Learning to sight-read with PHP and Lilypond Ben Savage

Who am I? I'm Ben Savage Systems Administrator at Deakin University Australia Varied history with music I have a lot of instruments Had a piano lesson at 5 Music classes at school – learned to read it Distanced myself from music as a teen Had a keyboard, self taught for 10 years Got a uke/ocarina/electric piano – things kicked off

Note the stentor 64th size Two cellos 5 ukes 5 ocarinas Kalimba Congos Thunder drum Two recorders clarinet Tin whistle Not pictured, electric piano, keyboard, cajone Tinypiano, another uke, another ocarina, guitar

Tinypiano added for scale So I like music now Sometimes I hear something and wonder why I bother to do anything other than music

What is it? Random score generation with a web interface Based on a scale, time signature and one of a few practice modes

What's the need? Repetition Play something a few times, don't need the music Pattern recognition Once you can feel what's coming next, stop paying attention Playing by ear Can't have somebody play anything for me I find it difficult to learn for these reasons

Friederich Dotzauer http://conquest. imslp

Bernhard Cossman http://conquest. imslp E4 to c2

What's the need? Cost Exercise/technical books aren't cheap Somewhat mitigated by imslp.org Just sit down and play Any device, anywhere, any time Learn music theory and how to automate it Usually more expensive as the grade increases International Music Score Library Project. /Petrucci music library Also personalisation

Live Demo! www.sav.net.au/sight_reading

Lilypond LilyPond is a text-based music engraving program It can also create midi files Another Live Demo!

Code Generates scales Then creates scores based on 'intervals' in the scale Effectively index positions of the array Sorting was an issue

Current issues Can't deviate from the scale Doesn't scale terribly well

Future Instrument Profiles Meta language

ben@sav.net.au www.sav.net.au/sight_reading Questions? ben@sav.net.au www.sav.net.au/sight_reading