Hacker News Board Hacker News, browsed like a classic message board
Live data from Hacker News

Show HN: Piano Trainer – Learn piano scales, chords and more using MIDI

github.com

Post reply on HN
Print view View original

51–60 of 60 posts

Re: Show HN: Piano Trainer – Learn piano scales, chords and more using MIDI

#51

Post by vunderba »

ganonm wrote: post #21
hofrogs wrote: post #2

This is cool. I am wondering if anyone knows if there is a game like Guitar Hero (old playstation game with a custom controller), but for piano and with MIDI input support, something to practice the mechanical skills, preferably with a library of beginner-friendly charts?

It's probably not got the entertainment factor of Guitar Hero, but I'm working on an Android app that connects via Bluetooth/USB MIDI and teaches you sight reading. It starts with individual notes, then progresses to intervals, triads and more complex chords. All of these are exercise based, so you can pick and choose areas to focus on. The notes are all rendered according to conventional music notation standards as…

I don't think it's that niche, Sight Reading Factory (the site, iOS app, etc.) has been around for years and is pretty popular as a means of learning sight reading for various instruments.

https://www.sightreadingfactory.com

Re: Show HN: Piano Trainer – Learn piano scales, chords and more using MIDI

#52

Post by fasterik »

alexilliamson wrote: post #43
mtalantikite wrote: post #40

I'm appreciative of people attempting to help others learn music, so first of all thanks! I'd suggest people really focus on their ear training though over visual feedback. Just play your scales through the circle of fifths -- set a metronome at 60, go for both hands, two octaves, parallel and contrary motion. Start with major and then move on to the three types of minor. The thing you're developing is internalizing…

I have a decent grasp of theory and have seen the value of grinding scales on other instruments. With piano, I'm never sure which fingers I'm supposed to be using or when to move my fingers up the keys. Do you have any guidance?

It's worth picking up a book like Alfred's "The Complete Book of Scales, Chords, Arpeggios & Cadences". It has exercises in every major and minor key, with fingerings.

Knowing the fingerings is a good start, but you need to learn to do these exercises without tension and with proper posture and hand movements. This is something where it's best to have in-person instruction from an expert who can show you the technique and correct your mistakes. But if you can't do that, maybe the next best thing would be to watch some YouTube videos and record yourself playing.

Re: Show HN: Piano Trainer – Learn piano scales, chords and more using MIDI

#54

Post by Anthony-G »

viccis wrote: post #12
brightmood wrote: post #6

Earlier quoted context omitted.

It's something most piano teachers advise AGAINST. But I am of the opinion that anything that makes you play the instrument works.

For good reason. Learning fluency reading sheet music is critical. Rocksmith is great, with caveats, but the fact that they, by default, invert the strings compared to tablature conventions on guitar should be proof enough that they are pedagogically terrible without some guidance. The other problem is that their learning technique, in which you start with fewer notes and add in all the notes over time, is not good a…

Upvoted. As a beginner guitarist, I find that Rocksmith’s approach doesn’t work well for learning songs. I prefer to turn up the difficulty to 100% and turn the tempo down to something I can play comfortably and then gradually increase the tempo. This has the drawback that the song sounds very different when played at 25%. It’d be nicer if they were more judicious in their choice of notes to play for their lower difficulty levels.

At the moment, I’m focussing on working on my timing by playing rhythm instead of lead guitar.

Re: Show HN: Piano Trainer – Learn piano scales, chords and more using MIDI

#55

Post by FinalDestiny »

ta1243 wrote: post #22

This sounds great in theory. I don't have a midi interface, but using the home row is a great idea. If I install the hosted .deb and run it though, then press a, s, d with a 5 second wait it's fine. If I push them after half a second, so while the previous note is playing, it goes very wrong. Is that supposed to happen? a (C plays, wait 1 second, C still plays), s (after C finishes D plays, a long time later). press…

It's a known bug on Linux, thanks for confirming it. I created an issue in the repo to track this just now.

Re: Show HN: Piano Trainer – Learn piano scales, chords and more using MIDI

#56

Post by viccis »

Anthony-G wrote: post #54
viccis wrote: post #12

Earlier quoted context omitted.

