I'm Building a Ukulele Application and need YOUR help!

Jakeylegs

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Hey there!
I'm currently studying Computer Science at A-Level in England. I have been set the task of creating my very own program. After playing the Ukulele for over a year now, I thought it would be a great idea to make a smartphone application for Ukulele players! However, I need ideas for my app, So far I've come up with:

- A Ukulele Tuner
- Chord Diagrams
- A Sound Recorder, allowing users to record their Ukulele, and share it to a platform of their choice.
- Ukulele Tips

If you have anything you'd like to see in a Ukulele application, tell me!

Thank you!
~ Jacob[/FONT]
 
Check out all the existing ukulele apps, and guitar apps that also include ukulele.
 
I would like a simple, quick tool that converts simple tabs, like this:
Screen Shot 2016-11-10 at 4.55.52 PM.png
To standard music notation.
 
Can you include different strumming patterns? That is something I struggled with as a beginner. Another idea.....can you include a way to change the key of a song?
 
I could use something that makes a note on a ukulele fretboard correspond with the same note on a piano keyboard, so people can translate from one to the other, especially if they already know one better -- in my case, piano.
 
I think there was a previous thread similar to this one. I have been thinking about this for some time, and as a specialist in the field of technology and music education, and as someone that teaches ukulele in my classes, I'm pretty well versed in what is out there.

One question is platform: what are you going to be developing for? iOS? Android? HTML 5?

I'll just add that there is currently no good HTML 5 tuner for ALL instruments. Lots of guitar stuff, but very little for band/orchestra/other instruments. With the bubble of Chromebooks on the market in education, that is a need.

As for apps on iOS, it also depends if you are talking iPad or iPhone.

Guitar Toolkit is a great source for tuning and chord fingerings for just about any string instrument, including ukulele.
Kala Brand Tuner is a great tuner, for free. Granted, I prefer a headstock tuner as you can still tune in a noisy room of 60 ukuleles (a daily occurrence for me), but if you need a tuner--it is there.

Ukeoke is available, by subscription, to play songs with--on guitar it is called "Four Chord."

iReal Pro is much like the old Band-in-a-Box where you can program (or download) accompaniments and play along with a backup group.

Music Memos is a great app for recording what you are playing and figuring out what you did...adding bass and drums. You can also export to GarageBand.

Notion is a great app for music notation, which now includes the ability to add ukulele chords to songs, even on the iPad. You can use tab or standard notation (or both). Note: DaveY, this might solve your issue.


ChordTunes can make some quick and dirty ukulele charts (not a lead sheet, like Notion, but a fake-book like chart)

Tabs HD can show tablature from their accompanying website.

Futulele can be used by students with physical disabilties to play along with fellow students if they cannot actually play a ukulele.

forScore and unrealBook can be used to display PDFs that you purchase or create of your own song books.

iBooks and Kindle have many of the Hal Leonard ukulele library available for purchase, including the Daily 365

The Hal Leonard Ukulele Method (I believe Lil' Rev is the teacher in that series) is available as an app.

Stave n' Tabs can also be used to create ukulele tabs.

So...in reflection, there are a lot of ukulele resources available.

What could be of assistance is an app that shows all of the possible fingerings for a chord (on one page on an iPad) as well as chords in the function of a key (e.g. Standard chords flowing to the tonic chord, including common secondary dominants and borrowed chords).
 
Here's something I wish I had. Could be difficult IDK. Could be done already but haven't searched. I love to make my own tunes but HATE to make tab! Plus I'd love to share tunes/chorded melodies I've figured out. If only there were an app that would listen to my playing and make a tab of it. Ahh, heaven :) Good luck with whatever you endeavor to do!
 
Here are couple things that I would find useful in an app:
1) The Circle of Fifths / An easy way to transpose chords to play in a different key
2) A way to identify the key in which a song was written
 
Ukulele Chord Cracker Pro gives you chord shapes for ukulele in standard tuning or you can set up your own tuning. It displays a range of versions of the chord, though it occasionally misses some obvious ones if you go away from standard tuning. It will also name a chord if you tap on the fret positions for each string.

It's available for iOS and Android. I have it on both.
 
How about a routine that takes a conventionally-presented melody (previously converted to a ukulele-friendly key, if necessary) and converts it to a tab that incorporates intelligent use of the re-entrant tuning, a basic campanella-style, for want of a better term?

Just trying to think of something that'll be ukulele-specific rather than the more generic tuner/chords/recorder functions, unfortunately this may require at least a basic capability in fingerstyle playing so's you can self-assess the results :confused:

Good luck :)

Afterthought:

You may not be aware of the music programming/notation system called ABC, http://abc.sourceforge.net/ which may be of use to you in your project :)
 
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