Tricky Parts - when things get tough

Charles Cooke in "Playing the Piano for Pleasure" writes...
   Surgeons tell us that a broken arm or leg, if it is correctly set,
   becomes strongest at the point of fracture.
   (This is a book I'd recommend, by the way.)

He goes on to explain fractures as the tricky parts of songs
   where things can break down.

We should systematically label these areas and practice them very carefully.
   Which brings us to Loop=y.

First we identify the tricky spots and click to the right of the notes in
      the "dynamics/notes" area.
         
      Put in [ to mark the start of a fracture.
      Put in ] to mark the end of a fracture.
      PianoCheater draws red brackets to mark the fracture a little better.

Now we need to carefully practice it.
   Click in the main window on the Loop= button till it says Loop=y

   When the end of the fracture is reached,
      PianoCheater hops you back to the start.
      Continue practicing JUST this fracture till you make progress.

   After you've made some progress, hop to the next fracture with
   time>Sect (hop to the next section in time).

   If Loop=y, it'll hop to the next fracture you've marked.
   And time<Sect command will hop to previous fracture.


"sounding out" a troublesome rhythm
Those darn pop songs get wayyy too syncopated and intricate sometimes.
   We love how they sound.  We hate figuring em out.

Let's say you hit a tricky rhythm like this:
   

   Ooooh man.  Whyyy???
      Well, we COULD click EACH note into Tinkerer to hear how it sounds.
      But, oh man.  Don't make me do that...

Well say hello to my LEETTLE friend:  Txt2Mid.
   First hit the SongList window and download the _Txt song pack.

   In ...\PianoCheater\Song\Pack\_Txt\_RhythmGetter dir,
   we see this in right.txt:

         e. 4dgb             ...dotted eighth note, octave 4 notes dgb
         se a                ...sixteenth+eighth duration note a
         e  f
         e. b, h dg          ...dotted eighth note b, but also
         sq a                                    spin off a half note on d and g
         --
         e, h c%e            ...eighth note rest, but also
         es b                              spin off half note on c natural and e
         e  a
         s  f
         e. e, h 3gb         ...oops, down to octave 3, then back to 4 next line
         se 4d
         e  f
      

   And this in left.txt:

         q. 2g               ...left hand pretty easy, but
         q  b                                          makes things syncopated-y
         q  a
         e  g
         --
         q. 3c%
         e 2f
         q. g
         s  f
         s  g
      

   RhythmGetter.txt already has this

         !Tmpo=80
         !TSig=4/4/4                   ...4/4 with subbeat=4 (on 16th notes)
         !Vol=70                       ...not so loud for the drums
         #Drum\Pat\1\std16 2           ...2 reps of this one bar drum pattern
         NextTrack
         !Vol=127
         $#de#gab                      ...keysig: c and f are sharped
         #Right
         NextTrack
         #Left
         NextTrack                     ...one more for recording track
      
      which sucks in these 2 tracks and adds a nice 16th note drumtrack.

   RhythmGetter.song already has this

         -- RhythGetter_16.song
         Track:                        ...device, sound, trackName
         dude     Drum\Drum       .DrumTrack
         rockin88 Piano\AcouGrand .Right
         rockin88 Piano\AcouGrand .Left
         rockin88 Piano\AcouGrand .REC.*.*>recTrack
         Control:                      ...the non note stuff goin out midi
         Tmpo                             tempo
         TSig                             timesig
         Vol                              volume
      
      which names our tracks and sounds and such


We load the .song file into PianoCheater to verify we got the notes right.
   Then load it in Tinkerer and save it in .MID format in ...\Practice\Learn
   Then, click the left hand track till it has a ?
   Then, click Learn= until it says Learn=wait4me

   PianoCheater SPOON FEEDS us the rhythm and that makes us VERY HAPPY !!
   

   Didn't that feel like cheating?  ;)  ALL'S FAIR IN PIANO !!
________________________________________________________________________________

Tutorial is DONE.  You're on your own with the dreaded reference docs now...;)
   good luck!