Disklavier

Hi,

We are indeed most fortunate to have these softwares available to us 
and they can also be found at efficient prices.  I found Amazon.com 
has "Teach Me Piano" for $24.99 and the deluxe version for $39.99.  
eBay and Half.com have a few copies too. 



--- In disklavier@y..., Tom Wheeler <tnwheeler@n...> wrote:
> Jeff,
> 
> No offense was taken.  I just wanted you to understand that I was 
the 
> only one who had mentioned bugs in the "Teach Me Piano" software.  
> 
> I would strongly urge you to consider the Voyetra "Teach Me Piano" 
> program.  Even with its bugs, it is an excellent software approach 
to 
> learning the piano and to enjoying the process when coupled with a 
midi 
> keyboard like a disklavier.  I believe that it is the best of the 
> software available for learning piano in spite of its bugs.  I only 
> mentioned the bugs because I did not want anyone to feel that this 
> program was perfect.  I think there is a lot of room for 
improvement in 
> piano instruction software using midi information.  If I were a 
> programmer and a better pianist, it would be a problem that I would 
> tackle.  
> 
> Again, I think that the "Teach Me Piano" software would be 
excellent for 
> your purposes described below.  However, for editing, transcribing, 
etc. 
> I would recommend other software packages such as PowerTracks by PG 
> Music (http://www.pgmusic.com/) or one of the sequencers in the 
Cakewalk 
> family, e.g. Sonar (http://www.cakewalk.com/professionals.asp).  If 
you 
> are interested in having accompaniments automatically generated by 
> computer to match your acoustic piano melodies or you just want to 
have 
> a barrel of fun with music, there is no finer program for either of 
> these purposes than Band-in-a-Box by PG Music (also described on 
the web 
> site link above). If you are interested in notating music (as well 
as in 
> the midi playback) of the scores then Finale or Sibelius are 
excellent 
> pieces of software (although rather expensive).  You can read about 
> these at: http://www.codamusic.com/coda/ and 
> http://www.sibelius.com/cgi-bin/home/home.pl. Finally if you are 
> interested in scanning in sheet music and then having it play back 
on 
> your disklavier as a midi file, an excellent program for this 
purpose is 
> Smart Score (http://www.musitek.com/).  
> 
> We are most fortunate to have all of this software and it has added 
> immeasurably to my enjoyment of the disklavier.
> 
> Tom
> 
> yamahamale wrote:
> 
> >Hi Tom, I didn't mean to offend you by saying "people out there"
> >Maybe I should have investigated the posts a little more closely. 
> >Sorry about that. I was hoping I had found a program to use. The 
> >"Teach Me Piano" sounded ideal but it dosn't seem like this would 
be a 
> >program to have if it has so many bugs. I was anticipating on 
finding 
> >that there would be a lot of excellent software on this subject. 
I've 
> >been playing , on and off, since I was a child. Thought I'd find 
some 
> >good software to help me get my bearings back again with timing 
and 
> >notes. I have an SY77 but haven't delved into software or touched 
the 
> >SY in a couple of years. Now that I've got more time and waiting 
for a 
> >Disklavier to arrive, I thought this would be the perfect time to 
> >start shopping the software selections. I'm looking at printing, 
> >transcribing, mixing, editing etc.
> >  Curious as to why they haven't fixed the bugs. You'd think it 
would 
> >be easy for them. It's a shame cause the features it has sounds 
like 
> >it would be a great program. Maybe you are right and the speed of 
the 
> >informaion flow is too great for the computer to process, causing 
the 
> >bugs to happen.  Have you tried it on one of the newer and faster 
> >chips that are out? They've come a long way on speed in the past 
few 
> >years.
> >Jeff
> >
> >
> >--- In disklavier@y..., Tom Wheeler <tnwheeler@n...> wrote:
> >  
> >
> >>Jeff,
> >>
> >>I think I am the only "people" talking about the bugs in 
Voyetra's 
> >>"Teach Me Piano" software. The bugs in this software do not crash 
> >>    
> >>
> >your 
> >  
> >
> >>computer.  I actually made a list of all of the bugs that I had 
> >>identified in the program about 1.5 years ago and sent it to 
> >>    
> >>
> >Voyetra, 
> >  
> >
> >>but they chose to ignore it and introduced a "Deluxe" edition of 
> >>    
> >>
> >"Teach 
> >  
> >
> >>me Piano" which only added some games and a few other features 
> >>    
> >>
> >mostly 
> >  
> >
> >>targeted at children while leaving all of the lessons in the 
> >>    
> >>
> >original 
> >  
> >
> >>version unchanged in the Deluxe edition.  Unfortunately, this 
meant 
> >>    
> >>
> >that 
> >  
> >
> >>the bugs are still present.
> >>
> >>"Teach Me Piano" is capable of working with any midi instrument, 
> >>including the disklavier, to "grade" a students performance.  You 
