When Ge Wang unveiled his first virtual musical instrument for the iPhone, the Ocarina flute app, it was snapped up 2.5 million times.
The app developer and Stanford University assistant music professor realized he was onto something. He followed up with more music apps — a virtual piano, trombone and auto-tune vocalizer — selling a combined 6.3 million copies along the way.
This week, Wang’s company, Smule, releases its most ambitious app yet — the Magic Fiddle, designed to completely replicate the violin experience on the iPad.
The Magic Fiddle is “such a ridiculous use of the iPad,” says Wang, Smule’s co-founder and chief technology officer. “It’s the only app we know of that you have to hold up to your face. … It seemed so absurd, we thought it was worth a try.”
The app, which costs $2.99, has the four virtual strings of a violin. You can put your fingers on them and play the violin manually. Or you can click the Magic Fiddle “songbook,” which includes tunes such as Twinkle, Twinkle, Little Star and Ave Maria, and play along with Smule’s play-by-numbers instruction. The app also features several instructional videos.
“Our dream is to get everyone to play music without having to think too hard about it, to experience the joy of music-making without feeling inhibition,” Wang says.
Tim Bajarin, an analyst at Creative Strategies, says Smule’s apps “appeal to the musician in all of us. So many of us dabbled with an instrument in school, or they’ve watched friends play, and they have a secret desire to be good on an instrument. This really fits that need.”
When not conducting the Stanford Laptop Orchestra or the Stanford Mobile Phone Orchestra, Wang puts in a full week at Smule headquarters, just a stone’s throw from campus, often working through the night with his team…