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MUSIC

Swedish app lets ‘everyone’ write music

Two Swedes have launched an app that lets even the most tone-deaf user feel like an accomplished music composer, revolutionizing the way melodies can be created and saved.

Published: 7 May 2013 15:43 CEST
Swedish app lets 'everyone' write music

The creators believe the app, ScoreCleaner Notes, will be invaluable for music teachers musicians, and nearly anyone who loves music.

“Now everyone can write music,” creator Sven Emtell told The Local.

“This app is simple, yet revolutionary because it can allow a flow of creativity from musicians and especially music teachers all over the world.”

The ScoreCleaner Notes application works by recording the user’s voice or the sound of their instrument, provided it is played monophonically (one note at a time), and then turns the sound into musical notes which can then be uploaded onto social media (watch demonstration video below).

Emtell, a sound engineer at the Royal Institute of Technology (KTH) in Stockholm, joined forces with Swedish folk musician Sven Ahlbäck on the project, which saw the app released as part of the Emtell’s computer engineering master’s degree.

“We’ve had a lot of interest so far, from newspapers and blogs around the world, and people have been very positive. Plus it’s cheap to buy, just 7 kronor ($1),” Emtell said.

He added that the app has already seen a surge of interest from aspiring musicians as well as people who are just plain curious. But the real market, he believes, is in music teaching circles, where the app can help share ideas quickly and easily. A teacher could play an instrument onto the app, share the result with the students, and let them go home and practice.

But the Swedish pair won’t be stopping with just the app, with Emtell hoping to work now on improving the desktop app for Mac and Windows.

“There, you can sync your ideas from the notes, and can use the melodies to make a whole song, adding voices, lyrics, chords, you name it,” he said.

When asked why he decided to release the app, Emtell explained that the Swedish duo were simply filling a gap in the market.

“We made it because we wanted it, it’s something we would have used ourselves. And it was pretty obvious that putting the idea into app form would be a great way to simplify things,” Emtell told The Local.

“And I think we’ve proven this to be true.”

The app in action

Oliver Gee

Follow Oliver on Twitter here

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CULTURE

New songs mark sixth anniversary of French star Johnny Hallyday’s death

Fans of the late Johnny Hallyday, "the French Elvis Presley", will be able to commemorate the sixth anniversary of his death with two songs never released before.

Published: 17 November 2023 09:05 CET
New songs mark sixth anniversary of French star Johnny Hallyday's death

Hallyday, blessed with a powerful husky voice and seemingly boundless energy, died in December 2017, aged 74, of lung cancer after a long music and acting career.

After an estimated 110 million records sold during his lifetime – making him one of the world’s best-selling singers -Hallyday’s success has continued unabated beyond his death.

Almost half of his current listeners on Spotify are under the age of 35, according to the streaming service, and a posthumous greatest hits collection of “France’s favourite rock’n’roller”, whose real name was Jean-Philippe Leo
Smet, sold more than half a million copies.

The two new songs, Un cri (A cry) and Grave-moi le coeur (Engrave my heart), are featured on two albums published by different labels which also contain already-known hits in remastered or symphonic versions.

Un cri was written in 2017 by guitarist and producer Maxim Nucci – better known as Yodelice – who worked with Hallyday during the singer’s final years.

At the time Hallyday had just learned that his cancer had returned, and he “felt the need to make music outside the framework of an album,” Yodelice told reporters this week.

Hallyday recorded a demo version of the song, accompanied only by an acoustic blues guitar, but never brought it to full production.

Sensing the fans’ unbroken love for Hallyday, Yodelice decided to finish the job.

He separated the voice track from the guitar which he felt was too tame, and arranged a rockier, full-band accompaniment.

“It felt like I was playing with my buddy,” he said.

The second song, Grave-moi le coeur, is to be published in December under the artistic responsibility of another of the singer’s close collaborators, the arranger Yvan Cassar.

Hallyday recorded the song – a French version of Elvis’s Love Me Tender – with a view to performing it at a 1996 show in Las Vegas.

But in the end he did not play it live, opting instead for the original English-language version, and did not include it in any album.

“This may sound crazy, but the song was on a rehearsal tape that had never been digitalised,” Cassar told AFP.

The new songs are unlikely to be the last of new Hallyday tunes to delight fans, a source with knowledge of his work said. “There’s still a huge mass of recordings out there spanning his whole career,” the source said.

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