Hey guys, I'm learning to make iPhone/iPad apps for school. To practice what I've learned, I figured I'd make something harmonica related, probably akin to the scale finder on overblow.com, and perhaps some additional utilities that would be useful to someone, perhaps at a gig, who might need an app to do... something... Case and point, other than a scale/position finder, I can't imagine what else an app like this would have... maybe a tuner? What are your ideas? Of course when I finish it, anyone who wants it could have it for free.
yeah, i was thinking something of that nature. Perhaps improving on the initial idea. Someone on some forum or youtube video once denounced using the bendometer because it is a visual analog for something that should be learned by ear, so maybe I'll have each of the notes play, in tune, upon touching them on the screen.
Newbie player here but a big fan of iPhone, iPad apps for Guitar. I'm sure there are ways of doing this by ear, but I'd love to see an app for figuring out the key of a song being broadcast for purposes of harp practice. Sort of a program like Shazaam.
That's a good idea. A really good idea actually. I was trying to tab out some punk guitar riffs just a few minutes ago, and I couldn't even figure out the key because it was moving so fast. An app to do it would be fantastic.
How about an app called the BlueThirdOmeter? You could input the key of harp: let's say key of F, so you're playing in C. (Let's assume that the app is strictly for cross harp.) Then you'd try to play the blue third on the 3 draw--which is to say, a pitch that sits somewhere between the Eb and a quarter-tone above the Eb. I.e., somewhere between a half-step bend and a quarter-step bend off the 3 draw (or major 3rd).
When you hit that note, or that pitch range, the blue light comes on. If it flickers on and then flickers off, you've moved outside that range. The point would be to sustain that pitch--AND to get some kind of slow, incremental movement WITHIN the pitch range, without leaving the pitch range.
I'd keep it simple. Forget about other positions for the time being.
There's another blue third that lies in the quarter tone-range just above the major second: i.e., between the major second (or major ninth) and a quarter-tone above the major second. You could have a switch that would reset the device to blink for that note (or, more accurately, that pitch range.) Actually, the entire half-step between the flat third and the major second can be part of this range, as long as you're getting DOWNWARD pitch-movement off the higher note. But this blue third and the higher one (described two paragraphs above) are entirely distinct. The mistake that many players make is not realizing this and thus beginning the "high" blue third from down around the major second. Big mistake. Sounds terrible. Kills off blues tonality.
The point of the app would be two-fold: to help you find the blue third on a given key harp, but also to help you find it as you switch BETWEEN harp keys, since producing the note (or pitch range) on higher and lower harps takes a slightly different arrangement of your mouth and tongue muscles for each key.
Last Edited by on Jul 20, 2010 5:13 AM
What I would like ,is an app( but not for Iphone , for android)that can take a midi file ( for example just the guitar solo of a blues song ) and transform that in harp tab, if you are able to change positions ( 2nd , 3rd , 12th) would be even better.
I while back I downloaded the app that jim made. It has a vinyl record on it that spins and you can manipulate an mp3 like a DJ... fast fwd or rewind like a turntable (no scratch sound). It also has a loop function where you can set a start and stop position on the fly. We use it a lot at band practice especially when there is a section we need to hear a few times to learn. Highly useful... Jim is this app available for Android? I want it!
Shoot Jon, if you ever scratch up something like what K runner described please let us know right away. I would buy one right now. In this case you would need to lay out a set of comprehensive and explicit instructions which don't assume a high level of expertise or tech acumen on the part of the user (please).
Just as an aside, and not wanting to deflect the thread, don't trumpet players have a similar set of needs as far as having to hit the right note by ear? Don't they use their embouchure to produce pitches in tune? I only ask because I have been wondering if a trumpet student has to grapple with the same problems that we have as that relates to getting our bent notes to correct intonation.
Peterson, the company that makes strobe tuners, already has a strobe tuner app for an Iphone, tho it is mainly aimed at guitar players and is only set up for tuning in Equal Temperament. I wouldn't mind seeing one that's set up for doing just intonation and comprimise tunings for harmonicas. I wouldn't be surprised to see something like these already out for both I-phone as well as Android in the next couple of years. ---------- Sincerely, Barbeque Bob Maglinte Boston, MA http://www.barbequebob.com CD available at http://www.cdbaby.com/cd/bbmaglinte
I've designed Jukemaster as a music learning tool... And I use it myself a lot.
I also use Peterson iStrobosoft EXTENSIVELY. It can tune the harp any way you need provided you can hear the intervals right. It is one of the best professional apps for iphone.
