Workaround to Fingering, Lettering, Print Issues
Posted: Mon Mar 12, 2018 9:00 am
Since Playground Sessions (PGS) has made it pretty clear that changes to the interface aren't going to happen soon, I will suggest a workaround to the issues of fingering, note letters, and other print issues. I'm also going to encourage everyone to NOT use PGS (stay with me here).
If you google Musescore, you can find a FREE program for creating and printing your own music. The program is fairly easy to learn, and most people can get it down in about an hour or two. There's a very robust online community, so simply googling a question on how to do something will provide the answer. Mess with it a day or two, and you will master it.
Before anyone complains that they don't want to go outside PGS to learn, let me just say that there are a lot of benefits to writing down your own music, whether it's copying the music note for note, or changing the music to your own benefit, or creating your own music...even if it's just writing out the scales for you to practice. I've found that writing out the music helps me to see the patterns in the piece, which can make it a lot less daunting to learn. If you understand that the structure of a piece is A B A B A C, you realize that you only have to learn 3 parts of a song, instead of that huge piece. In addition, we all know that there are chords that commonly follow other chords. One can often "guess" which chord will be next based on the chord or chords that proceeded it. When you copy a few pieces, you begin to see the patterns emerge. It also helps you to understand the note patterns in the different keys. Suddenly that A# in that one particular key makes sense.
You can also change the music to suit you more when you print it out. If you've ever printed out a full song through PGS, you'll know that it might be 7, 8, 10 pages or more. This is because there aren't any repeats in the PGS music. If you use repeats and their brethren, you can vastly shorten the printed music so that you can actually put it on your music stand and play without turning the pages. Even better, with some practice and study, you will be able to create your own lead sheet. I often compare the PGS music to lead sheets that I've found online or purchased, or have in a fake book, and I've been able to create my own PGS version of a lead sheet, effectively reducing the printed pages to one or two pages. Even better, I will scan those lead sheets into my iPad, and then I can take my music with me when I go somewhere, and if I run into an empty piano, I have my music with me.
Finally, one of the more requested features here on PGS, you can add fingering, note letters, or other notes to the music whenever and wherever you want. Most times I will add fingering in to start the piece, to remind myself where I want my hands, then not put any fingering in until the fingering changes significantly. this helps me not rely on the fingering crutch. I don't put note letters in, but it's easy to do. You put these fingerings, notes, and letterings in their own layer, and you can turn them on or off as you want. I've put notes in my music..."right hand one octave up" or "---> 3rd finger up" to remind me to move my fingers. Eventually I can turn the notes off.
Now, here's the one caveat: you cannot import this music into PGS. You cannot put music into PGS and then use it to grade you and help you keep tempo, etc. I would pay SIGNIFICANT money to be able to do this. Fact is, it cannot be done (unless you hack the PGS operating system, and I won't go there), and I'm assuming since PGS makes revenue on selling songs, we will probably never get to the point of importing our own music. But that's OK. We all want to play the piano. That means we have to get outside of the PGS environment eventually. We have to study our scales and movements with other material to be well rounded pianists. We have to learn to use the metronome without the crutch of the PGS lead line. We need to learn to play clearly and crisply, without using the fine PGS background music to cover our mistakes. So print out the music, turn on the metronome on your piano, and play it outside of PGS, just like your grandmother and mother did. I guarantee you will HATE it when you start. It's hard. It's probably why most of us migrated to PGS in the first place. But you will progress quickly, thanks to what PGS has taught you. And you know what? You will be able to walk into someone's house, and when they ask you to play, you can sit down at their piano and show off what you've learned. You can't do that if you can only play within PGS. If you ONLY play with PGS, you are playing a video game. Don't be afraid to expand your learning. Strive to play like David Sides.
The other day, I traveled to Phoenix and stopped in a piano store. The salesman invited me to sit down at any piano and play. I spent over an hour going from piano to piano just playing. It was one of the best days of my piano playing career. I played on a couple baby grands, a full grand, several digital pianos that were waaaaaaaay out of my price range. I tried them ALL. You can't do that unless you expand outside of PGS.
No one should take this as me bashing PGS. I'm a lifetime member and I have over 100 songs from them. I failed in learning piano until I found PGS. I love it and would pay even more money to them than I have for what they have given me. But PGS is just one piece of the puzzle. We all need to turn it off sometimes.
