Using common widgets - Piano, Staff and Chord Symbols

This guide will cover the usage of some of the most commom widgets in MidiStickers: the Piano, Staff and Chord Symbols widgets.

Piano

The piano widget displays MIDI input in a keyboard. Double click the keyboard to quickly change the number of octaves.

Using the Widget Settings window - acessible by holding Control and them clicking on the button) - you can also change the skin to harpsichord, offset the octave and controlling the display of MIDI velocity.

MIDI Velocity and Decay Simulation

One of the unique features of MidiStickers is the ability to map dynamics as colors, providing detailed real-time feedback for your playing. To enable this feature, enable the “Map velocity as colors” checkbox. When using that feature, it is recommend to use solid colors for your note colors.

To make the feedback more realistic you can also check the “Decay Simulation” toggle. This option add simulate the decay of a grand piano on your MIDI input.

Staff

The Staff displays notation for the current MIDI input. By default, the Staff widget is a double staff, however if you double click you will switch between single and double staff, using different clefs.

You can limit the range of single staffs in the Widget Settings button.

You can use the mouse wheel while hovering on the staff to quickly change the keys by adding flats or sharps to the key signature.

One of the most unique feature of MidiStickers is that the Staff will try to display appropriate enharmonics. It does so by constantly analizing what is being played.

MIDI Velocity and Decay Simulation

Just like the Piano widget, you can also display dynamics on the Staff.

Chord Symbols

This widget will detect the currently played chords.

Setting transparency.

You can quickly set chord symbols as transparent by holding the Control key and right clicking on the widget. This will show up the context menu from which you can select “Make Transparent”.

Naming Conventions

To best match your teaching style and scenario, you can select from a few different naming conventions.

Why isn’t my “insert random notes” chord beign recognized?

A: We have made a choice with MidiStickers to not clutter the chord recognition system with artificial chord-naming that isn’t used on best edictorial practies in music. While it may be tempting to give a name to everything, that is rarely a sound pedagogical strategy. We are considering, though, offering a second chord symbol object with a less-restrictive chord naming strategy, just for the sake of completeness.

We also recommend to experiment using the Hold Last Chord option in the Settings Window. This option was specifically designed so you can have the idenficiation of the most stable chords and still be able to play “in-between” ornamental notes, be sure to test this option.