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VIDEO: Athens Company Develops Mobile App For Guitar

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Grüvster, the brainchild of Ohio University alumnus Karl Henkel, is slated to become the newest intuitive music-learning platform on the mobile app market.

At its core, Grüvster is an application that shares music experience through both learning and collaboration.

The Athens-based company's business description states, "Music should be a social experience. Grüvster aims to make sharing and learning an intuitive and interactive process; something that anyone can pick up."

Grüvster’s main function as a learning tool stems from the application's ability to import guitar tablature, a popular online form of sheet music, and then play that tablature back in an audio form so a guitarist can play along.

As the music plays, the notes of the song scroll across the screen, then "explode" as the player hits the notes at the correct time. The app's developers have described Grüvster as "Guitar Hero for real instruments."

At this point in the development process, that function is limited to guitar. However, the comapny aims to expand support to "most instruments."

Grüvster also acts as a pocket-sized recording studio, capable of instantly sharing musical ideas with friends and spurring collaboration.

For instance, the user has the ability to record an idea into the application’s interface. Once a basic track is laid down, the user can then put on a pair of headphones and record overdubs.

At that point, a "session" can be sent to a friend who would lay down further tracks to build a song. A band that may be spread across the country, or even the world, could quickly collaborate on a musical idea on their smartphones.

Grüvster is still entrenched in the development stage, with initial focus on being put on the iOS format (i.e. iPhone, iPad). However, the company does plan to launch an Android version after further development and beta testing.

Beta testing is scheduled to start early 2013, with official launch coming mid-year. Anyone interested in participating in the beta testing is invited to visit www.gruvster.com.

Video produced by Elliot Nicolson.