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F(OS)S for Learning a Musical Instrument ?
Anonymous Musician asks: "Recently I took up learning to play the violin (at age 37) and it is great fun. I found two little software tools to be of good help: Wired Metronome (Windows binary, free to download) to keep a steady beat, and TS-AudioToMIDI (Windows binary, shareware, 30 days free trial), using a microphone and built-in sound-card to detect in real time the note I am playing (I admit, sometimes it is more like a noise) and have it displayed on a piano keyboard to check and train my tuning.
What tools, freeware or FOSS, are you using to assist you with learning to play an instrument?"
The guitune project seems to do everything your second program does. Linux only at the mo' (but in gtk or qt flavours)
There's loads of metronome free software around too.
There are shills on slashdot. Apparently, I'm one of them.
The OnLine Guitar Archive (OLGA) is a great resource for getting melodies and chord arrangements for zillions of songs. Although I play guitar, I find it very valuable for keyboard as well, and I suspect you would for violin.
Also check out Audacity (audio editor) - runs on Windows, Linux and Mac
I am trying to learn how to play the drums, and I do great as long as I don't have to play with another instrument.
I know I am supposed to be the timekeeper, but what I really need is something to help me keep time untill I can get the timing turned into muscle memory.
I need something that I can load onto an mp3 player, because simply using a mechanical metronome doesn't work because I drown it out.
Any suggestions?
Today's show is brought to you by the number 09 F9 11 02 9D 74 E3 5B D8 41 56 C5 63 56 88 C0: 25
I'm learning to play bass guitar at the moment, and I've found Hydrogen (Free, Open Source) to be of great help. It's a drum machine, which lets me quickly setup simple or more advanced drum-loops, even layout the drum patterns for an entire song. Granted, this is probably not quite as important for a violin player - although it can be used as a simple metronome as well.
^]:wq!^M
For stringed instruments, I've found it really really helpful to have a hardware tuner, and most of them run about $20-30, and they're pocket-sized and last forever on a battery and fit in the accessories pockets of instrument cases or music folders. You _can_ also use them to find your note on a continuous-pitch instrument. The Korg model that I use has a meter (well, an LCD simulation of one) that shows how far above or below the nearest note you are, as well as red and green LEDs that tell you if you're sharp or flat. There are other shapes of tuners that clamp onto instruments, and some of them have backlights which can be helpful.
I've used PC software versions in the past, mostly with names like "Guitar Tuner" or whatever, but dragging a laptop around was more trouble than spending the $20 for the tuner - your mileage may vary. On the other hand, with a dulcimer you tune it once and it stays in tune for a whole session until you want retune to change modes, and with a uke you tune it once and it stays only slightly out of tune for at least a little while, so either way you're not trying to get the feedback while you're actually playing, so you may need something different.
Bill Stewart
New Fast-Compression-only CPR http://preview.tinyurl.com/dy575ks
Who uses their computer to learn a musical instrument?
Get Firefox, and use it to order scores and a real metronome---and to find yourself a real music instructor---online.
http://outcampaign.org/
having kguitar and dguitar installed is quite handy
although i have some problems with kguitar 1.5, as it often crashes with my tabs - but it produces a really nice printout
dguitar is easy to install, and has no problems to produce midi output in my settings (which is broken for kguitar atm, dunno why exactly)
both can read the guitar pro 3 and 4 format files (which are most important for me besides ascii tabs)
anyone has another tab viewer for linux in these formats?
ignore the name...
it's a crossplatform java program that funtions almost as Guitar Pro. It can read and write several available formats so there's plenty of stuff out there to load up and examine/play back. I use it to examine the Bass score for pieces. It does Tab input and conventional music notation (conveniently on the same window) and there a fretboard display as well which shows you where to stick your finger (unfortunately it don't show you which one is best though)
Donald 'Duck' Dunn: We had a band powerful enough to turn goat piss into gasoline.
Can't you just buy a six string and play it 'til your fingers bleed?
My other first post is car post.
As a violinist, I'd not use either of these programs. The metronome one is handy, but why fire up a PC when a cheap bit of hardware is just as good and a lot more portable?
Tuning software/gadets I'm against. I've known lots of people that learnt with them and I think they harm not help. You need to get used to *really* listening to what you are doing. Looking at notes on a screen actively hinders this IMO.
I have seen denemo and solfege used for music studies. Not exactly the things you asked for but might be good aswell...
DansTuner - Tells you if you are playing a pitch in tune
GNU Solfege - Eartraining program for GNOME
Gtick - Digital metronome
The sooner you fall behind, the more time you have to catch up.
For tuning I recommend MiniTuner (win32 binary).
It is a free program to tune the guitar using a microphone. I have tried guitune and some other linux projects, but I couldn't get them to correctly recognize all the tones of my guitar. (Probably due to my rather poor build-in microphone.) At the moment I use MiniTuner under wine, which seems to work correctly.