Secondly, I won't get anything from Musescore for touting their product. They won't even know I mentioned it, I'm sure. I just think they are a great product, just like PGS.
Happy playing everyone.
If you google Musescore, you can find a FREE program for creating and printing your own music. The program is fairly easy to learn, and most people can get it down in about an hour or two. There's a very robust online community, so simply googling a question on how to do something will provide the answer. Mess with it a day or two, and you will master it.
Before anyone complains that they don't want to go outside PGS to learn, let me just say that there are a lot of benefits to writing down your own music, whether it's copying the music note for note, or changing the music to your own benefit, or creating your own music...even if it's just writing out the scales for you to practice. I've found that writing out the music helps me to see the patterns in the piece, which can make it a lot less daunting to learn. If you understand that the structure of a piece is A B A B A C, you realize that you only have to learn 3 parts of a song, instead of that huge piece. In addition, we all know that there are chords that commonly follow other chords. One can often "guess" which chord will be next based on the chord or chords that proceeded it. When you copy a few pieces, you begin to see the patterns emerge. It also helps you to understand the note patterns in the different keys. Suddenly that A# in that one particular key makes sense.
You can also change the music to suit you more when you print it out. If you've ever printed out a full song through PGS, you'll know that it might be 7, 8, 10 pages or more. This is because there aren't any repeats in the PGS music. If you use repeats and their brethren, you can vastly shorten the printed music so that you can actually put it on your music stand and play without turning the pages. Even better, with some practice and study, you will be able to create your own lead sheet. I often compare the PGS music to lead sheets that I've found online or purchased, or have in a fake book, and I've been able to create my own PGS version of a lead sheet, effectively reducing the printed pages to one or two pages. Even better, I will scan those lead sheets into my iPad, and then I can take my music with me when I go somewhere, and if I run into an empty piano, I have my music with me.
Finally, one of the more requested features here on PGS, you can add fingering, note letters, or other notes to the music whenever and wherever you want. Most times I will add fingering in to start the piece, to remind myself where I want my hands, then not put any fingering in until the fingering changes significantly. this helps me not rely on the fingering crutch. I don't put note letters in, but it's easy to do. You put these fingerings, notes, and letterings in their own layer, and you can turn them on or off as you want. I've put notes in my music..."right hand one octave up" or "---> 3rd finger up" to remind me to move my fingers. Eventually I can turn the notes off.
Now, here's the one caveat: you cannot import this music into PGS. You cannot put music into PGS and then use it to grade you and help you keep tempo, etc. I would pay SIGNIFICANT money to be able to do this. Fact is, it cannot be done (unless you hack the PGS operating system, and I won't go there), and I'm assuming since PGS makes revenue on selling songs, we will probably never get to the point of importing our own music. But that's OK. We all want to play the piano. That means we have to get outside of the PGS environment eventually. We have to study our scales and movements with other material to be well rounded pianists. We have to learn to use the metronome without the crutch of the PGS lead line. We need to learn to play clearly and crisply, without using the fine PGS background music to cover our mistakes. So print out the music, turn on the metronome on your piano, and play it outside of PGS, just like your grandmother and mother did. I guarantee you will HATE it when you start. It's hard. It's probably why most of us migrated to PGS in the first place. But you will progress quickly, thanks to what PGS has taught you. And you know what? You will be able to walk into someone's house, and when they ask you to play, you can sit down at their piano and show off what you've learned. You can't do that if you can only play within PGS. If you ONLY play with PGS, you are playing a video game. Don't be afraid to expand your learning. Strive to play like David Sides.
The other day, I traveled to Phoenix and stopped in a piano store. The salesman invited me to sit down at any piano and play. I spent over an hour going from piano to piano just playing. It was one of the best days of my piano playing career. I played on a couple baby grands, a full grand, several digital pianos that were waaaaaaaay out of my price range. I tried them ALL. You can't do that unless you expand outside of PGS.
No one should take this as me bashing PGS. I'm a lifetime member and I have over 100 songs from them. I failed in learning piano until I found PGS. I love it and would pay even more money to them than I have for what they have given me. But PGS is just one piece of the puzzle. We all need to turn it off sometimes.
Secondly, I won't get anything from Musescore for touting their product. They won't even know I mentioned it, I'm sure. I just think they are a great product, just like PGS.
Happy playing everyone.