[HN Gopher] Show HN: My iOS app to practice sight reading (10 ye...
___________________________________________________________________
Show HN: My iOS app to practice sight reading (10 years in the App
Store)
Hello HN, this has been my personal project for quite some time
now. It has been a slowly evolving project over the years and its
core function is for users to expose themselves to progressively
more difficult lessons of music notes. NOTE: It is free and there
are no ads. There is an in app purchase but most of the app doesn't
require it.
Author : rooster117
Score : 286 points
Date : 2025-03-23 21:25 UTC (1 days ago)
(HTM) web link (apps.apple.com)
(TXT) w3m dump (apps.apple.com)
| jkmcf wrote:
| What a wonderful logo!
|
| I'll see if my daughter is interested, but I'd love a guitar
| version (hint, hint).
| rooster117 wrote:
| I appreciate it!
|
| I'd love to add new instruments. I actually have a version
| which is violin only but it is pretty stale at this point.
| shermantanktop wrote:
| Check out Tenuto for similar types of learning modes, and that
| has guitar/fretboard support for some modes.
| devonsolomon wrote:
| I learned on this. It's near perfect. Nothing to say but thank
| you!
| rooster117 wrote:
| Awesome to hear!
| ppetty wrote:
| That's awesome! I'm not a musician but just impressed by an app
| with great focus that stands the test of time. Makes me wonder
| why Apple doesn't have an area for exactly this type of app; the
| opposite of Latest Apps.
| walterbell wrote:
| Community could maintain an index. awesome-ios-
| apps-timeless
| kibibu wrote:
| Might be my pessimistic mood this morning, but I'm curious
| whether these "awesome x" indices are _actually_ community-
| owned or whether its code for "one passionate person sifting
| through a bunch of garbage until they burn out"
| walterbell wrote:
| Hopefully the next volunteer extends the work of their
| predecessor, instead of starting from scratch.
|
| In theory, reputation signals from 'awesome' lists and HN
| threads could inform search engines, LLMs and app market
| analytics.
| mortar wrote:
| Thanks, just downloaded it to try and purchased instantly - great
| app! Have been "playing" Fur Elise for so many years on piano,
| but forgot how to read sheet music years ago and didn't quite
| know how to get back into it. Thought Synthesia would help but
| struggle at certain parts so the repetition and score based
| learning will help a lot.
| rooster117 wrote:
| It'll probably come back to you fast. My app is best to learn
| the note (letter/octave) of what's on the staff and mixed with
| practice on a real piano should get you back to reading
| shermantanktop wrote:
| I am cursed with enough musical memory that if I learn a piece
| from sheet music, my sight reading literally turns off and I
| play from some combination of muscle memory and ear. That might
| sound like a humblebrag, but it's not -it's quite frustrating
| to "work on reading" and then realize I'm not actually getting
| better at reading. When I come back to the material later, the
| short-term musical memory has usually faded and I'm starting
| over.
|
| That's what comes from playing simpler rock stuff by ear/memory
| for many years and then moving to large amounts of material
| which can't be done only by ear.
|
| My solution is to have a large amount of unfamiliar material
| and just open to a random page and start working things out.
| spunker540 wrote:
| This may sound crazy but my sight reading improved a lot
| after I took an ear training class that required me to work
| in arbitrary clefs. I always knew treble and bass from
| playing piano, and had really memorized the note positions in
| each.
|
| When I was suddenly forced to work in tenor, alto, soprano,
| baritone clefs, I could no longer rely on memorization of
| note positions. I had to pivot to "reading intervals". A
| fifth looks the same in any clef, so if you know the current
| note, and the next note is a fifth above, you know the next
| note too, clef be damned.
| thaumasiotes wrote:
| > A fifth looks the same in any clef
|
| Really? I don't think all fifths look the same even if
| they're all in the same clef. If you're working in C major,
| B to F looks like it's a fifth, but it's a tritone.
| Everything around this becomes a little weird; A# to E#
| looks like a fifth and is one, but A# to F is a fifth and
| doesn't look like one.
