Piano eTutor: learn piano

Are you a piano lover and would like to learn to play it by yourself? Have you ever tried to teach yourself piano with a self-study method (learn from a book, a website or a YouTube channel,...), but without success, because you find it difficult to understand music theory, and you have no idea whether the way you're playing a piece of music is correct or not, as no piano tutor is there to help you?

"Piano eTutor" app introduces a totally new approach to piano learning which is completely technology-oriented. The common problems with learning piano have been solved in an intuitive and user-friendly way, thanks to the technologies that the app has tried to make the most of. You don't need to read a lot of theory to start playing. Just read a few lines of summary and interact immediately with the exercises, then you'll easily get what you want to know. With the help of technology, not much explanation is required in order to demonstrate a musical concept.

The app is specially designed to work with a digital piano, thanks to the ability to connect and interact between a mobile device and the piano (via MIDI cable or Bluetooth). You can still use the app with an acoustic piano, but some of the features won't be supported.

Compared to other traditional self-study methods (book, website, YouTube channel,...), the app provides you with two important features that other methods don't have, which are INTERACTION and MUSICAL TOOLS.

* INTERACTION:
- Once connected to a digital piano, the app can respond to what you play on the piano: it checks whether the notes you're playing are correct or not, in terms of pitch and timing, then shows you the next notes to play. In this way, you can learn to play note by note, one hand at a time, then combine two hands to play the whole song at the right speed.

* MUSICAL TOOLS:
- Playback tool: You can listen to an exercise before practice, to analyze the structure, rhythm, note positions, ...
- Tempo-adjustment tool: You can adjust the tempo (speed) of the exercise to the value that you feel comfortable with. This helps you start practicing at a slow speed, then gradually increase the playing speed.
- Metronome tool: This tool helps you understand and develop the sense of beats, the rhythmic aspect of music. In addition, it also helps you play in the correct timing, which is an extremely important skill in music.
- Transposition tool: You can transpose an exercise to any key (tone) you like, so that you can practice a certain skill in different finger positions.
- Part-selection tool: In an exercise, there can be easy parts as well as difficult ones. You can just select the parts that you think you need to work on to start practicing.
- Note-hint tool: If you find it difficult to identify the position of a note, or the note positions of a chord, you can choose to show hints when practicing, then the app will show you where the notes are located on the keyboard.
- Hand-selection tool: You can choose to practice with only one hand or both hands at the same time, which is really helpful as it helps you break down the process into 3 phases: first you learn the melody with your right hand, then learn the accompaniment part with your left hand, and finally combine both hands together.

To help you make progress quickly, Piano eTutor designs four-step piano lessons:
1. Learn music theory.
2. Listen to the exercise and observe the keyboard, to see where the notes are pressed on the piano.
3. Learn playing the exercise note by note, one hand at a time, until you can play the whole exercise.
4. Practice playing the exercise at the right speed.

* For those who already know how to play the piano, the app is still helpful in that it helps you improve reading and playing music notes (sight reading) skill. Just practice using the app frequently and you'll be able to read music notes faster in a short period of time.

* More exercises will be added frequently. Feel free to give your feedback.