Computer based concertina trainer

[fearfeasog]

hi all,

 

I have an online friend (who is a musician but not a concertina player)who I am helping to create a computer based trainer for concertina, specifically learning tunes. It shows a representation of the buttons of a 30 button Anglo (Wheatstone layout) and by importing a midi file of the song you want to learn, you can get it to show you which buttons to press and which direction to move the bellows. It also shows alternate button locations.

 

as you can well imagine, many questions have arisen about how the program should act and look. oh so so many questions.

 

so here's one, of possibly a few more to come:

 

fingering: I assume (as a beginner mind) than when choosing the next note you would choose a note that avoids using the same finger twice in a row on different buttons. is this true?

 

thanks all!

 

Mark

[Brian McGee]

Yeah, in general. Unless there was a hitch in the rhythm.

 

Good luck, btw. Playing a song on the anglo is one of those problems that isn't well suited to computer automating because it's not deterministic. I look forward to seeing how you do!

 

B

[fearfeasog]

Yeah, in general. Unless there was a hitch in the rhythm.

 

Good luck, btw. Playing a song on the anglo is one of those problems that isn't well suited to computer automating because it's not deterministic. I look forward to seeing how you do!

 

B

 

Thanks, Brian. Really I'm just advising and my friend is doing all the work. Oh and I'm the test subject. It's fun.

[hjcjones]

It should be easy enough to show the button locations for a particular note on either push or pull. However deciding which one to use is more difficult. There are usually a number of different ways to play a phrase, and the choice will be determined by a number of factors, including the preceding and following phrases. Then there's the question of which bellows direction is best, and whether or not you want to change direction during the phrase, and if so at which point. The same sequence of notes may be played differently in different tunes, or even at different points in the same tune.

 

How these choices are made depends on the experience and taste of the player, how they've been taught, and probably also on ingrained habits. If you also play chords, these may influence bellows direction and therefore choice of melody fingering. It will be interesting to see if a computer can be programmed to make these kinds of choices, and even more interesting to see whether it works as an aid to actual playing. Good luck!

[fearfeasog]

Yes I think we have admitted this trainer will be very basic at first, and certainly not a substitute for a good instructor or lesson book. Basically it will be to help you learn tunes. And will aid in that regard by allowing you to slow the tune down, learn phrase by phrase, loop sections, decide whether to display alternate note positions and how, etc. The code monkey (my friend ) is really putting alot into it and I think it'll be great in the end.