I'm creating a mobile app to help people learn gregorian chant with a Guitar Hero-like visualisation and real-time feedback, no need to learn neumes or theory (but there are some theory lessons for people interested in that). I already consulted the content with a professional cantor and released few beta versions. Now I'm bringing it to a wider audience.
How do you like the idea? How do you like the execution? What could be changed or improved? What kind of exercises should be added? Do you find theory lessons clear and easy to understand?
This app is targeted to people that have no musical training and just want to sing in tune chants at the Latin Mass. But if you can see a potential to make it useful for cantors or scholas, I'm open to suggestions in that front as well.
This is not a comprehensive comment, but at a glance, this is a neat idea. Potentially enabling choristers to SEE that they're flat/sharp/etc. while practicing is useful. If it were to include the entire cycle of propers, all the better.
I spent a few minutes on it. Interesting idea and appealing visuals, room for improvement, but considerable built-in limitations.
I think on the pitch-matching exercises and others the app should briefly sound the starting note at first, before the bar hits the line, so that users are at least in the ballpark and not scrambling to find the pitch after the exercise has started.
The major annoyance I had was in the Puer Natus exercise. The words are sideways on the bars (I turned my phone to read them, which is fine), but then the pitch height is inverted with respect to the text's orientation. Very confusing and resulted in me flubbing an antiphon I could otherwise sing from memory. Either the text or the pitch height presentation needs to be flipped around.
I think as a limited component of beginner training, or for a bit of fun, it could be neat. One would want to move on from it though because the singing style it reinforces is (necessarily) quite mechanical and anti-rhetorical, and it does nothing to teach interpretation or sight singing of square notation. If I were you I would not make this a big project, since the learning application is limited.
Regarding text orientation - it should flip to horizontal mode so the low notes are on the bottom. Do you have screen orientation locked maybe? I'll be experimenting with other ways to present text as well.
Square notation might be a feature I'll add in the future depending on how popular the app gets.
I really do like the idea of a way of learning to sing chant with instant feedback. Being able to instantly see when I’m sharp or flat is a very useful tool, and also could reveal bad habits - sometimes I have a tendency of sliding up to the first note, for example.
Having just had a sing, I came here to make the exact same comment as @Chant_Supremacist, would really love a starting pitch. I would go one further and ask that the pitch be movable. Selecting a pitch might sort of defeat the purpose of the beginner friendly, but perhaps a ‘low key’ option? I know quite a few people who’ve never sung before who want to start, struggle to hit a C.
It is good fun and could be very useful for a beginner. I would agree that a scrolling option with square notation would be really good. The cycle of propers would be nice, perhaps Sunday Vespers/Compline too?
With the movable pitch - this is planned and the idea is this: when the 'pitch adjustment' is toggled on, the piece is transposed so that the dominant falls in the center of the vocal range (that was measured during the onboarding or later).
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