The Six Strings App for iPad lets you strum an electric or acoustic guitar, banjo, mandolin, or ukulele, or play drum pads or a steel drum. You choose from a variety of chord settings for the stringed instruments or you can “play” individual strings – the strings even vibrate when you “strum” them. There are multiple settings for the drums, too. Except for the steel drum, all instruments are sized proportionally to the real ones. You can even record and save loops of your musical efforts. I bought this last night for $1.99. I have no idea how to play a real guitar, but I’ve had a lot of fun strumming away.
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I hadn’t seen this app before. I think it’s the first one I’ve come across where you actually strum the instrument. Love the inclusion of the uke and banjo.
huh. Kinda neat, wonder how responsive it is to strumming your fingers across the screen and if it gives a similar feel to actually playing a stringed instrument like a guitar or banjo.
@Kyle I’ve played with this app a few times. Trust me when I say I know NOTHING about playing guitar, but I have held a real guitar and strummed the strings. I can’t say strumming across the iPad screen is anything at all like strumming a real guitar. The “strings” are pretty responsive to rubbing your finger across the iPad screen, but you have to look at the screen because there is no tactile cues to let you know you have your fingers in the right place. Also, there’s no neck, and you change chords by scrolling through lists to find the one you want.
After reading this, it sounds like I don’t like the app, but I do. I have a lot of fun “playing guitar” on the iPad. It sounds a lot better than anything I was able to produce with a real guitar! I especially love the mandolin in the app.
It sounds pretty cool in the sense that you can learn what you like out of an instrument, but nothing as good as the real thing 🙂