Several Piano-ology students have requested that I include Musical Instrument Digital Interface (MIDI) files with each lesson…
… for two valuable reasons.
- This allows the visually-impaired to “see” the score.
- This allows you to import a MIDI file into your music software to use as a play-along study aid that you can edit and play at any tempo you choose.
While I fully support both of the above in principle, I have two strong reservations:
- The MIDI rendition of any score is typically rhythmically rigid, dynamically flat, monotonously inarticulate, and totally devoid of feeling. In a word, a typical MIDI file is painfully unmusical.
- Some music is impossible to capture accurately using conventional music notation. The timing and rhythm for swinging Jazz or a rubato ballad, for example, can never be reduced to dots on a page or a MIDI note table.
And so, I have decided not to routinely post MIDI files with each lesson.
For one, I do not for a moment want anybody to hear a Piano-ology MIDI file and think that’s Frank Peter playing. : )
But, more important, playing along with an unmusical MIDI file may instill some very unmusical listening and playing habits.
All that said, I still want to help.
If you would like to have a particular MIDI file for your own educational use, please contact me (frank@piano-ology.com).
I would be happy to send it to you with the full understanding that such files are for your ears only.
Thanks and Peace.