I'm really excited about the iPad app. Imagine sitting down at a piano, putting a iPad where you would normally put sheet music, and playing away with your app auto-scrolling so the musician never has to deal with a page turn. Anyone who has ever played piano knows how amazing it would be to have that eliminated. What a great learning device that would be!
That's one of the first thing I though of when I heard about the ipad. I had figured an app for the iphone that used its mic to follow a piano piece along and "turn" the pages would have been cool but for the tiny screen. Then ipad came along.
How hard would it be to use the mic input to estimate progress through a piece and turn the pages? Of course just using timing to scroll at the right speed would be ok, but having it listen would be much cooler.
This app really does look like it is a match for the iPad.
I would consider doing this:
A) Make the iphone app free or 1$, get as many users as possible
B) Approach whoever owns rights to sheet music, music lessons, etc
C) Allow them to sell premium content through your app and you take 50% of the profits
Sheet music is truly one killer app for the iPad. I had never thought of it before seeing this app, but even if it's something as simple as scanned .PDFs of your sheet music, imagine not having to carry around backpacks full of books.
I have a lot of jazz fake books that are literally monstrous to carry around.
I like the app, and if there is indeed an iPad version, that would be fantastic. I played with it a bit this morning and posted a review. Here's the gist of what I said:
Pros:
- The music font looks really good, very clean and readable.
- The store navigation is fast and easy to use
- The music scrolling/speed controls are very handy and easy to use.
- Good initial selection of music.
Cons
- On my 3G the update after a page turn is too slow, no matter if it's continuous or turn mode. Often half the score isn't displayed yet, and it's impossible to look ahead. This made it difficult to actually play to the score at full speed. Would it be possible to do more aggressive caching/pre-rendering to make it smoother?
- You went to all the work to make a great store navigation UI, but the "My Music" UI is cover flow only. Even after downloading just a few pieces, it was clunky and slow to find anything. My Music desperately needs better navigation.
- The modal dialog that pops up in the store when done downloading is really annoying, especially because navigation is locked as its preparing to display. The download icon already has a badge to show the download status, why do I need the modal reminder? It just disrupts the flow.
Suggestions
- A very handy feature for students would be to show different colors for the different hands in the keyboard view, and show what finger should be playing the note.
- A difficulty sort in the store could be handy. Or at least a "beginner" category in the styles.
- I realize I can use the volume switch, but a mute button in the app would be nice. Especially in the iPad version where I may not be able to reach the switch.
Kudos on shipping, I look forward to what's to come. With some improvements and an iPad I could see this replacing a lot of sheet music, especially on the go. Break a leg!
A lot of people rate iPhone apps when deleting them, so I think a low price can really hurt your ratings.
If an app is too cheap a lot of people, who aren't that interested will download it. After, however, they realize they never use it, they will delete it, and while they're at it, they might give it 2 or 3 stars. I think selling your iPhone app at a higher price could be beneficial, as mostly passionate people will buy your app, who will probably give it a 5 star.
I have not released an iPhone app (yet), but this is how I think of app prices; tell me if you have other experiences.
I hope you raise the price as well, the reason being that this is a niche application. For the people it provides utility to, 4.99 or 7.99 even might well be worth it and for people that it does not provide utility to, it's not worth buying even at .99 and probably not even worth the trouble of downloading for free.
This is quite possibly the first thing I've ever seen that makes me want an iPhone. I hope you release something like it for real computers eventually.
I agree that this app would be awesome if it ran on real computers. It would be amazing if the app could track the user's progress/ability using MIDI and be able to show errors / redo problematic parts as well. More of an emphasis on learning and improving than just playing. I have been wanting something like this for a long time...
Luckily, I have a precise answer to this because I have this weird habit of tracking every minute of my time on my own projects. Here's the breakdown on Etude in hh:mm
Actual iPhone app: 210:11
Song converter: 72:52
Store (UI + server side): 82:23
Building site and designing marketing materials: 44:52
I did most of the work, but I did contract some of the graphics I had trouble with to a designer, and I've taken someone awesome on board to work with music companies and other "strategic" stuff for the future.
One thing I didnt see in your FAQ was whether you make time shifts based on time signature: 2/4, 3/4, 4/4 or tempo marking: allegro, adagio, etc.
Also - while I think the settings of .5x fast - 2x fast are user friendly I would love to see a metronome and the ability to adjust beats per minute. As someone who has done classical training and testing based on bpm I can say it makes or breaks learning a piece.
I wouldn't put this on my iPhone due to legibility, but I would absolutely put it on an iPad.
