The AI workspace for learning music.

I've spent a ridiculous amount of my life trying to figure out what other musicians were playing.

Growing up playing gospel music, that usually meant finding a recording, replaying the same few seconds over and over, trying to hear the bass movement or chord voicing, finding someone's YouTube tutorial if I was lucky, and eventually piecing it together by ear.

And even when I understood the theory, there was still another problem.

Someone could tell me, “That's a ii–V–I with a tritone substitution.”

Great. But what do I actually play?

Where are the notes? What does it sound like? What's a good fingering? What happens if I put it in another key? Can you show me a simpler version? Can I slow it down? Why does that note work?

Music learning has always felt strangely fragmented.

The recording is in one place. The lesson is somewhere else. The tab is somewhere else. The sheet music is somewhere else. And now the AI explanation is in another chat window.

You are still responsible for connecting all of it.

I wanted the computer to be able to do something much more useful: actually sit with you inside the music.

So I built Quartal.

You can ask it:

“Teach me a gospel 2–5–1 in F.”

Quartal doesn't just describe one. It can put the notes in front of you, let you hear them, show them on the piano or bass, turn them into tab or sheet music, slow them down, transpose them, and let you ask:

“Now make it more advanced.”

Or you can start with a recording you're trying to learn. Quartal can turn the music into a playable workspace and give you somewhere to ask questions about the actual thing you're hearing.

That's the idea behind what I call a Quartal Session:

A persistent musical conversation between you, the music, and Quartal.

I don't think learning music should mean working through a generic curriculum until you finally reach the music you care about.

I think you should be able to start with the thing you want to play, and learn whatever you're missing along the way.

Quartal is still early. There's a lot I want it to eventually understand, including listening to you play, learning your musical vocabulary, and knowing what you personally need to work on next.

But even now, it has already become the easiest way I've found to explore something musically and immediately understand how to play it.

If that sounds like the way you've always wanted to learn too, I'd love for you to try it.

Michael Osei

Founder of Quartal