On Wednesday night Music Sales Digital Department hosted their very first app showcase in central London, featuring a special surprise performance by Kiki Dee.
To a room full of industry professionals and journalists that included Johnnie Walker from Radio 2, Yamaha, Apple, PRS for Music and Clash Magazine amongst others, Marcus Wise, Managing Director of musicroom, presented an evening of live performances and demoed key music apps currently available from musicroom.
Freestyle enables users to write and record their rhymes and beats anytime, anywhere – whenever inspiration hits.
Singer songwriter, Miles Winter Roberts took to the showcase stage, guitar in hand, to demonstrate the app’s potential for musicians looking to get creative with their iPhones.
Using Freestyle’s built-in beat library and integrated notepad and recorder, Miles blended his vocals, guitar playing and the app’s breakbeats for an infectious mash up track that he’d prepared especially for the night’s performance.
With 150,000 downloads already to date, maybe it’s time for you to get creative and experiment with Freestyle and other digital apps that could augment your playing?
For guitarists looking to play songs from their favorite artists, there are a range of apps available through musicroom that give players the tabs, chords and music they need to play from the convenience of an iPad.
As the exclusive European publishers for The Beatles’ catalogue, Music Sales created Play Along With The Beatles to allow players to take the hits of the fab four with them on their iPad.
Renowned session guitarist and musicroom friend, Arthur Dick, demonstrated the app with a performance of the classic Beatles hit, I Saw Her Standing There. The on-screen notation and backing tracks not only displayed the music, but allowed Arthur to feel the groove of the track and his place within the arrangement.
The added experience of using the app enables guitarists to understand how their playing relates to the song for a more authentic sound, and similar apps are available that offer a wide array of artists and albums such as the Pocket Guitar Songbook.
Headlining the night, surprise performer Kiki Dee joined pianist Jonas Persson to perform a couple of songs with the NoteStar app, developed in partnership with Yamaha.
With NoteStar, Jonas could control the backing track, accompaniment and tempo, as well as having the option to transpose the piece and loop sections if he’d needed to, and the iPad fit perfectly on the grand piano’s music shelf.
Check out our blog on NoteStar for more details on the app and a demo video of it in action.
Kiki Dee closed the showcase with a rendition of her 1974 hit, I’ve Got the Music in Me, and Arthur on guitar.
You can check out pictures from the night below and visit our app page at Musicroom.com.
Do you use apps to create or play music? What are your favorite musical apps? Have you created any tracks on Freestyle? Share them with us in the comment box below!