"Bouncing Ball" video showing pulse
Hi,
I'm making an online piano tuition system for adults and late teens and would like to show sheet music within videos that has a bouncing ball or other marker showing the beat on the sheet music as I play the piece. I create the scores in MS.
Is MuseScore the place to do this?
I've had a look at various forum posts but would like current thinking!
Thanks,
Sam.
Comments
Well, MuseScore is great software for creating the sheet music, or for generating playback, but for adding animations and so forth, you'd need to look at additional tools, like video editors or whatever.
In reply to Well, MuseScore is great… by Marc Sabatella
Cheers, thought so. I only asked here because of the metronome obviously being understood in MS more than Final Cut!
In reply to Cheers, thought so. I only… by musicalsam
For a one off piece one could use a video tool such as Final Cut Pro - or perhaps also Motion, and use a series of key frames to get the bouncing ball effects. There are probably games development tools which will also do even better - but I don't know about them.
Re MuseScore - there must be some internal values which keep track of the score when playing a piece back, as part of the score shows in a different colour as playback is running. Whether that can be made availabe in an API in order to control external software I don't know - maybe the MS developers would know.
That would be useful to provide a more general way of doing this, as using video editors to give the effects on individual pieces would be time consuming, and have to be done for each piece of concern, and wouldn't be as dynamic or interactive.
In reply to For a one off piece one… by dave2020X
I'm creating a piano tuition course online so will have plenty of tracks to add bouncy balls to! I'm probably gonna go with Synthesia for some visual appeal.
In reply to I'm creating a piano tuition… by musicalsam
Have you tried, or do you have experience of Synthesia? I don't know how well that works for beginners.
Personally I now find that looking at piano roll style graphics doesn't help me at all, whereas seeing a score with fingering can help. Sometimes tips for finger crossing are also helpful - there are some good Youtube videos about that.
Also, do you have to stick with just one production technique if you're doing an online course and it's not interactive? You could have some sections done by video with added bouncing balls - for example generated by video editors, and other video using other techniques.
If I thought that Synthesia would help me or others, and it's not too expensive, I might be tempted, but would it help me with Allegro Barbaro?
In reply to Have you tried, or do you… by dave2020X
About 5ynthesia:
I don't think that catching and pressing colorful, flashing, animated keys (or trying to hit the right keys following the blocks falling on the keyboard) has nothing to do with learning notes or learning to play. But if it treats as a game: it can be fun for anyone who likes this type of game.
As I look at the score of an orchestral piece, I can virtually imagine/hear the piece in my mind. While doing this, of course I don't imagine a keyboard for each instrument. Instead: I imagine strings, woodwinds, brass and percussions in groups/blocks, looking at the score. Or just by looking at a piano score, I can hear/imagine/play the notes in my mind (at any speed). Or I can imagine/play/hear melody and accompaniment in my mind while looking at a lead-sheet (a score with only melody and chord symbols written).
You can never improve/gain this ability by looking at 5ynthesia animations.
About Bouncing-ball animations:
Can a red ball bouncing over the keys that need to be pressed on the piano keyboard help, I don't know.
These kinds of things are used for karaoke-type things and to help track the text. It's also used by placing a different color background or an underscore under the text. This is logical because the viewer at that moment is also reading. // Musescore software also has a vertical blue-cursor (tracker) under of the notes played, and that makes sense too.
The color representation of the key that needs to be pressed at that moment on the keyboard can be useful as a game/study to learn the note-name of the key pressed in monophonic exercises (a kind of: pointing and calling game) // Musescore software already colors the keys on the virtual keyboard according to the notes played at the moment.
However, there is a problem here too: Will the student learn by looking at the color of the virtual keys on the screen, or will the student learn by looking at the notes to play in the score? // It's especially preferred that the student doesn't look at the actual instrument he/she is using while playing (except for situations that require a moment to look at).
Watching how someone else (or your teacher) plays the instrument is a completely different situation. Here you can learn the posture, use of hands and fingers, their positions, finger/position shifts, use of pedals and some other techniques.