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Interesting Piano Websites and Software

I come across a lot of interesting piano websites and software programs that are useful for those interested in piano.  Most of these sites offer freebies, demos, or free trial versions of their software for your use.  Please keep in mind that there is a significant time and monetary investment in these products.  Some of these are also open source projects.  Many of them accept donations to keep their sites running and I encourage you to contribute if you find the software useful.

SOFTWARE

Software #1:  www.musescore.org – sheet music writing software

Musescore.org offers a great free tool to create, play and print beautiful music sheets.  You can save music in musescore format, midi format, and pdf format to name a few.  I found it really easy to get started with it.  The program offers excellent help files and an on-line community that provides support and answers questions.  There are numerous useful video tutorials to be found on Youtube as well.

I find that the more you use it, the quicker you can get at inputting sheet music. You can input notes with the mouse, computer keyboard (using shortcuts) and/or an electronic keyboard.  There are many options on the palette (changing articulations, clefs, key signatures, accidentals, dynamics, adding lyrics and fingering).  The choices are endless!!  It is very easy to create professional looking sheet music with this program.

Please note that I am talking about the program that you install on a computer. The mobile app does not have the writing capability.

Software #2: www.audacity.sourceforge.net – recording and editing sound software

I found this software to be extremely useful when I was recording piano music.  One of my instruments is a (really nice!) electronic piano, but I’m not a big fan of the sounds that the midi would convert to when it was directly plugged into the computer.  It’s a high-end Technics piano which has an amazing grand piano sound–they actually sampled a real live Steinway Grand piano at multiple levels to get a realistic sound and tone!!!  Anyway, to make a long story short, I wanted to record the sound of the piano instead of the computerized MIDI version of it.  Enter audacity’s software!!

Besides recording live audio, the software also records computer playback (Windows Vista or later), converts tapes and records into digital recordings or CDs, edits some sound files, cuts, copies, splices or mixes sounds.  You can even change the speed or pitch of a recording.  There are other features, and I have to admit here that I haven’t fully explored all that this software has to offer.  I just needed a quick solution to make some recordings! But this software is definitely worth further exploration.

Software #3: www.image-line.com/flstudio/ – (FL STUDIO) software music production environment or DAW (Digital Audio Workstation)

This software is so much FUN!  Maybe out of the realm of “useful to piano students” but still sooo useful if you want to dabble a bit with electronic music.  FL Studio is NOT free; however, they do have a demo version of their product. The nice thing about this software is that if you pay the purchase price (they range in price from $99 – 299), you get lifetime updates for the software.  They are currently on version 11 and beta testing version 12 right now.

Definitely check out some of the Youtube “Introduction to FL Studio” videos to see what the product has to offer.  I’m having fun experimenting with it myself!

WEBSITES

Website #1:  www.blanksheetmusic.net – print blank sheet music

For those of you who still like to write out music “longhand”, this is a great free site that offers customizable staff paper.  I love that you can edit and create your own manuscript paper, and the options are surprisingly plentiful! Some options include changing the staff, basic instrumentation (for piano, percussion, organ, guitar–including TAB), clefs, orientation (portrait or landscape), time signatures, and key signatures.

They have a quick tutorial to show you how to get the most out of this site. What I like most is you can adjust the scale, pre-print bar lines, and all kinds of other options.  Saves you having to write out stuff longhand all the time and you can get down to the art of making music!

Website #2: www.123certificates.com – free customizable certificate templates

This is more for teachers, but parents can probably find a use for this website as well.  There’s a special section devoted solely to music: music certificates and music awards.  I use them as participation awards for recitals, and it is a nice memento of performances.  Great for motivating students!

Website #3: www.synthesiagame.com – visual piano game

I know you’ve seen it on Youtube.  The videos that are usually titled “How to play (insert popular song here)” and feature a keyboard with keys that light up as a “piano roll” scrolls by and plays the tune.  It’s actually a pretty good way of learning songs for those of you visual-type learners that want to learn songs by just watching the keys instead of learning to read!!!

I’ll be adding to this list of cool software and websites for piano students periodically so check back.  Also, check out my list of Top Android Apps for piano players here.

Website #4: www.ultimate-guitar.com – chords for loads of songs

This is primarily a website for guitarists, but I find it very handy to look up chords to popular songs.  You can look up popular songs by their titles or by the artist.  You’ll find various versions of songs–click on the ones that have the most votes, the highest ratings, and the ones that are classified as “chords” under “type”.  You’ll be brought to a page that has the lyrics, with the chords that somebody has figured out.  You have to figure out the melody, and decide how you want to play the left hand.  (This style of playing is similar to playing off a lead sheet).

Website #5 & #6: www.everyonepiano.com – free sheet music and www.sheetmusic.cc – sheet music

I am often asked, “Where can I find free sheet music on the internet?”  Here are two websites that I visit to find sheet music for students to try out.  Wherever possible, buy the original sheet music and support music artists!

Which brings me to…

Website(s) #7 www.8notes.com, www.musicnotes.com, www.sheetmusicplus.com, and www.sheetmusicdirect.com– purchase sheet music

All of these sites offer free first page preview, so you can see if an arrangement is going to fit your abilities before you purchase it.  They have plenty of sheet music to choose from, in every genre you can think of!

Website(s) #8 – www.teoria.com – ear training practice

This website lets you practice fully customizable ear training exercises from chord recognition, interval recognition, rhythms, and dictation.

I’ll be adding to this list, there is so much out there on the internet!  If you have any suggestions, I’d be glad to hear from you!

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