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Show HN: Hanon Pro – piano technique and exercises for the digital age
21–30 of 108 posts
Re: Show HN: Hanon Pro – piano technique and exercises for the digital age
#22It would be awesome if the file format was open and anyone could add their own scores to the app...
Try Soundslice, which lets you import any sheet music. It has a PDF/photo-scanning feature plus an entire sheet music editor built-in.
I’ve been working on it full-time for nearly 12 years now.
It doesn’t do the “listen to your performance” thing — maybe someday. But the other bits, such as practice tracking and interactive sheet music features, are all there.
Re: Show HN: Hanon Pro – piano technique and exercises for the digital age
#23Looks nice, but after downloading it, I was a bit disappointed. I mistakenly assumed that this would compare to something like Alfred's Adult Piano Courses [1], but it's much simpler than that.
Personally, I doubt that is wise to charge money for this. Sure, you put in some work, but the value is fairly low, and you'd probably only get payments from disappointed customers.
Edit: apparently the added value comes from using a MIDI device, which I don't have, so my comment might be a bit too negative. Most piano apps support microphone input, which is easier to set up and attracts a larger audience.
Re: Show HN: Hanon Pro – piano technique and exercises for the digital age
#24On this note, does anyone know some books in references to applied music theory? I'm a pretty advanced piano player, but a lot of more basic piano players can make up chords to play with with simple tunes that sound pretty good, most of those people seem to know a certain of rules that I don't know. And googling books about piano music on google books or the likes has not yielded any useful results.
I learnt with a college music theory textbook. Without that, it's all just meaningless rules "just because".
Music Theory Remixed by Kevin Holm-Hudson is great, accessible but pretty long. Still, I finally understand music theory more or less.
Re: Show HN: Hanon Pro – piano technique and exercises for the digital age
#25iOS once touted itself as being honest. Now it doesn't show the price until you install the app?
It still shows everything, the price of the app itself and the prices of all IAPs. The App Store sucks in many wonderful ways, but pricing transparency isn’t one of them.
Re: Show HN: Hanon Pro – piano technique and exercises for the digital age
#26This looks fascinating. Im missing one thing though. Highlight of an app is that it can analyze play from MIDI but being an interested person it immediately pushes me toward “pick a device” which is immediate ehhhh area for myself. I know there are many and there’s personal preferences etc. but I think that (since it’s an educational system) there should be kickstart process accessible, i.e. matrix of recommended dev…
Came to ask exactly the same thing. Want to buy one for my kids to practice but I don't have an idea which would be the best given our budget and preferences so a matrix of compatible devices would be great.
Just did research into this question...I'm someone that played piano as a child and wanted to get back into it. I wanted to get something that would integrate with apps, good action and sound without making a massive investment in case I don't stick with it. I also wanted something that was small and easy to move.
My digital piano just arrived a few hours ago.
I decided on the Roland FP-30X after trying several models in store.
Pro-tip: many of the big name digital pianos are half the price in the mainland China market than in the rest of the world. Often for an upgraded model as well.
FP-30X was 3850 CNY (~US$550) including the Roland KPD-70 three pedal unit and KSC-70 stand. Delivery (to Hong Kong) was ~400 CNY.
Another good option is the FP-18 which is a mainland market-only China model that's an upgrade overthe FP-10 in that it has more sounds and also supports three pedals. It's about ~1200 CNY cheaper than the FP-30X. Downside is slightly inferior sound and speakers compared to FP-30x
I also tried out the Yamaha portables...P-525 was excellent but about 3x the cost of the FP-30x. I didn't really like feel of the action of the cheaper Yamaha (P-225?).
So far FP-30X has been great...the bluetooth MIDI interface and bluetooth interfaces work seamlessly with my iPad. I haven't tried out Hanon Pro yet but it's been really thrilling to try out the various piano learning apps. If I had these back in the 90s, I'd probably be a much better piano player now! Better late than never!
Re: Show HN: Hanon Pro – piano technique and exercises for the digital age
#27I tried it, I guess I'm your target market, I'm relatively new to keyboard, trying to learn, and do happen to have a Bluetooth MIDI adapter.
A few notes and observations from a quick trial run below:
- the app crashed out a few times when connecting to my MIDI controller (a Yamaha MD-BT01 dongle that plugs into the old school MIDI plugs on the keyboard). Not sure what's going on there, but it happened a few times. - the feedback given seemed quite helpful, I like that wrong notes were highlighted, and it seemed to do well at ignoring a false-start that I made while trying it out. - I would have liked if the playback functionality supported MIDI too; I play with headphones on and it's a bit weird (and annoying for other people in the house) if the playback comes out of the iPad. - I would also like the ability to start from a bar of my choice and maybe even evaluate a one or two bar section at a time rather than having to play the whole piece
On the whole though I think it's a good app, and I intend to use it more. I don't share the concerns of others about the price of the sheet music, I think your pricing is reasonable, and assume it takes some effort for you to translate into a form that can be used.
Well done, thanks for sharing.
Re: Show HN: Hanon Pro – piano technique and exercises for the digital age
#28For reference "Hanon" is a classic book of piano exercises that improve the velocity of the pianist. It is like 150 years old but still heavily used everyday by a lot of professional pianists: https://en.m.wikipedia.org/wiki/The_Virtuoso_Pianist_in_60_E...
Re: Show HN: Hanon Pro – piano technique and exercises for the digital age
#29This looks fascinating. Im missing one thing though. Highlight of an app is that it can analyze play from MIDI but being an interested person it immediately pushes me toward “pick a device” which is immediate ehhhh area for myself. I know there are many and there’s personal preferences etc. but I think that (since it’s an educational system) there should be kickstart process accessible, i.e. matrix of recommended dev…
Studio Logic has a good range of MIDI controllers [1] [2], some of which include built-in audio synthesis, and others just the controller. I think they are very competitive in terms of price. I have a SL88 and the thing is definitely built to last and feels like a real piano keyboard.
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Re: Show HN: Hanon Pro – piano technique and exercises for the digital age
#30On this note, does anyone know some books in references to applied music theory? I'm a pretty advanced piano player, but a lot of more basic piano players can make up chords to play with with simple tunes that sound pretty good, most of those people seem to know a certain of rules that I don't know. And googling books about piano music on google books or the likes has not yielded any useful results.
If you want to go in the jazz direction, the Jazz Piano Book by Mark Levine [1] is great! It has everything a jazz player needs to know, from II - V - I voicings to scales, upper structures, etc.