Library and routines

Browse and search every exercise and routine, play any of them, and, with Pro, build routines of your own.

The library

Exercise library on the dashboard opens every exercise and routine in the app, and you can play anything you find there.

It opens on an index: Ready for you, two exercises that could fit next; Your routines, the ones you saved or built and the ones the coach built for you; Ready-made, routines KeyFu put together; and By skill, the exercises grouped by what they train. All and a number opens every item in a group. On an iPad the index stays in its own column and the group you pick opens beside it.

Searching and filtering

Type in Search exercises and routines to get one list of every exercise and routine that matches, best matches first. It looks at names, descriptions, skills and what an exercise trains, and understands a few short forms: lh and rh for the hands, and a chord run typed as digits. Music words and plain words both work: arpeggio finds what broken finds, and inversion what flipped finds. Words you’ll meet explains the music words.

Filter narrows any list: How demanding, Hands, Length and For you. While a filter is on, Filter shows how many, the filters are named in words, and Clear turns them off. Searching and filtering are open to everyone.

Browsing a skill

Tap a skill to see all its exercises, easiest first, in up to three parts: Ready for you, what you could play next; Coming up, what builds on something you haven’t played yet; and Further along, what comes after that. Any of them opens now. Each exercise has a short description, and small tags say what it asks of you: which hands, and whether they do different things or reach far. When an exercise is named by chord numbers, the chord names in today’s key are written under it.

The line under the skill’s name says how many exercises it holds. If a filter leaves nothing, the page says so and offers Clear filters.

Ready for you, started, builds on others

A small word under an exercise hints at whether it could fit next. ready for you: what it builds on is played, and you haven’t played it yet. started: you have begun it. builds on others: it grows out of exercises you haven’t played yet. Once you have played it cleanly, the word goes away. On a skill’s page the parts Ready for you, Coming up and Further along say this instead, so only started stays there.

The hint comes from two things only: the order the exercises build on each other, and what you have played. It says nothing about how good you are, and it never stops you playing anything.

Needs more keys

An exercise that reaches further than your keyboard is still listed, but dimmed and marked Needs more keys with a warning sign. It never shows ready for you, and on a skill’s page it sits under Further along, unless you have played it before. Its page says the same and offers no way to play it.

If your keyboard is bigger than the size set in Settings, change the size there and these exercises open up.

An exercise’s page

Each exercise has its own page. Tags name its skill, its hands and what it asks, and the hint word says whether it could fit next; for one that builds on exercises you haven’t played, Builds on names them instead. An exercise named by chord numbers shows the chord names in the key you picked. Then come What this is, You’ll be able to, Where you’ll use it and How to play it, along with the tempo range it is played in. A colored music word opens a bubble that explains it.

Builds on lists exercises this one grows out of, each one a row you can tap to open its page.

Hear it first

plays an exercise once through before you choose it, at its standard tempo and in today’s key; on an exercise’s page, in the key you picked there. It is the same ear as on the practice screen. Rhythm exercises play the beat with it. Nothing is scored.

While it plays it shows ; tap it again to stop. One sound plays at a time: starting another, leaving the screen or starting to practice stops it.

comes with each exercise in the library, with Practice now on an exercise’s page, while you pick exercises for a routine, and in today’s plan once you open an exercise’s row.

What do the numbers mean?

Exercises name chords by number, not by letter. opens The numbers: why the notes of a key are numbered from its home note, what a small m or a 7 after a number means, and how the numbers match the chord names you may already know. The explanation is written for the key you are looking at. You will find it on an exercise’s page, on a routine’s list of exercises, wherever you pick a key, and while you practice.

Trying another key

An exercise’s page opens in the key you are in today. You can pick another home note (Tone) and kind of key (Type) before you play. Playing it in another key is only a try: it changes nothing else.

To make that key where you are for the day, tap the Make … button; the coach first says what it would mean for today’s plan. If the exercise doesn’t fit your keyboard in the key you picked, the page says so; most other keys will fit.

