Show HN: Making Music Free for Education
news.fiddlewax.com
news.fiddlewax.com
My hope is to get more people making music and thinking more deeply about how notes, scales, chords, etc. are all related for creating new songs. The formality of sheet music is secondary, and naturally most people that really get into an instrument will inevitably learn how to read/write notes on a staff.
But initially, I think the formalism of sheet music gets in the way and is discouraging to lots of people who may otherwise enjoy learning to play an instrument. Getting someone to sit down and start creating a new song with any kind of depth, phrasing, or chord progression is a feat itself.
I believe that forcing sheet music to be a primary focus bogs down the initial excitement/drive. It's like teaching color theory before playing around with crayons first. :)
There are two main use cases for the app:
1. New musicians (i.e. people who haven't really played an instrument before) can jump directly into playing notes and chords in a way that far less intimidating than most physical instruments, but still build intuition around chord types, pitches, harmonies, relationships, etc.. It's a foot in the door to no longer feeling like making music is beyond you, and encourages you to play/enjoy the process. When you hit the app's limits of griddedness, that's when you take that intuition and excitement to other instruments.
2. Proficient/comfortable musicians can pick up Fiddlewax Blue to create new sounds and progressions than they would otherwise explore on their main instrument. For example, a lot of people play the guitar, but spend so much time learning a few chords that they can feel boxed in. When you have a larger palette of chords and scales, you can find new melodies and riffs, then translate those back to your main instrument.