Here's a video of all the stuffs below:
Exiting MidiConfiger will boot PianoCheater.
If there are midi files in your PianoCheaterSongs dir,
they'll be listed in the songlist droplist right under the toolbar.
No midis? No problem -
click (leftmost) "load/find new song files" toolbar button
click (leftmost) "download a pack of songs to try" toolbar button
pick the Nyan Cat one and prepare yourself for a bit of annoyment :)
songs are put in ...PianoCheaterSongs\Do\_NyanCat dir.
QUICK - CLICK ON THE TIME DISPLAY TO PAUSE IT !!
pick the _NyanCat_easy.mid song which is already setup for practice.
Use the CommandNote to swap hands between LH, RH and both
(LH means left hand in case you're a newb)
PianoCheater shows the current song's "tracks" in it's main window.
What's a track?
Midi files can hold music for a whole band, not just the piano player.
A track in a midi file holds music for ONE of the band members.
Maybe even just a portion of the dude's music.
For example, it's handy to keep left hand notes and right hand notes in
seperate tracks so they show differently for practicing.
Click in the little empty square to the left of the "right hand" track.
It'll toggle from
"hand" (practice this track) to...
"red x" (mute this track) to...
"green arrow" (auto-play track FOR me) back to "hand", etc.
We want it to be a hand so we can practice it.
Now that there's a track to practice, we set HOW we'll practice it.
Click last button in the group of 4 until it says "wait4me"
It toggles between the various learning modes.
It says wait4me now, right?
Now, you'll also see the PianoNotes window:
(argh, this is old - sorry - see the video)
- See the notes?
leading color is white or black for the piano key's color.
(no black notes shown in the screenshot - sorry)
main color is according to the scale.
root key=red, major 3rd=green, fifth=blue, etc.
This makes it easy to see octaves.
Here we have key of D minor as D is red.
Since it's minor, the 3rd will be yellow-green.
If it was major, the 3rd would be regular green.
white keys and black keys are shown as they are laid out on the keyboard.
They run side to side just like your fingers do.
You'll see octave numbers where they split at B and C notes.
(octave 4 is where middle C lives)
- See the seperate hands?
Left hand - blue outline, right hand - red outline.
Colored according to R,L in track names.
As you play right hand, PianoCheater can play left hand.
The "hand" command (via CommandNote or pc keyboard h)
swaps hands from LH > RH > both > back to LH, etc
It's good to learn each hand seperately at first. then together.
- See the fingering for the notes?
1=thumb, 2=index, 3=middle, 4=ring, 5=pinky (same for both hands)
Click on a note to pick fingering for it.
Don't put fingering on every dang note.
Only when your finger needs to MOVE to it.
(during hand position changes or REUSE of a finger)
1 and 5 are usually obvious as they're on the edges.
Only add fingering when things get TRICKY.
You can also click in the white area on the right side of the window
to put in dynamic text notes (or any text, really:)
(I use <- for crescendo, >- for decrescendo, and | at it's end)
- See the rhythm?
Time goes from top to bottom as you'ld expect. Not as sheet music does :)
Nor as rock band does.
If you printed a rock band screen... that's UPSIDE DOWN!
Notes are shown in a grid in the order (rhythm) they're to be played.
You'll see dark lines at the bar. Lighter lines on the beat.
And (if time sig has "sub beats"), faint lines on subbeat.
(on the 16th note, for example)
The green "now" line keeps scooting along in time.
When it reach notes, PLAY em, man !!
When it leaves them, let em GO, man !!
If you haven't hit em, a "green light" shows meaning "HEY PLAY THIS".
If you play the wrong note, you get a "red light" meaning "HEY QUIT THAT".
If you get it right, all is clear.
As you play, pink trails will show YOUR notes on top.
When you get to the end of the song, it'll hop back to the start.
(More on looping later in the tutorial.)
To clear out your "olden" pink trails,
there's a "recWipe" CommandNote (or press w key).
________________________________________________________________________________
"Phases" of piano practice:
See that wait4me button in the main window?
Click it to toggle between different practice modes...
Learn=off
This ONLY shows you the notes going by...
You record em live as best you can.
Play4Me
This shows you the notes you'll play and sounds em.
It's useful so you can hear just your part and
see how complex it'll be to play.
Wait4Me
This is the main practice mode. You play the "to learn" (keyboard) tracks
But if you don't play it in time,
PianoCheater WAITS for you to hit the correct notes.
This'll help you
- find the notes you need
- figure out when to change hand positions and fingering
(can you reach the leftmost with your thumb and rightmost with pinky?)
- learn the rhythms in detail.
Especially against a drum track with 16th notes.
metronome = ANNOYING !!
Also, =your= last note's velocity will SCALE the velocity
of the background tracks so the whole "band" follows
=YOUR= awesome expressiveness ;)
Note that you don't need to HOLD all notes down.
It'll only wait for you on initial note presses.
Sync2Me
This doesn't work WELL yet (sorry)... But I'm GETTIN' there...
This mode shows you the "to learn" tracks (with keyboard/drum icon)
But it plays the background tracks according to =YOUR= tempo !!
Background notes only go out upon YOUR next note down.
