The Personal Software Revolution
For years, if you wanted to learn jazz improvisation, you had a few options. Theory books, paid apps like Tenuto, YouTube rabbit holes. These tools aren't bad. They just weren't built for what I needed.
Jazz improvisation requires a specific kind of fluency. You need to know which notes belong to a Bb minor 7 chord, which ones color it, and recall that instantly while you're playing. Most music apps treat theory as a general subject. They're built for a broad audience, which means they're built for no one in particular.
So I built my own.
The Chord Shed is a mobile-first web app that quizzes you on jazz chord-scale relationships, plays back the actual chord so your ear and brain train together, and tracks where your weaknesses are. It does exactly what I need.
I spent my energy on what the app should do, not how to make it do it.
There's a broader idea here worth naming.
Software has always involved compromise. You find the tool closest to what you need and adapt around its edges. That's just how it worked - building custom software was expensive, slow, and required a team.
AI changes that equation. The Chord Shed took days, not months. It has no unnecessary features, no subscription, no onboarding flow designed for a user who isn't me. It's tuned to exactly one person's learning style and goals.
That's new. Not just faster software development - personal software. Tools built for an audience of one, shaped entirely around how you think and what you need.
Most people still reach for the off-the-shelf option first, and often that's fine. But for the problems that don't quite fit any existing solution, the calculus has changed. Building your own is now a real option.
I built The Chord Shed because nothing else did what I needed. If you're a jazz musician, try it out at thechordshed.truegold.tech. But the bigger point isn't about music.
Think about the tools you use every day that almost fit. The spreadsheet you've hacked into a project tracker. The app that's 80% right but missing the one thing that would make it yours. The workflow you've given up trying to automate.
We're at the start of an era where those gaps are closeable. Not by waiting for a product team to prioritize your edge case, but by building exactly what you need.
The barrier isn't gone, but it's lower than it's ever been. That's worth paying attention to.