[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 :)

[jacquesm]

Yes, that is the most frequently requested feature right now and on HN'er in this thread has courteously allowed me to use their software to try to implement this. Stay 'tuned' :)

[bromley]

Excellent! Good luck with it :)