Why Mock Band exists

The interruption I wanted to remove

When I am jamming alone on guitar and an idea starts to work, I want to stay with it. Changing the tempo, key or feel of a metronome or backing groove usually means stopping, reaching for a device, making the change and getting back into the riff.

With bandmates, I can call out a change or give a nod while keeping my hands on the instrument. I wanted a version of that control when practicing alone: a repeating rhythm section I could reshape as the idea developed.

I captured the idea in a Keep note on September 17, 2023. Choose drums, bass and guitar, repeat a groove, then give it follow-up instructions. A footswitch would activate voice listening. I named it Mock Band and sketched logo ideas on graph paper.

An adjustable band in the browser

I chose the browser after researching WebMIDI and browser music APIs. Today, Mock Band supplies drums, bass and chord accompaniment while the player supplies the riff and direction. It does not listen to a guitar and automatically follow its performance.

You can shape tempo, meter, key and feel, save ten local scenes, and recall contrasting sections. Changes can wait for the next beat or bar while playback continues. Visible controls and text work without a controller; voice and MIDI depend on browser support, permissions and compatible devices.

The product is metal-first and open to everyone. It is currently free to use without an account. Updates are optional, not a gate to playing. Scenes stay in the browser, with JSON import and export for backing up or moving settings.

The footswitch changed the interaction

During early development, I bought a Bluetooth footswitch to try the actual workflow. Its behavior was a toggle, not the hold-to-talk gesture I had assumed. That discovery went back into the requirements and led to a tap that starts listening while recognition is awaited.

Getting it usable took debugging and repeated manual testing. Recalling scenes with the footswitch was a satisfying early result. A handler passing a test was not enough to tell me whether the interaction worked with both hands on a guitar.

More implementation still needs human review

The first product effort took place during parental leave. I prompted the implementation in Cursor rather than writing it manually, and returned to the project with Codex in September 2026 as my musical and creative activity picked up toward fall.

Agents implemented changes and ran automated checks. I owned the product direction and requirements, supplied physical-device acceptance testing and kept merge approval as the gate. Some fixes caused regressions, so I required QA steps in PR descriptions and combined related changes into manageable review batches.

I have not yet used this current version for regular practice beyond QA. An original-riff jam-session reel and voluntary practice trials are next steps. The goal is recurring practice value for musicians, not simply a longer feature list.