Saturday, May 21, 2011

iPhone App: iChant Gregorian


With a tip of the veil to Sr. Catherine Wybourne, aka @Digitalnun on Twitter, I discovered this neat little app for iPhone.  If you are learning to sing chant it could prove to be a handly little tool.   I have downloaded it and see that it si also available for iPad and iTouch. 

It is fairly easy to learn get the hang of getting into the "rhythm" of chant.  I actually find site reading little square notes easier than modern notation.  However, because I have very little understanding of music theory, scales, etc., I can't simply pic up a page of chant and sing the right notes without help. 

The tool is not something for listening to Gregorian chant.  Rather, it is an aid for those who are practicing.  When you touch the screen you can hear the notes for a given clef (see an explanation of Gregorian notation here). 

Shown above is the Do Clef.  Note that the app allows you to transpose which is handy when the notes run too high or low for a given singer or group.  Here is one example of a transposition (compare to that at the top):


As you can see, there is also the Fa Clef.

See more at the iTunes store on iChant GregorianAndroid users might want to search their app store, as well.  The developer states in the combox of this post at Musica Sacra last year that he was working on a version for that OS.  

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