I assume you're joking but I don't get it, so no, it just provides sheet music and a digital keyboard on your screen that you can play off of, which is nice for me because I don't read music for piano.

Sorry, wasn't trying to be snarky. The word "synesthesia" refers to a condition where people's senses get kind of mixed up and they report things like, "The color orange is higher pitched than purple," or that they they taste different things when they hear certain sounds.

The app sounds cool, too. :-)

The name is similar to synesthesia - one version of which is seeing sound in colors. It's a blending of the senses.

Oh. Yeah, pretty sure this name comes from "synthesizer"...

What Draugnar said, although I gotta admit I misread the name of the app the first time, while he did not. :-/

And, sadly, I can't read music or play the piano. Some self taught guitar is all...

Yeah, but the similarity was FRM's frame of reference.

cross post

Guitar is significantly harder to learn than piano. If you can do the former, you can do the latter. I play guitar as well, not as well as I do piano, but well enough that I play in some of my covers.

Agreed, bo. Piano is one of the easier instruments to learn the basics of. However, it is one of the harder to truly master and sound like an artist as opposed to, say, bass (not really chord based nor nor hard on the fingers, bass is easy to learn and easy to master well enough to play in a rock band). Guitar, likewise, is a tough one to truly master, especially classical acoustic.

It didn't take me long to figure out all the ins and outs of piano but I had four instruments under my belt already before I ever played one, so that probably helped. Recently I've started to judge people's ability to play piano solely on their technique with the sustain pedal, because some people don't use enough, some people use it (far) too much, and there's a balance that most of the people who claim to be good at piano can't find.

I don't even try any more outside of practicing at home what I'm singing in church. Our church has a pianist, Dr. Minsun Park, who is, quite simply, the best pianist I've ever personally known. She is a graduate of Berkeley Boston where she received her Doctorates of Fine Art. She accompanies or has accompanied everything from the Cincinnati Children's Choir to the New England Classical Singers and was the staff pianist for Boston University.

Oh, and here is her view of the sustain pedal...

http://www.mspmusic.com/using%20the%20pedal.html

She's right, about all of that basically.

I hope so, considering her knowledge, experience, skill, and education versus yours. :-)

No, seriously, that's all part of what I was saying. She's talking specifically about how much force the pianist puts on the pedal but I'm saying that some people feel like they have to hold it down constantly or lift constantly in order to make the correct movements. If you do as she suggests, you wouldn't have that problem.

the pedal can be one of the most overlooked elements of piano playing. It's important to pedal with the phrases, and if there is a steady rhythm, simply pedaling in rhythm, releasing on the down beats, can be very helpful. This really helped me at least with Beethoven. Also there is a wide range on the pedal, not simply 'up' or 'down'. Using the right technique (like the link above), makes it easier to notice and control the range. This is just what I think, but I've been playing the piano for 30 years so it might be some decent advice.

i feel that, when talking on a chord-playing-only-level, piano is the more logical instrument? if that makes sense. because the approach to playing a basic chord on the piano is "alright, e major, that means i need an e, a g sharp and a b", while on the guitar you simply learn 0-0-1-2-2-0. just my two cents.

out of interest, bo, what do you play on the piano?

I'm trying to figure out that Celine Dion song from Titanic but I'm going by memory and plugging in left-handed chords wherever. I should probably try Youtube... lol...

Didn't take long. I don't know what's happening with the intro on this but the rest is good. https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=7Cmw1hwA9zU

Lol this is insane, trying to play a song sent by the gods.

@COTW - Did you read through all of Minsun's site? She is truly a brilliant pianist, violinist, and violist.

I didn't, just the article, but I'll look around on it

@Bo - My Heart Wi Go On came from the same place as Achy Breaky Heart;Hell and Satan himself. Banal songs that sucked in the masses.

d'you play any classical stuff as well, bo?

@Draug ... you're insane.

@kasimax ... not much, but I've thought about it. Any recommendations?

I have it on good authority that Satan is behind both of those songs. South Park showed us that Canada is home to most of the evil in the world and Celine Dion is Canadian, French Canadian and every webDipper knows the French are evil. So proof positive that MHWGO is the product of Satan. And Achy Breaky Heart? Well, look at what Has come from Billy Ray's 5 minutes of fame: Miley. 'Nuff said.