Heejung was invited to attend a workshop with nine other students hosted by Apple and presented by Ge Wang, whose company Smule created the iPad app "Magic Fiddle." As the students from Community School of Music and Arts in Mountain View sat on stools around a circular island at the back of the store, each with an iPad in hand, Wang began the lesson.
"Have good posture," said Wang, a Stanford assistant professor in music and computer science who founded Smule in 2008 less than two miles from the Apple Store on University Avenue. "Don't slouch." When their chins touched the iPad screen, graphic bubbles streamed across it and the iPad was turned into a violin.
"We don't have a bow. What we have here is a weird circular bow -- we call it a circle thingamabob," Wang said. "Now put your index finger on the top string." After the tutorial, Wang raised his hands like a conductor:
"One, two, three --TAP!" he said as the magic flute and the music to "Twinkle, Twinkle Little Star" appeared on the screen.
As they tapped the colorful, digital strings, the sounds amplified by speakers, they almost sounded like an orchestra warming up. Or, as Wang said, "we already sound like we're in a horror movie. Pretty good!" On his mark, he gave them a
downbeat. "Let's swell up in a crescendo," he said, instructing one boy to put his left thumb closer to the center of the fiddle."Play with your ear, not just your eyes," he said. "It's not just about playing, it's about listening to the song you're making and playing with everyone else." Then, to the already advanced music students, he raised his hand in a fist for the universal "cut off" sign that ended the song.
A crowd of Apple customers had already gathered at the spectacle by that point and a few broke into applause.
"It's not meant to replace instruments, but augment," Wang said. "We don't try to just imitate instruments, but explore new music-making experiences." Wang, 33, has already developed other popular music apps for the iPhone and iPad, including Magic Flute (where the user blows into the microphone and taps on the screen to play notes) and Glee Karaoke that he developed with the cooperation of Fox Digital Media.
Parents watched in awe.
"It's fascinating," said Petra Clark, a strings teacher at the Mountain View school whose two boys joined the workshop. "My boys are not string players.To experiment with this software that is essentially a string instrument gives them a window into trying a new instrument without the barrier of learning the new instrument itself."
Learning an instrument can "take a long time before you can actually play something that sounds good." For her two boys, who play the trumpet and drums, "they're getting to taste it wihout me telling them to sit down with a cello."
Evy Schiffman, director of marketing at the Community School, said she was thrilled to see the kids so engaged.
"Whatever you can do to connect them, to hook them in to use the technology to be involved in music studies is a win-win," she said, "And they teach each other. That's the dynamic I'm watching -- and they're becoming an orchestra."
Kevin Murray, 10, said he plays the drums and sax and "I don't play anything like the fiddle. It's cool. It's a great idea."
Heejung Chung, who at 12 is the youngest member of the Stanford Symphony Orchestra, appreciated the technology.
"It's as close as you can get to an acoustic violin," she said. "You can hear your mistakes."
And, like any iPad game, users can win points for their performances -- something trumpet student Ryan Araghi enjoyed.
"I earned a medal!" he called out.
Then he had one more question for Wang: "Are you guys ever going to make a trumpet?"
"Maybe," Wang said.
And as Apple customers continued to fill the store, Wang directed his students to finish with a grand finale, Silent Night: "One, two three -- TAP!".
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