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Show HN: I made a memory game to teach you to play piano by ear

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Re: Show HN: I made a memory game to teach you to play piano by ear

#162

Earlier quoted context omitted.

This, but (or "and") use the 4-row layout that dozens of tracker programs used[0], to fit over 2 octaves on the computer keyboard. On a US keyboard: QWERTYUIOP[] is the white keys starting at middle C. (The row above is the black keys; the 2 key plays C#.) ZXCVBNM,./ is the white keys starting an octave lower. (S plays a low C#.) The two ranges overlap; e.g. Q and , both play C in the same octave. Grew up composing m…

Can you name a piece of software that uses this scheme? Or, better still, the OG software that used it. If I steal this, I'd like to have something to call it. (I've seen this scheme before: I think it might be used by the keyboard built into the Squeak image that comes with Scratch 1.4.)

The earliest I've used was Protracker, which was the most popular tracker in the early heyday of the format (late 80s - early 90s), but the earlier Soundtracker was the OG "tracker", and probably used the same layout, but I'm not sure. https://www.exotica.org.uk/wiki/Soundtracker_History

But if FL Studio (formerly FruityLoops) and Renoise use the same layout, as others have said, then those are probably going to resonate with a wider modern audience :D Or maybe just call it "FL Studio / Renoise / tracker layout"?

I don't do computer keyboard note entry any more, but I still have the muscle memory for that 4-row layout from hours spent with it in the late 90s :D And I'd totally use it in your game. (My MIDI keyboards are kinda too far away from the mouse and monitor.)

Re: Show HN: I made a memory game to teach you to play piano by ear

#164

Just bought a digital piano as New Year present to myself. So far I am doing single-note-a-time melodies from my child's practice book and so far enjoying my slow progress, but I am really struggling. Spent 3 evenings on a single simplest song and still can't play it end to end reliably. I have to sign every note with a letter in a music book because only other way to "read" music sheet for me is count lines for each…

I mean it took me like eight years as a kid to get good at this. It's just a slog. All learning is exponential.

Re: Show HN: I made a memory game to teach you to play piano by ear

#165
Interesting, but it shows the first note, and after you play it, it shows the next note, so I have to not to look at the notes when trying to guess them.

Also, too complicated for a beginner, I would start with things like "guess which note is higher" or "how many notes are played simultaneously".

Re: Show HN: I made a memory game to teach you to play piano by ear

#166

Interesting, but it shows the first note, and after you play it, it shows the next note, so I have to not to look at the notes when trying to guess them. Also, too complicated for a beginner, I would start with things like "guess which note is higher" or "how many notes are played simultaneously".

Oh, you can adjust that in the Settings - there's actually three different ways in Practice Mode:

- Show All Notes - all notes in the sequence are displayed in the staff (which pages to next groups of notes as you play)

- Show Next Note - only the next note to play is shown

- Show Last Note - this only shows the previous note that you got correct forcing you to rely entirely on ear training

Beginner modes like "higher/lower" are an interesting idea. Thanks for the feedback!

Re: Show HN: I made a memory game to teach you to play piano by ear

#167

Awesome! Now make one for guitar!

Thanks! It's on my TODO list! I've got several guitars (acoustic, electric, and nylon) so I want to make sure I can get a good level of pitch detection accuracy before I add a mic feature to it~

Re: Show HN: I made a memory game to teach you to play piano by ear

#168

Interesting, but it shows the first note, and after you play it, it shows the next note, so I have to not to look at the notes when trying to guess them. Also, too complicated for a beginner, I would start with things like "guess which note is higher" or "how many notes are played simultaneously".

Oh, you can adjust that in the Settings - there's actually three different ways in Practice Mode: - Show All Notes - all notes in the sequence are displayed in the staff (which pages to next groups of notes as you play) - Show Next Note - only the next note to play is shown - Show Last Note - this only shows the previous note that you got correct forcing you to rely entirely on ear training Beginner modes like "highe…

As a beginner I can say that I cannot hear notes and intervals, but I can hear if they go up or down, and I usually pick the notes by playing different notes and comparing them. But your app makes me start from the beginning for every mistake, so it becomes a little difficult.

Re: Show HN: I made a memory game to teach you to play piano by ear

#170

Earlier quoted context omitted.

Sweet! Thanks for the follow up. I hope it's a straightforward fix! Aside from that, nice work on the app! Looking forward to giving it another try. ETA: a shameless plug, but since you may have an interest in this kind of thing - I built and published a free, online midi piano (and drum kit) available for anyone to use. It's pretty bare-bones and doesn't really explain itself, but in case you ever want to use it, ch…

Okay I think it's fixed - I'm testing for NOTE_ON with velocity of 0. Let me now if that solves it for you. I simulated a test of it because my midi controller just sends the regular NOTE_ON/NOTE_OFF messages! Tried out your site - super clean interface. I noticed you are using the Salamander Grand Piano samples. For some weird reason I thought that those samples were pretty huge (50+ MB) but it loaded up pretty quic…

Working as expected. Thanks for the fix! Now that I'm actually able to use it, it's pretty great. It's a really great experience, exploring to fill out the notes. I do get that rogue-like itch for immediacy, when I make a simple mistake, but it feels like having to wait gives a nice buffer. I also really like how configurable it is. That's something that is often overlooked.

Also, thanks for checking out the site! Yeah, I compressed the files down to .mp3, myself, and then only used a single velocity, so that they were around 2MB in total. They sound terrible, in comparison, but good enough for phone speakers and non-recordable jamming. You can find the same-sized, better-sounding .opus versions in all velocities on the repo's base-functionality branch, if you're interested in those samples.

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