And your LIVE tempo will update the timer's tempo making the background
tracks play in LOCK STEP with you. Taking into account your rubato ;)
If you play 4 notes that aren't what PianoCheater is expecting,
sync2me will search the song for those notes.
And move to THAT position for playing.
This way, you can drill thru JUST tricky sections without having to
setup stupid looping points.
Eh, stay tuned on this...:/
________________________________________________________________________________
Calculated SheetMusic notation...
A button toggles from PianoNotes notation to SheetMusic notation.
I hate standard notation, but piano teachers LOVE it.
So you can view one or the other or BOTH :)
My SheetMusic notation isn't perfect yet. But some day it WILL be dang it !!
You can also display scanned sheet music pages in .PNG or .BMP format.
I'll get to that later in the tutorial.
________________________________________________________________________________
Next up, maybe you just wanna play midis
- See the notes?
leading color is white or black for the piano key's color.
(no black notes shown in the screenshot - sorry)
main color is according to the scale.
root key=red, major 3rd=green, fifth=blue, etc.
This makes it easy to see octaves.
Here we have key of D minor as D is red.
Since it's minor, the 3rd will be yellow-green.
If it was major, the 3rd would be regular green.
white keys and black keys are shown as they are laid out on the keyboard.
They run side to side just like your fingers do.
You'll see octave numbers where they split at B and C notes.
(octave 4 is where middle C lives)
- See the seperate hands?
Left hand - blue outline, right hand - red outline.
Colored according to R,L in track names.
As you play right hand, PianoCheater can play left hand.
The "hand" command (via CommandNote or pc keyboard h)
swaps hands from LH > RH > both > back to LH, etc
It's good to learn each hand seperately at first. then together.
- See the fingering for the notes?
1=thumb, 2=index, 3=middle, 4=ring, 5=pinky (same for both hands)
Click on a note to pick fingering for it.
Don't put fingering on every dang note.
Only when your finger needs to MOVE to it.
(during hand position changes or REUSE of a finger)
1 and 5 are usually obvious as they're on the edges.
Only add fingering when things get TRICKY.
You can also click in the white area on the right side of the window
to put in dynamic text notes (or any text, really:)
(I use <- for crescendo, >- for decrescendo, and | at it's end)
- See the rhythm?
Time goes from top to bottom as you'ld expect. Not as sheet music does :)
Nor as rock band does.
If you printed a rock band screen... that's UPSIDE DOWN!
Notes are shown in a grid in the order (rhythm) they're to be played.
You'll see dark lines at the bar. Lighter lines on the beat.
And (if time sig has "sub beats"), faint lines on subbeat.
(on the 16th note, for example)
The green "now" line keeps scooting along in time.
When it reach notes, PLAY em, man !!
When it leaves them, let em GO, man !!
If you haven't hit em, a "green light" shows meaning "HEY PLAY THIS".
If you play the wrong note, you get a "red light" meaning "HEY QUIT THAT".
If you get it right, all is clear.
As you play, pink trails will show YOUR notes on top.
When you get to the end of the song, it'll hop back to the start.
(More on looping later in the tutorial.)
To clear out your "olden" pink trails,
there's a "recWipe" CommandNote (or press w key).
________________________________________________________________________________
"Phases" of piano practice:
See that wait4me button in the main window?
Click it to toggle between different practice modes...
Learn=off
This ONLY shows you the notes going by...
You record em live as best you can.
Play4Me
This shows you the notes you'll play and sounds em.
It's useful so you can hear just your part and
see how complex it'll be to play.
Wait4Me
This is the main practice mode. You play the "to learn" (keyboard) tracks
But if you don't play it in time,
PianoCheater WAITS for you to hit the correct notes.
This'll help you
- find the notes you need
- figure out when to change hand positions and fingering
(can you reach the leftmost with your thumb and rightmost with pinky?)
- learn the rhythms in detail.
Especially against a drum track with 16th notes.
metronome = ANNOYING !!
Also, =your= last note's velocity will SCALE the velocity
of the background tracks so the whole "band" follows
=YOUR= awesome expressiveness ;)
Note that you don't need to HOLD all notes down.
It'll only wait for you on initial note presses.
Sync2Me
This doesn't work WELL yet (sorry)... But I'm GETTIN' there...
This mode shows you the "to learn" tracks (with keyboard/drum icon)
But it plays the background tracks according to =YOUR= tempo !!
Background notes only go out upon YOUR next note down.
And your LIVE tempo will update the timer's tempo making the background
tracks play in LOCK STEP with you. Taking into account your rubato ;)
If you play 4 notes that aren't what PianoCheater is expecting,
sync2me will search the song for those notes.
And move to THAT position for playing.
This way, you can drill thru JUST tricky sections without having to
setup stupid looping points.
Eh, stay tuned on this...:/
________________________________________________________________________________
Calculated SheetMusic notation...
A button toggles from PianoNotes notation to SheetMusic notation.
I hate standard notation, but piano teachers LOVE it.
So you can view one or the other or BOTH :)
My SheetMusic notation isn't perfect yet. But some day it WILL be dang it !!
You can also display scanned sheet music pages in .PNG or .BMP format.
I'll get to that later in the tutorial.
________________________________________________________________________________
Next up, maybe you just wanna play midis