Melody Practice: Continue When ... All Notes Held at Once & Ended Notes Released

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BusterPhysic
Posts: 5

Post by BusterPhysic »

Hi all.

I'm working on timing. Specifically my hold and release timing.

1) Could we add an option to Melody Practice so the song waits if a note is released too early?
2) Could we add an option to Melody Practice so the song waits for ended notes to be released?
3) Could we add an option for the keyboard lights to remain lit for the full note duration rather
than go out when pressed?

Fantastic program, Thanks!!!
David
Nicholas
Posts: 13135

Post by Nicholas »

For #1, how would Synthesia know when to start playing the song again? Did you mean you'd have to play the note a second time (to "resume" it) so the song could continue?

For #3, this is more a technical issue with the way key lights work in most lighted keyboards. When they receive a "Note On" (from Synthesia), they light the key. When they receive a "Note Off" (because you just let go of the key), the light is turned off. I suppose Synthesia could send another quiet Note On just after it sees you have released the key.

In general though, all of these suggestions point to a desire to have note timing enforced very rigidly. I worry that if those features were added, most users would either disable them or complain until we changed it to being disabled by default. A lot of the fun of playing piano is introducing your own expressiveness to the music. I already worry that Synthesia is too strict at the beginning of notes and is hurting the ability for people to make their own creative decisions.

Combine that with a lot of MIDI files having a poorly defined note ending (sometimes a song author will extend a piano roll note out just to make it sound like the sustain pedal is being held, etc.) that you'd quickly end up in situations where the song would get "stuck" because you aren't able to hold more than ten notes at once.
icuurd12b42
Posts: 48

Post by icuurd12b42 »

1 and 2 is covered by the Points system in practice the rhythm mode.
Getting penalized for not respecting the duration it seems fair enough. I personally found a bit annoying that the Melody mode would not punish me for just tapping the note and not respecting the duration. I think maybe you could also have that rhythm mode points system in the Practice the Melody mode

for the lighted keys my casio in-hardware practice system also turns the key off when you press the lighted key even if it should still be held. It's a little annoying because the only feedback that the key should be held still is in the the finger position in the tiny lcd display.

if that would be for your sw to keep the light ON.

Here's another lighting trick on my Cassio, it announces the key that will need to be pressed by flashing it on and off, slower then faster then full ON according to how far that next note is in the score.

This really helps to position your hand prior to playing the note... You system with the note fountain does replace that need for this but it would be a cool addition...
Nicholas
Posts: 13135

Post by Nicholas »

icuurd12b42 wrote: 12-20-21 7:59 pmHere's another lighting trick on my Casio, it announces the key that will need to be pressed by flashing it on and off, slower then faster then full ON according to how far that next note is in the score.
Hmm, that's an interesting choice on Casio's part. I guess I can see it: they've got LEDs in the keys so they want to use them to their fullest, but in the larger context of having something on the music stand (whether it be a music book or a tablet with a music app), the goal is to look at the keys as little as possible.

(This video comparing a professional pianist's eye movements to a student's is very interesting. The "something on the music stand" case is shown starting around 2:15.)

I've always envisioned (and used) the key light feature in Synthesia as a mistake correcting system. It's only in the failure state where I missed something and now Melody Practice is stopped where I get a chance to look down and see what happened. The lights are very useful in that case because they make the answer to the question "what did I do wrong?" immediately apparent. Otherwise, I should be facing forward.
icuurd12b42
Posts: 48

Post by icuurd12b42 »

It's funny how he says "I don't have to look" and he clearly does...

I understand the idea of using it for correction. but I personally think the casio game helps finger movement and I understand to what detriment to regular folks wanting to learn. In fact I warned about this in the review I did for the keyboard on Amazon.

For me, I'm satisfied to just play along without thinking. The mode is more like a game that I enjoy. I personally am incapable of learning to read music and translate that to a Letter to then translate that to a key on the keyboard. It's a dual mapping system my dyslexic mind is incapable of doing. I can't recite the alphabet backwards or tell you what position a letter is or what letter comes before or after it without reciting the whole thing in my head.

So learning to play a score from a sheet is beyond my abilities. I just like to play. that's it.
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