|
| Random clefs seem like they would make that problem worse.
| whiddershins wrote:
| In my experience, accidentally memorizing what you are
| reading doesn't really get in the way of what most people
| think of as sight reading. Internalizing structures and
| patterns is 99% of what it means ti "learn to read."
| benoliver999 wrote:
| Been using this for years now, it's precisely what I needed given
| that I came to bass clef late in life
| rooster117 wrote:
| Love to hear it
| aterp wrote:
| Anyone have recs for good Android equivalents?
| rooster117 wrote:
| I get a lot of requests for an Android version. I've never had
| time but I hope there is something good out there
| punnerud wrote:
| Not an answer to your question but I have 8 iPhone app on
| AppStore, and many more on my phone not published. Made an
| Android app, but it's hard to publish to Google Play compared.
| Stopped almost at the end in the approval process, because I
| felt like this platform must really hate developers. Or is it
| just me?
|
| When I see the stats on paying Android users compared to
| iPhone, I feel I always will start on iOS and only maybe make
| to Android if it's successful somewhere else first.
| busymom0 wrote:
| I made a similar app for both iPhone and Android called Note
| Flash. Works with microphone and MIDI:
|
| https://play.google.com/store/apps/details?id=com.pranapps.n...
|
| https://apps.apple.com/ca/app/note-flash-music-sight-reading...
| IncreasePosts wrote:
| Needs to be updated for a modern version of Android:(
| busymom0 wrote:
| Let me update it to the latest SDK this weekend. If you
| email me (in my profile), I can reply to you when update is
| available.
| rs186 wrote:
| I have been using https://www.sightreadingfactory.com. It is
| available as a website and works differently from these apps
| acatcalledrob wrote:
| Musical Notes is a simple open source option
|
| https://f-droid.org/en/packages/jl.musicalnotes/
|
| https://codeberg.org/jonas-l/musical-notes-android
| bambax wrote:
| I made a webapp a couple of years ago that works in most
| browsers, including on mobile:
|
| https://www.babeloop.com/
| hackerdood wrote:
| Chiming in to say I downloaded this what feels like ages ago and
| occasionally come back to it when I'm away from my keyboard for
| too long, so thank you for this amazing app!
| rooster117 wrote:
| Love to hear it. Thanks for the years of usage!
| Almondsetat wrote:
| Sight reading is equal parts being quick to parse the score and
| being quick to understand the piece harmonically/rythmically.
| This is why random exercises or simple songs don't really cut it.
|
| Also, it's all about compromise. When sight reading a serious
| piece you will almost never be expected or be capable of playing
| every note. You have to understand what's important and what's
| feasible, and to do that on the fly you need tons of musical
| experience.
| coliveira wrote:
| Yes, sight reading is a misnomer because at some level it is
| almost impossible to sight read a complex piece. It is not like
| reading a book where you will be able to read the words
| correctly as long as you're literate. What you can say is that
| you're familiar with simple/medium complexity rhythms so you
| can play them as you read.
| turtlebits wrote:
| Not sure i agree with that. I can sight read through just
| about any piece, albeit not at full speed. If I make a
| mistake, I keep going. Jazz is definitely the hardest, due to
| rhythm and complex chords.
|
| As a piano player that primarily sight reads, I end playing a
| lot of music, so maybe it is partly memorizing patterns.
| shermantanktop wrote:
| Jazz is...different. The Real Book is full of mistakes by
| some Berklee students in the 1970s. Standards as played on
| the bandstand are very different than what is on the
| records. The records are all different from each other. The
| melody is simplified or shortened or embellished, and the
| chords? Forget it, you'll find out that the piano player
| likes to play a dominant instead of minor only when you're
| actually playing the tune. Ask a pro how to think about the
| harmony of a standard, and they'll explain how they think
| about the harmony of the variant they prefer.
