An "In-Two" Style

[Keith88]

This is a request I first made two years ago. Just before my New Year's Eve gig, I realized that there were a number of songs that I was requested to play that iReal Pro could not easily accommodate. These are non-swing songs in "two," meaning that, for 4/4 time, the song called for a note on the bass instrument on beats 1 and 3, and a drum hit (and guitar strum or piano chord) on beats 2 and 4. Alternatively, there may be songs that call for bass notes on beats 1, 2, 3, and 4, and drum hits and chords on the "and" after each beat. When I was young, we used to call such tunes "boom–chick" to mimic the sound. The difference between the categories is only one of notation and convenience.

There are hundreds (thousands?) of songs that have this sort of rhythm. Just a few:

• California, Here I Come
• Give My Regards To Broadway
• That's Entertainment
• Tie A Yellow Ribbon
• Sweet Gypsy Rose
• You're A Grand Old Flag
• Five Foot Two
• Hooray For Hollywood
• Anchors Aweigh
• Marine Hymn
• Stars and Stripes Forever

I appealed to the iReal Pro community in two posts: https://www.irealb.com/forums/showth...-quot-two-quot and https://www.irealb.com/forums/showth...George-M-Cohan. Two experienced iRP users, DaleMac and Jerry Engelbach each took the trouble to provide examples for me that sort of addressed the problem. However, their solutions were really not good, and Jerry's required an extensive re-edit of the original chord chart. Thus, two years later, I'm repeating this feature request.

What I'm asking for from our esteemed developers is something like this:

• For songs in 4/4 time, I would like a bass note on beats 1 and 3 (probably the root and fifth if there is only one chord in the measure) and a drum hit and chord on beats 2 and 4. If there are two chords in the measure, obviously, the bass would play roots on beats 1 and 3.
• For songs in 2/4 time, I would like bass notes on beats 1 and 2 and drum hits and chords on the "and" after each beat.

I know that there has been a major revision to iRP that has been recently released, with twelve new blues styles, addition of guitar tracks on some older styles, synch between devices, and other improvements. As a result, I'm sure the developers want a rest from their labors. However, I would like to point out that although there are now many ways to play the blues on iRP, there is no appropriate style for songs that require an "In Two" style. Thus, I'm repeating this request with the hope that such a style could be added to iRP. I hope others will support this request and that it will be implemented.