We produce and publish as musicians; the technology is second to the music!
We are absolutely not detracting from the value of music lessons…we encourage teachers to use our apps and experience for themselves the way our apps motivate and help practice.!
The primary intention of the apps is to motivate and enable students to practise between lessons. whatever age level of ability.
Our apps provide the music notation, a beat counter and control over practice speeds, as well as the ability to repeat bars or sections.
We welcome and invite suggestions for new music to include.
Here are our current apps : https://itunes.apple.com/gb/developer/eto-music-practice-ltd/id624151291
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Helping Hearing Impaired to Practise a Musical Instrument
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Eto music practice ltd is a small private producer and publisher of music practice apps based in Llandysul, Ceredigion, Wales. The apps are used in some 35 countries and our school choir apps have been used by some 3,000 schools in England and up to 150,000 school children.
Helping hearing impaired with music practice
I was thrilled when my colleague Robert Winter copied me into an email thread about a news piece he had watched on ITV Wales News.
It concerned a young lady of 16 who played the clarinet…very well. Amazingly well considering she is profoundly deaf.
She expanded in her interview how she hears/ senses the music she plays through her fingers and vibrations and a link to her hearing support.
I immediately felt a sense of almost guilt at the time….when younger…I avoided practising my trumpet!
The outcome was/ is that Robert has written to an organisation called Fixers who help Poppy and others in similar circumstances. He offered Poppy an opportunity to choose..if she wanted…our eto Music Practice Apps to work with and to see if they help or aid and have advantages over sheet music. The audio on each app is correct for all music notation, whatever the instrument, will certainly help students to understand the hearing and feeling of the ‘correct’ notes as well as learn to read music notation.
We also produce a range of practise/ rehearsal school choir songs, and our belief is that these will considerably help those hearing impaired children singing with their school choir.
From what I understand, and I am hoping, is that our Apps on iPad or iPhone, with full audio, synced to the Beat Counter above the music notation, can be ‘plugged’ into a variety of different hearing devices and would indeed enhance Poppy’s practice sessions. The app functionality also allows students to have control over their practise tempi/ speed. This allows the student to learn at their own pace up to performance tempi and repeat any bars, as they wish, in order to practise. We also believe our music player could be developed and we are open to ideas and suggestions?
We hope that the eto music player has a key advantage as it also provides audio and accompaniments, unlike sheet music. This obviously has some enourmous advantages for the hearing impaired. We at least hope it adds a little extra help!
If it does indeed help, we at eto will be thrilled and would certainly love to work with others in this field, so please, just let us know on the contact form below.
We don’t know yet how well this will work and how many benefits this will offer…let’s wait and see…fingers crossed….(but not when you are practising:) !
Eto music practice apps: https://itunes.apple.com/gb/developer/eto-music-practice-ltd/id624151291
Poppy’s story : http://www.fixers.org.uk/news/15784-11226/deaf-stereotypes.php
Apps for hearing impaired and deaf young people: http://www.ndcs.org.uk/family_support/technology_and_products/apps_for_deaf_young_people/apps_for_deaf_young_people/index.html
Direct Links to the App Store and Google Play:
Available as an App for iPhone and iPad.
Available as an App for Android Phones and Tablets.
This is so ‘singable’.
Perhaps a silly simplistic description but it really is a joy to perform this composition and arrangement by Donna Mawrick O’Brien..
For those lucky enough to be taking part in the August 18th One Big Voice concert at Perth, Australia, this App will help you learn your parts…….and I’m sure Donna, your Music Director will help you learn the parts the way she wants them to sound.
BUT..this song/ arrangement although the ‘anthem’ for the One Big Voice event, is suitable to be performed by all and any young people’s choir wherever you are!
After a full Band Introduction the first Chorus is sung in Unison:
This is followed by Verse 1 where the choir splits into two parts.
Part 2 ‘answers’ Part 1. You can easily alter the volume balance of the individual Parts and Band by using the faders provided.
The song continues in this way with Part 2 answering Part 1 through Verse 2 and a third Chorus..ending with a Unison 3rd Chorus.
Therefore you can choose which Part to sing; Choose which section you want to rehearse and be confident that whenever you have a full rehearsal you will know your part and confidently really enjoy yourself.
For those who haven’t got a choir within easy reach you can still enjoy practising with this App….
Direct Links to the App Store and Google Play: Available as an App for iPhone and iPad.
Available as an App for Android Phones and Tablets.
There is a link to a pdf of a score of the song within the App.
We all know that there are some quite unique and brilliant music archives all across the globe, covering every genre and age of music. Some are very large National Collections and some private smaller archives, preserving their music for future generations. They give us the music that we listen to and enjoy and tell us even more about the composers and performers that we admire.
My concern here is that many of these great pieces of work never get to see the light of day. Perhaps more importantly, many are not known to us, the music fans, performers and teachers.
Often these pieces of gold are just simply residing on printed music sheets, resting on the shelves waiting to be discovered.
To hear and inspire….
For most of us, the hearing of a piece of music can inspire. Maybe this leads us on to learn to play the piece, or perform, or simply listen and enjoy and then seek out further works by the same composer or artist.
There are for me two worrying facets to such archives simply residing on archive shelves. If it has previously been performed it may not be by an artist or orchestra that we are aware of, or knew had recorded the piece. Secondly, If it has not been performed and recorded recently, it may only exist on sheet music. It may take a long time to be heard and performed again, or even lost to the contemporary world swamped by what’s popular and what is not.
eto Music Practice Ltd fully understands the need for protection and preservation of composers and publishers rights. But we also understand the need to make all music, not just great music accessible to all, and in many cases, to an all NEW audience!
Copyright protection…
Our music player has unique properties. Yes it shows the music notation and arrangements in full. However this music notation cannot be downloaded or copied. ( so NO photocopying of the sheet Músic!)
Our unique beat counter and facility to listen to the different parts in any arrangement as well as hear and see the music at various practice tempi, simply brings the music alive. This encourages music practise, performance practise and rehearsal or even simply enjoy playing along at home.
The eto music player has been designed to operate as a desktop player, for apps on iTunes and as android Google apps and for tablets and phones, not just PC’s.
There is an easy option here that the sheet music, traditionally sold by most publishers can be included in the app, or not included, but added as an additional in-app purchase. The customer benefits from having the eto player play the music that they can hear and practise to, at their own learning tempi, as well as provide all parts and fully bring alive the sheet music.
For the school, workshop and at home….
The eto music player can be used on whiteboards in school, or in a music workshop or at an orchestra rehearsal. The music can be practised on tablet or phone or PC so the next rehearsal is indeed just that, not just hearing all the players learning their part in rehearsal, which can waste time for everyone.
If the thought of having your valuable music published on apps and globally available makes you shudder, then think of two aspects.
Firstly the eto music player makes the music much more widely accessible and available globally. Secondly, the use of the music can be much more strictly controlled to single users. Indeed, with the new limited online music licence now available from PRS/MCPS eto can provide a music player for you which can only be accessed by single user subscriptions. This means globally available via your website, but all rights protected and all music protected by the eto music player. So much more secure than sheet music! ( although as we said, this can be added in, or as an extra purchase, so no loss of income for sheet music sales !)
We are happy to advise and provide guidance on the management and control of your copyright content and how we can make this accessible to a new global audience.
Alongside the production and publishing of the music content, all in-house, in all formats, we also provide global marketing and PR for the music to ensure you reach a global audience. It is in both of our interests to see your music widely heard and used!