I don't have an iPhone or iPod Touch, so I can only comment based on the video on your site - but this is ridiculously awesome. The app as well as the store and website look very professional, which is a big selling point for me when I do purchase apps. If the marketing website looks sub-par, I tend to assume the app will be as well. Perhaps not a fair assumption, but it's just the way my mind works.
Being that I play the keyboard/piano a little, but can't read sheet music I have one idea: search for webpianoteacher or shawncheekeasy on YouTube and watch a lesson or two of his. He teaches piano in way that is akin to "tabs" for guitar players. This is how I learn what little bit I do know. I don't know if the audience would be big enough to spend the time adding this as an option or if it would be even be feasible, but I thought it worth a mention.
Kudos on what appears to be a job well done and best of luck with the sales. If I end up getting an iPad, I'll be looking for an iPad version without question.
Is there any way to create or upload your own songs? It looks like a very polished app, but I'd like to be able to create my own songs, or even cooler, edit songs to see what they might sound like if played differently.
Excellent job with the app. I will probably be downloading it soon.
This looks extremely impressive and elegant. I'm excited to buy the iPad version -- it's a perfect fit.
What format is the purchased music? The engraving is impressive, so my first guess is that it's some part PDF and some part MIDI information + metadata to match MIDI to PDF contents?
what restrictions have you encountered on the publishing of scores on the app. I think sheet music is more locked down then actual songs. When I used one sheet music service, it wouldn't allow me to store a digital copy of the song I wanted, I could only print it once - if my printer jammed in the process, I had to pay again. I asked the owner of the service why and he said the industry was tightly controlled. He also said he wasn't allowed to offer an unlimited download subscription for a monthly fee ala netflix etc which I suggested he should do even though he wanted to.
This gives me that really excited feeling in my gut that I get when I see something cool. I've always wanted to learn how to play piano, but I was always overwhelmed by diving right in. This is why the iPad is going to be so cool.
Do you have plans to do this for other instruments? I can see it being enormously popular for guitar tab, especially if you can add your own tabs to it.
EDIT: Additionally, I think $3 is a perfect introductory price. If you've built a large enough following, you can leverage that to increase the price (perhaps by offering updates/large additional music libraries?) at a later date.
Very nice. Great initial selection, too. I grabbed the Art of the Fugue scores, and I'll give them a shot later today. I've always had a lot of trouble with reading the score and figuring out the fingering on 3+ voices in counterpoint at the same time, and let's see if your app will help.
Minor nitpick: the composition labels are a little hard to keep organized. For example: "Fugue 1". It does say BWV 846 underneath in the store interface, but when scrolling around, it isn't entirely obvious that it's actually from the Well-Tempered Clavier, book 1.
You've made a pretty impressive looking app. What is your feedback like? What do your prospective users think of it? Without having used it, my first reaction is that I think it would be pretty annoying to try to play a piano while reading from an iPhone - constantly having to squint at a tiny screen and a nightmare of scrubbing to practice sections of the song are two specific complaints I can make right away. I'm interested to hear the reception of this app.
Dangrover: Do you plan to make this app work on both the iPhone and the iPad (in real-iPad-mode) in the future, or will the iPad app be a separate buy down the road?
[+] [-] vaporstun|16 years ago|reply
Kudos and I eagerly await the iPad version!
[+] [-] noonespecial|16 years ago|reply
How hard would it be to use the mic input to estimate progress through a piece and turn the pages? Of course just using timing to scroll at the right speed would be ok, but having it listen would be much cooler.
[+] [-] mrtron|16 years ago|reply
I would consider doing this:
A) Make the iphone app free or 1$, get as many users as possible B) Approach whoever owns rights to sheet music, music lessons, etc C) Allow them to sell premium content through your app and you take 50% of the profits
[+] [-] illumin8|16 years ago|reply
I have a lot of jazz fake books that are literally monstrous to carry around.
[+] [-] unknown|16 years ago|reply
[deleted]
[+] [-] Pistos2|16 years ago|reply
http://www.google.com/search?q=electronic+sheet+music+reader
My keyboardist/drummer friend has one such device.
[+] [-] squidbot|16 years ago|reply
Pros:
- The music font looks really good, very clean and readable.
- The store navigation is fast and easy to use
- The music scrolling/speed controls are very handy and easy to use.
- Good initial selection of music.
Cons
- On my 3G the update after a page turn is too slow, no matter if it's continuous or turn mode. Often half the score isn't displayed yet, and it's impossible to look ahead. This made it difficult to actually play to the score at full speed. Would it be possible to do more aggressive caching/pre-rendering to make it smoother?
