Sight reading made easy

[cwm9]

I wrote a flash application to help people to learn to sight read.  I'd love to get comments on it if some people wouldn't mind checking it out.

It shows you a note and you then have to type the letter of the note on the keyboard.  It's pretty simple, but, I think, pretty effective.

You can try it out at NotesInAFlash.com

Please let me know what you think!

Thanks

--chiem

[goldentone]

I'm impressed, chiem.  I think it is very good.  Thank you for sharing this with us.  This is definitely something I would want to use as a teacher.  How quickly did your sightreading improve once you started using your program?

[cwm9]

Thank you!

It took about about four days of practicing about 30 minutes a days to learn my lines and spaces.  It was such a relief.  After years and years of not being able to recognize them on sight, this was fantastic.

After that, it took about another few weeks to learn to play simple music on the piano without struggling.

I only wrote it about a month ago, so we'll see how much I keep improving, but so far I'm happy.

I'm even happier someone else thinks it might be worthwhile too!

[goose]

Hi Chiem,

And congratulations on producing an excellent little web tool for sight-reading! I still have a bit of trouble with the extreme ledger lines and this will help me, I'm sure. Thanks for posting it.

I have one suggestion which might improve the experience. I think it could be even more beneficial if you mapped the note names to a PC keyboard in the same way as one octave of a piano to create a 'virtual keyboard'.

As an example:
 W E    T Y U
A S D F G H J K

Where A = 'C', S = 'D', D = 'E', F = 'F' (!), G = 'G" (!) etc
And W = 'C#'/Db', E = 'D#/Eb' etc

This would take the user one step closer to recognizing the note name and applying it to the keyboard. Perhaps this could simply be an option:

Stage 1 - student learns letter names using actual PC letters
Stage 2 - student uses the 'virtual keyboard' to get a feel for playing those letters.

What do you think?

Best,
Goose

[pianowolfi]

I wrote a flash application to help people to learn to sight read.  I'd love to get comments on it if some people wouldn't mind checking it out.

It shows you a note and you then have to type the letter of the note on the keyboard.  It's pretty simple, but, I think, pretty effective.

You can try it out at NotesInAFlash.com

Please let me know what you think!

Thanks

Well, I am a very experienced sightreader, but somehow I don't get how this works, honestly... First it says "ding" and then it says "buzz" if you check a different note. *confused*

*experiments* 

[pianowolfi]

Lol I see I should have read the instructions first. yeah, now it's fun 

[cwm9]

I have one suggestion which might improve the experience. I think it could be even more beneficial if you mapped the note names to a PC keyboard in the same way as one octave of a piano to create a 'virtual keyboard'.

As an example:
 W E    T Y U
A S D F G H J K

Where A = 'C', S = 'D', D = 'E', F = 'F' (!), G = 'G" (!) etc
And W = 'C#'/Db', E = 'D#/Eb' etc

This would take the user one step closer to recognizing the note name and applying it to the keyboard. Perhaps this could simply be an option:

Stage 1 - student learns letter names using actual PC letters
Stage 2 - student uses the 'virtual keyboard' to get a feel for playing those letters.

What do you think?
Goose

I thought about this, but it does worry me a little bit that the keyboard really isn't a good substitute for a piano...

I did think about adding a MIDI module that would allow you to play the game from a MIDI keyboard.  Would you guys be interested in that?

[cwm9]

Lol I see I should have read the instructions first. yeah, now it's fun 

Haha, maybe I should have added a start button! 

[pianisten1989]

What's the problem with practicising as everybody else, and play the piano instead of sitting by the computer and try to fins say way of learning something? Noone leans how to play a beethoven sonata from the internet, why should one learn how to sight read from the internet?!

[d_jman01]

Wow this is very helpful but It could be better by adding a virtual piano feel on it... Thanks for posting it here! You really did a great job on that one...

[lostinidlewonder]

There's a difference between "sight reading" and "learning how to read notes". Learning to read notes is not hard, but developing it into an efficient method that allows you to sightread music is quite a tough and a long road.

[goose]

A MIDI keyboard version wouldn't interest me, but I can certainly see the point for beginners.

My point about remapping the computer keyboard letters to represent a keyboard was simply that you don't then have to look down at the (computer) keyboard but can simply hit the letter that represents the key intuitively. Again, the user could choose either version ('standard' or 'virtual' keyboard).

