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?"

guitune

[Whiney Mac Fanboy (963289)]

The guitune [geocities.com] 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 [freshmeat.net] too.

Hydrogen

[egjertse (197141)]

I'm learning to play bass guitar at the moment, and I've found Hydrogen [hydrogen-music.org] (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.

Re:

[legoburner (702695)]

Using drum patterns from Hydrogen is indeed useful and I use them along with dubbed recordings using Ardour [ardour.org] which allows the usual multi-track recording, editing, etc. A requirement is the brilliant jackd [jackaudio.org] audio connection kit which allows a crazy level of audio processing and manipulation. All in all, I have no need for anything other than linux when recording/dubbing music.

Hardware Tuner is ~$20

[billstewart (78916)]

I've never played instruments like violins, trombones, or fretless basses that require you to find your own pitch (other than voice) - it's hard enough on guitars, dulcimers, ukes, and baritone horns that play the notes you tell them to :-)

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.

Re:

[dunkelfalke (91624)]

yes, but such hardware tuners suck. a software strobe tuner is much cheaper than a strobe hardware tuner though.

Firefox

[Schraegstrichpunkt (931443)]

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.

Tuxguitar

[advocate_one (662832)]

Tuxguitar...

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)

Re:

[advocate_one (662832)]

take it to their forums... I think you'll find the answer to your problem is already in there.

Re:

[Whiney Mac Fanboy (963289)]

Mmmm... so much for the Open Source is better than...

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.

Learning an instrument...

[Cryptnotic (154382)]

Can't you just buy a six string and play it 'til your fingers bleed?

Neither of the above.

[fatrat (324232)]

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.

Re:Neither of the above.

[kfg (145172)]

Tuning software/gadets I'm against. I've known lots of people that learnt with them and I think they harm not help.

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

Re:

[jafac (1449)]

Learn to hear intervals, not notes; and learn to tune by fifths.

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

Re:

[quisph (746257)]

That's only an issue for instruments with fixed intonations

No it's not. (?)

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.

I remember that if you keep playing perfect fifths you end up half a note sharp when you get back to your starting note.

This is true, but it's a non-issue

Re:

[quisph (746257)]

But my line of thinking is that we may be so used to the equal tempered tuning that we will intonate the same way on our 'fretless' anyway.

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.

Re:Neither of the above.

[JabberWokky (19442)]

Anybody over about 30 and many people over 20 who are learning their first instrument have to learn some pretty darn fundamental things. They aren't going to be able to get a groove or jam when they can't even keep a basic 4/4 beat. I've known plenty of people who couldn't separate out a Beatles bassline or find and keep the beat on a folk song. People who learned when they were kids or in their 20s have no problem whatsoever and can't understand that others just can't hear the fundamental basics of music. I grew up with a guitar playing father and learned the circle of fifths with my ABCs, but I recognize that many people who didn't have an interest in music early in their lives simply can't pick out individual instruments or the basic beat from even simple songs, or even tell a single note from harmony or a chord from a note.

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

some exemples

[tonigonenstein (912347)]

DansTuner [sourceforge.net] - Tells you if you are playing a pitch in tune
GNU Solfege [solfege.org] - Eartraining program for GNOME
Gtick [antcom.de] - Digital metronome

MusicTheory.net

[Lord Satri (609291)]

Nice, the comments provide tools I didn't know before :-) Here's another one:
http://www.musictheory.net/ [musictheory.net]
It's a free bunch of good flash-based music trainers (downloadable for offline use).

Technical skills...

[Analog Penguin (550933)]

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.

Re:

[Whiney Mac Fanboy (963289)]

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?

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.

Re:

[chiark (36404)]

A lot of drummers use an earpiece with a simple click track to keep time... Complaints that it destroys a drummer's "groove" are fairly common, but on the other hand it does help pull you into a rigid tempo - use it as an aid, not a crutch.

Re:

[IceCreamGuy (904648)]

I use a Boss DB-12 electronic metronome, it's got tons of features and is still really easy to use. It has a line out that I plug my Vic Firth drummer isolation phones into and that works much better than any mp3 type of system you could cook up, since you can change tempo, time signature, and accents. It works great with the isolation phones; both the drums and the metronome are clearly audible. You could also easily do the same thing with the Wired Metronome that is mentioned in the post.

Re:

[by Anonymous Coward]

You're not the (only) time keeper, just the most audible producer of timing queues. The latter is what makes your time keeping skill less of an issue than your ability to read other players timing since you stick out like a sore thumb if you flam with them. If you play in a group you feed off each other to keep the time, constantly adjusting to each other. If you are the only one sticking rigidly to the beat when the others drifted a bit, you will (quite rightly) get flack for it.

That said, for time keeping

Re:OLGA

[advocate_one (662832)]

OLGA has been shut down by the RIAA... however, their archive is out there in torrent form and also on foreign sites which don't care about the RIAA...

Re:

[advocate_one (662832)]

Kguitar midi output isn't broken, it assumes you're running timidity as a daemon. Dguitar can use either timidity or the java sound engine, when it uses timidity, it calls timidity explicitly.

Once I discovered Tuxguitar, I dropped kguitar and dguitar...