I got it from a dutch site http://akkoord.be/downloads/software.htm, and it seems there is a newer version on http://www.hitsquad.com/smm/programs/MiniTuner/ (disclaimer, I have not tested that version.)
Nice, the comments provide tools I didn't know before :-) Here's another one:
http://www.musictheory.net/
It's a free bunch of good flash-based music trainers (downloadable for offline use).
Animoog.org
I'd say the fastest way would be to get a teacher, although I came to music late and never felt comfortable with that (although I did try it).
If you're not going to get a teacher then get a mic and some recording software (there's loads of free stuff out there - audacity for example). It really hard to hear what you're doing wrong while you're doing it.
On the tuner front, I'd go with a hardware one - the best ones IMO are the clip on ones that sense vibration. I have an Intellitouch one but there are other models now.
Other than that, practice and have fun!
ccalam - acoustic versions of new songs.
Well, next to none. As a professional violinist, and long-time teacher as well, I've been devestatingly disappointed with nearly every FOSS app for music. Audacity is good for recording yourself, so you can gauge your progress over months, and hydrogen is great for a metronome/drum machine. Other than that I've found NOTHING.
Sibelius is simply devestating all the other notation programs in particular, and even Finale and some of the others are eons and light years ahead of any of the FOSS alternatives.
Hell, there still does not exist a decent nero alternative for burning cds that is FOSS. And no FOSS player rates next to winamp, which I give a C- over all.
I'm generally a huge FOSS fan, as well, so this is all sad to me. All my computer related tasks are FOSS now (Firefox, thunderbird, nvu, filezilla, gimp, open office, shareaza, zsnes, and 1964), but anything to do with music is for some reason grossly behind.
rhY
I hold very few opinions. I hold information based on observation and fact. If you wish to disagree, please use facts.
There have been some decent suggestions for metronome and tuning programs, but really, nothing can beat just dropping $30 or so on a combination tuner/metronome. Most have plugs for earpieces, so you can easily overcome the "drowning it out" problem, and should be available at your local music store.
Also, as a clarinetist, I can tell you that it's easy to develop bad habits early on, which will be difficult to overcome later. With any musical instrument, bad habits can lead from poor technique at best to debilitating injury, but violin (and viola) are particularly prone to this. While I've never played a string instrument for any length of time, many of my friends who are string players have told me that the first two or three lessons for beginners can be devoted to just _learning to hold the instrument_. Sometimes, the bow doesn't even come into play for weeks after that.
For this reason, I would say that the most important thing you can do as a beginning violinist is to find yourself a teacher who can show you the basic technical aspects of playing. Even if money is tight, it's worth taking just a few lessons to save yourself a lot of mental (and likely physical) anguish down the road. And of course, if money isn't really an issue, then you'll benefit from continuing lessons. There's no substitute for having a master standing over you and helping with individual issues. Many teachers love to take on adult students, so it shouldn't be hard to find someone in your area willing to teach you.
That all being said, welcome to the music world! The violin is one of the most challenging instruments to learn, but it's also one of the most versatile and widely used throughout the world. The rewards you'll reap from the experience will be well worth the investment of time and energy.
V&X stores are still around, except after inflation they're called Dollar Tree.
I'm all for technology (I mean, I hang out here, so) but no software in the world is a substitute for a living, breathing music teacher. Software can't teach you how to make music expressive; otherwise you're just stringing note together.
Go to your local music store or the music department of a local college; both of which are excellent places to get in touch with someone who'll be eager to teach you how music works.
A long time back in the Amiga A500 days, there was a MIDI adapter which ;-) )
came with a keyboard and various software 'games' to teach children/interested
folk to play the piano. can't recall its name.....anyhow, the musical
equivalent of mavis beacon touch typing (or tux-typing, or typing of the dead
if you will....
so...are their OSS equivalents of THAT type of tool?
http://www.solfege.org/
It's ear-training software, it's OSS, it works when you don't have someone else to train with. Ear-training is the musical equivalent of kung-fu training, regardless of instrument. Sing the intervals while you play them; it's not so important that you know it's a fifth or a fourth or a b-flat etc as that you can sing the note/interval/line AND play it. And if you want to be a music ninja, do the ear-training WHILE you're doing your kung-fu forms.
Here's how it works: your goal is to be able to reproduce the sounds in your head on your instrument, preferably instantaneously. These sounds get into your head in various ways -- via the written page, songs you hear, if you're a composer your imagination. Miles Davis talked about being able to call the pitch of a door squeak.
For instrumental technique and skill, metronome work is key. Beginners often want to work directly on developing speed, which actually delays progress. Develop proper technique first (is it a bad hurt? Technique needs work.) During your metronome sessions start slow, slower than you think you need to. You can always end the session by playing as fast as you can, but always begin slowly and work up incrementally. Listen to the difference between 40 bpm and 140 bpm. One notch per day will get you there; trying to hit your speed limit every practice will not.
http://rpitch.sourceforge.net/
Well, I'm a wee-bit passed learning a music instrument, but there are some really great OSS apps/projects for keyboardists and (music) programmers. PD (kinda like Csound, which is also pretty cool) is fairly exceptional as a programmable virtual instrument platform (it's not intuitive _AT_ALL_, but with a basic knowledge of how to use a VCO and the concept of ADSR (Attack, Delay, Sustain, Release), you can create some pretty phat noise.
