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Show HN: My iOS app to practice sight reading (10 years in the App Store)

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Re: Show HN: My iOS app to practice sight reading (10 years in the App Store)

#51

Earlier quoted context omitted.

Yes, sight reading is a misnomer because at some level it is almost impossible to sight read a complex piece. It is not like reading a book where you will be able to read the words correctly as long as you're literate. What you can say is that you're familiar with simple/medium complexity rhythms so you can play them as you read.

Not sure i agree with that. I can sight read through just about any piece, albeit not at full speed. If I make a mistake, I keep going. Jazz is definitely the hardest, due to rhythm and complex chords. As a piano player that primarily sight reads, I end playing a lot of music, so maybe it is partly memorizing patterns.

Jazz is...different. The Real Book is full of mistakes by some Berklee students in the 1970s. Standards as played on the bandstand are very different than what is on the records. The records are all different from each other. The melody is simplified or shortened or embellished, and the chords? Forget it, you'll find out that the piano player likes to play a dominant instead of minor only when you're actually playing the tune. Ask a pro how to think about the harmony of a standard, and they'll explain how they think about the harmony of the variant they prefer.

Re: Show HN: My iOS app to practice sight reading (10 years in the App Store)

#52
post #19

This is incredible because it exactly matches my needs. I started learning the piano 3 years ago as an adult, I love it, but my biggest difficulty is reading scores. I do want to practice but also I'm very lazy, I tried to find a tool to help but never found yours before. Tiny question before I purchase to unlock the microphone feature (which is really what makes sense for me): does the app understands do ré mi via m…

The mic works on the standard 440 tuning and converts the input to its midi representation. Trying to understand your question but the mic doesn't really care about the do, re, me but rather that it's the right frequency for the displayed note on the staff. The mic feature is something I'm actively working on improving as it's decent now but not perfect. If you have an instrument with a way to connect to the phone th…

Sight reading practice for voice is super useful, but not many of us have perfect pitch to pull a starting note out of the air! An option to get a starting note audible cue for vocal sight reading would be a great add-on (and hopefully not too difficult!)

Re: Show HN: My iOS app to practice sight reading (10 years in the App Store)

#53
post #33

Earlier quoted context omitted.

My app appears at the top of a search if you specify sight reading but if you are searching for "learn piano" or similar keywords it will be no where near the top

I just learned via your post the term "sight reading" in English. French words and expressions when it comes to music are very different.

Out of curiosity, what’s the French term for this technique?

Re: Show HN: My iOS app to practice sight reading (10 years in the App Store)

#54

Earlier quoted context omitted.

Do you mind if I ask what library or algorithm you’re using for pitch estimation?

currently it's yin

Ah thank you I was not aware of that one.

Re: Show HN: My iOS app to practice sight reading (10 years in the App Store)

#56

Chiming in to say I downloaded this what feels like ages ago and occasionally come back to it when I’m away from my keyboard for too long, so thank you for this amazing app!

Love to hear it. Thanks for the years of usage!

Re: Show HN: My iOS app to practice sight reading (10 years in the App Store)

#58

Unsolicited advice but I think you’re too timid with the IAP! It’s a superb app and there is no shame in asking for the upgrade. I tapped the button labeled “mic (premium required)” fully expecting the paywall, and it had a prompt to ask if it was okay to show the paywall… it’s not a hard paywall, there’s a visible X icon, nobody’s going to be mad if it pops up. If you want to go a step further, you have only 1 one-t…

I completely agree I'm being too timid. With that said it was 100% free for many years and I always had in my mind that I would get it to a certain level before being more aggressive. Because I never really had as much time on this project as I would have liked I also never felt it was ready to try to ramp up monetization. Also I've really enjoyed providing a high value resource to music students and I'll always keep…

Commendable. I’m starting out on my second attempt at a learning app in my life, and I feel the same.

Re: Show HN: My iOS app to practice sight reading (10 years in the App Store)

#60
post #7

Thanks, just downloaded it to try and purchased instantly - great app! Have been “playing” Für Elise for so many years on piano, but forgot how to read sheet music years ago and didn’t quite know how to get back into it. Thought Synthesia would help but struggle at certain parts so the repetition and score based learning will help a lot.

I am cursed with enough musical memory that if I learn a piece from sheet music, my sight reading literally turns off and I play from some combination of muscle memory and ear. That might sound like a humblebrag, but it's not -it's quite frustrating to "work on reading" and then realize I'm not actually getting better at reading. When I come back to the material later, the short-term musical memory has usually faded…

In my experience, accidentally memorizing what you are reading doesn't really get in the way of what most people think of as sight reading. Internalizing structures and patterns is 99% of what it means ti "learn to read."
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