Shred Training app

[OrsusMetal]

This is exciting. I'd be great to have the calendar handy so I can keep track of what I've been doing and what I need to be working on next. I currently write it down, but sometimes my notebook doesn't make it into my guitar case and so I'm not always logging things. Having it on my phone would be extremely handy since I always have my phone with me. Plus, I really never use the calendar feature in my phone as it doesn't function the way I'd like it to.

Most likely this will help me make my decision on which new phone I'll be going for. I'm a Blackberry user currently and LOVE my Blackberry. However, no apps like this will every be available for my phone. Unless you want to include your app with the Blackberry market!

 

[Hyacinth]

I'm definitely interested and if the app is designed well and functions well, I'd be willing to spend $3.99 on it. Which is pretty expensive as far as apps go.

 

[Rypac]

Hey guys, I'm the one helping Maniacal build the app. Thanks heaps for all of your suggestions, please keep them coming.
I know that the majority of our target audience are Apple users and as Maniacal said, the app is most likely to make it's way to iOS.

I am also not a fan of app subscriptions, we want this app to be as accessible as possible. Hopefully a free version with a handful of exercises will be made available to let you try before you buy.

 

[ascl]

A few things I'd love to see:
1. Keep track of what I've practiced and at what speed
2. Suggest things (even if it is just the last set of things I practiced at a slightly higher speed -- but ideally related things) for my next lesson. This has a lot of room for growth, not only could you suggest things, you could track my practice and suggest areas that I need to improve on
3. Show my progress over time
4. Support the Apogee Jam (or whatever), and actually monitor what I am playing (ala Rocksmith or Garageband's lessons). Ok this is kind of a big one, but I would buy the shit out of something that did this

If you managed to pull off 4, it would open the door to MANY interesting lessons/mini games/practice items/whatever you want to call them.

Regarding pricing, I'd be happy to pay $5 plus a small fee for extra lessons/content. Recurring fees hold no interest to me. #4 would jack the price (way) up tho.

Hope this helps, and hope it comes to iOS soon (I'm sure you have seen the comparisons of what app developers make on an iOS app vs an android one!).

 

[tripguitar]

so i had an idea, although im sure it would require an immense amount of work... i know nothing of app developement so excuse me if this is just a silly idea but...

it would be really cool if the users of the app could submit their own exercises into some sort of community area... hopefully categorized in some fashion. then other users could rate the exercises (something like a 1 to 5 star or whatever).

i would really like that because then you'd have an ever growing library of exercises from all different types of players, and you could see by the rating whether or not other users found it helpfull. a "favorite" function here would be cool too.

maybe this could be a VIP section of the app or something? as in, if you paid $3 you dont get access to the community exercises, but if you paid $5 you get all access...

anyway... just a thought!

 

[GlxyDs]

One quick issue with the community section could be quality control. What if someone uploads 120 new exercises and they are all bad? Apple, for instance, has quite a bit of quality control in the App Store, and there is still a lot of crap.

With a lot of users and potential uploaders, it could be hard (even with 5 star ratings) to filter out some junk.

The most important thing is getting guitar players to have a structured practice. If you can pull that off in the app, it might work well. I know a lot of people are too lazy to track progress, exercises, etc. As you know, this is important.

I like the idea tripguitar had about suggesting what to work on next. You could have the users answer a couple of generic questions (10 - 20) to figure out what they want from their practice, and suggest lessons accordingly. No need suggesting sweep picking to someone who only wants to learn the basics of blues improv.

I think you are on the right track, but I believe that your website deserves more attention!

 

[Maniacal]

Thanks for the feedback. It will only be me tabbing out material, purely because there are a lot of crap/useless exercises out there and I don't want to rely on other people to write instructional material for my app.

What's wrong with my website?

 

[GlxyDs]

Maniacal,

I was referring to your upcoming website, where you will be putting up videos. Your website now is fine, it's a little bland but gets the job done. You definitely have plenty of good material (I have your books).

I can just see a lot of work going into this project and hope it pays off.

 

[Maniacal]

Cool, glad you like the books.

Doing any business of this type is a lot of work. I have devoted so much time to books, posters, downloads that I barely have time to actually play guitar.

The subscription website will probably be separate from the ST website.

I agree with you on the ST website, I am in the process of removing the stuff from the home page and adding testimonials, videos etc.

 

[SerratedSkies]

Not to discredit anyone who's made these suggestions already, as they are really good suggestions, but I'm gunna regurgitate what a few of you said


1 Suggestions would help, as mentioned above (you did this?!? how about this!!!1)
2 Community center to download user lessons/upload your own
3 Schedule/Calendar to keep up with routine/plan ahead

I also feel like if enough lessons were involved, and there was a systematic way to calculate what each user's progress is, you can treat it like a game and add a leaderboards page. Like, for example

Lesson 1 is uploaded on 12/1
Lesson 1 has 10 different speeds
John completed 1-6 in 2 days
Tom completed 1-6 in 1 day
Tom is better than John
Tom gets to be on a giant epeen list.
??
profit

PS - $3.99 or bust. Anything more will turn a lot of people away. Even $3.99 will find it's share of complaints.