- You went to all the work to make a great store navigation UI, but the "My Music" UI is cover flow only. Even after downloading just a few pieces, it was clunky and slow to find anything. My Music desperately needs better navigation.
- The modal dialog that pops up in the store when done downloading is really annoying, especially because navigation is locked as its preparing to display. The download icon already has a badge to show the download status, why do I need the modal reminder? It just disrupts the flow.
Suggestions
- A very handy feature for students would be to show different colors for the different hands in the keyboard view, and show what finger should be playing the note.
- A difficulty sort in the store could be handy. Or at least a "beginner" category in the styles.
- I realize I can use the volume switch, but a mute button in the app would be nice. Especially in the iPad version where I may not be able to reach the switch.
Kudos on shipping, I look forward to what's to come. With some improvements and an iPad I could see this replacing a lot of sheet music, especially on the go. Break a leg!
[+] [-] sant0sk1|16 years ago|reply
Well done! The iPad version could be a game changer...
[+] [-] tom_ilsinszki|16 years ago|reply
I have not released an iPhone app (yet), but this is how I think of app prices; tell me if you have other experiences.
[+] [-] cmgarcia|16 years ago|reply
[+] [-] seasoup|16 years ago|reply
[+] [-] ax0n|16 years ago|reply
[+] [-] madebylaw|16 years ago|reply
[+] [-] tom_ilsinszki|16 years ago|reply
[+] [-] dangrover|16 years ago|reply
Actual iPhone app: 210:11
Song converter: 72:52
Store (UI + server side): 82:23
Building site and designing marketing materials: 44:52
I did most of the work, but I did contract some of the graphics I had trouble with to a designer, and I've taken someone awesome on board to work with music companies and other "strategic" stuff for the future.
[+] [-] viggity|16 years ago|reply
Congrats!
[+] [-] darrell|16 years ago|reply
Also - while I think the settings of .5x fast - 2x fast are user friendly I would love to see a metronome and the ability to adjust beats per minute. As someone who has done classical training and testing based on bpm I can say it makes or breaks learning a piece.
I wouldn't put this on my iPhone due to legibility, but I would absolutely put it on an iPad.
[+] [-] levesque|16 years ago|reply
An ipad version would definitely be a plus. Hope you got that planned ! :)
[+] [-] david927|16 years ago|reply
But I don't own anything Apple. Is there an alternative coming, such as a web-based version? I'll pay.
[+] [-] wenbert|16 years ago|reply
[+] [-] WesleyJohnson|16 years ago|reply
Being that I play the keyboard/piano a little, but can't read sheet music I have one idea: search for webpianoteacher or shawncheekeasy on YouTube and watch a lesson or two of his. He teaches piano in way that is akin to "tabs" for guitar players. This is how I learn what little bit I do know. I don't know if the audience would be big enough to spend the time adding this as an option or if it would be even be feasible, but I thought it worth a mention.
Kudos on what appears to be a job well done and best of luck with the sales. If I end up getting an iPad, I'll be looking for an iPad version without question.
[+] [-] dkokelley|16 years ago|reply
Excellent job with the app. I will probably be downloading it soon.
[+] [-] davepeck|16 years ago|reply
What format is the purchased music? The engraving is impressive, so my first guess is that it's some part PDF and some part MIDI information + metadata to match MIDI to PDF contents?
[+] [-] dangrover|16 years ago|reply
I'm going to do a detailed technical overview on dangrover.com when I get a chance
[+] [-] armandososa|16 years ago|reply
[+] [-] Poiesis|16 years ago|reply
[+] [-] mikek|16 years ago|reply
[+] [-] covercash|16 years ago|reply
Atebits has a nice iPhone demo tutorial: http://blog.atebits.com/2009/03/not-your-average-iphone-scre...
[+] [-] dc2k08|16 years ago|reply
[+] [-] alilja|16 years ago|reply
Do you have plans to do this for other instruments? I can see it being enormously popular for guitar tab, especially if you can add your own tabs to it.
EDIT: Additionally, I think $3 is a perfect introductory price. If you've built a large enough following, you can leverage that to increase the price (perhaps by offering updates/large additional music libraries?) at a later date.
[+] [-] gcv|16 years ago|reply
Minor nitpick: the composition labels are a little hard to keep organized. For example: "Fugue 1". It does say BWV 846 underneath in the store interface, but when scrolling around, it isn't entirely obvious that it's actually from the Well-Tempered Clavier, book 1.
[+] [-] latortuga|16 years ago|reply
[+] [-] Entlin|16 years ago|reply