Forum - Banjo Ben Clark

Banjo Ben Mobile App Feedback and Ideas!

#21

Re-upping this thread. Please Santa, bring me a Banjo Ben phone app. I would much rather practice with my phone than in front of a desktop. Here’s what I would like to see:

  • Easy access for background tracks at different speeds
  • Access to the lessons
  • A “favorites” page where I can easily access/save the lessons I’m working on
  • Metronome
  • Banjo Ben Store! with notifications when there are hot sales
  • Notifications when the latest lesson posts with a toggle for geetar/banjer/mando
  • Map to find other Banjo Ben pickers

Also, please charge $$ for the app because running a small business ain’t free. I’d pay $10 for that easy. Figure out an easy access to play the TEF files on a phone and make that a $20 app.

Then, make a funny ad for the app where Jake goes to a jam and mounts his phone in the sound hole of his guitar and instead of playing solos, just plays the lesson sample. Which works until he gets caught faking a banjo solo on his guitar and all heck breaks loose.

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#22

Hi all,
Just found this thread. I too have thought about whether a Banjo Ben app would be useful and/or offer any advantages over the current mobile site.

I’m a software developer and have built a lot of web applications and mobile apps (iOS, no android experience yet), and utility can be a mixed bag. And usefulness is of course pretty subjective.

Many companies and other enterprises have gone back and forth on this. That is, realizing that their browser-based site was klunky, threy jumped on the App Bandwagon and invested in app development, only to realize that they can implement their desired functionality (and more) with a properly designed mobile web (GoDaddy.com comes to mind, they recently ditched their mobile app in favor of a mobile web client).

There are a lot of good ideas on this thread. And maybe a few misconceptions too (e.g., poor/spotty wireless coverage will of course not be resolved by an app).

My own opinion is that I find Ben’s current web site renders pretty well on smaller screens. Saved logins, save-lesson-locally (which I haven’t used but believe would be great in areas with poor wireless coverage) are already implemented; although reading tab on a tiny screen doesn’t work for me. What I typically do, even on my tablet, is use AirPlay to stream the mobile screen to my largeish HDTV via AppleTV. To me that’s the perfect solution; not much mobility but great for BIG screen family-room viewing, especially with groups! (I can build AppleTV apps, too, but again AirPlay streaming seems to fill many needs of mine).

That said, if @BanjoBen is interested, I’d be happy to explore putting together some sort of mobile functionality (and we could be VERY creative with whatever remuneration was necessary :slight_smile: The difficulty involved would depend on how Ben’s site is currently built; ideally the “back end” has all the functional guts of serving the vids and doing login processing, etc., and the “front end” is just for presenting that data. That approach (typically implemented as an Application Program Interface or API) makes it easy to slap on a new presentation layer, be it mobile, AppleTV or whatever. Sorry for the nerd-speak!

Anyway, great thread. Merry Christmas and Happy New Year to you all. Looking forward to a very great 2020!!!

Michael

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#23

oooohh … Can I get one for my rotary phone???

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#24

I’m glad to hear you say those things, Michael. I have no apps on my phone that a mobile site exists for, even if the site prompts me to install the app. When a mobile site is done right, an app is unnecessary in most cases.

I’ve never been in a situation that I needed to learn a lesson on my phone, but if I did, I’d probably use Ben’s videos since they have the tab in them.

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#25

Thanks, Mark.
One thing that does sound interesting, though, is a “haptic metronome”. That is, one that silently taps your wrist (with or without audible clicking) to remind you of timing . Requires an Apple Watch, though. (There are a few apps that do this already).

(You can probably tell we’re pretty deep in the Apple ecosystem around here :-)).

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#26

Never heard of such a thing, but I absolutely love the idea!

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#27

A small head’s up to my peeps here. I’m beginning a new site build (yes, again), and I’ll be exploring the app solution (with @Michael’s help!).

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#28

Something that I found recently that I love and will help you with your practicing is the Tefview app. With that, you can practice with your phone and you can set the tempo to any speed you want. On top of that it’s completely free.

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#29

At your service! :grinning:

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#30

Another thought. Obviously if desired mobile functionality included access to the camera or mic (which one can easily imagine being part of a @BanjoBen offering), then a proper app (rather than mobile web) would be required.

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#31

Just saw this comment about the rotary phone. :rofl::rofl::rofl:

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