Strum Machine: The App that Changed Bluegrass Instruction Turns Ten

Ten years ago, when he first began writing code for an app that his music students could play along with, Luke Abbott didn’t realize he was revolutionizing bluegrass music instruction and creating a career for himself. But a decade into Strum Machine, it’s clear that’s what happened. 

Not only does the subscription-based app allow users to play along with approximately 1300 bluegrass and old-time songs in its catalog, they can, among other things, select the key, set the tempo, choose any combination of guitar, mandolin, and bass instruments to play along with, change strumming patterns, add a metronome, and adjust the count-in. They can edit and add songs. Whether used as a play-along instruction aid or as a tool to create a backing track for recording, Strum Machine has been enthusiastically embraced by students, teachers, and artists of all stripes. Especially those in the bluegrass world.

And that’s by design.

“I'm not trying to make something for everybody, for all kinds of music, for all kinds of users,” Abbott says. “I'm really focusing on bluegrass and old time and acoustic sorts of music in that universe.”

Now living in San Luis Obispo, California, Abbott was ten years old when his family fell in love with bluegrass. 

“We went to a bluegrass festival, kind of on a whim,” Abbott remembers. “And we were like, ‘Whoa, this whole scene where people are getting together and playing music just casually in the campground, it's so cool!’ And then the music on stage was also great. And we were like, ‘All right, I think this is what we're going to do now!’ We got all the bluegrass instruments and began learning the repertoire and started local jams in our town and started a little family band, so we were in the bluegrass world!”

An accomplished player, eventually Abbott began giving as many as 20 to 30 lessons a week and provided backing tracks to his students.

“I'd be recording them myself, doing whatever they needed. I'd sit down and record it and send MP3s to them. And I thought, ‘There's got to be a better way to do this.’

“I've been programming since I was a kid, so I knew that it should be possible to make a backing track player that could play whatever chord progression you wanted and sound good.” Abott looked at what was available but decided everything either didn’t sound good or was too hard to use.

“So, I wanted to see if I could make something that was simple but uses real instrument sounds so you can play these fiddle tunes like simple chord progressions. That’s where I started. I made a sort of a prototype, showed it to my students, and they started using it right away. And then I decided I'm going to try to make this into a publicly available product. And it was mid-2016 when it went out publicly.”

The app was widely available when the Covid pandemic forced many people to stay home, and that’s when many users discovered it. 

“I got a lot of messages from people who said they couldn’t go to their gym anymore. They were glad to have this to fill in the gap. I was happy to be able to offer it to people during that time.” 

Users love Strum Machine’s flexibility. They can make changes to create a soundtrack that works for them at that moment on their journey of learning a song or technique. They also like that they’re playing along to real music. You’re actually hearing Abbott playing the accompanying mandolin, guitar, and bass. 

“It's my guitar and mandolin. I actually borrowed a friend's bass, but I just recorded the samples. The way it works is, I record basically all the different sounds it can make and then Strum Machine stitches it together in order to recreate whatever sort of chord progression and strumming patterns you want.”

Designed as a practice aid, users have found many ways to incorporate the app into their routines. It can be used to create a backing track when beginning a recording.

“I've heard from a lot of people who do that,” Abbott says. “And some people bring Strum Machine busking, and they'll turn it on, and they'll be playing along with it. Or even some people have played dances with it where they're fiddling, and Strum Machine is the backup.”

Now Strum Machine has become Abbott’s profession and full-time occupation. That includes marketing, innovating, customer relations, and research. The tenth anniversary of Strum Machine finds Abbott releasing a major update with an eye on the future.

“It’s kind of under-the-hood work that isn't as visible but is really important to do in the long term, because now I'm thinking about the next ten years. I want Strum Machine to be strong and here for everyone for the next ten years and the ten years after that. So, I've been investing a lot of time in that infrastructure and making sure everything is well-built and ready to move forward.”

https://strummachine.com/