

Show HN: A virtual guitar teacher (after 18 months of dev) - b1ake
http://getinstinct.com

======
b1ake
Hi everyone, this is v1 of an app we've been working on for a really long
time. It uses pitch detection and note-by-note feedback to guide beginners
through their first songs on the guitar.

Everything's homemade, including the pitch detection and the animated guitar
teacher. We decided to go web-first (which was definitely out of style when we
started) and built everything in JS (Backbone/Node/Couch).

Today we finally launched, would love any feedback people have.

------
pan69
Can you please show me what it is and does without me having to sign up? At
least, explain what it is on the About rather than talking about your dream
and effort.

~~~
ScottWhigham
This seems awesome to me as well but I don't want to sign up without learning
more. Who are the teachers? How does it work? Does it cost anything? etc.

Really cool concept, I think.

~~~
b1ake
Actually there are no human teachers, the lessons are interactive and
automated much like Codecademy. You're shown a few notes at a time and then as
you play, the software detects each note and gives you feedback. There's also
a virtual guitar mode so you can try it out without a guitar (it does require
a signup though, at least for now).

~~~
ScottWhigham
That's good info - you need to have a "How it works" page rather than ask for
the details before you share that. I love the idea though!

------
kaahne
This is awesome ! I tried my hand at some chord recognition a few days ago :
<https://github.com/jcaille/Chords>. I only compare chords to fingerprints I
recorded, and do not extract pitch or anything. I'm looking for feedback or
pointers on how to go further (mainly, discarding the fingerprints altogether)

Have you considered teaching chords and such ? Another cool feature would be
to let people enter their own songs, or connect with a tab API to expand the
library.

~~~
b1ake
Just browsed through your code, very cool! We're working on chord recognition
as we speak and went down a similar road in the beginning. Would love to chat
more about this, shoot me an email (blake at getinstinct).

------
shimsham
Hi

Who is your audience? It's not that clear from my first visits.

~~~
b1ake
Right, good question. We're focused on beginners, especially people who have
never touched a guitar. The goal is to get them playing recognizable songs
within the first few minutes. To that end, we want the experience to be as
friendly and patient as possible.

~~~
shimsham
ok. that wasn't obvious from my initial sign-up and look around, from my
mobile. I'm a big fan of cartoon-style graphics but not at the expense of
clarity and focus. I'm not really your target audience; I play piano, however
my brother and father are definitely in your group. so, I could really use
more information to help me decide if this could be for me. what do I need?
why the wide-open space, sky and clouds? is my choice of avatar important?
wasn't avatar an expensive movie? is this free? (hope this isn't too negative
but I presume u would prefer constructive comments rather than 'awesome
graphics' statements. we know they're awesome but that don't get u signups
converting to payments.)

~~~
b1ake
Yeah I'm with you. We've had trouble conveying the experience in words. Once
people try it, they get it, and that suggests that we need to reduce the
friction in trying it.

Some answers to your specific questions - Yes it's free, and all you need is a
guitar (any acoustic or electric is fine) and a computer that has a microphone
built in. There's no special cables or microphone required.

~~~
shimsham
Thanks for the replies, I'll give it a roll and let u know how it goes.

------
joezhou
WOW. I play guitar, and I love this concept!

------
pyroMax
Hmm... No love for bald folk?

~~~
bjennelle
Ha maybe we need to make more avatars. ;)

