Gakufu Camera iPhone app lets you scan printed music notes and play them back

There are musicians out there in the world who are able to play out a song’s melody on their instrument just by looking at the music score sheet. Unfortunately not all of us are as musically gifted or that proficient in our theory and instruments to be able to accomplish a similar feat, but that’s what technology is for, right?

Japan-based instrument maker, Kawai, seems to agree with that logic and have come up with an iPhone app titled “Gakufu Camera”. With the company boasting that the app is the first of its kind, what the app does is that it has the ability to “scan” a printed musical score using the phone’s camera and then play it back to you. So for example when you’re given a musical score and asked to play it and if your ears are somehow better than your sight-reading, a quick playback of the melody should give you just about enough to work with.

The app apparently works with handwritten notes too and also features the ability to store the notes that you scanned, allowing for playback at a later time. Something tells me that music bookstores will start banning the use of cellphones while browsing song books.

If you have plans on getting your hands on the Gakufu Camera app you will be disappointed to find out that it is only available on the Japanese App Store, although given the international status of Kawai we won’t be surprised if it did eventually make its way to the rest of the world in the near future. If you’re fortunate enough to be living in Japan you can buy the app for ¥350 (about $4.50).

Tyler Lee
Categories: Apple, Audio, Cellphones
Tags: Apps, iPhone, Japan, Music