 

[Maniacal]

^ Nice idea regarding the competitive element. What I will probably do instead is upload licks/etudes to the app and then host the competition via youtube video responses.

That would be far easier to arrange.

We are looking at charging $4.99 (there will be a free version too). That is insanely cheap to me, if you knew how much was on it I am sure you would agree.

I don't get why people are so reluctant to spend more than $0.00 on an app.

Can someone explain why everything has to be free nowadays? Are knowledge and experience really that worthless?

 

[GlxyDs]

People are afraid that they will spend time and money getting an app that they don't enjoy. There is a largely saturated app market these days, a lot of it is quite crap. It isn't that hard to develop an app, but it is hard to make a good one.

 

[wespaul]

^ Nice idea regarding the competitive element. What I will probably do instead is upload licks/etudes to the app and then host the competition via youtube video responses.

That would be far easier to arrange.

We are looking at charging $4.99 (there will be a free version too). That is insanely cheap to me, if you knew how much was on it I am sure you would agree.

I don't get why people are so reluctant to spend more than $0.00 on an app.

Can someone explain why everything has to be free nowadays? Are knowledge and experience really that worthless?

People are cheap. It's sad, but in this digital age, everybody expects everything to be free. Just look at the music pirate thread if you ever want a glimpse into how people think. There are actual people out there that think you shouldn't charge for music that you create. It makes me want to throw up.

I'm in the minority that has no problem paying for apps, if they're good. Just because the app market is saturated with crap, it doesn't mean that a good app shouldn't cost what it's worth. $4.99 is great price, for what you said you plan to offer. As you continue to build on your app, it's reputation will spread. It'll be known as a killer app, worth its price, but you'll always have people who think they have to have everything free.

Side note: I'm not a fan of other people uploading their exercises. I think the quality of information being offered needs to be controlled, and when you have any joe-blow uploading stuff, it'll be harder to control.

I still think it's a cool idea to have a friends list. That way if I log on, I can see that my friend Kyle worked on alternate picking exercise #10 for 5 minutes. Kyle has the same sensibilities as me, so maybe I want look at what he's working on. --You know, hypothetically speaking. Some people aren't interested in that, and that's understandable, so they wouldn't be required to create an account, or add any friends, so it wouldn't affect them.

I also have no problem paying for additional content as it's released via in-app purchases. I think that's a great way to keep the app alive, and you're still being paid for the extra content you're working on. People call it "nickel and diming," but I think that's a shitty way of saying "I want any extra work you put in the app for free." If $4.99 buys you a wealth of exercises, and they're quality, then you've already gotten your money's worth.

Sure, you can update the app with a few free exercises every so often (if you've already paid for the app itself) --that is something you can think about. If you write a complete lesson plan specifically for arpeggio practicing, then put it up for $1.99 or so.

 

[Maniacal]

The free app is almost complete, should be out in a week or so.

What are your thoughts on in app purchases?

I am thinking about selling play along lessons on the app too.

 

[protest]

I think people will pay $5 for something like that.

The fact that apps lack content worth paying for is the reason people are cheap when it comes to them. Why pay $3 for a weather app when I can get one for free. Sure the $3 one has radar or something, but I don't need that. I just need the forecast. I would not pay $5 for a singing and dancing animated hippo, but I would for guitar lessons.

One thing you need to make sure of though is that the free one is worth downloading. The free one has to have enough content, and be done well enough to make people want to purchase the additional content. You have to have enough on there to make the free version a viable stand alone app.

Also, probably the most important thing, even more so than the content, is the user interface. A clunky UI can turn people off right away. The good thing is you can get people's feedback and update things.

 

[Maniacal]

Thanks for that.

The free app will have between 20 and 30 exercises/licks.

The full app will have about 300 when it is released, but I will be updating it every week with 20-30 new exercises and licks. I should add, I have actually planned out 800 exercises, it just takes ages to write them all out. I have written 110 so far.

Plus there will be a longer "lick of the week" every week, with a link to a youtube video.

 

[GlxyDs]

The app that is "almost complete" if for Android only, correct? Can't wait to try this out for iPhone.

 

[Maniacal]

Yes correct.

But I am pretty sure it will be out on iPhone soon after the Android version is released.

 

[Maniacal]

Here is a screenshot of the UI

 

[drmosh]

Some things I would like to see (And I am going to make my own app for this sometime in the future).
Tap notes on to a fret board, which then instantly shows the same notes in all other positions on the fretboard (i.e. I tap the 5th fret low E, it shows all the other A notes on the fretboard). Good for beginners.
To further this, I would also like it to tell you which chord it is you have tapped on to the fretboard. Say I tap the 5th fret low E and 7th on the A string it tells me this is an A5.

I realise this latter bit is the trickier one, especially once you get to putting a ton of notes down.