[bromley]

I can imagine this being really useful for improving sight-reading.

However, for me what made piano a whole lot more fun was ditching the sheet music and opting to learn about chords, all the different ways to voice them, and the various scales that fit well on top of them. I started taking lessons with a pro jazz pianist (instead of a more typical classically-focused piano teacher), I gave up on sheet music altogether and started working off lead sheets instead (just chord symbols and a melody line). I am so pleased I made that decision, it's so much more satisfying playing a tune in your own way rather than just aiming for a note-for-note reproduction of what is written on a sheet.

I still have loads more to learn, but I'm fairly pleased with where I've got to so far. I've got a few videos on youtube so you can judge for yourself if interested: https://www.youtube.com/channel/UC_NWuVoCn-Oc1KIiHEhe7Eg

However, although I think I can play reasonably well now, my sight-reading is awful, and it does hold me back because it makes it a lot harder for me to learn new techniques from sheet music (which I am actually interested in doing, as opposed to simply learning the sheet music note for note). I can do it just about, but it's painfully slow, so I am usually too lazy to bother.

Given the choice of either playing with full sheet-music or learning chords/voicings/scales and how to put them together, I'd pick the latter no question, and that is what I recommend to other adults who are learning piano, but I do think it's best to have both. So I can definitely see the value in this, even if it doesn't currently seem to teach the theory and improvisation that, in my opinion, is what really brings the joy into piano playing. I might give it a proper go myself some time soon, to see if it can help me improve my rubbish sight reading.

I can also imagine this being very useful for a beginner... Although I'm singing the praises of chord theory and improvisation I'm guessing most beginners might realistically do better starting with sheet music, for a while at least.

In summary: it might not teach everything, but it looks really useful nonetheless :)

[sudosteph]

I'm in a similar boat, and agree completely that it's super fun to learn this way. Coming from playing guitar, I was already used to starting from chords and listening for the rest, so it wasn't a big change. I'm a big believer in proper timing and solid rhythms being more important than notes, and learning by ear makes those aspects more intuitive, in my experience at least.

One thing I did find was the very helpful, was putting those stickers with note names on each note on the keyboard. They help me keep track of what I'm playing, and when I compose something I rely on the stickers to help me transcribe.

[bromley]

I'm lucky that I was taught how to read music as a kid... I'm still rubbish at it, it's slow and painful for anything vaguely complex, but at least I can do it badly when I put mind to it.

I find complex rhythms particularly hard to read. Figuring out timing from a sheet without hearing it is like pulling teeth :D That said, listening to a recording of a great pianist and trying to work out exactly what they are doing can also be very difficult and frustrating when there are chords and complex patterns in two hands, so a good transcription can help a lot. I have a book of Bill Evans transcriptions that I would definitely do more with if I were better at reading music, or had software assistance!

[xtiansimon]

> "I gave up on sheet music altogether and started working off lead sheets instead..."

I've not taken the plunge yet, but I was convinced this was the way to learn by Scott the Piano guy infomercial on TV. https://youtu.be/k50uk8elR0M

Some day...

[bromley]

I've not tried anything of his myself, but Facebook keeps showing me his ads and it looks good. Good luck with it!

[jacquesm]

Interesting track, there are a number of pianists (very good ones) that went that route. Keith Jarrett for instance, and Friedrich Gulda.

[bromley]

Keith Jarrett is one of my piano heroes :)

The conventional way of learning piano has a student learning sheet-music pieces that get increasingly difficult as the student improves. It's a fairly linear path, and the vast majority of students will never be able to play a difficult piece like, say, Chopin's Fantaisie Impromptu, as well as a top performer.

Similarly the vast majority of students going the chords/voicings/improvisation route will never be able to play Over The Rainbow as well as Keith Jarrett, but they can at least have the satisfaction and enjoyment of doing it in their own unique way.

Composing your own music takes it a step further again.

[jacquesm]

I think the grading compared to a 'top performer' is about as silly as grading people that jog for an hour after dinner versus Usain Bolt. Music is something you to do enjoy, not because it is top sport!

Obviously there are going to be incredible performers at the high end but there is plenty of fun to be had in the middle and even on the low end.

I have a few pieces that are so beautiful compared to evertyhing else out there that if that were the norm those pieces might as well never be performed again, but then again, it's all subjective and what I like you might not.

> Similarly the vast majority of students going the chords/voicings/improvisation route will never be able to play Over The Rainbow as well as Keith Jarrett, but they can at least have the satisfaction and enjoyment of doing it in their own unique way.

Yes, true. And that too is a lot of fun. I did some jam sessions with the sax (and I wasn't all that good), most fun I had making music to date.

> Composing your own music takes it a step further again.

That might actually at some level be more essential than just reproduction. The cave men had it easy: everything they did was original.

[bromley]

Good points!

The beauty of a piece doesn't depend on its technical difficulty. Back when I used to play classical music more I loved playing a few of Chopin's Nocturnes repeatedly - they were about the right level for me so it was fun, and I could play them pretty well, I think. But I also spent a lot of time learning a few harder pieces (like Fantaisie Impromptu), and I remember getting frustrated that it took me ages to learn them and, although in the end I could play them sortof OKish, my efforts just weren't a patch on what a better pianist could do.

Looking back I can see that I shouldn't have picked such hard pieces until I was really ready for them. It was probably a big part of why I ended up quitting for quite a few years before taking it up again more recently with an entirely different approach.

[jacquesm]

So, you are a much better player than I will likely ever be. For me what mattered is that the software would guide me to improve on a piece as fast as possible. To do this it measures your performance very precisely and then judges where you are still weak, and then it starts to bring you up by focusing on the weakest parts first until they are no longer the weakest parts. Like that you improve quite rapidly.

Give it a try if you have an opportunity, I'm curious what you make of it given that you are roughly on the same path but clearly very much ahead of me.

[bromley]

It sounds great to me - sight reading is difficult, and frustratingly hard work too, so assistance in mastering that skill is welcome. I am without MIDI keyboard at present as I play an acoustic upright, but I will look out for an opportunity to give it a proper go.

And I might as well put in a feature idea (which I suspect would be rather tricky to implement but here goes anyway!): it would be awesome if it could take input from a mic and figure out the notes from that, so it could work with acoustic instruments too :)