# Is there an application that does this? (Learning sheet notation)



## Snarf (Jan 7, 2020)

Hi everyone!

I'm trying to get much more fluent at reading notes from sheet music. I was hoping there would be an app (not for on your phone) that would give you certain notated notes (one at a time or more at once) and have you 'play' them via a midi keyboard. I couldn't find anything that provides this (I think rather simple) functionality, mostly opting for an in-app keyboard. 

Maybe someone knows something that has at least this midi-keyboard integration? Or maybe another way to learn how to see a note and instantly know it and find it on the piano?


----------



## Zedcars (Jan 7, 2020)

Hello,

I’m not clear on what you’re asking, but it sounds like you want a basic sight-reading app?

You didn’t say which operating system you need it for. I just had a quick look and this one is free and works on Windows, Mac and Linux:









Jalmus


Download Jalmus for free. Jalmus is a free, open source music education software helping the musicians, especially pianists, to improve their sight-reading. You can train to read music with both exercises on notes or rhythms.




sourceforge.net





I’m not sure if it will do what you want or not.

There are some sight-reading apps for iPad which will ask you to play a note or notes and listen to what you have played through the microphone and tell you if you are correct.

Hope that helped a bit.


----------



## I like music (Jan 7, 2020)

I signed up to sightreadingfactory.

While it doesn't allow you to somehow plug into it and play the notes, it does throw up exercises (where you can define the scope e.g. time signature, key, allowed note lengths, intervals etc). You can then play it yourself, and then use its own playback to see how you compared. Not sure if that helps, but I'm finding it helpful (30 dollars a year or so)


----------



## tack (Jan 7, 2020)

Using a MIDI keyboard to play the notes is crucial for sight-reading training, IMO.

I recommend https://sightreading.training/

It's not perfect and there are some small things I wish it could do that would make a huge improvement, but it uses the Web MIDI standard (supported by Google Chrome and Chrome-based browsers) and allows you to play along.

But it's quite capable as it is -- better than anything else I've seen -- and it's free to boot.


----------



## Snarf (Jan 7, 2020)

Thanks everyone for the suggestions!



tack said:


> Using a MIDI keyboard to play the notes is crucial for sight-reading training, IMO.
> 
> I recommend https://sightreading.training/
> 
> ...



Wow, I've tried it and it's basicly what I had in mind, yeah! Thank you so much!
I got my MIDI keyboard connected and working but the only thing I can't figure out is how to hear some sort of sound when playing? The options let you choose between a few sounds (I don't care if it sounds like an old soundfont), so I think I'm supposed to hear something, right?


----------



## tack (Jan 7, 2020)

Snarf said:


> I got my MIDI keyboard connected and working but the only thing I can't figure out is how to hear some sort of sound when playing?


I personally just leave my DAW up in the background on a piano VSTVI (sorry Jay!). Standalone Pianoteq or Kontakt would work too.


----------



## MartinH. (Jan 7, 2020)

tack said:


> Using a MIDI keyboard to play the notes is crucial for sight-reading training, IMO.
> 
> I recommend https://sightreading.training/



Wow, thanks so much for linking that! I don't need to sight read, but for learning to "just read" notation at all this is very helpful to me.


----------



## cqd (Jan 7, 2020)

note trainer is a decent android app for this too..


----------



## Nick Batzdorf (Jan 7, 2020)

You want to train yourself to see chunks all at once rather than individual notes.

That's why I'd suggest *not* using an app to learn to read music, at least not one that's anything like what's described here.

Of course you have to start by figuring out Every Good Boy Deserves Fruit and FACE and all that. But as with reading writing, you don't read individual letters or even words for very long,


----------



## Snarf (Jan 8, 2020)

Nick Batzdorf said:


> You want to train yourself to see chunks all at once rather than individual notes.



I agree, yes. That is indeed my goal. That's why I asked for a feature where the app gives you multiple notes to play. https://sightreading.training/ gives you this option.



Nick Batzdorf said:


> That's why I'd suggest *not* using an app to learn to read music, at least not one that's anything like what's described here.
> 
> Of course you have to start by figuring out Every Good Boy Deserves Fruit and FACE and all that. But as with reading writing, you don't read individual letters or even words for very long,



I don't understand this part of your post, it seems well-intentioned but you didn't expand on why people shouldn't use a program to help them get quicker at reading sheet notation. Perhaps you didn't understand my initial request? (or I didn't phrase it properly )

The thing is, I *can* read sheet music. Just not very fast. That's where such a program comes in handy, by quickly presenting random notes or chords you need to hit. It tells you immeadiately whether you were right or wrong so it's different from practicing existing sheet music. Just by playing with that web-app for a few hours I already improved my sight-reading quite a bit. (Thanks @tack!)
I definitly agree, though, that this isn't the best/only way of learning to read sheet music, nor the first thing to do when learning it.


----------



## Snarf (Jan 8, 2020)

tack said:


> I personally just leave my DAW up in the background on a piano VSTVI (sorry Jay!). Standalone Pianoteq or Kontakt would work too.



Unfortunately this doesn't work for me :(

It seems like, whichever program I open first (standalone Kontakt or the sight-reading app) has some kind of 'priority' and it doesn't let me use them simultaneously.

Having my DAW (Studio One) running wouldn't work either because whenever I minimize the application it doesn't produce any sound anymore, even I disabled its exclusive control of the audio. This might have something to do with my (lack of an) audio interface and reliance on the ASIO drivers. But trying to solve that is a such a draining technical jungle! I simply lose all motivation there after a while.


----------



## tack (Jan 8, 2020)

Snarf said:


> It seems like, whichever program I open first (standalone Kontakt or the sight-reading app) has some kind of 'priority' and it doesn't let me use them simultaneously.



I assume you're talking about the MIDI device here? Yes, unfortunately it's the case that many manufacturers of audio interfaces and USB MIDI keyboards lamely don't allow multiple processes having the device opened simultaneously.

One thing you can try on Windows is LoopBe, which allows multiple simultaneous consumers of the virtual MIDI device. (The free version provides 1 port but they also offer a version for 20 bucks that provides up to 30 ports. I use it and it's solid.) You can try running Kontakt in standalone mode, and configure the MIDI input to your MIDI keyboard, and the MIDI output to LoopBe Out. Then on the sightreading site, configure the input to LoopBe In.


----------

