Message
Re: [disklavier] Scanning manuscripts
2003-01-04 by PianoBench@aol.com
In a message dated 1/4/03 9:16:48 AM, Gary writes:
Does anyone have experience of scanning music so that they can be
converted into midi files and played on the Disklavier. I would like to use this
system for education/practice.
The music books I have tend to have a melody line and chords written above
in short format ie Am7. The software needs to be able to detect the chords as
well.
If you are looking for a fun and musical way to hear and/or play along with a piece that is notated as a simple lead sheet, your very best choice is PG Music's Band-in-a-Box (www.pgmusic.com). All you have to do is:
--type in the chord names
--select a musical style
--add instrumental soloists (if you wish)
--click in the melody (I think this is now an option)
The program will then create a MIDI file that is a musical and consists of an instrumental combo that will play your piece. You can play along with it at any tempo. If you defined a soloist, the soloist will even improvise a solo as the program plays the MIDI file. You can save the results to floppy disk and put it into your Disklavier (assuming that your model suppors Standard MIDI Files).
In contrast, a scanning program--at best--will give you a mechanical version of what it scans which, in the case of a lead sheet, is not very much.
Regards,
PianoBench