| pil0u wrote:
| This is incredible because it exactly matches my needs. I started
| learning the piano 3 years ago as an adult, I love it, but my
| biggest difficulty is reading scores. I do want to practice but
| also I'm very lazy, I tried to find a tool to help but never
| found yours before.
|
| Tiny question before I purchase to unlock the microphone feature
| (which is really what makes sense for me): does the app
| understands do re mi via microphone?
|
| Thanks for your work.
| rooster117 wrote:
| The mic works on the standard 440 tuning and converts the input
| to its midi representation. Trying to understand your question
| but the mic doesn't really care about the do, re, me but rather
| that it's the right frequency for the displayed note on the
| staff. The mic feature is something I'm actively working on
| improving as it's decent now but not perfect. If you have an
| instrument with a way to connect to the phone through midi it's
| the best experience but if you have acoustic then the mic or
| just the on screen keyboard is the good.
| doctorhandshake wrote:
| Do you mind if I ask what library or algorithm you're using
| for pitch estimation?
| rooster117 wrote:
| currently it's yin
| doctorhandshake wrote:
| Ah thank you I was not aware of that one.
| pil0u wrote:
| Ha, I thought I could "sing" the notes, like reading them out
| loud (which is what my mentor suggests me to work on)
| rooster117 wrote:
| You may be able to sing to it but since it's assuming the
| instrument to be in tune (piano) it may be slightly off and
| still register since it's estimating which note is most
| correct.
| dhosek wrote:
| Joining a good choir can do a lot to really build your ear
| in this respect. Generating a note from within your body
| does so much more to build your ear than generating a note
| by hitting a key or plucking a string (wind instruments are
| kind of a middle ground in this respect).
| ajepst wrote:
| Sight reading practice for voice is super useful, but not
| many of us have perfect pitch to pull a starting note out of
| the air! An option to get a starting note audible cue for
| vocal sight reading would be a great add-on (and hopefully
| not too difficult!)
| Ericson2314 wrote:
| I have perfect pitch and it's overrated.
|
| Pro tip: You can pick any note you want as the starting
| pitch, and do realtive pitch from there. It doesn't matter.
| Pitch is an affine space, there's no 0 pitch!
| ajepst wrote:
| Oh of course, if you just want to practice sight reading
| on your own, correct pitch is irrelevant, but if you want
| to use an app like this and have it follow along and
| check if you're accurate with your sight reading, you
| have to agree with the app on pitch!
| Ericson2314 wrote:
| Can you change the tempo or something to slide around on
| the first note until you find the pitch it wants?
| ozornin wrote:
| It becomes important if you play with other people though
| Ericson2314 wrote:
| Even then, you need to tune against those other people.
| Perfect pitch is not so precise that everyone can just
| start on exactly the same note hah.
| eumenides1 wrote:
| Classic Joke: How do you know a person has perfect pitch?
|
| I learned that as you get older, if you don't use it, you
| lose it.
| tunesmith wrote:
| In music school, I was in the position of having
| excellent relative pitch and zero perfect pitch. In the
| ear training courses, I actually scored better than the
| peers with perfect pitch, as it seemed they had
| difficulty with a lot of the exercises, particularly the
| by-ear transcription of the four-part bach chorale
| snippets.
| rooster117 wrote:
| My app appears at the top of a search if you specify sight
| reading but if you are searching for "learn piano" or similar
| keywords it will be no where near the top
| pil0u wrote:
| I just learned via your post the term "sight reading" in
| English. French words and expressions when it comes to music
| are very different.
| rooster117 wrote:
| I've only recently localized the app but only the contents
| of the app. I'm sure there are a lot of easy improvements
| on discoverability I'm missing out on.
| alwa wrote:
| Out of curiosity, what's the French term for this
| technique?
| patrocle wrote:
| We call it "solfege".
| thaumasiotes wrote:
| Huh. My instinct was that (in English), "solfege" is just
| the name of the collection of notes. (The same way that
| "alphabet" is the name of the collection of letters
| beginning "A B C D E ...".)
|
| And interestingly enough, the English wikipedia page
| completely backs me up on that.