Practice now

Practice now opens the exercise on the practice screen, in the key you picked (see Practicing an exercise). For an ear exercise, the button reads Train now and opens ear training.

If the exercise is more than you have in you right now at its usual tempo but fine at its slowest, it starts at its slowest, and the coach says so and why on the practice screen. If it is too much even at its slowest, the coach says why and the button becomes Play freely instead.

Stages you own

Once you have made a harder version of an exercise your own, its page gains Stages you own. It lists the versions you have earned and counts every key you earned them in, whatever its type; a line then says whether the key shown on the page is one of them. When the two hands have their own versions, each hand gets a line of its own. A version that came along from another key counts for the new key once you have played it cleanly there.

This is a record, not a to-do list: it never names what comes next.

Adding an exercise to a routine

Add to routine… on an exercise’s page lists New routine first, then all your routines, pinned ones first, then the newest. Pick one and the exercise joins its end, in the routine’s key. New routine asks for a name and starts a routine with just this exercise.

Adding to a routine the coach built, or one KeyFu put together from your practice, makes it your own version; the app asks first, and Add and make it mine confirms. You stay on the exercise’s page, which then says where it went; Open routine opens that routine to change it.

A ready-made routine

A routine is a set of exercises in a fixed order, played in today’s key; one you haven’t played in that key yet starts a little slower, and the coach says why. Its page shows its length, a summary and the exercises, each with its tempo as a track; tap one to play it alone.

Practice routine plays them all as one session, like today’s plan (see Moving on): every exercise is checked against how you are doing before it starts. One difference: Take a short break ends a routine without keeping it for later. Save as my routine copies it into Your routines, where it keeps today’s key as its own; Edit my copy then opens your copy.

Your routines

Routines you saved or built appear as cards on the library’s Your routines page. The dashboard’s Your routines shows them too, along with the ones the coach built for you. A badge says who made each one: BUILT BY COACH, INSTANT · FROM YOUR DATA or YOUR ROUTINE. The card lists its exercises. A ready-made you saved keeps its short description; on one the coach built, KeyFu says why he picked it.

Start plays the whole routine as one session. Edit opens the routine to change it. Press and hold a card to Pin it or Delete it. When you have more than four, All and the number opens every one of them.

Key on a routine card

A routine card’s summary line says how many exercises it has, about how long it takes, and its key, once: in E♭ for a routine you own, which keeps its own key, or E♭ major today for one that follows the day’s key.

A key you set says always, like always in G; an exercise that plays in a different key from the rest names it, like C minor. A title written in numbers, like 1 – 4 – 5 home loop, also shows its chord names.

Tempo on a routine card

Each exercise shows its tempo without a number, the same way today’s plan does: a short track from slow to fast, a small mark for the tempo the exercise is written at, and a dot where it plays for you today.

The words beside it say the rest: your pace when it follows how you play, a notch faster or a notch slower when it moved since you last played it in that key, easing in while a new key or a first go starts gently, and always this pace for a tempo you set yourself.

Mixed order, or twice through

Two switches on a routine card change only the next run. Twice plays the whole routine through two times. On a routine you built, the shuffle switch plays it in a mixed order. The card then says what this run will do.

Nothing is saved: your routine keeps its order, and both switches are off again after the run.

Building a routine

New routine in the library starts an empty routine called Routine and a number; Edit on a card changes one you have. Give it a name, then Add exercises. Drag the exercises into order, or remove any you don’t want; two small lines under each say its key and how many rounds it plays, and its tempo, drawn as a short track without a number.

A routine you build has its own key: it starts in today’s key, and every exercise you add keeps to it. Save keeps the routine. Cancel asks before it throws changes away. Changing a routine the coach built makes it yours: the app asks first, and Save as mine confirms.

