Hello,

I played piano for 3 years in my childhood. I also played tenor saxophone for 2 years at high school. I'm now 23 and I'm looking to learn piano again.

A friend that is playing guitar told me to check on the web for a program called "Synthesia". Is anyone using this for their learning/practice ?

I might take some invidual courses as well, I'm just not set yet.

The game seems interesting and fun. I think you need to know the song because it's hard to figure out the rhythm.

Serge

The program seems highly complex, it may work for some people but I think its actually a lot harder than looking at the sheet music. It is similar to "guitar hero", where the notes coming scrolling down and you have to hit them.. you use midi files and it will show you how to play them, but you will end up rewinding and fast forwarding a million times just to learn a song.

The pay-for-it version has some simpler standard notation.

I've got a similar app I'm workin' on.
It has lines marking off the measure/beat/subbeat so you can make out note durations a little better.

It's a good way to check your playing against a score.
(My app shows your notes on top of the score in piano roll format
- see the video page in link below)
Unfortunately, many good scores aren't available in midi format.

My little app just yesterday helped me figure out a tricky rhythm in Five For Fighting's "100 years" (the "lose yourself within a morning star" part)

I clicked in the notes, and used my "wait for me" mode until I truly "got" how
the rhythm worked in those 6 bars or so.

So these types of apps definitely help you when a piano teacher ain't there to.
(I only get a half hour a WEEK with my piano teacher - NOT ENOUGH time)

You definitely should get a teacher if you're serious, though.
I thought I was serious back when I got out of college and started my first job.
But it took me forEVERrrrr to learn a song on my own.
And there are things you just don't think to ask yourself when YOU're
the teacher.

So my advice is just get a teacher.
If you can't afford one, well, goof around all you want, but don't mislead
yourself into thinking you're serious about this (like i did).
15 years later, I get a teacher and have learned about 30x as many songs
in the last 2 years as I have in the previous 15

Piano playing is a sport. You have to do it every day.
And you need a coach to point out the dumb stuff you're doing.
(Because, obviously, if you're doing it, you don't think it's dumb)

I use synthesia to learn pieces, however it isn't smart, or it is smart if you want to play some spesific pieces if you can't read sheet music. I cant read sheet music but have skipped that part and now i am working on harder pieces, and by doing that i miss a lot of the basics, also somethings just cant be expressed by midi, thinks that can be expressed in sheet music e.g. pedaling and dynamics
So do use it you need to know your piece. But it is great if you find the right midi file which http://www.kunstderfuge.com does often supply if you want to play classical pieces. because it has two tracks for left and right hand, also many of their midi files are live performances which then means that if you have something like e.g. Akoustik Piano you can hear how the piece is played properly or get a slight idea of the interpretation. Still sheet music is best, but synthesia has worked well for me.

midi files do store hold pedal control.
and show exactly when the pedal should come up.

midi files can also hold dynamics text labels.

your particular sequencer may not show them, but it should.

Is it possible to use synthesia with an acoustic piano? I do have a keyboard but it is too old to have the proper connection.

I do have a nice USB mike for my laptop, though. I also have an iPad, but it doesn't have a usb port.

I guess if all synthesia does is scroll by, it doesn't matter what the instrument is. But if it compares what you play with what scrolls by, then that's different. Is it interactive or just display?

any thoughts on that?

The learning pack has interactivity, a mode where the sheet music progression and bars stop until you hit the right keys.

Synthesia has a feature where it will wait until you press the correct key/keys. If you couple this with, say, scales, Synthesia can be a powerful learning tool. Ofcourse it will never substitute a live teacher, but more often it does help more than not.

There is also an iPad version under constructin, and coupled with iRig Midi interface it will be really nice to be able to use Synthesia with a digital piano.

Unfortunately no. If you really want to use Synthesia or any software that is with a piano, you might want to upgrade your gear to digital.

Well you can use it without the interactivity, just by placing a laptop on top of the acoustic piano and use the display of Synthesia (with or without the sheet music option) instead of sheet music paper.

When I first started learning to play, I picked up most of my songs off of synthesia, actually; I knew what they all were ahead of time, mind you, but they were popular enough video game themes that people had created midi/synthesia videos for them on youtube.

Having then proceeded to learn to read music and build a proper pianist foundation, I much now prefer using music sheets, as it's incomparably more efficient. Think of it this way: you could repeatedly start/pause a synthesia video for days/weeks to find patterns and memorize music and hand positions or you could look over music sheets of the same pieces and note the same things, once proficient, in a matter of minutes/hours.


My advice would be to spend a few months/years learning basic playing skills and music theory knowledge and you'll find yourself able to go so much further than you'd have ever gotten with Synthesia.

Example of what can be accomplished in similar time:
I learned this pretty little tune with synthesia


I learned this beast with similar effort with music sheets (after several, several months of building a strong foundation)

disclaimer: I'm not the woman playing ever so wonderfully



edit: 2009!? You turd, why'd you revive this... well my advice still stands for anyone trying to learn this way

Piano Lesson Package for Synthesia features piano lesson -like content for beginning pianists along with scales for major and minor keys, chord inversion practices and some music theory, totalling 60+ lessons.

Now that Synthesia is available for iPad, one can connect iPad to iRig Midi and again to a digital piano. This way, iPad lays on the music rest and Synthesia can be used quite comfortably.

In the Piano Lesson Package for Synthesia kids have their own package which enables them to learn piano while consumed in multiple fun games.

I used to be a big fan of it. Bought the learning pack. Learnt a few pieces.

I then gave it up and learned the traditional way and felt my abilities improved massively.

I feel synthesia has its uses, its sort of like a fake book.