[vunderba]

Nice work. From the Github:

> This allows the pianist to not have to turn pages, and more importantly, allows them to see the music and their hands at the same time, which is an unavoidable problem with traditional sheet music.

I could definitely see this being beneficial for beginners. When I lived in a dormitory during uni I often played familiar pieces from memory pretty late on a digital piano (with headphones) in extremely dim lighting so as not to disturb my roommate.

At some point I just stopped having to look down at the keyboard. I play a lot of stride piano as well and that probably conditioned me to just have a sort of musical proprioception for the instrument. And of course, there's numerous examples of unbelievable blind pianists - Stevie Wonder, Ray Charles, Art Tatum, etc.

[atoav]

I wanted to say, after a certain level looking at your fingers when playing an instrument becomes the equivalent of looking at your legs when riding the bicycle.

When I start to think too much about what my fingers are doing I will play worse. For if I want to practise a particular part where I get the fingering wrong, sure, but when you play it for real, looking is counterproductive.

Something like this could be great for beginners tho. But simular to automatic guitar tuners I am not sure if you should get into the habit of this technology being around.

[yusina]

Counter point: people get too hung up on staring at the sheet. The sheet is just a tool to help you remember what you intend to play. The goal should always be to not need it anymore, and while using the sheet, it's like using a crutch.

The "looking at your fingers" challenge then becomes that you start to play "by eye" instead of "by ear" (or "by feel") which I find is very hard to overcome. Especially when you are improvising.

Though in a sense "by sheet" is just as bad.

[atoav]

I am not a big sheet player myself, I love to improvise and play by memory, so when I said "don't look at the fingers", I didn't mean "instead look at the sheet".

Look at the audience, out of the window, into nothingness — or even close your eyes. As long as you're there.

[schwartzworld]

> The goal should always be to not need it anymore, and while using the sheet, it's like using a crutch.

Uh, why? Lots of pros use sheet music, especially for complex pieces. I’ve never heard of an orchestra conductor insisting everyone be off-book.

It’s one thing to memorize pop songs or whatever, but nobody is out there shaming people for not memorizing Rachmaninov

[yusina]

People who are good at playing a technically hard piece essentially know it by heart. They couldn't play it on sight, they have invested significant time to be able to play it. It's just the few remaining percent of reminders and the comfort of having the sheet "just in" case as well as the being-used-to-it factor that makes them stare at the sheet. But if they can play it really well then they don't _actually_ need it. Any pro musician will tell you this.

The orchestra setting has the extra requitement that the sheet is a tool for communication. "The figure in bar 83" is not a term you have gained an intuitive understanding for, but is needed to communicate in an orchestra setting. The soloist though often times plays by heart, at least during performances, so as not to get distracted / get tunnel vision.

[necubi]

The soloist had their concerto memorized (and they’ve probably performed it dozens of times before). But the members of the orchestra are responsible for playing hundreds of pages of music a week. They’ve practiced any particularly exposed or technical sections, but otherwise they’re basically sight reading for the performance.

[dylan604]

How many people still look at the keyboard when typing? At some point, you just don't need to look at whatever it is your doing. Also, at some point, you memorize the music if it's something you are playing enough. What level of pianist is reading sheet music and looking at their hands at the same time.

[bambax]

> I just stopped having to look down at the keyboard

Maybe the next step is an app for people who don't read sheet music; it would light up the keys on the keyboard that you need to press, when you look at it...?

Same for guitar, highlight where to put your fingers on a fret for each chord.

[schwartzworld]

Various products have done this over the years. Forget app, actual keyboards and guitars that light up. It’s not a good way to learn.

[bambax]

It's true that it's not a good way to learn, but it's fun for a little while.

That's why an app on glasses for this is better than a complete alternative instrument; the app is much cheaper and should work with any real instrument.

[schwartzworld]

An app on glasses would also not be a great way to learn. There’s a reason we don’t color code piano keys or right the names of the notes on them.

> the app is much cheaper and should work with any real instrument.

Maybe if your instrument has keys or frets. Even if it was a good way to learn, it wouldn’t do much good for a trumpet.

[fragmede]

> There’s a reason we don’t color code piano keys or write the names of the notes on them.

When's the last time you learned to play piano? Yes we do. We take off those training wheels at some point but when learning to play for the first time, especially as a child, tools to help learning like the aforementioned do get used.

[schwartzworld]

A couple of times. I learned initially as a kid, then in college I took two semesters of piano, then in the last year I’ve delved heavily into keyboard playing.

I taught my 5 year old where C was and it took about 2 minutes.

> We take off those training wheels

Training wheels are an apt metaphor because they are a similarly wrong way to learn to bike. You get quicker initial results, but have to unlearn to use those crutches later on.

[mock-possum]

It’s not even a good way to play. The delay between seeing the cue, and moving to play it, completely ruins the flow of playing (and listening to) the music - it introduces too many hiccups in timing.

[kevinlinxc]

For me, it's still easy to mess up for complex sections if I'm not peeking at the keyboard every so often. Its true that muscle memory takes over after you reach a level of familiarity but not quite to the extent of biking