How bout the Jim's harp-o-matic iphone app ? It's a great online tool. Jim -thank you for both the Jukemaster and the harpomatic. Wonderful gifts to the harp an musician communities.
I'm sure there are already great resources out there, but I'm making my own more for practice than anything. As it turns out, working with sound input is harder than I thought. Jim, it seems like you have experience with these things, have you used the mic as sound input to be processed in ObjC? (I know that question really left the realm of harmonica topics)
jonlaing, I'm not a programmer (harpomatic's javascript is the best I can do :) With the jukemaster, I did the concept, design, and everything except coding.
wow! fantsatic..this may not be relevant, can this be used 4 changing pitch, if all you have in your hand is an A harp...? or.. hook up to your car stereo? remotely?...from the moon?
@Mojokane: Actually, when it's finished, you can just sit your harp on the phone and it will play the harp for you. No longer will you have to choose between playing and drinking.
Intonation trainer for the harp is something that I've had on my mind - kind of like the bendometer, but OSS code that could be further developed and loaded for free by anyone. Then it would eventually have more features that are seen valuable. I'd make it for Symbian and Android too..
Actually I use with my laptop currently the strobe tuner that can be found here to check the intonation: http://www.katsurashareware.com/strobe/strobe.html (Too bad you can't calibrate it by cents, just by Hz's..)
But it would be more convenient to have that in your phone. I have Symbian phone and I'm not aware of any good tuner for it..
@apskarp --- The Peterson Strobosoft is far better for computers than that one plus you can program it to do any kind of tuning from 7 or 19LJI, ET or anything else, and it's from THE most accurate strobe tuner maker, hands down. ---------- Sincerely, Barbeque Bob Maglinte Boston, MA http://www.barbequebob.com CD available at http://www.cdbaby.com/cd/bbmaglinte
@Bob: I know. But this one you can use for free for 3 months - after that it would probably be wiser to pay 50$ for Peterson tuner instead of 15$ for this one. BUT Strobosoft doesn't seem to support Mac OS 10.6 which I use so there's the problem..
Right, well I never tried 10.5 as I bought my first Mac with 10.6. It's amazing how slowly applications seem to be compliant with new versions of Mac OS. Apparently they don't care for the minority (Mac) users so much...
it's not that THEY don't care - it's apple who don't care. Everything should be backwards-compatible, especially with such a minor upgrade as 10.5->10.6! ---------- www.truechromatic.com
Last Edited by on Jul 25, 2010 4:25 AM
Yes, I understand. I actually work is SW business so I completely understand what this is all about. Apple doesn't worry about SW compatibility which helps it to develop relatively bug free new code, but it f*cks up all the API's for 3rd party developers. And it seems that Apple doesn't co-operate with 3rd parties very effectively either. And 3rd party developers can't either put their efforts on trying to cope with the changes or then the changes are so big that it takes time to do it. In either case, I as an Mac OS user am f*cked. And that's a shame as most musicians are Mac users for good reasons. Although I don't know how good reasons those are anymore as nothing works with it anymore..
I've considered that, as I have the 10.5 on CD too. But I'm afraid I'll lose all my settings and apps I have downloaded during these months using 10.6... :(
Yeah, I just upgraded, because the new iPhone OS doesn't work on 10.5... in fact it doesn't even work on 10.6. I had to upgrade again to 10.6.2! Of course this screwed my font management software that organizes some 30,000 fonts on my computer. You can imagine how frustrating it is when you're a freelance designer, and you can't access any of your fonts.
I don't see any point in updating to iOS4.0 either! I have full multitasking with OS 3.1.3 (full, not the castrated half-working ios4.0 multitask...). ---------- www.truechromatic.com
Ok, thank's Jim. I think I'll try that out. As a new Mac user (used to be PC user since the high-school) I'm not very impressed about this whole thing. I might move to boot-camp windows or something...
@Chicken thief (sorry for delay, just back from holiday)
Brass players do use the lips to change notes but not through a sliding scale, the notes jump (something to do with the harmonics of the tubing) and you can't play every note on one valve (the valves alter the length of tube) hence bugle calls have a limited number of notes as not all notes are possible on a fixed length of tubing.
OK, yeah that's fascinating. I just started to get real curious after spending so much time trying to get a handle on the 2 and 3 bend intonations. I vaguely recall a teacher telling me a long time ago about how like a bugle, a lot of the old stuff didn't even have valves and the guys in the orchestra had to somehow catch all the right notes with their embouchoure or whatever. Sounds tricky.
But sorry, don't let me derail the thread. Back to harps and I phone aps.
