Interview: Pat Scandalis, CEO of moForte

By Kira Grunenberg

No matter how much the guitar has perforated today’s society and no matter how many singer-songwriters have taken to the streets, the staple instrument is always going to be novel to a newcomer. The guitar can be especially daunting to those who don’t play an instrument or don’t read music.

MoForte, a young Mountain View, CA incorporate, has unleashed the first of what will hopefully be many music-oriented products. Their inaugural idea takes on the very aforementioned premise — targeting “sonic and musical applications for mobile.” moForte’s first app models the actions and sounds of a guitar, and is designed so that anyone can approach and play without a single lesson.

The app emulates the timbre and strumming motions of guitar playing without requiring knowledge of chord finger patterns. Shown in action via the video below, individual chords can be selected and then strummed. A “teaching mode” helps users get accustomed to the rhythmic patterns of recognizable melodies. The app has a social aspect as well, in that these strummed performances can be shared with friends.

I spoke with CTO/acting CEO, Pat Scandalis, one of three main founders of moForte, along with founding consultant Dr. Julius O. Smith III,,  and chief scientist Nicholas J. Porcaro. We talked about what makes moforte’s Guitar app stand out, the potential for future collaborations, and where this multi-app company plans to take its ideas for the next round of projects.

SoundCtrl: Would you describe moForte’s guitar app, as one primarily for entertainment purposes as opposed to meticulous educational use?

Pat Scandalis: moForte Guitar is targeted for musicians/hobbyist musicians as an alternative musical instrument and for accompaniment.  Refer to slides 48-50 in the moForte Technical Deck. As it stands today, a user can create their own chart to either play directly from the performance surface or to use as accompaniment (see slide 74).  In a near term release we will offer an in-app upgrade for MIDI/OSC support so that keyboards or other controllers can play the modeled guitar. It’s a goal for moForte to enable keyboard players to “blow away” the guitar players that they play with

Since the app doesn’t encase your mobile device, it seems that the premise is to gain an aural, rather than physical experience of the guitar.

We are pushing toward a split of the app into two consumer products (Guitar-Inator, Guitaroake) and two products for musicians (moForte Guitar, PowerStomp) (Refer to slides 48-50)

Guitar-inator is a game-ification of the tablature notation system used by guitar players. This app has only two screens. A “Teaching” screen and a “Jam” screen. The teaching screen is used to teach how to play the chart using “Conduct and Express”. The user may slow down the performance in order to master the rhythm.  They are also scored on a number of metrics. Once the chart is mastered, the user can switch to the “Jam” screen to play the chart using “Conduct and Express” and interact with a visualizer.

With regard to an extended physical experience of playing a guitar-like enclosure, at some point we may offer an enclosure to be used in the context of Guitar-inator’s Jam mode.

Right now moForte Guitar’s strength seems to lie in the audio bank of chords that can be matched, which supports more of an ear-training capacity.  How else does moForte distinguish itself within the vein of such a popular instrument?

Yes, we see the value of the bank of chords as being accompaniment and ear-training as an aid for improvisation. That is, a user can quickly enter some chord changes, hit “perform” and have an accompanist. Our primary differentiator is that we are offering the emotional experience of playing feedback distortion guitar via “Conduct and Express,” to people who may never have a chance to have this experience. Further, the technology (audio physical modeling) is what is making it possible to actually realize this interactive experience. Until now, there have not been any products on mobile devices that can do this. A secondary differentiator is that moForte Guitar supports musicians as a tool for accompaniment.

Aside from entertainment, do you see this kind of approach to music making being well-suited for younger music fans? Would it possible be beneficial to music therapy or for fine motor skill rehabilitation applications? 

We believe that because so many younger music fans have mobile devices, that the moForte line of applications offer an easy “gateway” to having a “guitar” experience without pulling down a real guitar. That being said, we love the real guitar. If you had a fun experience with one of our apps, then please do consider playing a real guitar. [For the latter thoughts,] I do think that this is possible. At moForte we believe that “everybody’s got a right to rock”. At this year’s NAMM we were approached by a school for special needs individuals who would like to use moForte Guitar to enable their students to experience what its like to “thrash”.

What inspired moForte to go this route for its first app, and what informed the route of developing multiple music apps as opposed to strengthening just one? 

The founders of moForte have been working in this area of audio physical modeling for many years. Forms of the guitar model have been worked on for over 20 years. We saw it as an opportunity to take something that we’ve been working on for many years (the guitar model … really a passion work) and finally make it available in a form for a large audience, both musician and consumer. What makes these audio physical models [in general,] interesting, is that they have interactive controls. The proliferation of powerful mobile devices with interactive sensors as created an opportunity to bring these interactive sound models to a generally available platform.

[Regarding development of multiple apps,] initially, we set out to build [one] rich-multifunction app. We have since learned, that on the consumer side, users prefer single function apps. As a result, we will continue to support the rich-multifunction app (moForte Guitar) but, we will also offer a number of single function apps for specific consumer entertainment areas.

Are there any future plans to partner with pedal and effects companies to incorporate brand-specific sounds popular among the guitar community?

We’ve had initial discussions about brand licensing for modeled effects.  That is an ongoing discussion. It will become more relevant in the context of “PowerStomp” (which we demo-ed at NAMM/2014). PowerStomp is a breakout of the effects chain specifically for musicians.

We are also in ongoing discussions to license content, great guitar RIFFs, great Strumming songs.

Where do you see moForte in one year?

We will have fully rolled out Guitar-inator, Guitaraoke, PowerStomp and, we will have a number of our other ideas (percussion, synths) in products. [SC]

MoForte Guitar is available now, free from the iTunes App Store.

You can follow moForte on Twitter @moForteGuitar

Kira is an old school music nerd with a love for all things creative; always searching for music’s common ground. She graduated with an M.A. in Performing Arts Administration from New York University. Drop her a tweet @shadowmelody1.

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