> >>    
> >>
> >are 
> >  
> >
> >>graded on both your rhythm accuracy and on your pitch accuracy.  
In 
> >>other words you are graded on  whether you played the correct 
notes 
> >>    
> >>
> >and 
> >  
> >
> >>played them with the correct timing as specified by the time 
> >>    
> >>
> >signature 
> >  
> >
> >>of the piece.  This feature will consistently report very low 
scores 
> >>    
> >>
> >(on 
> >  
> >
> >>the order of 30-40%) when you are playing both hands and the 
music 
> >>    
> >>
> >has 
> >  
> >
> >>any degree of complexity.  It simply does not matter how well you 
> >>    
> >>
> >play 
> >  
> >
> >>the piece, it will not be reflected in your "score".  However, if 
> >>    
> >>
> >you 
> >  
> >
> >>play one hand alone and the music is not too complex, the scoring 
> >>provides a reasonable indication of your performance quality.  
This 
> >>    
> >>
> >may 
> >  
> >
> >>not be a bug so much as a limitation of the midi information that 
> >>    
> >>
> >can be 
> >  
> >
> >>returned by the disklavier and the ability of your lap top 
computer 
> >>    
> >>
> >to 
> >  
> >
> >>correctly process that information in real time.  I have found 
> >>    
> >>
> >similar 
> >  
> >
> >>scoring problems with Adventus' Piano Suite Premiere software.
> >>
> >>Other bugs within "Teach Me Piano" that I recall are one of the 
> >>    
> >>
> >musical 
> >  
> >
> >>selections being left out of the Song Book, occasional notation 
> >>    
> >>
> >errors 
> >  
> >
> >>where the note shown in the musical selection is not the correct 
> >>    
> >>
> >note, 
> >  
> >
> >> the fact that in Performance Mode (where you are playing along 
to 
> >>    
> >>
> >an 
> >  
> >
> >>instrumental accompaniment) the page turn anticipation feature 
does 
> >>    
> >>
> >not 
> >  
> >
> >>work, and other similar errors.  Interestingly enough, when you 
are 
> >>being graded on pitch, if you play the correct note it is scored 
> >>correctly whereas if you play the note in the music appearing on 
> >>    
> >>
> >screen, 
> >  
> >
> >>you will receive an error.  You would think it would have been an 
> >>    
> >>
> >easy 
> >  
> >
> >>thing to have corrected these errors in the notation.  
> >>
> >>If you are interested in a detailed listing of the errors 
in "Teach 
> >>    
> >>
> >Me 
> >  
> >
> >>Piano", I'll be happy to send you a copy of the letter (as a Word 
> >>document) that I sent to Voyetra about 1.5 years ago.  
> >>
> >>Tom
> >>
> >>
> >>
> >>yamahamale wrote:
> >>
> >>    
> >>
> >>>I'm wondering what are these bugs that are in Voyetra "Teach Me 
> >>>      
> >>>
> >Piano" 
> >  
> >
> >>>that people are talking about. Is it something that will crash 
the 
> >>>computer over and over? Is it in every lesson or most? Thanks, 
Jeff
> >>>
> >>>--- In disklavier@y..., Tom Wheeler <tnwheeler@n...> wrote:
> >>> 
> >>>
> >>>      
> >>>
> >>>>There are  piano instruction software packages available other 
> >>>>        
> >>>>
> >than 
> >  
> >
> >>>>Voyetra's "Teach me Piano" which you may also wish to explore.
> >>>>
> >>>>Of all of the piano instruction packages that I have 
considered, I 
> >>>>   
> >>>>
> >>>>        
> >>>>
> >>>like 
> >>> 
> >>>
> >>>      
> >>>
> >>>>the Voyetra "Teach Me Piano" package best because: I have 
spoken 
> >>>>   
> >>>>
> >>>>        
> >>>>
> >>>personally about a year ago with Mr. 
> >>> 
> >>>
> >>>      
> >>>
> >>>>Hugh Berberich who designed the "Teach me Piano"  musical 
course, 
> >>>>   
> >>>>
> >>>>        
> >>>>
> >>>and he 
> >>> 
> >>>
> >>>      
> >>>
> >>>>and I both have tried hard to get Voyetra to expand this 
package 
> >>>>        
> >>>>
> >and 
> >  
> >
> >>>>also to correct some bugs that are in the program.  
Unfortunately, 
> >>>>Voyetra seems to have little interest in correcting the 
software 
> >>>>   
> >>>>
> >>>>        
> >>>>
> >>>bugs. 
> >>> 
> >>>
> >>>      
> >>>
> >>>>Nonetheless, this is still a very worthwhile introduction to 
the 
> >>>>   
> >>>>
> >>>>        
> >>>>
> >>>piano 
> >>> 
> >>>
> >>>      
> >>>
> >>>>for serious students.  
> >>>>   
> >>>>
> >>>>        
> >>>>
> >>> 
> >>>
> >>>      
> >>>
> >>>>Tom
> >>>>   
> >>>>
> >>>>        
> >>>>
> >>>
> >>>
> >>> 
> >>>
> >>>      
> >>>
> >
> >
> >To Post a message to the group, send it to:   disklavier@Y...
> >
> >To Post a private message to Todd Muncy, the group's founder and 
moderator, send it to:
> >disklavier-owner@Y...
> >
> >To reach our group's web site go to:
> >http://Yahoogroups.com/group/disklavier
> >
> >Todd's family web site was completely rewritten in June 2001 and 
contains some fun disklavier content and links to midi sites among 
other things, The url is:
> >http://MuncyFamily.com
> >
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> >
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> >
> >  
> >