Show HN: A platform for remote piano lessons based on the Web MIDI API

This is such a cool concept, congrats on shipping!

I've been developing a webMIDI app myself for the past couple of years [0] and adding a multiplayer feature is something I've been eyeing for a while. May I ask how good the latency is?

Some feedback on the landing page:

- As others already pointed out, a video example showing the app would be really helpful.

- I think allowing visitors to try out the piano and only prompting to login when trying to access the remote features would work best

- All those buttons that are clickable/selectable but don't do anything when clicked were a little confusing.

On the app: - Connecting the keyboard worked flawlessly (and without any permission prompt). But I'd add some indication that a MIDI device is connected

- Pressing the keys using my mouse doesn't produce any sounds

- Pressing keys on my MIDI keyboard (Yamaha P120) will cause the keys to be selected indefinitely, so I can only ever press them once. Somehow the noteOff events don't seem to be getting registered. Make sure you also register noteOn events with velocity = 0 as a noteOff event (although I don't believe that that's the issue here) and I would suggest calling noteOff yourself if you register a noteOn event for a note that's already playing. That way you can prevent keys from getting stuck.

- I wouldn't hide keys automatically based on screen size. It does look better but imagine someone trying to play this on a tablet/phone where they can't change the scaling

Again, really cool concept and good luck with further development! Feel free to reach out if you want any help :-)

[0] app.midiano.com

Amazing idea! I had no clue web MIDI existed.

As a piano/keyboard player, a lot of musicality is possible on a keyboard. It is possible to learn to modify the technique to better utilise the velocity available to a particular keybed, weighted, or non-weighted. When playing keyboards you are working within a subset of the potential dynamics available to a piano. Though expressivity is lessened, there is still a huge palette once you learn to use less total force and less differentiation in force (dynamics).

I know I can play with high musicality on almost any keyboards with velocity, because I was blessed to have learned to use bad instruments. But, it doesn't compare to the depth of the sound generated by all the moving parts and interactions happening in a real piano. Not only the sounds, but also the sheer weight of the keys.

Most* keyboards/vsts are just triggering a (pitch-shifted, looped) sample at a given note and then doing that for n notes and that doing an additive sum.

That is definitely not what occurs in a piano though. There you have the 3-dimensionality of the physical world, like the way waves are traveling through distance and shape. When sounds' harmonics interact, resonant nodes in overtone sequences can trigger each other to resonance, which can trigger other resonances throughout the tone. Maybe you know the feeling of depressing the sustain/damper pedal while sitting in front of it and giving the instrument a smack (or holding down the keys you are not playing and doing it). Or running your nail or a pick over all the low notes with sustain.. like you are in a cave.

In midi/digital, there's the fact that dynamic is usually gonna be 8-bit. Just because midi did that and it made sense at the time, other keyboards and VSTs mostly follow suit. I'm surprised this gets generally passed over. Obviously there's more than 128 strengths of note in real life.

But all that said I think it's possible to learn keyboards/music theory/songs/playing on a non-weighted keyboard, but false to say that digital/non-weighted is equivalent to acoustic piano. But you only really need that for really dynamic music like Jazz, Classical, Instrumental et al. But it feels so very wrong to play that kind of music on bad keyboards.

* Roland V-Piano, and PianoTeq, as well as many I'm unaware of do in fact use physical/acoustic modeling as opposed to triggering samples, but it has not been predominant even among high-end digital instruments

If you are at all serious about piano I would recommend getting an 88 key keyboard with half decent keys. Anything less you'll outgrow in the first few months and you will be learning to properly orient yourself. On a smaller keyboard you're going to mess up your 'South Sight' and your 'North Sight' because you will train yourself to orient on the edges of your smaller keyboard. As soon as you sit down behind a proper piano you'll be confused.

Good keyboards aren't expensive any more, the simplest Yamaha, Casio and Roland that qualify for serious study are all around $500 if you shop around a bit and if you go for second hand can be had for half that. You'll very quickly match that in lesson costs so if you can afford the one you probably can afford the other.

You don't need sequencers, aftertouch, built in DAWs or controlling an external one etc, those are not aimed at piano students. Can be fun but complete luxury.

There are lots of controllers with weighted keys these days and plenty of entry level MIDI keyboards have excellent keyboards.

The big advantage is that you don't need to tune them twice per year and that extra budget is either savings or you can spend it on more lessons. A physical piano is nice (and even those can have 'MIDI out' if you look around for a bit or are prepared to do some DIY) but really not a must. I have both here and spend much more time on my digital just because it is far more convenient, I can practice on it at any time of day even when the kids are sleeping and the feel of the keyboard is as good as the real thing (Yamaha P515, not the cheapest but very good quality).