ReedSaxophone practice coach

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Reed listens to you play, measures what actually happened, grades it, and tells you what to change. For iPhone and iPad.

Common questions

It says it can't hear me

Check Settings → Reed → Microphone is on. If it is, run Settings → Instrument check inside Reed: it measures the noise floor of your room and your microphone, which is what decides what counts as playing and what counts as the room. A run where the microphone heard nothing is discarded rather than scored, so a covered microphone never shows up as a sudden collapse in your playing.

My timing score looks worse than I played

Onset timing carries the round-trip audio latency of your device. Reed subtracts the reported input and output latency, but a Bluetooth speaker or headphones add delay that cannot be measured reliably. Wired headphones or the built-in speaker give the honest number.

My scores have stopped improving

Before assuming it is you, check the horn. A saxophone that has stopped sealing looks exactly like a player who has stopped improving, and it is the most common false plateau there is. Care → What your scores can tell you reads your low-register tone and attack history: a slow leak usually shows up as the bottom of the horn getting harder while everything else holds. It stops short of diagnosing, on purpose — a tired reed and a cold room make the same shape — so it tells you which cheap causes to rule out first, and when it is worth booking a leak-light test with a tech.

How does Care know when something is due?

Each routine runs on its own clock, and a tick only counts inside its own round: the pack-down list clears at midnight, the weekly after seven days. Completing the last step of a routine logs the date, and that is what "due in three days", "overdue by seven" and the pack-down streak are counted from. The screen opens on whatever is furthest past due.

Which horn should I pick?

Whichever you actually play — soprano, alto or tenor. Everything re-tunes to it: target frequencies, the concert-pitch readout and the tuner. Written pitch never changes. Scores are kept separately per horn, so your alto history is never averaged into your tenor one.

Why is altissimo locked?

Advanced material unlocks on a measured score rather than a level number. Altissimo opens at tone steadiness 80 or better, sixteenth-note riffs at timing 70 or better. Keep playing the foundation drills and they open on their own.

The song runs away from me

Open it and switch the player to Note by note. It cues one note, then waits until you actually play it before moving on — the clock is you rather than a tempo — and tells you which way to move if you are off. Once you have found five in a row first try it stops sounding the cue, because at that point you are reading rather than echoing. Practice mode runs at a tempo you set and judges each note as the playhead passes; Listen just plays the line.

Do I need an API key?

No. Grading is entirely on-device and works with no key and no network. A Gemini API key is optional, and adds two things: written coaching in plain English, and importing songs from a recording or a sheet. Without one, coaching falls back to a rule set that runs on the device.

Which Gemini model does it use?

Whichever you pick in Settings → AI coach → Model. Reed asks Google which models your key can actually use rather than pinning one in the app, so the list stays current. The default, Automatic, follows Google's own latest Flash model — leave it there unless you have a reason not to.

How do I delete my data?

Settings → Data erases history, songs, calibration and the stored API key, and can export your full history as CSV first. Deleting the app removes everything.