I was contacted by the company nSpireMe to conduct a review on a new app called "Let's Play Violin." I'd like to preface that this review is coming from the perspective of a Suzuki teacher. So the pros and cons that I go over will be from the viewpoint of that particular approach to teaching rather than, say, a teacher leading large school classes.
At first glance the app does a good job of conveying a cute, game-like quality to practicing. There's a
a monkey that gives you helpful tips and a 90 second tutorial will give you all the basics you need to know. I noticed that there was a built-in tuner so I decided to start with that. Suzuki students generally start lessons at a very young age so the parents are the ones in charge of tuning the instrument for quite some time. What I liked about the tuner was that it not only registered if the string was flat or sharp but also showed you which way to turn your tuners to fix it. This would be extremely helpful for a new parent that is still gaining confidence in the tuning process.
The tuner is just a side feature, however. The meat of this app is a play-along with sheet music feature. You select your level which, at the time of writing this review, is 0-4. I tried each level. You can select which collection of pieces you're drawing your level from. For example, level 3 as used in Suzuki would be book 3. There were other methods available as well such as Associated Board and Ševčík.
I tried playing along with Twinkle (more basic) and the Vivaldi a minor concerto (more advanced). As you play a red line moves along in the music, showing you where you are. I found this to be a bit distracting. More often than not I caught myself staring at the red line rather than the notes themselves. The line was also a bit laggy but generally did an "ok" job keeping track of where you were.
Once you conclude playing or just choose to stop (which can be done at any time), the app gives you a performance report with color-coded green, yellow and red areas. If you tap on the yellow and red sections it will tell you things like "rhythm short" or "slightly flat." There is an option to listen to the piece or even sections at regular or slowed down tempos.
From a Suzuki perspective I have mixed reactions to this app. A cornerstone of the philosophy is ear training. Students are taught sight-reading separately from playing their instrument at first (like how reading is taught separately from speaking a language). So the zero through one levels of piece options (twinkle-book one) would not be especially helpful for a four-year-old beginner. A child that age does not yet fully understand the value of symbols on a page.
So where this could be helpful is for more elementary-aged kids that have been playing for a few years. It would be useful to have an app that helps to establish early section work training. Starting in the middle of a piece is not easy! With this in mind, the app is still in need of a few updates. It could definitely use more book 3+ material, which is the level most Suzuki students are working from the book. It seems like the framework for this is already in place it just needs the actual content.
However--if elementary age is indeed the target audience--I feel the need to point out that this puts the app squarely against a huge competitor: SmartMusic. SmartMusic is well-established software that offers similar features that many schools subscribe to and use as a basis for grading. On the whole, SmartMusic is sleeker, offers more features and is more responsive than Let's Play Violin. But, it is also an expensive software suite. Let's Play Violin is a free download with some in-app purchase options (that are still not as expensive as SmartMusic).
So is there a market for this app? I would say yes with some tweaks. It's clearly targeted more at the students taking private lessons that maybe don't have access to SmartMusic. I could see it being quite useful once there is a bit more content and the bugs are a little more ironed out (like the laggy line tracker).
You can check out Let's Play Violin in the iTunes store.
At first glance the app does a good job of conveying a cute, game-like quality to practicing. There's a a monkey that gives you helpful tips and a 90 second tutorial will give you all the basics you need to know. I noticed that there was a built-in tuner so I decided to start with that. Suzuki students generally start lessons at a very young age so the parents are the ones in charge of tuning the instrument for quite some time. What I liked about the tuner was that it not only registered if the string was flat or sharp but also showed you which way to turn your tuners to fix it. This would be extremely helpful for a new parent that is still gaining confidence in the tuning process.
The tuner is just a side feature, however. The meat of this app is a play-along with sheet music feature. You select your level which, at the time of writing this review, is 0-4. I tried each level. You can select which collection of pieces you're drawing your level from. For example, level 3 as used in Suzuki would be book 3. There were other methods available as well such as Associated Board and Ševčík.
I tried playing along with Twinkle (more basic) and the Vivaldi a minor concerto (more advanced). As you play a red line moves along in the music, showing you where you are. I found this to be a bit distracting. More often than not I caught myself staring at the red line rather than the notes themselves. The line was also a bit laggy but generally did an "ok" job keeping track of where you were.
From a Suzuki perspective I have mixed reactions to this app. A cornerstone of the philosophy is ear training. Students are taught sight-reading separately from playing their instrument at first (like how reading is taught separately from speaking a language). So the zero through one levels of piece options (twinkle-book one) would not be especially helpful for a four-year-old beginner. A child that age does not yet fully understand the value of symbols on a page.
So where this could be helpful is for more elementary-aged kids that have been playing for a few years. It would be useful to have an app that helps to establish early section work training. Starting in the middle of a piece is not easy! With this in mind, the app is still in need of a few updates. It could definitely use more book 3+ material, which is the level most Suzuki students are working from the book. It seems like the framework for this is already in place it just needs the actual content.
However--if elementary age is indeed the target audience--I feel the need to point out that this puts the app squarely against a huge competitor: SmartMusic. SmartMusic is well-established software that offers similar features that many schools subscribe to and use as a basis for grading. On the whole, SmartMusic is sleeker, offers more features and is more responsive than Let's Play Violin. But, it is also an expensive software suite. Let's Play Violin is a free download with some in-app purchase options (that are still not as expensive as SmartMusic).
So is there a market for this app? I would say yes with some tweaks. It's clearly targeted more at the students taking private lessons that maybe don't have access to SmartMusic. I could see it being quite useful once there is a bit more content and the bugs are a little more ironed out (like the laggy line tracker).
You can check out Let's Play Violin in the iTunes store.
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