Jameasy Plus (Black) - Bluetooth Tuner for Violin - The Best Practice Tool for Violin

This was a gift so I didn't actually receive it, but I was shown pictures and it was very well received and will be used and is much liked.

This is a neat idea and I was excited to find a product that would help me play violin better and "check" me on my abilities. I think this product has a lot of potential and could be a really great tool, but it has some faults. Since I think this is still a relatively new product (or at, least it is on amazon), I am hopeful they will build on the concept and make some improvements. Here are my further thoughts:PROS:It is small and takes up a very small and fairly unnoticeable footprint.It was super easy to pair and set up.The app has some pluses:1) It shows you the notes and measures you are playing as you move along2) It can show you the bow movements expected as you move along3) It can show show you the finger positions suggested4) you can turn on the metronome5) you can change the pace of the music you are playing6) some of these features can be turned on or off7) you can review your playing in some sort of review screen, though I rarely use it because of some timing issues I mention in cons and I haven't found a lot of value in that review since I see my grading as I move along8) you can listen to them play the song so you know how it should soundCONS:1) The instructions for use are rather vague. I used intuition to use it, but it wasn't hard to figure out. Maybe I'm missing a few things though and it could be a better product than I think2) it does a fairly well job of judging your playing, but it isn't perfect. It has given me a miss on open strings in one measure and not in the next. Aside from playing late, it's hard to miss being on tune on an open string, unless the bow movement is very poor and I don't think that was the case. I think it is just a little off at times. At times I think I'm out of tune and it doesn't catch it.3) you get a fair amount of songs (they had a few freebies I could select), but many are super short and basic beginner music OR they are music they must have made up, because it isn't anything I recognize, so I'm disappointed in the music selection. I wish they included more classical music in what they include.4) It is very humbling, because there are songs or scales they say are "very easy" that I do not find "very easy" and others that are "normal" that I actually think are easier. I may not be that good, but I question their grading levels. I have achieved 99% many times, but never 100% and I'm fairly certain my run throughs showed no misses, so I don't know why I didn't get 100% (and you can't check history without very quickly turning off the playing which is also disrupting to the practice)5) they have some sort of concert mode, that I really don't understand. You play at full speed and at the end it gives you the same type of grade as in practice, except I think you get an "award" that is worth basically nothing. I thought maybe it would earn you coins for additional purchases, but I don't think it does anything like that.6) It isn't cheap, so its hard to give it 5 stars with the faults I foundThese next 2 are the biggest faults:7) You can't practice without running the app. So, if you want to concentrate on difficult areas or play through without having it judge every movement or play at a tempo up or down as you practice through the song, you cannot. You can view the music in one section, but you can't see the full song without scrolling down (which is extremely disrupting because you have to scroll every couple of lines--worse than even turning sheet music). I use my tablet and maybe that is part of the issue, but I don't think so.8) you get very little prep time between selecting play and having the test start. There should be some sort of pause you can set. Also, as the one test ends, it loops through and starts again--again with very little pause, so you can't reflect on what you did (without switching to history and I think it even records your misses as you try to turn it off to look at history, so your score gets skewed). It is also hard to tell your score as you are playing. At the end, it will give you 99% or whatever, and then it starts over right away very quickly. The speed to start each time is just too quick.Also, on their website, you are told you can get a free album, but I wasn't given any choices. I was able to download a couple of items, but I didn't get a selection to pick from. The scales are a nice practice, but they are ALL the same exact test but just a different key. I think I had nightmares from that same exact tune playing through my head all night. They do change in speed, but I don't get their logic for some being very fast and others very slow. There are some difficult ones (that they call "very easy") that I haven't even tried yet.You can buy additional albums, but you can't preview the music (just the song names). They seem to range anywhere from about $5 up to $25. They do have a couple of basic classical albums that I think are about $10 each, but I haven't bought them yet. With the other issues, I'm not sure I want to invest more money right now. You buy additional albums with coins you buy. I also don't get that. Just charge the right price and forget the coins. If you earned coins for practicing, then the coins would make sense, but I haven't seen that you do. They give you 20 coins with the app, which buys nothing. I am guessing some of the albums are very, very difficult, which without the ability to practice on my own would just make the play-along an automatic failure. I don't need that. I need something to help me improve.They promote this as a game, but I don't get the incentive to improve, because if you miss the very first note because you can't start fast enough, you already have a miss. What fun is that? What is the incentive? Ideally, I just want to get better. I'm not sure this really helps.So, thus my score of 3 stars. I think it has potential, but they need some improvements.

Very accurate and easy to travel with!

I have never used a Bluetooth tuner before, this is a great product and I am really happy with how it works.

love the app , love this tool. works great and is really helping me learn to read music.

It's a fun product try. easy setup. But it disconnects from the app if you take a long pause to flip through the app for a new song. I totally recommend using the app on a tablet rather than a phone as the notes appear super mini size. With regard to the app, it would be nice if it remembered your settings.

I love this device and it really helps me practice, some pieces of music come for free, others are paid.is not affected by the noise of the environment, I recommend it for beginners and intermediates.

I'm using the Jameasy software to practice and I love it! A useful note that's nowhere in their documentation (I wrote to customer support and they answered) - the minimum system requirement for the software to run on an Android tablet is Android version 4.3 (sdk 18). If, like me, you have an old tablet laying around that you'd like to keep on your music stand, that's what you need to upgrade it to. I'm using a 10" Samsung tablet running Android KitKat 4.4 - big and bright and works like a charm, not bad for a 2012 device! (Obviously your tablet also needs speakers, a microphone, bluetooth, and wifi - you laugh, but some of the early tablets were very light on features.) Yes, the software will run on your phone, but the screen is distractingly small - better to dig up an old tablet for the purpose. It's not designed to run on Windows, and customer support doesn't recommend using an android emulator on your laptop because of latency issues.