| https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Solf%C3%A8ge ("Solfege is a
| form of solmization, though the two terms are sometimes
| used interchangeably.")
|
| However, the English wiktionary page gives no gloss other
| than "a method of sight singing". (More fully, "A method
| of sight singing that uses the syllables do (originally
| ut), re, mi, fa, sol (or so), la, and si (or ti) to
| represent the seven principal pitches of the scale".)
|
| Merriam-Webster strongly supports the wikipedia
| definition, but it does note that "a method of sight-
| reading music" is an alternative, non-primary meaning.
|
| In French, does solfege refer to _any_ sight reading? A
| common way to sight-read vocal music is to sing the
| actual lyrics as opposed to the note names. And by far
| the most common way to sight-read piano music is to play
| it without saying anything at all.
| xibe wrote:
| Akshually... According to Wikipedia FR, the French
| equivalent of Sight Reading is "Lecture a vue" [1].
|
| Notes: - I'm French; - I learnt to
| play the piano as a teenager, and I'm trying to get back
| to it again as at 45+; - I too discovered the
| "sight reading" term online, but that was long ago (as I
| recall, through a video of an adult piano player doing
| "live sight-reading" versions of songs he didn't know
| beforehand, such as the Mario theme [2];
|
| ... and YET neither have I ever heard of nor used
| "Lecture a vue" (that I remember of). I too would use
| "apprendre le solfege" (EN: learn solfege) when saying
| that I'm learning to read the notes on sheet music while
| playing at the same time.
|
| [1]: https://fr.wikipedia.org/wiki/Lecture_%C3%A0_vue
| (change language for confirmation)
|
| [2]: Possibly this one?
| https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=b9IkpUYlOx8
| amszmidt wrote:
| Solmization, I think is maybe what you are looking for?
| It is where you sing a song using the Solfege
| (Do/Re/Mi....)?
|
| Though I wouldn't say that it is the same as "sight
| reading" -- but maybe "sight singing"?
| xibe wrote:
| Indeed! When I first learnd that the English equivalent
| of...
|
| Do Re Mi Fa Sol La Si Do
|
| ... is...
|
| C D E F G A B C
|
| ... it blew my mind :D I mean, I can see the point in using
| letters instead of words, alright. But why in that order?
|
| Even today I can't find the origin/reason for that -- apart
| from "It's a German thing" apparently.
|
| It could be just that the "German key notation") and the
| "Fixed Do key notation" were each created independently
| centuries ago, and thus differed. And once each system
| spread and reached users of the other, well, hello, my Do
| is your C and my A is your La :)
| balfirevic wrote:
| > But why in that order?
|
| Well, it's in the alphabetical order.
| amszmidt wrote:
| Maybe more importantly, it is in that specific order
| because it is the key of C major! The A major scale is
| for example would be A, B, C#, D, E, F#, and G# ...
|
| In fixed Solfege, that would become La Si Do ... but in
| movable Solfege, Do would be A, Re would be B ...
| whiddershins wrote:
| yeah but why isn't C major called A major
| amszmidt wrote:
| The piano is a new instrument, when it was created its
| natural "place" was within the C major scale (all white
| keys); while A major requires 3 black keys.
|
| All instruments have a "sweet" spot for where they like
| to make sound. The baroque flute for example, prefers the
| key of D -- not C. The violin is very at home in the key
| of A.
|
| If you sit down at a piano, and find a place to put your
| fingers a somewhat natural place would where there are
| two white keys beside two black keys.
|
| And then press them in order.. C major scale.
| xibe wrote:
| Of course, there's the C Major thing :)
|
| And I didn't know about Movable Solfege, thanks! I'll
| have to study that.
|
| But, to put it in audio perspective rather than comparing
| words and letters, why is the note that corresponds to
| 440 Hz named A and not F -- implying that, going lower
| and lower from 440 Hz for each note, 261.63 Hz would not
| be named C but rather A instead.
