Gibson: Guitar lessons & songs - Interview with the developer of a fantastic app

Did you have any prior development or coding experience?

Yes, around 25 years.

What was the most challenging aspect of developing mobile app?

The technology around the gameplay - detecting that the user’s notes and have been played correctly or not.

_{ZOUNDIO AB.}

Zoundio is a music tech team consisting of musicians, developers and creatives. Their focus is to enable music creation and learning through technology in an inspiring, educational and interactive way. They run their own portfolio of products, or team up with partners to co-create. They are based in Stockholm, Sweden.

Name a few of your favorite apps and reason you love them.

• Duolinguo: They have been able to make it very addictive by adding some clever and subtle game modes with rewards, challenges and leaderboards.
• Spotify: After years of struggling with the format of this app they have found a clear structure to show and manage a huge database of songs in a very easy way.

How long have you been working on this app?

Two years.

What need of the user did you have in mind when developing this app?

For someone who wants to learn guitar the conventional ways it can be very hard at the beginning. It takes a lot of time and energy, it can be very expensive, and the progress is slow. It’s hard to stay motivated and a lot of people just give up. With this app the user can learn in a very engaging and fun way and at his/her own pace. App users will have a gamified experience, collecting stars and points while learning. There is a full learning curriculum with songs, guides, lessons and more developed by professional guitarists. Everything necessary is included to understand, practice and finally learn the guitar techniques, you can progress step by step but also you can search and play your favourite songs based on your skills and the genres of your choice.

In what way do you think your app is better than similar apps on the market? Please describe in detail what innovation you think you bring and what you are proud of in your app.

The notes and chords detection technology is better and more advanced – giving users more accurate feedback. And the videos, guides and techniques to learn guitar are very well elaborated. We’re still quite new on the market and while competitors spend a lot of effort on marketing to keep their users, we are still investing heavily in quality improvements and innovation, making it a better app.

What are your future plans and expected features of the coming new versions of this app?

On the tech side, we’re doing a lot of tweaking, e.g. around our no headphones-mode. On the content side, we’re adding a lot of new courses, songs and guides. We’re also introducing a more gamified experience in a couple of months.

Assuming new users of your app are reading this page. What do you want to ask them to do (contact you about X, Share the app, etc.)?

If you like the app, please spread the word and give us good ratings / reviews.

And we also love getting opinions and constructive feedback on what we could improve. Our roadmap is to a large extent built on ideas and feedback from our users. So please send us and email and share your experiences – good and bad.