were last practicing at.


Icon Sizes

Icons have had sizes increased across the board to make mobile usage easier.

Dashboard Change

The pie chart on the dashboard has been replaced with a bar chart. I got plenty of feedback from users who felt pie charts simply weren't very useful or informative, and other users who wanted to be able to get an at-a-glance view of the total practice time for their tunes for the week, which was tough to get from the pie chart.


Books Needed

When you select a practice routine to play, the practice preview screen will now show all books needed as part of the practice routine. This will let you pull out all your necessary material before you begin practicing!

Bugfixes

A bug was fixed which caused time to track incorrectly when a song or free practice appeared in a routine multiple times. Time should now track properly in this case. Additionally, smart songs for exercises were not selecting songs properly. This has been fixed.

Upcoming Features

Here are some of the feature I'm considering working on. Let me know if they are interesting to you, and I'll adjust my priority accordingly!

  • Advanced Smart Songs - being able to build your own formula for smart song selection using tags, books, and more.
  • Filtering on song lists - be able to filter and sort your song list for easier song management
  • More analytics - See in more visuals for the practice history for a song, or how long it took to get to your repertoire.
  • Badges! Earn badges for practice streaks and other achievements.
  • Data exports - export your practice logs to run your own analysis on.
  • Calendar view - see how your practice history looks on a calendar.
  • Sound customization - be able to customize the 'move on' and metronome tones.

How You Can Help

You can help support tuneUPGRADE in many ways!
  • Feedback and feature requests are always welcome. Every update in January was focused on specific feedback from users. If you're looking for a specific feature or find a bug, shoot me an email at [email protected]!
  • Spread the word! If you know of other musicians, have a music teacher, or want to share some tuneUPGRADE love on social media, I'd greatly appreciate it. I'm looking to reach as many musicians as possible to grow tuneUPGRADE. 
  • Donate to help cover hosting and development costs! I understand that music can be an expensive hobby and not everyone can afford to pay for lessons or other services. Because of this, I'd like to keep tuneUPGRADE free as long as I can afford to do so. If you can spare a few bucks to help me cover hosting and development costs, or just want to say thank you, head to the donate page. Thank you to those who have already donated, really appreciate it!

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