Chordica XL for the iPad

As easy as 1, 2, 3

Learn to play the piano on Chordica, an app that uses a number-based system

WANT to play music without having to learn how to read a score?

That's the premise behind Chordica (www.chordica.com), an iPhone application developed by Joash Chee, 29, founder of two-and-a-half-year-old music training school Scoreless Music.

At the school, Chee offers students an alternative way of learning the piano or keyboard using a system based on numbers. Students read and play from a numerical sequence instead of music notation.

Said Chee: "When I was young, I developed this ability to play anything I hear, and I wanted to replicate everything I heard. In the process, I formulated certain theories and methods, which became the Scoreless Music method."

With the help of a friend, Chee developed the Chordica app, which allows users to play a virtual piano using his method. In Chordica, the user is presented with a grid layout of numbered buttons. The buttons on the left each activate a base note and the ones on the right activate a triad of notes. Tapping on two buttons from each side simultaneously produces a chord. Users can create a tune by tapping on the buttons in a specific sequence.

According to Chee, the US$2.99 ($4) app has seen more than 1,200 downloads since its launch in January last year. Its free version has seen 7,200 downloads.

The Chordica XL for the iPad has garnered around 2,000 downloads.

Chee is also planning to develop a professional version that will allow musicians to tinker with chords, sequencing and looping music.

While he admits he doesn't have any time for hobbies, Chee wants to create a physical board game - and develop a digital version of it for the iPad. It'll be like a strategy war game, such as Risk, he said.

While he had help developing Chordica, Chee has started to branch out on his own, creating a timer app for presentations called Vocal Slide Timer, and Free ABC Songs, a set of children's songs for the iPad. Key Finder, an iOS app he created to aid users in finding the key of a song, has received some 52,400 downloads.

The enterprising developer has set up a company dubbed Divzero (http://iphonetraining.sg). The firm conducts courses to teach people with no programming experience to create iPhone apps.

He hopes that realising simple applications and small projects will motivate people to move on to the advanced stages of coding.

Taking a cue from the way he teaches music, Chee explained: "Most of the people who hate learning music do so because of the tedious structures of the way it's taught. We want people to enjoy the process of learning."



To watch Chee demonstrating Chordica, visit www.todayonline.com/Gallery/Today/Video.

by Hedirman Supian

Updated 05:39 PM Jun 25, 2010

http://www.todayonline.com/Tech/Mobileapps/EDC100625-0000047/As-easy-as-1,-2,-3