Rabab Tuner

Rabab Tuner is built for the Afghan rabab, not adapted from a guitar app. It knows the instrument has three melody strings — Katay, Bam and Zer — two or three drone strings (Shahtar), and eleven to fifteen sympathetic strings (Bachi) that nobody else bothers to tune. Build your own rabab once and the picture on screen becomes yours: the headstock redraws for five or six pegs, the side pegboard for your Bachi count, and every screen after that works on your tuning, not a standard one. TUNING THAT TALKS ABOUT PEGS Pluck any string and it names the note, tells you how far off you are and which way to turn — then turns green and stays green when the string sits right. It hears the low Shahtar and the high Bachi alike. No microphone, or you would rather not use one? Press and hold any string to hear exactly what it should sound like, made from recordings of a real rabab, and tune by ear. SONG TO NOTES (PREVIEW) The method rabab teachers use with a tuner and a sheet of paper — sing a note, read the letter, write it down — done for you. Hum a tune, or let the phone listen to a song playing in the room, and the app writes the notes in sargam or Western letters, each one with the string and the fret to play it on. Record against a click and the notes fall onto the beat. A song in G and your rabab in E? One tap shifts the whole sheet to your tuning. Then practise it in the app, note by note or phrase by phrase, or export it as a MIDI file. This one is a preview: reading notes out of a recording is hard, the app marks what it is unsure of, and every sheet is yours to correct in Review & Edit. LEARN AND PRACTISE The twelve notes on your own chart. Scales built from the formula — Bilawal, Asavari, Kafi, Khamaj, Kalyan, Bhairav, Bhairavi, Bhupali, Dhani — lit up on your neck, with a listening trainer that walks them straight, in pairs, triplets, fours and thirds and ticks each clean run. The first metronome exercise, 60 BPM, frets 1-2-3-4 and back, with the screen kept awake while your hands are busy. A HARMONIUM AND TABLA THAT STAY WITH YOU Naghma in the Pashto styles — Bairami, Logari, Kesturi, Pari — and eight taals, four of them played on a real tabla. Change the tempo and the drum still sounds like a drum. Or record your own harmonium or tabla for a minute and the app turns it into a clean loop to practise against. YOUR RIGHT HAND, AND YOUR RAGA The practice monitor names every stroke Tari or Chap, counts them, and times them against the tabla — having learned your hand, not a stranger's. Raga practice fills twelve bars as you play, then ranks the closest ragas and maqams out of twenty-four, quarter tones included, and suggests the phrase that would settle it. LOOKING AFTER THE INSTRUMENT Dry air loosens pegs; damp air softens the skin and dulls the tone. Tell the app the temperature and humidity where the rabab lives and it works out what the wood is holding and what to do about it. The check-up listens to how long each string rings and compares it only ever to your own instrument's baseline, kept over the years. PRIVATE, AND OFFLINE Everything runs on your phone. The microphone is used only to hear your instrument or your voice, and that sound is analysed on the device and never uploaded. No account. No ads. No tracking. The one thing that ever goes online is the optional weather advisor, which you switch on yourself and can switch off again. The app is free for one month — the complete app, no