26
votes

I'm pretty new to the Piano, and pretty bad at sight-reading (but getting better:))

Still, sight-reading a new score takes me an awfull lot of time, especially when I don't "hear" the thing I'm supposed to play.

I know there's some software you can use to play a piano score, and there's also software you can use to capture what you're playing on a keyboard on a computer (through a MIDI interface)

so I was wondering if there was a software that could bring those two worlds together and display in real-time the notes I'm playing next to the piano score. Ideally, the software would be clever enough to guess the part I'm trying to play, and advance at my pace !

0

8 Answers 8

12
votes

I think you're looking for something like PianoBooster. It displays parts on a scrolling stave in-time with your playing, using standard MIDI files. It can wait for you to hit the correct note, can play the left-hand or right-hand part for you, and lets you adjust the speed to suit you. You can also transpose a part up or down.

PianoBooster is free and open source under the GNU General Public License (GPL) v3, available for Windows, Mac, and Linux. The Mac version is a "universal binary" and requires SimpleSynth or similar software.

4
votes

I found another one (Sheet Music Trainer). This one is for android.

It appears to work with most instruments. There is a full list on there website.

sheet music trainer

3
votes

The guy in this video uses MidiKeyz for the digital keyboard and GarageBand for the scrolling score. Both seem to be for the Mac though. And they are not freeware.

1
  • 2
    GarageBand for Apple Macintosh has some built-in lessons that do exactly this for piano. You can purchase additional lessons online.
    – user1044
    Aug 14, 2011 at 17:26
3
votes

I just found http://synthesiagame.com/

As a motivation feature there's even an online highscore list...

2
votes

my http://pianocheetah.com program will do that. Freeware on windows. It'll record your playing, wait for you, display notes in piano roll (tipped 90 degrees) but not standard notation. and show the notes you play on TOP of the notation, too. It'll load any midi file.

email me if you need any help [email protected]

enter image description here

http://pianocheetah.com/tutorial/_screenshot.html

1
  • update - sorry, but I've taken out standard notation. But it still displays what you're playing on top of the piano roll notation live. notes to play are colored according to scale so you can easily see octaves, 5ths, etc. Your recording is displayed as a black bar on top of the notation. Oct 15, 2015 at 18:09
0
votes

Have you tried Just Play, by Pentagrom? Its simple but solves exactly your problem, because it turns your smartphone into an instrument in the shape of written music, so that to read the notes of any score you just press the dots on the lines. I use it to practice for my choir, to know if Im singing the notes right (I dont worry about the rhythmn because I already know how that goes).

0
votes

I couldn't find a simple program to do this, so I wrote one for myself: pianoboi

As at the date of this post, it's in development, but with some basic commands you can easily get it to run on Windows or Mac.

pianoboi screenshot

-1
votes

I use MidiIlustrator. Very good app. You can compose or re-write any music sheet. Once you learn how to use it. This one is the best. It change page for you, too. Music note is good too but it doesn't change page.

1
  • Not found in Android Play Store. For iOS only?
    – guidot
    Oct 3, 2014 at 8:51

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