Mikel Gainza, PhD, BSc (Eng)
Music Software Entrepreneur
As a society, we must nurture lifelong learning, mental stimulation, and curiosity and support experts to explore and validate innovative solutions.
Current Work
Mikel is Co-Founder of GuitarApp, a startup dedicated to making music learning and teaching more accessible and engaging. GuitarApp offers a mobile app, diverse tools and content designed to empower musicians, companies, and music educators worldwide.
Personal Hero
My mother
Words of Strength
Creating and building relationships
Vision
To reduce dementia's impact, we, as a society, must nurture lifelong learning, mental stimulation and curiosity, and support an open platform for experts to explore and validate innovative solutions impacting all societal levels.
Strategy
Mikel's company, GuitarApp, focuses on making music learning and teaching as accessible as possible. When it comes to prevention, the impact of music learning, regardless of age or proficiency level, in combating dementia can be significant.
Impact
Through the interdisciplinary nature of the fellowship and expert mentorship, Mikel hopes to gain new perspectives, experiences and critical knowledge to help him achieve his goals of using music learning to scale mental health at any age and level.
Motivation
By lowering the over 90% failure rate in learning to play an instrument among older adults, Mikel aims to boost dementia prevention in society.
Education & Experience
Mikel brings together academic and entrepreneurial backgrounds, merging music with software. Academically, he earned a PhD in Music Signal Processing from Dublin Institute of Technology (now Technological University Dublin), served as a post-doctoral researcher, and co-founded the Audio Research Group. As an entrepreneur, Mikel has built three music software startups, including his latest venture, GuitarApp, and Riffstation, which became part of Fender Musical Instruments.
Send
Mikel
a NoteHave ideas for global brain health or a collaboration? I would love to hear from you. Feel free to send an introductory note.
