I built a piano teacher. I installed LED light on each piano key and turned on and off each of them to show which piano key to press for any given song. (So that any novice should be able to play piano) I don't play piano at all, and this is me playing piano with the help of the device I made. This should not be too hard to build. You will be able to see the instruction manual on how to build this device in 1 or 2 weeks from now. Android app driving the LEDs will be provided as well. As far as I know, no one made this before and I am an amateur, so it had been such a roller coaster ride building this without instruction manuals. But I wanted this device badly enough. It was fun overall.
Post your comments here if you have questions.
There elward a piano in the 70's that had this (not LEDs) and there was an article or mail from a user that talked about this in the 90's so it is an old idea. One of the midi trainers has someting a bit like this also.
ReplyDeleteI was thinking about using some controllable led decorative tubing to to this, but never got around to it. Congrats on getting it done.
For making a device like this, this could be of a bit of help. http://trinkc.blogspot.com/2013/10/how-to-make-led-guided-piano-teaching.html
DeleteThis device could be of some value for converting a real piano someone already has into a teaching device.
How are the LEDs driven? Is it by MIDI files or do you use software that extracts the notes from any given audio file? I have been using Synthesia and Youtube videos to teach myself piano songs that I like. This would be awesome to use.
ReplyDeleteThere is an android code (open source) that reads/parses the MIDI file. (https://code.google.com/p/android-midi-lib/) I put that into my android app.
DeleteYes , this device should be good at converting a piano you already have into a teaching device. If you are a programmer, I shared the source code of the android app on my blog just now. (http://trinkc.blogspot.com/2013/10/how-to-make-led-guided-piano-teaching.html) The source code should show you how LEDs are driven.
Well done, but your not the first. Check the Piano Maestro website www.thepianomaestro.com
ReplyDeleteYeah I know. I meant to say the first device made with android+ws2801 strip. I learned I should be careful about making such a comment.
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