[rwhyan]

Looks cool design-wise, but who is this for?

Although the upfront cost of learning sheet music is a few weeks of study, it quickly becomes worth it due to gains in speed of learning and sightreading skills.

Maybe this can introduce people to piano and get them playing quickly, but it'll ultimately stunt their development.

[ksenzee]

For people saying “but there are amazing musicians who don’t read music,” yes, of course there are. Literacy isn’t required for poets, either. There are rich oral traditions that weren’t written down for hundreds or thousands of years. But you cannot convince me that reading and writing are unimportant for poets and audiobook readers. You can do both jobs without reading or writing, but they’re a heck of a lot easier if you do.

I think it also depends what instrument you play. It’s understandable that there are guitarists in this thread saying “eh, pianists don’t need sheet music, I do fine without it” but they are missing the fact that sheet music is way more useful for piano than it is for guitar. If someone truly does not want to learn to read music, they might consider taking up an instrument like guitar where you can get along without it.

[jacobp100]

If you already know and like sheet music, I don’t think this app will be for you

I know at least one other person who didn’t bother learning sheet music. Maybe it’s because I came from guitar, where tabs aren’t particularly sight readable, so I just learn and remember the entire piece

[rwhyan]

Yes, this app could serve as an introduction to piano, but ultimately relying on it will be detrimental to long-term growth.

I think the app would b more useful if it helped teach sheet music (which can be frustrating for beginners) through this friendly UI.

[nogridbag]

I learned piano when I was young, but I never practiced and basically repeated the same lesson over and over. We started taking our 5 year old for piano lessons and I was inspired and wanted to start practicing as well, but I found I couldn't read any sheet music.

I found a course on Udemy: Read Music FAST and Read Music FAST! Part 2. I highly recommend those. It basically took a week or two to get through them and I was able to jump into the author's free Intermediate lesson.

[OfSanguineFire]

In the jazz world it is fairly common for pianists to be unable to read music. For example, Colin Vallon, one of the most successful jazz pianists of the new millennium, has admitted in a number of interviews that he never learned.

[rwhyan]

I wouldn't call it "fairly common."

There are certainly outliers who play by ear or rely on improvisation, but musicians in all genres rely on sheet music to develop their craft.

[Rochus]

Many, many "outliers".

[teo_mosce]

Yeah that's true but I know for a fact that many of my friends would like to simply learn a few simple songs without really getting into the details of learning music! So this might be helpful for all those people like them!

[tobr]

This is wrong. Played piano all my life, and never learned to read sheet music fast enough for it to be any use. This has not stunted my development. I play by ear and chords.

[ksenzee]

I play by ear and chords too, but being able to jot something down, or read something someone else has written down, is as useful to me in music as it is in English. Literacy is just plain practical.

[tobr]

Practical and useful, yes! Stunting development is something different. I do know how to read sheet music, but I’ve never practiced it to be fast enough to sight read. I’ve never felt that this has stunted my development - if it had, I probably would have picked up speed naturally.

[ksenzee]

Sightreading is difficult enough that most pianists aren’t any good at it. Those who are get props and envy from other musicians.

[rwhyan]

I'm sure you can play piano, but I'm also willing to bet it has put a ceiling on the types of pieces you can learn.

Have you tried learning a Chopin Ballade or Bach WTC fugue without sheet music?

[dbalatero]

GP might not want to play that kind of music. You can easily get away with no reading ability if you play in bands, pop groups, etc. (not that it's not useful to read)

[tobr]

Who is it for, you asked. Do you think there might be a few beginner pianists who see value in being able to play other music than 300-year-old fugues? If an interest in developing musical abilities in a different direction constitutes a “ceiling” and “stunted development” for you, you have a very narrow view of what it means to play an instrument.

[rwhyan]

It's objectively a ceiling if you can't work towards playing the most technically challenging music.

It doesn't have to be Bach. You will struggle to learn ANY advanced piano without sheet music.

Sure it's for "beginners," but I'm saying it will inherently stunt their growth compared to putting in the work to learn sheet music.

[eitally]

That's not remotely true. if your objective is to play keys in a rock band, you really mostly just need chords and a little fill here and there.

I completely agree with your fundamental point, but it's a mistake to say someone needs to be able to be technically excellent in order not to feel like they've hit a ceiling in what they can do.

[tobr]

It’s not an objective ceiling when we disagree on which way is up! You have a super-weird and specific idea of what it means to play piano. I really can’t think of a less inspiring goal than playing “advanced” or “technically challenging” music. If you like to do that, go nuts, but don’t assume that anything else is meaningless.

[rwhyan]

How is that "super-weird" or "specific"? If anything, your idea of advanced pieces not being "up" is obscure.

> I really can’t think of a less inspiring goal than playing “advanced” or “technically challenging” music

Really? You can't understand how aiming to conquer a highly technical and musical piece is inspiring? It's the same as tackling any other difficult goal.

Music at a less technical level isn't meaningless, but it's an inherent limitation on your musicality if your repertoire is limited by technique.

Technique facilitates greater musicality. Sheet music facilitates greater technique.

Regardless, do as you please, but it's like saying, "I'll never learn code, because I can build no-code products!"

[abid786]

You’re probably not very good at playing the piano. I’m not sure what you mean by far enough, but not being able to sight read a piece is not the same as being unable to read sheet music at all.

[bityard]

I've noticed that across my many hobbies, there are always people who insist that THEIR way of learning how to do a thing is the ONLY way to learn how to do a thing. This seems more prevalent in the music world, though. Especially if they had strict teacher.

[djaychela]

Wes Montgomery couldn't read music, but he was a pretty good guitarist [1]

[1] This is an understatement, by the way.

[tobr]

> You’re probably not very good at playing the piano.

This is rude. What the heck do you base this on?

[dbalatero]

Yeah it's a moronic comment. I'm not even going to bother to compile a list of musicians that smoke everyone else without reading sheet music, but you can't throw a rock without hitting one.

[pclmulqdq]

In the professional music scene, you can go for an entire career without running into one. It is a relatively small set of outliers, and even then, there is a narrow set of genres (most of them Western and modern) where a professional player can get away with not reading or writing music.

Even in the poster child of learning by ear, Jazz, something like 99% of session and pro players learn to read music.

[Aeolun]

> Maybe this can introduce people to piano and get them playing quickly

That’s good enough for the people that would otherwise never play at all.