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Pianojacq, an easy way to learn to play the piano

jacquesmattheij.com

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Re: Pianojacq, an easy way to learn to play the piano

#121

Post by jacquesm »

TrueDuality wrote: post #97

There is an `about:config` setting to enable webmidi in Firefox `dom.webmidi.enabled`. It's not a great experience to have to set that by hand. It does work though, at least in Linux. It looks like your site isn't detecting whether the webmidi feature is present though, it looks like its just doing dumb UA filtering.

No, it isn't doing dump UA filtering, it tests whether the WebMIDI interface works and if it does then it proceeds to work.

So that must be something else.

You can check the code if you don't believe me, it's plain JS.

Re: Pianojacq, an easy way to learn to play the piano

#122

Post by jacquesm »

prionassembly wrote: post #103

My dad is a music tutor, piano and guitar. He does two different "tracks" according to what the student wants: (1) learn currently popular songs or (2) learn didactic music in the classical tradition (e.g. Czerny). In either track he's really teaching music theory: most popular music will be I-IV-V; jazzy music with turnarounds do ii-V-I tricks, etc. He doesn't teach an instrument, he teaches music.

Very nice! Is your dad available for a consultation?

We would very much like to teach things properly but for that we need more understanding and someone who has been teaching music would be a huge asset to us.

If you could please ask that would be awesome.

Re: Pianojacq, an easy way to learn to play the piano

#123

Post by jacquesm »

khazhoux wrote: post #101

The sadness of my piano life is not my fingers but my dumb brain . No matter how intensely I practice and memorize a piece, if I step away from it for a week I'll forget 30% of it. Curiously, my audio memory is very strong. I can hear music in my head clearly and in detail, even songs and pieces I haven't heard in years. This does not translate to "finger-memory".

I'm going to guess here and say that you are practicing a very limited repertoire, rather than to learn to play the instrument, in which case you are memorizing movements instead of music.

Is that correct?

Re: Pianojacq, an easy way to learn to play the piano

#124

Post by jacquesm »

quacked wrote: post #106
khazhoux wrote: post #105

Earlier quoted context omitted.

Slowly and deliberately, focusing on the parts that elude me (i.e., I'll skip the intro and other sections that are 100% solid in muscle memory). Paying attention to fingerings. I'll usually focus on 1-2 pieces at any given time. But I do go through spurts, where I practice every day but then for whatever reason step away from days or 1-2 weeks, which might be killing the neuron connections. I also round-robin my nig…

It definitely isn't helping, haha. I also play piano, guitar, and compose, and I used to struggle with memorizing, but I've been reading a lot of piano practicing theory and have drastically upgraded my finger memory, mostly by using these resources: https://www.pianostreet.com/smf/index.php?topic=12590.0 (look for Bernhard's post) http://www.pianopractice.org/ Loosely, stop using sheet music except when you're initi…

Bernhard is awesome. I've learned more about piano playing and teaching from his posts than from my 'live teacher'.

Re: Pianojacq, an easy way to learn to play the piano

#126

Post by PianoGym »

Hahaha, wow! This is awesome to see people working on different solutions to something I'm working on!

@jacquesm if you're looking for someone to chat about this kind of stuff with - I would love to sync up!

--Shameless Plug--

I've been working on a passion project for over 2 years now called Piano Gym! https://pianogym.com

The idea is very much the same - in that a USB midi piano (in chrome for now) can be connected to the computer and used to play sheet music in contenxt.

HOWEVER, Piano Gym's goal is much larger than Piano, and much larger than sheet music, despite that being the current state of the product.

Piano Gym's focus is to apply spaced repetition and flash card based review systems to get people playing Piano and learning music theory in context, while ALSO managing review systems and check points. Eventually we want to do this for all instruments too!

We want you in the gym to do your reps!

Additionally anyone can create content there. Whether you're a learner or a teacher you can make your own schools, courses, and lessons that others can enroll in to learn from!

It's incredibly exciting and super cool to see other people trying to solve these problems.

If anyone is interested please come and join us at the gym - Piano Gym!

https://pianogym.com

Re: Pianojacq, an easy way to learn to play the piano

#127

Post by gabereiser »

PianoGym wrote: post #126

Hahaha, wow! This is awesome to see people working on different solutions to something I'm working on! @jacquesm if you're looking for someone to chat about this kind of stuff with - I would love to sync up! --Shameless Plug-- I've been working on a passion project for over 2 years now called Piano Gym! https://pianogym.com The idea is very much the same - in that a USB midi piano (in chrome for now) can be connected…

wow... Way to try to steal the show. I'm now 100% certain I'll never try piano gym.

Re: Pianojacq, an easy way to learn to play the piano

#128

Post by PianoGym »

gabereiser wrote: post #127
PianoGym wrote: post #126

Hahaha, wow! This is awesome to see people working on different solutions to something I'm working on! @jacquesm if you're looking for someone to chat about this kind of stuff with - I would love to sync up! --Shameless Plug-- I've been working on a passion project for over 2 years now called Piano Gym! https://pianogym.com The idea is very much the same - in that a USB midi piano (in chrome for now) can be connected…

wow... Way to try to steal the show. I'm now 100% certain I'll never try piano gym.

Right on! We'll be waiting if you change your mind!

Re: Pianojacq, an easy way to learn to play the piano

#129

Post by PaulDavisThe1st »

jacquesm wrote: post #63
necrotic_comp wrote: post #53

Earlier quoted context omitted.

This is an excellent point- as mentioned below, MIDI files do not take into account stuff like key, time signature, etc. , all of which are quite important to understanding a piece ; Western music notation is both incredibly dense and concise, with no information wasted. Part of the art of practicing is the mental work of abstraction and internalization of the music - breaking it into smaller sections, understanding…

> MIDI files do not take into account stuff like key, time signature, etc. They actually do. What they don't take into account is whether a particular black key is a sharp or a flat, and this causes all kinds of headaches. https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Enharmonic

They do not take "key" into account. In terms of the note-related data contained within a MIDI file, it's just a series of noteOn and noteOff event pairs, with a note number between 0 and 127 for each event. There's nothing in a MIDI file that specifies the key/scale/mode.

They can describe time signatures and tempo.

And yes, they don't handle enharmonics because in MIDI, notes are known only by number, not by any name given to them by any part of any given musical culture or theory.

And because of the MIDI Tuning Standard, you cannot actually say a priori which notes (i.e frequency) a given note number corresponds to, although in practice most things will take the note number and map it to a a 12TET 440Hz standard.

Re: Pianojacq, an easy way to learn to play the piano

#130

Post by rtsil »

kzrdude wrote: post #59
speedgoose wrote: post #49

Earlier quoted context omitted.

I'm an adult beginning to learn piano using Flowkey. It's criticized by the experts but I feel like it does a relatively good job at teaching basic piano finger techniques. I have no wish to become a piano expert anyway, I play music as a hobby.

I'm learning as an adult. My piano teacher keeps stressing musicality, feeling the music, feeling the beat, everything like that is more important than technique.

They are indeed more important than technique, but technique is a given. Without solid technique, musicality does not matter. Technique is what gives you confidence, it allows you to experiment and fine tune your artistic skills. To work on your expression instead of grappling with what's on the sheet.

Acquiring (and maintaining) technique requires hard work and time, but it's relatively easy once you combine these two factors. Developing a good ear, a good sense of rhythm, when to play on tempo, slightly before the tempo or slighly after, really understanding the music, that is infinitely more difficult so it make sense for a teacher to stress that part.

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