Rock Center
Stanford assistant professor and music app developer, Ge Wang, is something of a modern day music man.
"There's an undeniable joy in music making, but that's actually a joy that a lot of people actually may well go through life without ever experiencing. So, technology is a way to get more people to make music," Wang said.
Wang and his company, Smule, develop social music-making apps for the iPad and iPhone. The music app programs he and his team design allow users to simultaneously play duets with other iOS musicians anywhere across the globe. With names like Magic Guitar and Magic piano, the apps turn iPhones into instruments like a guitar, a piano, a drum, a fiddle and a trombone.
Wang says the goal of the music apps is simple: "How can we get a lot of people to start making music with things that you don't normally think of as musical instruments, per se?"
Wang looks at any owner of a smart phone as a potential musician.
"Anyone who actually has one of these devices is already the owner of a potential musical instrument and making music should never feel that hard. It should feel as easy and as naturally as picking up the phone and calling your best friend," he said.
Watch as he uses the Magic Guitar app to perform an electric guitar rendition of the Star Spangled Banner on his iPhone.