|
| Or, to use maybe a comparison that would work from whence
| those two notation systems were created/named (I figure
| with a keyboard nearby), why is the first note of a
| standard piano octave (you know, this: [1]) labelled C
| and not A? Since it's the first note of the octave and
| since the German system is using the alphabet (which,
| well, starts with A), wouldn't it have made sense to have
| that first octave piano key be labelled A too :)
|
| [1]: https://www.hellosimply.com/blog/wp-
| content/uploads/2022/03/...
|
| I've seen this conversation several times online, and
| it's funny to see how participants cannot agree on what
| is being talked about here, and no conclusion is reached.
| So I'm aware that I might be asking a super dumb beginner
| question, but I really do wonder why Do=C and not Do=A.
|
| Don't hesitate to slap me with a "origins of musical
| notation systems" link, I love to read about music and
| history :)
| amszmidt wrote:
| The easy answer is that the piano is not the "reference"
| instrument. If you look at a violin, the A major scale is
| generally the first scale you learn -- not C.
|
| The piano has C natural in the middle of a full 88
| keyboard, which is why it is a "natural" scale to pick (C
| major only uses the white keys, while A major would use
| three black keys).
|
| So if you are learning another instrument, your "base"
| note will sometimes be entirely different.
|
| Many "non-western" tradition also aren't tuned to 440 Hz,
| and even many _western_ traditions don't use 440 Hz for
| A, 415 Hz is also common.
|
| [addendum] And why Do/Ut, Re, Mi? Because of a Gregorian
| chant where each sound sorta fell into a vocal range of
| monks ... then you adopt Do to whatever "sound" the
| instrument is closest, many years pass and deviations and
| standardizations ...
|
| [addendum] I recommend starting out researching Guido
| d'Arezzo (and the Guidonian hand) a bit, that is where we
| get do/re/mi .. which was used as a teaching aid (which
| is maybe why Solfege as a term is often used in
| combination to sight reading or singing from sheet
| music). Almost no matter what language someone
| sings/voices Do/Re/Mi/... ... it falls naturally into a
| vocal range, irrespective of octave.
|
| And then one could look into the hexachord ... and deep
| into a very deep well of confusion.
| balfirevic wrote:
| > The easy answer is that the piano is not the
| "reference" instrument.
|
| The question make sense without ever thinking about
| piano. The question is: how come the notes named only by
| letters (without any accidentals) form a major scale, and
| yet the note A is not the first note (or tonic) of that
| scale.
|
| The answer is probably related to the fact that those
| notes also form other scales (seven of them - seven
| diatonic modes, one of which corresponds to major scale),
| and it's only relatively recently that the major scale
| took a central role in music theory.
| amszmidt wrote:
| You will need to blame Boethius, musical notation is a
| quagmire of many systems that have been merged over
| centuries. If you venture into non-western systems, it
| becomes even more fascinating.
|
| Maybe we should make one more standard .. that
| consolidates all of them? ;-)
| balfirevic wrote:
| Ah, right, so the question of the starting point is a
| good one. I don't know the exact historical answer, but
| it's worth noting that if your are in minor scale (or
| Aeolian mode) then the tonic of the scale (for A minor)
| is indeed A.
|
| Quick check with Claude hints that various modes were in
| common use in church music prior to major scale (Ionian
| mode) taking more central place in (western) music
| theory.
| DidYaWipe wrote:
| Apple's app-store search is a joke. Actually... it's not a
| joke; it's offensive to developers and users alike. You can
| search for the name of the publisher, spelled perfectly, and
| Apple will instead show you hundreds of screenfuls of apps
| that don't contain your search string ANYWHERE.
|
| This despite Apple claiming that publisher name is one of the
| top three criteria for search.
| karol wrote:
| Amazing!
| MarcelOlsz wrote:
| How's it compare to SightReadingFactory? Can I use it for
| trumpet?
