Anton Naumovets from PitchImprover.com (recently reviewed on MusicKO) had the time and the patience to answer all the questions a little voice whispered in my ear the moment he agreed to do an interview here on the blog. Thanks a lot, Anton!
Below you will find the first part of his interview, with the second part (“Music & You”) being located right here.
Full Name: Anton Naumovets
Age: 26
Website: PitchImprover.com
Position: Everything
PART I
THE WEBSITE
Tell us a little about your website. How was it conceived? Was it inspired by anything in particular that happened to you?
As you might expect, I was in need of ear training myself. Looking at the existing solutions, they often overwhelmed me with customization options from the very beginning, or I didn’t like the sounds of the instruments, or both. And I decided to create my own.
What unique features has it got? What features can we expect to see implemented in future revisions? Will you add more instruments?
The unique features are the lack of complex choices, and the instruments that sound more or less naturally.
As far as I understand it, there are two processes important for a musician who improvises or plays by ear that go hand in hand. One is ear training, the other is forming musical vocabulary of melodic phrases and harmonic movements, developing musical language. I’d like to create tools that would help you with both at once, that is the big goal.
On a smaller scale, I am now working on porting the existing exercises to Android and iPhone. That, and fixing some faults and adding some polish to the site of course.
For the instruments, I’d rather improve the sound of the existing ones (strings and woodwinds especially) than add new ones.
There is a certain tendency to demonize the Internet in the music industry. I think it is all a matter of perspective – it all depends on the uses it is put to. What is your opinion? In which areas has the Internet left an unquestionably positive mark?
No doubt, the Internet is a powerful tool to do stupid and evil things to yourself. But from the perspective of the average music enthusiast it is nothing but good (the Internet). Both for learning about good music, and for making you music available to the world.
Maybe it is demonized by the big players in the industry, like major labels, but I guess they are the real demons.
What advice could you give to anybody who is launching a music-related website or startup in the future? What are the obvious mistakes that should be avoided?
Startup advice is cheap on the Internet, but I wouldn’t expect it to be very helpful. I only believe that it is always the old-fashioned hard ass work that creates good things, and a little common sense.
Continue to Part 2 of the interview.