Ad of the DaySamsung Created an App to Help Visually Impaired People Read Music While Learning to Play GuitarAccessible tech adds some sweet notes in BrazilBy David Gianatasio|October 26, 2018 Samsung's new app helps visually impaired people keep both hands on a guitar.Samsung Brazil / CheilShareBy David Gianatasio|October 26, 2018 ShareLearning to play guitar poses unique challenges for sight-impaired people. Their practice sessions are frequently interrupted as they refer to braille instruction books for the correct chord progressions. Of course, audio courses are available, but those can be pricey and difficult to navigate.To address such issues, Samsung and Cheil developed a free guitar instruction app that verbally signals chord changes during 30 songs, allowing students to keep their fingers on the frets. In recent years, Samsung Brazil has challenged its agencies to improve accessibility and enrich users’ lives through technology. That charge has led to devices such as Theater for All Ears, from Leo Burnett Tailor Made, which helps deaf people experience live performances.As Cheil researched ideas of its own, “a copywriter on our team had a chat with a blind guitar teacher called Laercio Sant’anna, and he learned that to read music notes to play on the guitar, you had to remove your hand from the guitar,” says agency creative chief Claudio Lima. “After that, the idea came naturally to use technology to solve this issue.”Apparently, the approach used for the resulting Audio Chords app isn’t readily available on other instruction platforms. “We have not found anything like that, nor did the visually impaired community while we were developing the project with them,” Lima says.During the four-month development process, the team discovered a big reason why. “It seems more simple than it is. You need to add sounds in the middle of the song, while not disturbing the melody. So we remixed the songs to make it happen naturally.”In addition, unlike other audio courses, “We developed the app to be 100 percent accessible, so if you turn on the voice guidance on your phone, you navigate perfectly through the lessons and functions,” he says.Available on Google Play in Brazil, the Portuguese-language app works exclusively on Samsung phones. Those without Samsung devices can still use the technology via a website accessible to the visually impaired.CREDITS:Title: Audio Chords Client: Samsung Brazil Agency: Cheil Brazil Manager Director: Evandro Guimarães, Yunwon Cho CCO: Claudio Lima Creative Director: Ricardo Miller, Fábio Baraldi, Sergio Alves Copy: Ricardo Miller, Pedro Carreira Art Director: Fabio Baraldi, Guilherme Pereira, Maxx Freitas, Renan Godoy Account Director: Denise Azevedo Account Manager: Isadora Guz Strategy Director: Paula Queiroz Strategy Manager: Joyce Mescollote, Franklin Barbosa Social Media: Diego Nery Media Director: Roberta Queiroz Project Manager: Camila Guaitolli APP Developer: Slingshot / Samsung UX: Tuia RTVC: Luzia Oliveira, Cristiane Marinari Approval: Andrea Mello Video Production Company: Volcano Hotmind Director: Giancarlo Barone Audio: Shuffle Audio Executive Producer: Ale Marcondes Producer: Henrique Ruiz Nicolau / Gabriel Schubsky Adweek Adweek