No problem, with nimbu, almost anyone can play keyboard without compromising the music. After all, we live in the internet age, with possibilities that didn't even exist in the early days of auto accompaniment. Usually, you already know what you want to play. For example, a specific song. So why not create an accompaniment for that exact song? The concept behind nimbu is easy to understand.

Brains over Buttons

Look at your sheet music, and the accidentals will instantly tell you that your pieces are played in keys with seven tones. The key provides the available tones. This applies to the melody, but it also applies to the accompaniment. While chord tones - and thus chords - might still suffice for a single accompaniment instrument, they definitely aren't enough for a full backing band. Especially not in rock and pop music.

That is why nimbu assigns chord scales with a minimum of seven tones to the chords you play. "Minimum," because additional notes outside the key are also possible. This packs so much more music into your chords. Even by playing the most complex chords, you wouldn't be able to access this music on a conventional arranger.

According to chord-scale theory, harmony is defined by four-voice chords (seventh chords). More complex chords make no sense at all for an arranger. However, nimbu goes one step further by also mapping three-voice chords to seventh chords and their corresponding chord scales. It seems like a contradiction. But it works. Even with single-finger mode, you’ll play like a real band.

The Benefits of Your Own Accompaniment

Playing your own accompaniments in nimbu is significantly easier. You only need to play the chords with your left hand - no rhythm required. If you prefer, you can even do it without buttons for Intro, Main, etc., using SyncStop alone. On top of that, you get the feeling of playing in a real band because the rhythm, all cues, riffs, basslines, fills, and tensions fit together perfectly. Time signature changes are executed seamlessly bar for bar, keeping you automatically on beat.

Playing like this is a whole new level of fun! 

But no pain, no gain. That applies to every instrument, and nimbu is no exception. Since your backing band plays the tensions, you have to play the correct chords, even without a melody. Just like in a real band.

When you practice with a song-specific accompaniment calculated from a MIDI file, nimbu has all the information needed to give you long-term support as you play. Inside the structured User Interface you will find many features that will help you to make progress. Here are a few examples (including the corresponding menu tabs):

Pre-listening to Melody and Accompaniment

nimbu auditions the melody and accompaniment for you in order to give you an impression of the sound, which you should memorize carefully. The goal is to reproduce this sound when playing it yourself.
To do this, you can first practice the chords and let nimbu play the melody (Play Tab  - Select Instruments, Tracks and Keyboard Areas for Playing - Track Melo 1). Conversely, you can practice the melody while nimbu takes care of the chords (Control  Tab  - Playing Chords - Play Chords from Event Track). The sound plays a decisive role. This is how you practice very efficiently.

Playing everything with single-finger mode or simplified chord fingerings

The Single-Finger I mode is very intuitive, requiring you to play the root note plus the chord type. The usual restriction to major and minor chords, including their seventh chords, is practically eliminated by the option to freely define two additional chord types, allowing you to play anything with the Single-Finger I mode.
Based on systems from various keyboard manufacturers, nimbu offers a total of 4 settings for single-finger automatic (Control Tab - Playing Chords - Chord Recognition - Single Finger I, Single Finger II, Single Finger III, Smart Chords).
However, we would advise you to start with full chords from the very beginning, as this allows you to learn the correct chord fingerings at the same time. But even here, nimbu offers the option to initially play with simplified, three-voice chord fingerings (Control Tab - Playing Chords - Chord Recognition - 3 voiced).

Setting the remaining note duration threshold below which new chords are no longer triggered

This unique setting is located in the "Control" tab within the "Playing Chords   at the end of a note" group. Since the chords of the harmony change much less frequently than the accompaniment notes, this setting very effectively suppresses both retriggering and pitch shifting, as notes that have already been triggered will no longer be transposed if their remaining duration is too short.

Practicing at a slower tempo

You can start practicing at a lower tempo, which is easy to adjust. If your accompaniment contains tempo changes - for instance, because it was derived from a MIDI file - this setting will still work, as nimbu always applies your adjusted tempo relatively to the tempo changes of the accompaniment (Play Tab - Play - Tempo BPM).

Practicing specific bars

And if you get stuck on a particular section, you can start from a specific bar to practice that part in a targeted manner (Play Tab - Play - Start at Bar).

Without standard notation

nimbu gets by completely without standard notation. All music is displayed on a timeline. In this time-synchronous view, you can literally see the progression of your music (Edit Tab - Instruments and Tracks). If the MIDI file differs from your sheet music, you can transpose the entire MIDI import until the melody notes match (MIDI Import Tab - All Tracks - +1 / -1 Semitone).

Displaying the chords to be played

And not only that - nimbu shows you on a timeline with bar divisions exactly when each chord needs to be played (Control Tab - Control via Setup - Event Track). It is best to transfer these chords onto your sheet music.

Recording played events

nimbu even records your played events in real time beneath the events to be played (Play Tab - Recording and Perform Tab - Practice). While playing, you can immediately see where your entries are too early or too late, or where you are holding notes for too long. After all, rests are also part of the music. You can also analyze this recording after your performance.

Displaying all chord fingerings

nimbu displays the fingerings of all resolved chords (Control Tab - Playing Chords - Chord Display), depending on the selected chord recognition settings. If your leadsheets only provide chord symbols, you can look them up here. Alternatively, you can play the chords or their inversions on the keyboard, and nimbu will immediately display the chord symbol on the Chord Display.

Graphical display of the keys to be played

Depending on the selected chord recognition, nimbu shows you the keys to be played during performance. This also includes the keys for the melody to be played (Perform Tab - Keyboards - Demo).

Setting and displaying the fingering

In nimbu, you can also notate which chords you want to play with which inversion to ensure your fingering works smoothly. The transitions between the chord fingerings are then displayed during playback (Perform Tab - Keyboards - Fingering). The display features three adjacent keyboards showing the previous chord, the currently played chord, and the next chord.

Displaying the playback position

nimbu displays the bars and the current position within the bar on a timeline in real time. You can view this playback position in any accompaniment instrument and in the melody track (Edit Tab - Instruments and Tracks).



Eventually, you won't need any of this anymore because you will know the song inside out. You've made it and can play completely freely, putting your whole soul into the music. What an experience, what fun!

You will quickly learn how music is structured, and over time, you will recognize the musicality and sound of a truly great accompaniment.

You and your listeners will be amazed at what you are capable of. Over time, you might even develop your own ideas or discover a passion for improvising.

Playing keyboard. The easy way.  Experience it for yourself.  Right now.  Here is our offer.


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