Hacker News Board Hacker News, browsed like a classic message board
Live data from Hacker News

Touch Pianist

touchpianist.com

Post reply on HN
Print view View original

181–190 of 240 posts

Re: Touch Pianist

#181

Post by partdavid »

volkk wrote: post #93
tuzemec wrote: post #88

Earlier quoted context omitted.

When I started taking piano lesions a few years ago, one of the first rules that my teacher established was: "No Moonlight Sonata" ¯\_(ツ)_/¯ My guess is that it resembles in a way playing "Smoke on the water" in a guitar shop.

that's sad. a yearning musician should be able to learn and play whatever they want and whatever makes them feel a certain thing. moonlight sonata evokes something in me i can't explain (which is probably why it's a legendary piece). having strong opinions on what to play when learning feels so gatekeepy. i would have dropped that teacher quickly

Actually, teachers are human beings and they're allowed to have preferences, likes and dislikes. It's okay that not every teacher is for every student 100% of the time. Something can be a bad student/teacher fit without it being a negative value judgment ("sad", "gatekeeping", "drop").

Re: Touch Pianist

#182

Post by jasonjayr »

purpleblue wrote: post #167
johtso wrote: post #23

Great choice of song! If you ever have access to a piano, I highly recommended trying to fumble your way through Beethoven's moonlight sonata, even if you don't know how to play piano. Not quite sure how to put it into words, but it's absolutely exhilarating hearing your own fingers produce these huge sounds and intense chord progressions. Every time I managed to find the right chord I'd get such a rush. "Oh no he di…

Moonlight Sonata 3rd Movement is one of the most exhilarating songs I've ever heard, if not the most. I can't believe a piece of music written a few hundred years ago still sounds so modern and exciting and new, it's an incredible work. I urge everyone to listen to it, specifically the 3rd movement. It really shocks me that Beethoven or anyone could write a piece of music so brilliant like that!

One of my favorite 'reinterpretations' of the piece is by Meganeko, link here:

https://soundcloud.com/meganeko/beethoven-moonlight-sonata-3...

Re: Touch Pianist

#183

Post by partdavid »

thih9 wrote: post #108
erikpukinskis wrote: post #97

Earlier quoted context omitted.

Yes, but a teacher I think has the right to decide that after teaching the same song 500 times they never want to hear it again. I think people can be allowed one song they are tired of.

I’d guess the reason would be different, I think that a person that gets bothered by music repetition would not work as a music teacher. You might avoid moonlight sonta, but then it’s 500 servings of fur elise.

Or they've learned through their experience they simply don't like the kind of person who insists on learning the one song they like, and can't teach them well, so it's a good filter.

But hey, not every teacher is for every student and vice-versa; and that's okay.

Re: Touch Pianist

#184

Post by ksenzee »

tuzemec wrote: post #88
johtso wrote: post #23

Great choice of song! If you ever have access to a piano, I highly recommended trying to fumble your way through Beethoven's moonlight sonata, even if you don't know how to play piano. Not quite sure how to put it into words, but it's absolutely exhilarating hearing your own fingers produce these huge sounds and intense chord progressions. Every time I managed to find the right chord I'd get such a rush. "Oh no he di…

When I started taking piano lesions a few years ago, one of the first rules that my teacher established was: "No Moonlight Sonata" ¯\_(ツ)_/¯ My guess is that it resembles in a way playing "Smoke on the water" in a guitar shop.

I started piano lessons at age 5, I’ve taught piano, and I still arrange music and accompany professionally from time to time, so I’m a fairly snobbish classically trained pianist, and it is my considered opinion that that is a lovely piece of music and every pianist should play it any time they want. If you teach, and you don’t like the Moonlight Sonata, you should hold your nose and teach it anyway.

Re: Touch Pianist

#185

Post by bestest »

Fnoord wrote: post #171
stavros wrote: post #168

Earlier quoted context omitted.

There are more songs in the menu (I think).

Nope, coming soon. Was a disappointment for my kid after I told her there were more songs.

there are more. the menu is somewhat awkward. it wasn't working for me in chrome properly (wasn't able to choose other pieces). works ok in safari, had a blast with toccata and fugue in d minor.

Re: Touch Pianist

#187

Post by turtlebits »

Wishlist - As a piano player, the left and right hands really need to be broken up into separate rhythms (esp for grace notes), also it needs a sustain pedal. Maybe as an advanced feature.

Re: Touch Pianist

#188

Post by Ylpertnodi »

philbarr wrote: post #51

This is a great kind of thing for getting people into music. There's a piano in my local pub and when people say they "can't play piano" I'll play a 2-5-1 in C and tell them to hit any of the white notes. People love that they can make up their own tunes having never played before.

The pedant in me is screaming -

ii V I

Re: Touch Pianist

#189

Post by nyanpasu64 »

philbarr wrote: post #53
hackton wrote: post #13

Earlier quoted context omitted.

Beethoven Sonata No. 14 "Moonlight"

Let's hope it doesn't have the third movement in it or else we'll be needing new keyboards.

It does have the third movement. I tried it for shits and giggles:

- Playing fast sections of a song is like mashing through a cutscene, but it's easier to press quickly (not sure at a consistent pace) with multiple fingers. The original piano music was meant for multiple fingers as well.

- The hardest part is advancing the right number of buttons. I don't even know the right number of notes in the trills, and would kinda prefer if the website automatically advanced through trills finer than a 16th note, so it's less likely to end up desynced with the actual piece (I'm not sure if you get used to it with learning each piece or not).

- The website has noticeable audio latency, which makes it hard to associate keypresses and which sound came out in fast sections.

Post reply on HN