Guide
Using the Sight-Reading Trainer
The trainer shows a stream of notes and listens for what you play. Play the highlighted note (or chord) and it advances. Everything is configurable — here's what each control does.
Getting sound & input
- Computer keyboard. The middle row plays notes (a GarageBand-style mapping). Press Z / X to shift down / up an octave, and hold Space as a sustain pedal.
- MIDI keyboard. Plug in before or after loading — the status reads “MIDI · connected” when it's found. No setup needed.
- On-screen piano. Tap or click the keys; slide across them to glissando, and press several at once for a chord.
- Audio. A sampled grand piano loads in the background; the first key press starts the audio engine.
On iPad & iPhone
The on-screen keyboard and computer-keyboard input work in Safari. MIDI does not, though — Apple has never shipped the Web MIDI API in Safari, and every iOS/iPadOS browser is required to use Safari's engine, so none of them support it. To use a hardware MIDI keyboard on iPad, open the trainer in a Web-MIDI-enabling browser app such as MIDIWeb, which adds MIDI support that web apps can see. Install it, then open this page inside it.
How it reads
Notes are laid out as real sheet music, with two difficulty layers on top:
- Page — a two-row “sheet” with measures and a moving cursor that turns the page as you go. Reads like printed music.
- Fade-ahead — notes more than a bar past the cursor fade out, so you can't read ahead and have to truly sight-read.
What you can configure
- Staff — treble, bass, or the full grand staff.
- Key — any major key; accidentals are only drawn when the key signature doesn't already imply them.
- Generator — random notes, diatonic triads, sevenths, or a chord progression. Chords are built straight from the key's scale degrees, so they're always correct for the key.
- Note range — anywhere on the piano, A0–C8. No artificial ledger-line limits.
- Density & melodic shape — notes per column and how smooth (stepwise) vs. leapy the line is.
- Key changes — temporarily modulate to a related key and back, at Low / Med / High frequency, with a real key-signature change on the staff.
- Accidentals — sprinkle in chromatic notes at Low / Med / High frequency. Stay related keeps changes and accidentals musical (dominant/subdominant keys, resolving chromatics); turn it off for distant, dissonant choices.
- Strict chords — require every chord note to be held together (the sustain pedal lets you build it one note at a time).
- Presets & share links — save a configuration to reuse later, or copy a link that carries every setting (handy for teachers assigning practice).
Practice Room vs. Focus
Practice Room keeps every setting in a side rail so you can tune the drill. Focus hides the chrome for a calm, full-screen reading session — to change settings, leave Focus. Both come in two looks, Daylight and Candlelight.