| rooster117 wrote:
| I know what sight reading factory is but I haven't personally
| used it. In the app you can isolate the Treble staff for
| practice/lessons so it would work for practice with what you
| read on trumpet (I believe)
| LVB wrote:
| Excellent timing, as I was just looking at some apps to help get
| back into after 20 years away. I've noticed that a number of
| them, including yours, do include microphone input. That's great
| since I only have an upright, but I wondered how well it actually
| works, especially with more complex drills, or if I should look
| at getting an affordable midi keyboard for the app-supported
| practice sessions?
| rooster117 wrote:
| Well it's an area I'm working to improve. It works well for me
| but everyone's acoustic instrument and device is a little
| different. I'd say it isn't worth getting a new keyboard to use
| midi for this purpose. Acoustic pianos are awesome and using my
| app (or others) on the go to drill in note recognition to
| supplement your physical practice is a great combination.
| dsabanin wrote:
| I've been using your app for years, you've done a great job with
| it! Thank you!
| rooster117 wrote:
| Awesome to hear you've been using it for so long!
| block_dagger wrote:
| I've been using Simply Piano for a while, but will give this a
| try.
|
| Noticed a typo: "Notes is your is your tool..." in the app store
| description.
| rooster117 wrote:
| thanks haha
| TheJoeMan wrote:
| Unsolicited advice but I think you're too timid with the IAP!
| It's a superb app and there is no shame in asking for the
| upgrade. I tapped the button labeled "mic (premium required)"
| fully expecting the paywall, and it had a prompt to ask if it was
| okay to show the paywall... it's not a hard paywall, there's a
| visible X icon, nobody's going to be mad if it pops up.
|
| If you want to go a step further, you have only 1 one-time-
| purchase, what if you tap the mic icon, and a popover modal has
| the required disclosure text and the "purchase" button right
| there? The Slopes app did this to significant effect I believe -
| reduce friction.
| rooster117 wrote:
| I completely agree I'm being too timid. With that said it was
| 100% free for many years and I always had in my mind that I
| would get it to a certain level before being more aggressive.
| Because I never really had as much time on this project as I
| would have liked I also never felt it was ready to try to ramp
| up monetization. Also I've really enjoyed providing a high
| value resource to music students and I'll always keep more of
| it free than is common. I've also always avoided any form of
| popup or banner advertisement mostly because I don't like them.
| alariccole wrote:
| Commendable. I'm starting out on my second attempt at a
| learning app in my life, and I feel the same.
| graveltongue wrote:
| Huge fan, awesome work, I use it all the time!
| rooster117 wrote:
| Glad to hear it!
| Tewboo wrote:
| Impressive to see an app dedicated to sight reading stick around
| for 10 years. Must be doing something right!
| rooster117 wrote:
| I mostly just solved my own problem for a lot of those years
| and it was always a bonus that others used it.
| swixed wrote:
| I tried the app and I honestly am pretty disappointed. I know the
| app is for note training but the rhythms are completely broken.
| In Ode to Joy and Minuet, there are notes that should be dotted
| but are not. And in Practice modes there is also no consistency;
| some measures have 4 beats, others 6. I'd consider removing the
| measure bars entirely and/or making all notes have the same
| duration if note pitch is the only goal.
| rooster117 wrote:
| Yeah these are things I'm working on. The lack of dotted notes
| and rests are a weakness in doing any real songs which is why
| that section is a little lacking. I'm testing a new way to
| build lessons altogether which will be a big improvement over
| random. Anyway thanks for the feedback. I know there is a lot
| to go
| DesaiAshu wrote:
| I've been using this for a year, it's really great. Thanks for
| making it!
| rooster117 wrote:
| glad you like it!
| tianshuo wrote:
| Hi, I've been using notequest before and this really hits a
| string for my needs. There are some places that could be
| improved. 1. There is lacking logic in the notes, there should be
| some kind of pattern that an LLM could create that sounds better.
| For example for left hand usually there could be eg. walking
| bass/ chord progressions etc, instead of just random notes. If
| you need ideas and help on that, you can contact me at
| (myhackernewsname_at_gmail_dot_com) I am willing to help
|
| 2. Now the game is like, press the notes as fast as you can,
| instead, a musician needs to practice, pressing the note at the
| right time, which means you can make a metronome + press the
| notes on time mode, which is even more useful than the present
| version.