Yes, this tool is just one element of learning to sightread but it's an important one. I used it for a few days last week. Later, when I was playing some Debussy, I easily recognized the extreme ledger lines. Previously, I wasn't really able to sightread these ledger lines but would work them out first time through and then play them next time from memory. It's nice to be able to read them. Sure, I could have done this with a little dedication and no internet tool. But if it's there, why not use it?

Again, nice job, Chiem!

[allthumbs]

Nice job on your program Chiem.

Have a look here, there is a program on the market for this as well. It's called KeyNote Music Drills.

http://www.aloha.net/~khigaki/

Go to the site and click on 'KeyNote' link on the left side.
Check out the screenshots at the bottom of the page.

You can download a trial version as well.

I like that you can do both note to keyboard and keyboard to note drills.

I have purchased this as well and have used it with great success.

[cwm9]

A MIDI keyboard version wouldn't interest me, but I can certainly see the point for beginners.

My point about remapping the computer keyboard letters to represent a keyboard was simply that you don't then have to look down at the (computer) keyboard but can simply hit the letter that represents the key intuitively. Again, the user could choose either version ('standard' or 'virtual' keyboard).

Ok, well I'll add some keys then.

I also modified it to work with MIDI, so for those who want a MIDI version... there you go.

The next step will be to implement a scrolling music staff, similar to the way you play Dance Dance Revolution.

Have a look here, there is a program on the market for this as well. It's called KeyNote Music Drills.

I kind of feel bad now that I know people were out there charging for this functionality... it hardly seems fair for me to just put it out there.  Um... well... guilty feeling passing... Ok, better now.

Free is good.  |-)

I'll keep hacking away at this for a little while until I get bored with it.  We'll see.

I know using a computer is not as good as using the piano, but the point is not for those people who already know how to play to get better, it's to teach those who don't even know the lines and spaces yet.

I know it helped me, so I'm pretty sure it will help some other beginners out there.

I am so, so, SO much happier now.  When I look at a sheet of music, I don't feel like panicking.

I was already interval sight reading.  That's how I was getting by.  But if the interval got too large, well...  I was in trouble.  I'd just stop playing.  I'd have to be like... e... g... b... d... f... uh... did I skip a line?  That's no fun.

Memorizing the alphabet doesn't teach you to read, but it's much harder to learn to read without knowing the alphabet!

Well, anyway, if anyone has a MIDI setup and they could try it out for me and let me know if it worked for them, that'd be nice.

[Petter]

What's the problem with practicising as everybody else, and play the piano instead of sitting by the computer and try to fins say way of learning something? Noone leans how to play a beethoven sonata from the internet, why should one learn how to sight read from the internet?!

Yea I mean why should we even use electricity when we read notes. I mean people in the 1700th century did fine without it. Some got blind and had to get their spouse to write for them but what the heck. 

[mad_max2024]

Any chance on a "do,re,mi" version?
I could probably use it to help my 9 year old sister who has trouble sightreading but I think if I do it with letters I will just confuse her.

Nice program.
I think this could be particularly great for kids, especially if you throw in some sort of game.

[goose]

Chiem, this is already a great little application. What I really like about it is the way you can choose an area to focus on (e.g. extreme low ledger lines) until it becomes automatic, then throw the other options back in to test your new knowledge against a wider pool of notes.

If it's helped you and you're making it freely available, you needn't feel under any pressure at all to do any more to it. Just until you get bored tinkering with it, as you say. However, the extra 'virtual keyboard' mapping would be nice. And I think the 'scrolling by' option would make it a whole lot of fun for kids of all ages

[jazzyprof]

Chiem, this is a great tool!  It's helping me with instant recognition of the extreme ledger lines.  I've been playing for years but would always slow down and go through the Every Good Boy...ritual when faced with the extreme ledger lines.  Thanks for making this available for free!

[vongoldschmitz]

There is a software called Piano is Fun.
I use it for practice now and then it covers most parts.
You might wanna check that one.

[peckdec]

This program is pure gold! I wonder how much you guys need additional time? I'm starting to have problems at 1.4s, but I'm a lousy sight reader. This program has really really helped me, although it has been just a few days.