For brass, wind and concert band players, and anyone learning to play
Practise your own way.
Improve your playing, note by note.
My bars, by Level
Where it helps
Pick what you need. Tap any of them for the detail.
Learning to play The basics, from your first notes to the higher grades Scales, note names, keys and rhythm, in short focused goes. Read moreShow less
Notably Better helps with the basics that underpin everything: scales, note names, key signatures and rhythm, from your first notes through to the higher grades. Short, focused practice means you work on the right things rather than simply doing more, and you can watch your playing improve.
Playing in a band Your band’s own pieces, set up once, used by everyone Any piece, even a hand-written part. No library needed. Read moreShow less
Notably Better takes the pieces you’re learning for your next concert and helps with the usual stumbling blocks: changes of time signature, awkward runs of notes and getting the rhythm right. It breaks the hard bits into five-minute steps, and since the whole band plays at the same tempo (hopefully!), one person can set a piece up and everyone can use it to get up to speed.
Type a piece in by the bar numbers on your part. The metronome then follows its real bars: changes of time and speed, repeats, D.S. and Coda.
Focus for Five Five minutes at a time, on the bars that need it Or skip the plan and just play. It’s your practice. Read moreShow less
A session is made of five-minute blocks with a short rest between. Run through a piece, mark the bars you can’t play yet, then work on short bits of it. Each one moves up a Level as you go. A practice list for a concert shows how many blocks are left before the date.
Prefer your own way? Play a piece with the metronome following its bars, slow down the hard ones, and log your time.
See the hard bits at a glance
- Level 1
- Level 2
- Level 3
- Level 4
- Level 5
Mark the bars you can’t play yet. Every five-minute go moves them a step closer to gold.
Everyday tools
- Metronome
- Tuner
- Warm-ups
- Scales by grade
- Theory
- Recordings
- and more on the way
Your progress is yours
Shared only with your say-so. Nobody marks anybody.
Free for bands
Bands share their music for nothing. Premium is for players who want to benefit from the advanced features.
No signal? No problem
The practice tools work offline in the band room.
Privacy, reading settings and the restShow less
- No adverts and no tracking cookies. Download your information, or delete your account, whenever you like.
- Dark mode, dyslexia-friendly reading, a choice of background colour and text size.
- Put it on your phone’s home screen and it opens like an app.
Why I made it
“Lots of small steps add up to a big difference, as long as you stick at it.”
Why I made itShow less
After years in the audience at wind band concerts, I finally decided to learn to play myself. I chose the euphonium: my training brass band was short of puff on the bigger instruments, and it sits happily in both brass and wind bands.
However, I’m not a natural musician, and I was practising a lot but not getting very far, very fast. I’d look at a new piece and think: I can play that bit, but I can’t play that bit, or that one, or that one... or that one! Then I realised that how I practised mattered as much as how much I practised.
What I am good at is solving problems and finding ways to improve things, and I’m a firm believer that lots of small steps add up to a big difference, as long as you stick at it. Notably Better began simply as a way to record the time I spent practising, and has grown into the tool I wish I’d had from the start.
Invite only, for now
Ask to join here, or ask your band’s organiser to invite you. Under 13? Ask a parent or carer to fill this in for you.