Picking exercises for a routine

Add exercises opens every exercise that can go in a routine: Ready for you first, then the skills, folded shut; tap a skill to open it. A search or a filter shows only what matches, with the skills that have a match opened.

The plus in a circle on an exercise picks it, and it turns into a check; pick as many as you like, and Add with the number puts them all at the routine’s end, marked just added. Tap an exercise to read its page first; Add to and the routine’s name picks it from there. An exercise already in the routine says so.

An exercise’s key and tempo in a routine

Tap the key and tempo line under an exercise to set them. Key: Today’s key plays it in the key you are in that day; Always the same key keeps it in one key you pick. Tempo: Follows your playing plays it at the tempo KeyFu keeps for you; with Pro, it can move up as you play it cleanly. Always the same tempo keeps one tempo you set with the stepper, the one place a tempo is written as a number. Rounds says how many times it plays through.

The line under the exercise then reads, for example, always in G or always this pace, with the tempo drawn as a short track. Switching back is one tap.

Building routines is part of Pro

Creating and editing routines is part of Pro, and so is Add to routine… on an exercise’s page. Without Pro, Edit on a routine card, Add to routine… and Edit my copy are blue. They and New routine open what Pro includes, starting with what is yours; after you subscribe, you go straight on to what you were doing.

Browsing, searching, playing any exercise or routine, and saving a copy of a ready-made routine stay open to everyone.

Words you’ll meet: chords

Exercise and routine pages use the words musicians use. Each one is colored: tap it and a small bubble explains it. All of them are here too.

Root: The note a chord is built on and named after. Triad: A three-note chord built from every other note of the scale, like C – E – G in C. Seventh chord: A triad with one more note stacked on top, its 7th. Written like 2m7, 1maj7 or 5(7). Extended chord: A chord with extra color notes on top of the usual three or four, such as its 9th. Written like maj9 or add9.

Words you’ll meet: chord positions

Root position: A chord played with its root as the lowest note. Inversion: The same chord with a different one of its notes lowest. First inversion puts its 3rd lowest, second inversion its 5th. Voicing: Which notes of a chord you play, and how you spread them over the keys. Voice leading: Each note of a chord is a voice. Smooth voice leading moves each one to the nearest note of the next chord, so your hand barely travels.

Words you’ll meet: playing chords

Arpeggio: A chord played one note at a time instead of all at once, also called a broken chord. Vamp: A short chord loop, often just two chords, repeated so you can play freely over it. Drone: One low note held the whole time, so anything you play over it has a home. Contrary motion: Both hands moving in opposite directions at once, like a mirror image. Unison: Both hands playing the same line together, usually an octave apart. Rotation: A small, loose turn of the forearm, like turning a doorknob, that carries the hand through a roll.

Words you’ll meet: progressions

2 – 5 – 1: The 2 minor, the 5, then home to the 1: the strongest way home in jazz, soul and lo-fi. In C that’s Dm – G – C. Turnaround: A few chords at the end of a section that lead back to its start, like 1 – 6m – 2m – 5. In C: C – Am – Dm – G. 12-bar blues: A twelve-bar loop built from three chords, the 1, the 4 and the 5. It is behind most blues and early rock and roll.

Words you’ll meet: scales and patterns

Pentatonic: A scale of just five notes. Over its home chord nearly every note fits. Blues scale: The minor pentatonic plus one extra, gritty note between two of its neighbors: the blue note. Sequence: A short pattern repeated from a new starting note each time, often one step higher or lower.

Words you’ll meet: rhythm

Bar: A group of counts, usually four. Chords often change at the start of one. Downbeat: Count one, the first beat of every bar. Offbeat: The spot exactly halfway between two counts: the “and” in “1 and 2 and”. Push: A chord that lands early, before the count you expect, and rings on. Theory books call it an anticipation. Syncopation: Accents that land between or before the counts you expect, like the push. Tresillo: A lopsided rhythm from Cuban music: eight quick pulses grouped 3+3+2, played on the first of each group.