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F(OS)S for Learning a Musical Instrument ?
Posted by
Cliff
on Fri Sep 01, 2006 03:05 AM
from the a-software-conductor dept.
from the a-software-conductor dept.
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?"
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guitune (Score:4, Informative)
There's loads of metronome free software around [freshmeat.net] too.
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Hydrogen (Score:4, Interesting)
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Hardware Tuner is ~$20 (Score:3, Interesting)
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.
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Firefox (Score:3, Insightful)
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.
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Of course there is also educational software for instruments as well, though I've never used any.
Audio editors are GREAT for learning to play, cut the tempo in half and retain the pitch to get those fast licks nailed and refine your technique. Record your playing and listen to what you thought were tiny mistakes become glaring errors.
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Tuxguitar (Score:4, Informative)
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)
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Exactly right! The failure of one Open Source program has ended the debate regarding the superiority of proprietary vs open source software.
May's well close slashdot down now - you've settled the argument.
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--
Evan
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Learning an instrument... (Score:4, Funny)
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Neither of the above. (Score:4, Informative)
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.
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Re:Neither of the above. (Score:5, Interesting)
Tuners are going to be the death of string playing, particularly with regards to traditional and baroque music.
I've started to see electric fiddles with frets on them. People, there's a bloody damned good reason that violins don't have frets on them in the first place; and it isn't just to annoy you.
It's so you can play the right pitch, whatever that pitch is; and it often isn't the one that the tuner tells you it is.
Learn to hear intervals, not notes; and learn to tune by fifths. Then go out and get yourself a shitload of the oldest recordings of solo Irish and Old Time fiddle music you can find and learn to hear the microtones.
This may rankle at first, but that's only because your ear has already been corrupted by the tuner/equal tempered piano. There's a whole lot more, even in western music, than the over rigidly defined 12 notes of the equal tempered chromatic scale.
Like consonant intervals that are actually consonant and not merely almost consonant. When I've been playing solo violin for a few hours and then move to piano the piano actally hurts my musical ear. It takes some time to be able to not hear it as slightly out of tune.
This doesn't, of course, mean that you shouldn't learn to play along with a piano and match its musical tones, but you should be aware of the fact that when you do so you are making a compromise with the music.
And the best way to learn to play along with a piano is to play along with a piano, not using a tuner. In fact you should learn to play along with several different pianos, as in practice they'll actually all be in slightly different states of tune and you should be able to hear that and adjust for it.
Music is sound and thus about hearing.
KFG
Parent
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I've started to see electric fiddles with frets on them.
I'd be as shocked and outraged over that as you seem to be, except I can see that an "electric fiddle" is not the same instrument as "a violin". You're not going to see Jean-Luc Ponty playing Vivaldi with the London Philharmonic.
Learn to hear intervals, not notes; and learn to tune by fifths. Then go out and get yourself a shitload of the old
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You're asking too much from most people, who may or may not be moderately musically inclined, but frankly, just plain can't hear that shit. (hell, at my age, I'm lucky I hear anything higher than 10,000 Hz anymore).
Ironic that you cite "folk music". What you call "folk music" plainly has it's origins and style in actual folk music, taken over by virtuosos.
Nothing wrong with virtuosos, mind you.
But not everyone can be one.
Most people don't eve
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That's only an issue for instruments with fixed intonations: pianos, harps, fretted guitars. Other instrumentalists--wind players, brass, fretless strings--are easily able to change intonation by adjusting embrouchure or finger position.
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No it's not. (?)...I remember that if you keep playing perfect fifths you end up half a note sharp when you get back to your starting note.
The trick is to spread that difference out without it becoming too annoying (granted: this way you are always playing slightly out of key).
Does it matter if you do this by ear on your fretless or leave it to mr. piano tuner? (BTW, on a bass it ain't all that critical, but on the high notes you'll notice imme
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Yes it is. Two good trumpeters (or violinists, or flutists, or singers, etc.) can play a major third in perfect tune if they listen to each other and adjust their intonation. But a pianist *cannot* play play a major third in perfect tune on an equal-tempered piano, period.
This is true, but it's a non-issue
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It doesn't quite work like that. Musicians adjust intonation to slow down and/or eliminate the audible "beats" that occur when an interval is out of tune. All equal-tempered intervals, apart from the octave, create audible beats. We tend to resist playing them.
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pages 248 to 251 of Bass Guitar For Dummies... it's an easy job once you see how and can play harmonics. Set the action up correctly first, then go for the intonation.
Re:Neither of the above. (Score:5, Insightful)
We're not talking about a teenager learning guitar... this is a older person learning to play, quite possibly for the first time in their lives. If so, they've been ignoring the basic things about music since Lyndon B. Johnson was president and Woodstock was just a bird in a comic strip. There's no problem with that, but things that "cradle you" are often needed just to relearn and slowly internalize what a teenager or child can pick up very quickly right from music.
--
Evan
Parent
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If a violinist
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It could also be that the guitar is an instrument suited to be taught by book. Violin, on the other hand, is NOT.
some exemples (Score:3, Informative)
GNU Solfege [solfege.org] - Eartraining program for GNOME
Gtick [antcom.de] - Digital metronome
MusicTheory.net (Score:5, Informative)
http://www.musictheory.net/ [musictheory.net]
It's a free bunch of good flash-based music trainers (downloadable for offline use).
There is none! (Score:2)
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.
He
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Yeah, seriously eh? Take note, people, you do not know just how much free software exists if you've only seen the stuff that runs on Windows. This from someone who only switched about a year ago.
Don't assume that just because you can't find a good FOSS app running on Windows that the type of app you're looking for doesn't exist, there's a lot of free stuff that only runs on *nix.
Technical skills... (Score:5, Informative)
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.
not a substitute (Score:2)
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.
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Any suggestions?
Download a metronome program, set it to the beat you want & redirect the sound output to a file, convert that file to mp3 & bob's your uncle!
You could batch up a whole bunch of different BPMs too.
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That said, for time keeping
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You will accomplish 2 things:
1) Your timing will improve.
2) You will pick up technique from what you hear by tring to recreate it.
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If you need to put together click tracks, try Hydrogen, a free software drum sequencer. Its overkill, but it should work fine. (Don't get too loud though, and wear hearing prot
Re:OLGA (Score:4, Informative)
Parent
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Once I discovered Tuxguitar, I dropped kguitar and dguitar...