For good reason. Learning fluency reading sheet music is critical. Rocksmith is great, with caveats, but the fact that they, by default, invert the strings compared to tablature conventions on guitar should be proof enough that they are pedagogically terrible without some guidance. The other problem is that their learning technique, in which you start with fewer notes and add in all the notes over time, is not good a…

Upvoted. As a beginner guitarist, I find that Rocksmith’s approach doesn’t work well for learning songs. I prefer to turn up the difficulty to 100% and turn the tempo down to something I can play comfortably and then gradually increase the tempo. This has the drawback that the song sounds very different when played at 25%. It’d be nicer if they were more judicious in their choice of notes to play for their lower diff…

That's 100% the right way to do it and how traditional learning works (you just use a metronome and slowly work up to full tempo)

If you haven't already, please PLEASE choose the "invert" option for the string order. Your low pitched E string (the red one) should be on the bottom of the strings. It will mean that all your work will transfer immediately to both guitar tabs as well as conventional chord charts. The fact that Rocksmith is teaching people to train their muscle memory on upside down chord charts is so insane to me.

Re: Show HN: Piano Trainer – Learn piano scales, chords and more using MIDI

#57

Post by memorydial »

ganonm wrote: post #21
hofrogs wrote: post #2

This is cool. I am wondering if anyone knows if there is a game like Guitar Hero (old playstation game with a custom controller), but for piano and with MIDI input support, something to practice the mechanical skills, preferably with a library of beginner-friendly charts?

It's probably not got the entertainment factor of Guitar Hero, but I'm working on an Android app that connects via Bluetooth/USB MIDI and teaches you sight reading. It starts with individual notes, then progresses to intervals, triads and more complex chords. All of these are exercise based, so you can pick and choose areas to focus on. The notes are all rendered according to conventional music notation standards as…

Do you have a github repo, link, or a signup page so I can get a notification when its launched?

Re: Show HN: Piano Trainer – Learn piano scales, chords and more using MIDI

#58

Post by it_citizen »

bpicolo wrote: post #46
it_citizen wrote: post #44

Nitpick: The perfect fifth of G is E but the video says A: https://vimeo.com/730642802

Isn't it D? The video also seems to show D, unless there's another spot I'm missing.

I messed up my message, I wrote it from memory later.

I meant: At 3:17, which is the perfect fifth of E. It is B, the video is showing A.

Re: Show HN: Piano Trainer – Learn piano scales, chords and more using MIDI

#59

Post by davesmylie »

ganonm wrote: post #21
hofrogs wrote: post #2

This is cool. I am wondering if anyone knows if there is a game like Guitar Hero (old playstation game with a custom controller), but for piano and with MIDI input support, something to practice the mechanical skills, preferably with a library of beginner-friendly charts?

It's probably not got the entertainment factor of Guitar Hero, but I'm working on an Android app that connects via Bluetooth/USB MIDI and teaches you sight reading. It starts with individual notes, then progresses to intervals, triads and more complex chords. All of these are exercise based, so you can pick and choose areas to focus on. The notes are all rendered according to conventional music notation standards as…

Hey, would be interested in checking this out when you release it

Re: Show HN: Piano Trainer – Learn piano scales, chords and more using MIDI

#60

Post by deadfoxygrandpa »

alexilliamson wrote: post #43
mtalantikite wrote: post #40

I'm appreciative of people attempting to help others learn music, so first of all thanks! I'd suggest people really focus on their ear training though over visual feedback. Just play your scales through the circle of fifths -- set a metronome at 60, go for both hands, two octaves, parallel and contrary motion. Start with major and then move on to the three types of minor. The thing you're developing is internalizing…

I have a decent grasp of theory and have seen the value of grinding scales on other instruments. With piano, I'm never sure which fingers I'm supposed to be using or when to move my fingers up the keys. Do you have any guidance?

for learning scale fingerings on piano, i think it's just rote memorization and practice until you have the muscle memory. there isnt much of a trick to it and theres not so many different scales that you need some sort of abstract rule
Post reply on HN