| rooster117 wrote:
| Great feedback. I'm working on a new way to generate lessons.
| It's better but even when it's out it'll mostly just be a
| structure I'll be able to build on.
|
| I agree on the metronome and it's high on my list of TODO's. I
| think it would be very helpful.
| kvbe wrote:
| What basic midi/piano do you use these days to start learning
| using an app like this?
| rooster117 wrote:
| I'd say the best thing to do would be to get a keyboard you
| enjoyed and make sure it was compatible with iOS. The quality
| of instrument will hopefully keep you interested for all of the
| learning/playing.
| xnickb wrote:
| There is a typo in the description "is your is your"
| roydivision wrote:
| Guitar player here. App looks great, but shame it's only for
| piano. I used a different app that does pretty much the same
| thing and really benefited from it, the improvement was
| noticeable after each session.
|
| If you add guitar support it will be an immediate download for
| me.
| rupi wrote:
| Another vote for guitar. Will love to get this for guitar.
| Ylpertnodi wrote:
| ...guitar....and
| phitt wrote:
| do you mind share which app you are using?
| dockerd wrote:
| Why not use Tab notation for guitar?
| aqme28 wrote:
| There are some settings where it's good for a guitar player
| to be able to sight read. If you're playing for random bands,
| or playing classical, it can be a big help.
| stnmtn wrote:
| Tab notation doesn't provide full time signature information,
| if you're picking up a piece of music which you've never
| heard played before
|
| In tablature, imagine one string's line shows ---10-----7--8
| ------11----13. How long do you hold each note? Clearly 7 to
| 8 is quick, but how quick? Sheet music gives you this exact
| information.
| shermantanktop wrote:
| That's a solved problem. Tab + stave notation, with the
| stave above and tab below.
| shermantanktop wrote:
| Here's an example from the (great) abcjs project:
|
| https://paulrosen.github.io/abcjs/visual/tablature.html
| rooster117 wrote:
| I hear you on the other instruments and guitar request. I tried
| making a violin app years ago and it was a tiny fraction of the
| traffic of the piano version which I'm guessing is common theme
| amongst other developers. That's not an excuse but just the
| reason I didn't focus on other instruments in the past. Now
| technically I did slightly support guitar in my app in that you
| can offset the input of notes in settings which would mean you
| could use the mic as input and play the guitar as you'd expect
| while sight reading but the onscreen is still piano. Maybe
| sometime soon
| xlii wrote:
| Yet another HN moment for me: I use it, and as I
| bought/downloaded like 50 or more - I think it is the best out
| there.
|
| Given that I might have you ,,on the feedback phoneline" I have
| thoughts, I'd like to share:
|
| - It might not be true, but it seems that notes are picked at
| random so sometimes I feel there's disharmony which somewhat
| distracts me - in age of LLMs maybe it would be plausible to ask
| for generation of more harmonic sounding sequences?
|
| - I don't practice sight reading often but when I do I usually
| practice longer than 1-3 minutes - clicking through lessons to
| get to the next one is distracting - I'd enjoy endless auto-
| progress (that is - keep progress structure so no free training
| but just auto start next one)
|
| - I'd like to have minimalistic practice mode (I.e. follow
| progression but without any aids at all) - I repeat lessons but
| my brain flips lazy mode when it sees helpers.
|
| I'd like to thank you for making this app accessible in terms of
| price though. However I have resources and want to support
| developers I believe in which includes you and your application.
| I'd suggest ,,coffee subscription" - I.e. completely optional no-
| features added but visible and I'd be glad to enable and forget
| about it.
|
| In fun-fact context: I have some uncommon traits and my
| educational needs are different from general population (I cannot
| do repetitions and I have multisensory aphantasia - can't hear
| sounds in my head - so can't memorize them) and your app so far
| helped building passive eye-muscle link which I find fascinating
| on its own.