And as far as seqencing and arrangement goes, I've been using Rosegarden and it's pretty fuckin' impressive. Agreed, it's no Sibelius, but it's free, and it works.
Oh yeah, if you wanna see what a REAL linux music machine looks like, check out Korg's OASYS. Sorry for the absence of links. I'm pretty lazy.
I've been playing didgeridoo for less than a year (sax is main instrument). I wrote a Matlab script to analyze the frequency content of recordings I made. It's not real-time, but still neat to see how tongue movements change the harmonics. Pictures/code samples here: http://www.prism.gatech.edu/~gtg601q/didj/didj.htm l
I really like the way you explain things. The correlation between doing things you /LIKE/ for a long time and thus become good at them. I've got another one, though: sometimes it takes a life changing event to figure out what you really like..
Incidentally, you mentioned some issues that seem to be neurologic in nature. Ever looked at neurofeedback? I've seen some frankly amazing results with that: a little kid (9 years old) with dyspraxia finally be able to cycle, and the scientific basis of it makes logical sense. I think there's a small conference on in the UK in 2 weeks.
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It never ends - I always learn something new here (and long may it continue).
:-). I'm sure it'll come out in the end ;-).
The learning process you describe is exactly that of martial arts as well. First you go through the moves, and especially in Tai Chi are you very quickly introduced to the idea that it's not the move that matters, it's what your mind does with it (I mention Tai Chi because it's one of the most potent forms using the mind).
It then takes years to make your mind and the moves "one" - but at least you know early what you're aiming for. A friend of mine demonstrates this rather bluntly with the 1-inch punch (move with and without mind - and make sure you have a safe landing zone), I -as an interested amateur- tend to show the waterhose method instead.
I'm over 40, and always wanted to play an instrument. I think I'm the type that accepts a period of near absence of ability, but I do need a bit of encouragement from time to time. It's time (a) working out what I want to play and (b) find a teacher locally. The two may actually influence eachother as I have no real bias. Piano, guitar, both attract (one's more portable, though), but you got me a tad worried about locking myself up in do-re-mi and fret-determined intervals
If you ever come to Zurich, let me know. I'll leave my Slashdot email address enabled for a day or so to allow you to make contact if you so wish.
Insert
n/t = no text. Duh.
Insert
If you are playing a continuous-pitch instrument, beware of becoming too obsessed with always being on the "right" pitch at all times. (This is true to a lesser extent of tempered instruments as well, as long as they allow some pitch flexibility.)
The pitch indicated by a tuner is going to match the location of a note in 12-tone equal temperament (aka "12-TET"), and this is probably exactly what you want if you are playing bass, and it is almost certainly what you want if you are playing a fretted or keyboard instrument (unless you are playing music that specifically calls for something else). However, this is not always the best pitch for maximal sonority in a chord -- it is quite common for a skilled performer to vary as much as 20 to 25 cents (percent of a semitone) from the 12-TET pitch in order to blend better with the other musicians around them.
Also remember that frequency detection in the ear gets less defined as notes get shorter and lower. Fewer cycles mean a wider margin of error, to put it simply. So the faster you play, the more mistuning you can get away with. Most instruments have techniques for rapid passages that, if played slowly, would sound muffled and/or out of tune. But when they are played rapidly, they sound perfectly acceptable as the note in question is too short to nail down as "out of tune".
Finally consider the matter of vibrato. Unless you are playing "dead tone" (and some compositions do call for this), you are unlikely to play many sustained notes on a violin that do not have some amount of vibrato to them. This also widens your margin for error, as you will not be at any one specific pitch for very long.
All this is not to say that you shouldn't consider the matter of intonation -- it is every bit as critical as you imagine. Just don't put too much emphasis on pegging the tuner at 0 every time, as there are perfectly valid reasons you may want to be somewhere else. 12-TET is a compromise necessitated by fixed-pitch instruments. That does not mean you have to live within its confines at all times.
Mal-2
How is the Riemann zeta function like Trump rallies? Both have an endless number of trivial zeros.
Wired Metronome (Windows binary, free to download) to keep a steady beat
You mean you use a $1000 computer to do an inferior job of emulating a $20 metronome?
Seriously, don't be such a cheapskate. Metronomes are cheap and much more convenient to operate than a keyboard (or a mouse or touchpad).
I believe you're referring to the MIRACLE piano system. IIRC, it had cartridges for the Nintendo, and software for Win and Mac systems, too.
Your description of it as "the musical equivalent of Mavis Beacon touch typing" is excellent!