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PIANO TRAINER
Symphonium
Version: 0.1 Web: https://github.com/ttdm/symphonium
Most sound recording software include a digital piano keyboard, designed to work as a virtual MIDI device. If you haven’t tried one, there are numerous YouTube lessons available that will show you how to play popular tunes, by pressing the right keys in the right order, for the correct amount of time. These usually take the form of a standard piano keyboard located along the bottom of the screen, with the area above it featuring falling elements that represent the keys a user needs to press. This beginner-friendly way of learning is available as an open source application.
Symphonium is a piano trainer that plays MIDI files. It has a clear graphical interface and is ideal for learning. The program is in an early state of development, but it’s already very usable. Load a file or a directory with MIDI files, hit Play and see how it goes. You can change the tempo, display duration for the graph, and restrict the file to a given interval. Symphonium works in three modes – listen, practice and play – which means that for anything other than listening a user needs an input MIDI device. However, if one isn’t available the application still proves useful. The only obstacle is that many Linux distros don’t come correctly configured to play MIDI files out of the box, especially if there’s no MIDI hardware. For that reason Symphonium will load up and play files with no issues, but without sound. So make sure that you have the Timidity server up and running before launching the application.
Timidity adds the required virtual MIDI devices that can be used via the settings (Options>Select MIDI device). Once the sound is working, supply the application with a MIDI file. already comes bundled with a decent collection of classics for intermediate and advanced levels, made up of 43 samples, and it accepts virtually any correct MIDI file – even if it were created for a different instrument. That said, with you can find out how any instrument part can be converted to become a piano
