Resources•8 min read
Do You Need 88 Keys to Learn Piano?
No. Sixty-one is enough to start and enough for most popular music. The question people should be asking instead is whether their app knows how many keys they actually have.
Songscription Blog & Music Transcription Resources
Explore Songscription's guides to music transcription, sheet music, MIDI, piano roll, and AI-powered music learning, plus product updates and company announcements from the Songscription team.
Learning songs from a piano roll: how to read the falling-notes view, slow a part down without changing its pitch, and go from a recording to something you can play along with.
Piano Roll
Tutorial•10 min read
How to Learn Video Game Music on Piano
One of the most requested and least available categories of piano repertoire there is. Learning it is mostly a problem of getting accurate notes, and only then a problem of practicing.
Tutorial•10 min read
How to Learn Worship Songs on Piano
A set list arrives Tuesday and has to be ready Sunday, in the singer's key. The skill you are really building is a repeatable process for turning a recording into something playable.
Tutorial•10 min read
How to Learn International Songs on Piano
If the songs you grew up with are Hindi film songs, Korean ballads or Nigerian afrobeats, the catalog is not missing them because they are unsuitable for a piano.
Resources•9 min read
Is There a Piano App That Listens to You Play?
Yes, and most of them do it now. The interesting part is what they are listening for, where microphone detection breaks down, and what no app can hear at all.
Resources•10 min read
Can AI Teach You Piano? An Honest Answer
Teaching an instrument is three jobs, not one. Machine learning has largely solved two of them and made essentially no progress on the third, and knowing which is which tells you what to buy.
Resources•9 min read
How Long Does It Take to Learn a Song on Piano?
Two to four weeks for a beginner on a simple pop song, a few days for an intermediate player, and months for a Chopin ballade. Here is what actually moves those numbers.
Resources•9 min read
Can You Learn Piano Without a MIDI Keyboard?
Yes, and most people asking already own the instrument they need. Here is what a MIDI cable actually buys you, which apps accept both inputs, and how to set a room up so the app can hear you.
Tutorial•7 min read
How to Create a Piano Tutorial for Any Song
The falling-notes piano tutorials you see on YouTube start from a transcription. Here is how to turn any recording into a piano roll you can slow down and play along with.
Tutorial•6 min read
Learn a Song Section by Section with a Piano Roll
To learn a hard song, slow it down and work one short section at a time. Here is how a slowed-down piano roll makes that practice faster and clearer.
Resources•7 min read
How to Learn a Song That Isn't in Your Piano App
Piano apps teach from a fixed library, so the song you actually want is often missing. Here is how to learn any song, even one no app offers, by turning the recording itself into something you can play along with.
Resources•6 min read
How to Read a Piano Roll
A piano roll turns music into a simple picture: pitch goes up, time goes right, and each bar is a note you hold. Here is how to read one, even if you have never read sheet music.
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