Robin Connolly; Alice Pearson; Theo

Mordaunt; Chloe Stevens; Grace Isaac

Our Core Question:

How can someone write music independently in a free, easy way

and receive advice when necessary?

The specific problems encountered are:

Many teenagers today are interested in writing their own songs

and music but have problems like these…

• Music lessons are expensive, and so are many music writing

programs

• Writing music by hand is not only difficult, but paper sheets are

very easily lost

• A user would very rarely lose a device, as they are valuable and

serve many other important purposes

• They cannot share successful pieces easily with others

How Musichord Addresses These Issues:

We, as Team Appiphany, are developing a tablet-based app

to aid teenagers in writing and composing music independently.

Our app achieves this by suggesting chord progressions and

providing help with other key parts of music writing as well as

giving them the ability to create a score which they can then save

and share with others.

The 5 W’sWho? Those aged between 13 and 19 who have a basic

understanding of music, and their instruments (guitar and/or

piano).

What? Being able to learn and independently compose music. The

app would give advice on Chord Progressions, Rhyme

Schemes, Playing the Chords on your instrument, and have

the ability to record, save and share your creations

When?/Where? The app would be able to be used whenever, or wherever the

user desires. The ability to share your creations, however,

would need a connection to wifi.

Why? Learning to write, read and play music can be very

expensive. This app would not only allow the user to create a

full musical creation, it would also teach them how to play it.

We Set Up an Online Survey

From this, we discovered that…

• 50% of the people who took part said they would love to

have the app and would definitely use it

• All of those who took part said that they do not already have

an app that suits all their needs

• The majority of the respondents said the area they need most help on is the chord progressions and notation

Key Insights: Problem

• Our surveys showed that people who have problems writing

music currently try searching the internet or buying an app -

but this solution does not always fix their problems

• We found this is often because apps are not targeted at

those who both need to learn and those who already have

more extensive knowledge (usually just aimed at one)

Key Insights: Solution

• Our research showed that people want a tidy app which

has clear instructions and advice on how to write music

• We have really focused on simplicity and layout for our app because of the issues this research has raised

• Many of our team members have run into similar issues

when trying out new music apps and we believe this

gives us a huge advantage over apps that are on the

market today

Other Solutions Available:

• On the (Apple) app store there are very few apps which aim

to aid novices with music writing in a professional style

• After looking through the most relevant apps, most of them

are hard to navigate and difficult to use

• The ratings and reviews of these apps show that their

application was not as effective as users hoped it would be.

• ‘NJ611’ says “It is stupid, do not download or you will regret

it!’” about ‘Mogul Song Writing’

Our User Stories:

• As a user, I want to be able to understand chord progressions so that I can write extracts of music

• As a seller, I want to make a profit on our app• As a student, I would like to be able to learn music theory, chord

progressions and how to write a melody.• As a student I would like to be able to use notations to compose

a piece of music• As a student I would like to know how to write lyrics

Our Core Feature:

We’ve decided that our core feature is the ability to be able to

write music easily and to be able to share it with others that

have also been composing

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Currently in ‘Play Mode’

This is the tutorial page which is in ‘Write Mode’

User selects features and is given a choice of chord schemes to fit their criteria.

Feasibility

• Although our app has the potential to function effectively, we

don’t feel confident fully producing it ourselves as some of the

features are complex

• What we are confident about, is that Musichord would have

huge potential if released into the market due to its easy-to-

use layout and original concept- only needing (for a basic

model) a microphone, speakers and [ideally] a tablet sized screen

Business Model

• As a group, we have decided on the 'partially paid' models we

feel this will encourage users to download and use the app

without missing out on complex features for a small fee

• With this model, users will be able to download the basic

features for free, but have the options to purchase the more

advanced features (a wider variety of chord scheme

suggestions, be able to change clef or transpose etc) for around 69p per feature

• We have decided that our app will be free • However, if the user desires our more advanced features (such as

transposing the piece or finding a wider range of chords) a charge of roughly 69p will be assigned to individual features

• This gives users the opportunity to only pay for what they would like from the app therefore making it easier to both use and afford

• We already have a twitter account which is helping us get our name recognised amongst both expert and potential customers

• Future plans for the app may be to embed a social networking platform (Twitter) into the application for easy sharing

Marketing Strategy

• “It’s been a long few months considering app ideas, now finally we are here,

presenting it. It has been a very fun few months, and I will never forget them!”

Theo

• “Although my main role was programmer, I have loved dipping my toes into other

roles. Fingers crossed for our entry and success to follow” Alice

• “Although stressful at times, Apps for Good has been a really good experience for

me. I had no idea how many processes go into the ideas behind the apps I use

everyday.” Robin

• “Apps for Good was a really good, fun experience for me. I tried my hand at many

different things, and did some that I never thought myself capable of.” Chloe

• “I have relished the opportunity to take part in the Apps for Good competition.

The experience will be one I’ll never forget and has benefitted me greatly.” Grace