| rooster117 wrote:
| This is all really great feedback and it's great to hear you've
| used my app! A couple of things:
|
| 1. I'm currently testing a new way of generating practices with
| some patterns and elements that make it feel more musical. I'd
| love to have you test the beta if you're interested. You can
| just email me in the settings screen.
|
| 2. I updated the lessons visual aids by only showing the hint
| on the staff itself for what was new to that lesson. It was
| previously overkill to do all notes if it was just adding a
| couple to the range. The visual aid of notes on the keyboard
| may also be too far but I think it's helpful or maybe I can
| fade them out eventually.
|
| 3. I hear this and something I should address. Years ago I
| originally made extremely long lessons but I'd get feedback
| asking me to make lessons that had an end. I could very easily
| make the lesson length configurable.
|
| 4. I really appreciate the coffee subscription idea. Maybe I
| can consider adding that and be explicit that it doesn't
| provide anything other than support of me.
|
| It's great to hear the app practice has helped with your eye.
| Maybe it's the repetitive back and forth of the reading?
| palla89 wrote:
| I'm trying it and I love it! can I ask you a question? I'm not
| playing piano since at least 15 years, but why are you using
| C,D,E,etc instead of the real notes? I found an option to enable
| do,re,mi,etc but it's only applying on the piano notes instead of
| the middle screen "note" to play
|
| Am I missing something?
| amszmidt wrote:
| > instead of real notes?
|
| C, D, ... are real notes? Some countries do Solfege, some
| don't.
| palla89 wrote:
| TIL this, thank you! I'm italian and only knew about the do
| re mi fa sol la si do :D
|
| From ChatGPT:
|
| The choice between using letter names (C, D, E, etc.) and
| solfege (do, re, mi, etc.) largely comes down to tradition
| and purpose: * Historical Convention: In Western music, the
| letter system has been the standard for centuries. It
| provides a clear, concise way to notate specific pitches on a
| staff, which is especially useful for instruments like the
| piano or guitar. * Clarity in Notation: Letters denote fixed
| pitches, making it easier to communicate musical ideas in
| written form. This helps performers quickly identify which
| keys or notes to play without additional context. *
| Educational Focus: Solfege is typically used as a tool for
| vocal training and ear development. It emphasizes the
| relationship between pitches (intervals) and is often taught
| using a movable system (where "do" represents the tonic of
| any given scale) or a fixed system (where "do" is always C).
| This system helps singers internalize pitch relationships and
| improve sight-singing. * Different Purposes: Essentially, the
| letter system is more suited to the precision required in
| written music scores, while solfege is more about developing
| a musician's internal sense of pitch and harmony.
|
| In short, both systems have their place in music, with
| letters serving as the backbone of Western musical notation
| and solfege acting as an invaluable educational tool.
| gustanas wrote:
| I'm not in the target audience, but as an iOS dev myself, I have
| to say--your app is an ASO wet dream:
|
| - Nice logo
|
| - Clear, engaging screenshots
|
| - Solid title/subtitle with relevant keywords
|
| - Amazing reviews and ratings
|
| Really well done!
| rooster117 wrote:
| I appreciate it
| mvdtnz wrote:
| What's ASO?
| allenu wrote:
| App Store Optimization, sort of the SEO for the App Store.
| onkkos wrote:
| I would love to see a video of someone reviewing the app to
| understand a little bit more.
| rooster117 wrote:
| I agree. I need a YouTube presence for this app in general
| swyx wrote:
| congrats! what made you decide to Show HN now?
| rooster117 wrote:
| Honestly I've always felt it wasn't done enough. It still isn't
| done enough against what I'd want but obviously I was years
| late on when I should have shown it haha
| appsDev wrote:
| I was looking for this actually lol! Downloaded it will try it
| out soon! :)
| anythingworks wrote:
| this is so great! out of curiosity how long did it take to
| develop this app? what was the process like?
| arkano wrote:
| Thank you, I love this app.
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