Synthesia – Learn to play piano and have fun the same time

January 29, 2010 in nifty little gadgets
Tags: music, piano hero, piano tutorial, play piano, synthesia

Today i was searching youtube for Beethoven’s Moonlight Sonata (you know…. that piece of classical music that everyone likes but no one has it on their computer, or mp3 player)  and i stumbled upon this:

Well, this video is about some guy playing the above piece of music while playing a game the same time. And this game it’s called Synthesia. And i must say…. it’s fabulous!!!

The game has the same principles as all the games in the Guitar Hero series (actually Synthesia was called Piano Hero, until someone from Activision noticed it and threaten to sue the creator Nicholas Piegdon for using that name. You can read all about it on the official website); except that you don’t use a guitar or gamepad to controll the game. Instead you make use of a midi keyboard or your regular computer keyboard to play the notes that fall from the top of the screen . If you hit them in time you get points if not…. maybe reduce the speed of the falling notes or give up.

The game has enough tracks to play with, ranked from easy to hardest (or harder? i don’t remeber) and the best part of it, you can add more by downloading midi files and stuff them in a folder where Synthesia can read from.

The game is free for download, but if you want more features like additional tracks and music notation you have to pay $18 to unlock a Leaning pack. It’s a reasonable price considering the tone of songs and fun you’ll have.

Official website: http://www.synthesiagame.com/

P.S. The program doesn’t support ASIO, so if you are using a regular soundcard you will most likely experience some delay with your midi keyboard, but don’t worry, there’s a fix right here:

https://www.synthesiagame.com/forum/viewtopic.php?f=4&t=348

Have fun

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