Piano World Home Page Forums Our Most Popular Forums Adult Beginners Forum Do you know of a quick way to find out the range of a song?

If you don't have the sheet available, for a random song, like this version of Canon in D. Is there a quick way of finding out what the 'range' is?

By 'range', I mean the lowest and highest note?

If it's possible to quickly find out what the 'range' for the notes meant to be played with the left and right hand is, then all the better.

Why ask? I am looking for songs I enjoy that have a relatively 'short range'.

I'm not sure what's the value of finding the range as it's not really an indicator of difficulty, but Canon in D is certainly not one of those with a short range. It's quite the opposite in fact.

Look up the sheet music. Find the lowest note and the highest note. That will give you the range.

I am playing around with this app on my touch screen, and it begins to scroll if the 'range' of either hand (you play hands separately) is much more than an octave. I think it can handle some two octaves (per hand) if the settings are adjusted, but then the keys get really small. Small keys makes it more cumbersome and less fun, and having fun playing is pretty much the point of it, so ...

So it's not a way to measure difficulty, but rather a way to see if it'll scroll or not.

ditch the app if it limits you this much

Ditching apps means ditching the music altogether. Instant feedback, high scores, and playing head-to-head is good stuff, but the best part is that it's convenient (the tablet goes with me everywhere) and free, so before deciding to buy an instrument, I'll use apps.

Versions of Amazing Graze and Auld Lang Syne is standard for most apps, and it takes only a little while to learn them by heart.

I find two passes scanning through to be the easiest, once for the lowest note, and again for the highest.