15M Downloads Later, I Finally Built the App I Wanted

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I’ve always been a musician. I’m a trained classical pianist and guitarist, I’ve played in bands, produced music, and done studio sessions (including work for films).

Music is the domain I feel most at home in, but I’m also a computer scientist, so I’m fascinated with how technology can enhance creativity. Most of my music apps started as hobby projects — using code to solve musical problems I’ve faced myself, and hopefully making the journey easier for others. To my surprise and gratitude, the tools I created resonated with countless others and have collectively surpassed 15 million organic downloads.

One of my earliest creations was Rhythm Pad, a drum app. Back in the early iOS days, it stood out for offering low-latency, professional-grade playback with real drum samples. In 2015, a user from Turkey wrote to me saying Rhythm Pad was even used on a popular TV talent show, “Yetenek Sizsiniz Türkiye” (Turkey’s Got Talent). I realized then how far my little experiments could travel.

Over the years, my apps have shown up in other unexpected places. In 2019, Neil Moxham, the principal guitar technician for the Grammy-nominated rock band Godsmack, reached out to tell me they were using my tuning app, Tuner T1, for live shows. He even suggested new features, some of which we implemented together. He still sends me photos of the app in action on stage.

But perhaps the most defining project before @Guitar Wiz was GtrLib Chords. As a guitarist, I was always searching for a complete chord reference that could show me every voicing of a chord across the fretboard, with audio previews. Nothing I found felt complete, so I built one: GtrLib Chords. It struck a chord (pun intended!) with teachers, students, and pros who were all looking for the same thing I was.

GtrLib Chords found its place with serious learners and musicians, but I always felt there was room to go further — to make the guitar learning journey more approachable for everyone. I wanted to go beyond just a chord library; I wanted to craft a true all-in-one companion for guitarists.

That vision grew into Guitar Wiz: an app that brings together everything I’ve learned so far, combining tools like a tuner, metronome, chord assist, reverse chord finder, song sheet scanner, song maker, and more. My goal was simple: to make something just as valuable for a beginner learning their very first chord as it is for a songwriter capturing new ideas.

@Guitar Wiz feels like the culmination of everything I’ve learned so far. Yet when I see it in the hands of my daughter, I know it’s also the start of something much bigger for someone else.