Spoonjack today announced that its award winning iPhone application, ‘iBone — the Pocket Trombone’, is now available for Android. Winner of the ‘Best Musical Instrument App’ in the 2009 Best App Ever Awards, and selection for iTunes Rewind 2010, iBone is unique among mobile music applications. iBone not only lets users play-a-long with music from their own collection, but also with songs from the iBone Songbook and shows them how. iBone combines a capable and accurate simulation of a trombone with a musical game easy enough for anyone to play.
Recognized as both useful and fun, iBone brings to Android what Robin Eubanks, five-time Downbeat ‘Trombonist of the Year’ and Professor at Oberlin College calls “a great tool for trombonists,” Carol Jarvis, trombonist with Seal and Sting, calls “Brilliant!” and Chris Kohler of Wired Magazine’s Game|Life calls “an interesting experimental blend of gameplay and utility.”
iBone features an interface easy enough for anyone to use:
1. Touch the display or blow into the microphone to produce a sound.
2. Slide fingers to change pitch.
3. Raise and lower the bell to change volume.
In spite of its simplicity, iBone stays remarkably true to the trombone. Capable of the trombone’s standard 2.5 octave range, users can slur up and down, and slide in and out, all while producing real trombone sound.
Not just a solo instrument, iBone brings the band along too. Those who have developed the skills can accompany the lead or take the solo spot in any song from their personal collection.
Those new to iBone and the trombone may instead select from the iBone Songbook, which features a selection of traditional and classical favorites, each with their own unique accompaniment, ranging from guitar to full orchestra. A series of rings fall in-tempo with the song to guide users to hit the right note at the right time. To hear how a song is supposed to sound, users can activate roboBone to play it for them.
