Keyboard trainer

Antimon

Here's a little game I've made: the ChucK program will play one or more notes and you're supposed to play back the same notes on your MIDI keyboard. If you press the S key, statistics are printed out. You configure stuff at the top of the file (parsing parameters is a nuisance and ChucK code is easily read anyway). The app prints up to MIDI_DEVICE_AMOUNT of devices on startup, so you'll know what to input into MIDI_DEVICE to make things work.

You can change the difficulty under the "Level variables" comment. I managed to keep around 50% hit ratio with max_small_step = 3, max_large_step = 5 and note_succession = 5. It's pretty challenging stuff (for me at least), but I've heard that you're supposed to be able to train pitch hearing, so maybe this app can be useful for that. Smile

If you're feeling adventurous, try the scale_switch (if set to 100% notes are all over the twelve keys - impossible!) Oh yeah, there are some chord variables in there, but i haven't implemented those yet (don't know if I dare). Also, I planned making levels of increased difficulty, but I don't know if I want that anymore.

Maybe there are some piano teachers here with insight that could add some more pedagogic lessons to this? This feels like an obvious application - have you seen apps like this elsewhere?

/Stefan

keyboard_trainer.ck

Description:

Download (listen)

Filename:

keyboard_trainer.ck

Filesize:

7.66 KB

Downloaded:

505 Time(s)

Frostburn · Posted: Thu Jun 05, 2008 12:45 pm Post subject:

I've tried an easier version where the computer plays the base C of the octave in question, an identifying note of that octave and finally the note you're supposed to guess.

So if you're supposed to guess the midi note 67 then the base C would be 60 and the identifying note would be 65 ( = 60 + 5 ) because 60 is the fifth (5) octave.
Computer plays: 60 - 65 - 67 (or C - F - G)

This way each note has an identity based on how those three notes sound together. I think it helps memorizing them too.

Inventor · Posted: Thu Jun 05, 2008 2:16 pm Post subject:

Antimon, I skimmed thru your code. Comments? We don't need no stinkin' Comments! Haha that's from an old western movie. I enjoy all those nested phrases and understandable nomenclature.

If I were gonna do it, I'd do it with guitar and I'd start with level one in which you must pluck the right string. No left hand at all, just get the string right. Then I'd work up in complexity until reaching a Guitar Hero - like gameplay.

Wow this could be an advancement for ChucK in a way. A ChucK application that gives you a "Guitar Here" gaming experience with a *real* guitar! Wicked, dude!

As a matter of fact, I know a guy with a guitar and lots of time to program ChucK - it's me! To speak the truth, I've been laxing interest in the guitar practice out of boredom and slow progress, but if I had a game that could do this... hmmm! Maybe then my sweat blessing would come true and I'd be flying up and down the fretboard. Plus what better way to expand the ChucK user base than to offer a Guitar Hero - like package!

I think I'll code something up tonight. Thoughts, suggestions?

Antimon · Posted: Thu Jun 05, 2008 3:36 pm Post subject:

@frostburn: that sounds like a great lesson, and it wouldn't be hard to implement. Good for practicing other scales too, I imagine.

@inventor: nice idea! I've seen your posts about guitar experiments. All those teens (sometimes it seems like half the young male population around here) dreaming of being heavy metal stars would probably faint of joy if they saw something like a Bon Jovi solo-practicing program. Smile

Yeah, I usually forget to comment my code thoroughly. The aim is to have self-explanatory code, but I often over-estimate those abilities, as I am reminded constantly when returning to old projects.

/Stefan

Inventor · Posted: Thu Jun 05, 2008 3:55 pm Post subject:

Inventor · Posted: Fri Jun 06, 2008 10:42 am Post subject:

Well, I went ahead and did it, coded up 400 lines of MAUI code to create ChucK Guitar Hero. You'll see in the screen shot a scoreboard window with exit button and level selector, plus the fretboard. When an open string (indicated by fret 0) opens up, you play that note and if you do it right, ChucK hears the note and scores you a point. After a certain time (about 10 seconds) a negative point is added to the player score. So you gotta keep up, mistakes are tolerated, but there are limits to the forgiveness. Thoughts or suggestions anyone?

Guitar_Hero1.jpg

Description:

Image of Guitar Hero, version 1

Filesize:

231.43 KB

Viewed:

398 Time(s)

This image has been reduced to fit the page. Click on it to enlarge.

Guitar_Hero1.ck

Description:

The first version of ChucK Guitar Hero

Download (listen)

Filename:

Guitar_Hero1.ck

Filesize:

13.7 KB

Downloaded:

439 Time(s)

Inventor · Posted: Fri Jun 06, 2008 11:56 pm Post subject:

I put a little more time into the ChucK Guitar Hero program and here it it, posted below. Now it has three levels of difficulty and it is better at detecting the notes. The note detection isn't perfect as sometimes your good note goes undetected, while other times one note gets detected twice. But it all averages out and makes for a fun game!

Now i have an interesting interactive way to teach myself guitar! Enjoy!

