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-   -   I use MidiNotate to learn video game music using the virtual keyboard (http://www.notation.com/vb-forum/showthread.php?t=1565)

Lewis Aquilina 10-02-2006 01:13 PM

I simply cannot understand she
 
I simply cannot understand sheet music and wanted to download software which would show me how to play MIDI's using simple notation, i.e. c, d, e, f, g, a, b. I found it very difficult and frustrating to find the results I was looking for as I searched Google using terms such as 'Midi notation' or 'convert sheet music to notation'. After hours of browsing and then installing several programs only to uninstall them straight after, I learnt that notation is in fact sheet music - or atleast thats what I think because every time I search 'notation' on Google, the results always mentioned the software could display this 'notation' (as opposed to sheet music) which when I installed it turned out to be sheet music. Dang.

So, I suppose there are no programs out there which when you load a MIDI file the program shows you ONLY HOW TO PLAY IT in a way which doesn't involve sheet music, i.e. tabs.

I eventually came across MidiNotate and discovered it uses what is known as a 'virtual keyboard'. As I discovered, not many MIDI programs use this feature - just this and MagicScore as I'm aware of.

It would be great if anyone can recommend me a program which shows people how to play the music from the MIDI so that I can play it on my keyboard (Yamaha PSR-295) which DOES NOT involve sheet music - I understand piano rolling and virtual keyboards and tab-like notes, i.e c, d, e, etc, just not sheet music.

P.s If sheet music is the same as notation, what is c, d ,e, f, g, a, b known as (from a keyboard)?

Sherry Crann (sherry) 10-02-2006 04:09 PM

Hello Lewis, MidiNotate Mus
 
Hello Lewis,

MidiNotate Musician and Composer both have an "Easy Notes" feature that will show you the note names (C, D, E, etc.) inside the notehead so that you can more easily associate the notes with their positions on the staff. You can also adjust the tempo to what you want for playing along and learning. The fact that each note gets highlighted as it plays makes this a very effective learning tool.

I've been learning how to play sheet music on my electric bass using this feature. When I play at church, I usually just use a chord chart to ad lib a bass line, but actually being able to play a bass line that has already been written as sheet music notation is helpful in some situations.

As you look at the keyboard, you'll notice that the black keys are in a pattern - pseudo-groups of two or three. These are the sharps/flats of the letter notes. To find a C, look at a two-group of black keys, and then hit the white key just to the left of the left-most black key. That is a C. If it's the one in the middle of the keyboard (on a standard 88-key piano), then it's middle C, which in notation is on the line between the treble and bass clefs. The white keys go up in order (left to right), C, D, E, F, G, A, B, C, D, etc. right on up in pitch. If you hit the black key just to right of a C, that is a C# (C sharp), or it can also be called Db (D flat) depending on the notation. This is true for the other black keys and their corresponding sharps/flats (eg. A#/Bb, F#/Gb, etc). Just to keep things interesting, there is no black key between B and C, nor E and F. I figure it just helps us find our position on the keyboard easier that way http://www.notation.com/discus/clipart/happy.gif

What's pretty cool from a physics standpoint is that each note that is the same letter name (ie, all Cs, or all Ds, etc.) has for it's frequency a multiple of 2 of the same letter note below it. For example, you may have heard of "A 440 standard tuning". This just means that the note "A" at 440 Hz is the standard that is used. The next A after that one is at 880 Hz. To our ears (and brains), each A sounds "the same only different". http://www.notation.com/discus/clipart/happy.gif So you can play a song an "octave" (oct=8, ie 8 white keys up) higher or lower, and it will sound "the same only different".

This has probably been a bit more than you bargained for http://www.notation.com/discus/clipart/happy.gif But I hope some of these points help you understand how the letter names A, B, C, etc. fit in with the notation you see in sheet music, and how they fit in with what we hear when we play it. And using the practice features in Musician and Composer can help you learn those fairly easily http://www.notation.com/discus/clipart/happy.gif

ttfn,
Sherry


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