Ever since video games like Guitar Hero and Rock Band made their
splash on the console market and allowed everyday people to feel like actual skilled
musicians, the whole idea of creating music while mimicking the motions of
playing a real instrument became increasingly popular. Many seemed to draw satisfaction
from simply following on-screen commands to trigger an instrument’s feel,
without any of the actual legwork of learning chords or reading music. One
company showcasing at this week’s TechCrunch’s Disrupt event in San Francisco
is InstruMagic, who decided to create a virtual guitar app that gives users the
ability to “play” thousands of songs in a simple and easy-to-use iPhone and
iPad application.
Watch Soulful's "ZAP Guitar" technology in action below:
“Combining Ultimate Guitar's huge database of licensed chords and lyrics with instruMagic's technology creates a compelling app for an untapped audience of guitar enthusiasts who never mastered the instrument, as well as guitar players that can take their 'songful' guitar with them anywhere," said instruMusic CEO Eyal Eldar.
As expected, a user doesn’t actually have to know how to play guitar at all in order to play the songs downloaded via the Songful app, but it does help if you already know the basic layout of a song. For instance, you’ll be able to better move your fingers in the approximate rhythm of the song and be more prepared for chord changes, but the app does all the tuning, chord changes, and note changes for you. All the user has to do is trigger them.
InstruMagic says that they’ll be launching the app at the end of this month. To learn more and get in touch with instruMagic, click here.
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Hisham Dahud is a Senior Analyst for Hypebot.com. Additionally, he is the head of Business Development for Fame House and an independent musician. Follow him on Twitter: @HishamDahud