Guitar_Hero3.ck

Description:

This one has three levels (0 thru 2) and covers the whole fretboard.

Download (listen)

Filename:

Guitar_Hero3.ck

Filesize:

16.66 KB

Downloaded:

407 Time(s)

Kassen · Posted: Sat Jun 07, 2008 12:54 am Post subject:

Inventor · Posted: Sat Jun 07, 2008 3:17 am Post subject:

Kassen · Posted: Sat Jun 07, 2008 3:26 am Post subject:

Why not use FFT?

Inventor · Posted: Sat Jun 07, 2008 5:01 am Post subject:

Inventor · Posted: Sat Jun 07, 2008 10:00 am Post subject:

Then again... I've experimented some more with it and proper note detection remains a mystery. Maybe your ealier idea of "riding the RMS" will be handy, and also the FFT may be useful even without the frequency accuracy. I'm going to have to really think this one out to make it work. PLEASE offer any suggestions you may have! Also, gameplay suggestions like "it would be cool if..." are welcome!

blue hell · Posted: Sat Jun 07, 2008 10:18 am Post subject:

Some wild ideas ... no idea if it would or could work.

How about successive FFT detail-ation, do a rough transform to see where your peak is and then zoom in on that frequency interval only with twice the detail. You might have to code your own transform here ...

Or how about deducting a fundamental from a range of peaks. Tricky if only odd harmonics would be present ...

Inventor · Posted: Sat Jun 07, 2008 10:34 am Post subject:

Inventor · Posted: Sat Jun 07, 2008 10:38 am Post subject:

A comb filter, though new to me, sure looks interesting...

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Comb_filter

it could pick out an individual string based on its fundamental frequency...

Things that make you go hmmmm.....

Inventor · Posted: Sat Jun 07, 2008 11:45 am Post subject:

Hot dog! The comb filter worked. I just comb filtered with negative feedback and positive coefficient at the expected freqency, and it created a guitar signal grabber thingie! Then I just take the RMS and divide it by the overall signal to get a ratio that can be compared to a threshold. There are rare occasions when I get a false success note, but those are tolerable. Whew, with the right inspiration and a little Wikipedia, that problem is solved!

Frostburn · Posted: Sat Jun 07, 2008 12:21 pm Post subject:

Inventor · Posted: Sat Jun 07, 2008 12:49 pm Post subject:

Inventor · Posted: Sat Jun 07, 2008 1:08 pm Post subject:

Ask and ye shall receive! It took just a few minutes to delete all the MAUI stuff and make a specialized version for text users. Enjoy!

Guitar_Zero_Text7.ck

Description:

Guitar Zero for Linux/PC users!

Download (listen)

Filename:

Guitar_Zero_Text7.ck

Filesize:

6.2 KB

Downloaded:

381 Time(s)

Frostburn · Posted: Sat Jun 07, 2008 2:05 pm Post subject:

The improvement my FFT pitch tracker needed turned out to be too expensive computationally... Scrap that... sorry.
@feature requests: ChucK needs a fundamental extractor UAna.

I tried the Linux version... my score just keeps going up no matter what I do. How is it supposed to work?

Inventor · Posted: Sat Jun 07, 2008 2:21 pm Post subject:

Inventor · Posted: Sat Jun 07, 2008 2:43 pm Post subject:

Hmmm, it occurs to me that the algorithm may be flawed. For a desired guitar signal, the comb filter output divided by the overall signal output would be greater than 5 because the algorithm is working. However, any noisy input will also pass the algorithm because of the gain of the comb filter.

I still think the comb filter is the cat's meow for this application, but clearly a guitar game that just adds up scores in response to arbitrary music/noise is lame and needs some work! Getting there, just not there yet. Suggestions welcome as always.

Frostburn · Posted: Sat Jun 07, 2008 2:51 pm Post subject:

Distortion can do the trick of producing the missing fundamental.
I verified with the following patch:

Inventor · Posted: Sat Jun 07, 2008 3:44 pm Post subject:

Inventor · Posted: Sat Jun 07, 2008 11:34 pm Post subject:

I've got the Guitar Zero game to revision 9 which seems fairly stable, so I am posting it in both Linux/PC test form and Mac MAUI form. The Linux/PC version just stays in Level 1 while the Mac version starts in Level 0 and you can advance levels with the level button.

The program tells you a string number and a fret number and you are to play that note on your 6-string guitar through your guitar amp and let the computer's microphone hear the note. If correct the computer will beep, print an updated score, and advance to the next note. If incorrect you still have time to type the next note (total of one second) before the timeout, a buzzer sound, and an updated score.

I'm open to suggestions as to what to do next with it. Enjoy!

Guitar_Zero_Text9.ck

Description:

Guitar Zero for Linux/PC

Download (listen)

Filename:

Guitar_Zero_Text9.ck

Filesize:

6.25 KB

Downloaded:

316 Time(s)

Guitar_Zero9.ck

Description:

Guitar Zero for Mac miniAudicle

Download (listen)

Filename:

Guitar_Zero9.ck

Filesize:

16.49 KB

Downloaded:

279 Time(s)