[SLyGeN]

I've found myself semi-interested in learning the piano, and I like the idea of playing video game music as a hobby (how unique, right?)

Right now I've been using Timidity's tracer to import midis and just look at the keys which are struck and try to memorize the pattern.

I've also been using MidiNotate to transcribe the midi to sheet music and I've tried to read that, which I still need to get a lot better at.

The thing is, sometimes midis use different instruments to produce a harmonious sound, but when the midi is imported, the staffs are seperated. Is there a way to do a sort of "quick mix" with the staffs with any program, and perhaps even edit the staff? Maybe a program for nooblets like me in which it'll actually note "B-flat" or something right by the note itself.

Maybe even something to outline something like Timidity's Tracer window so that it just shows me which keys to press with a picture, over and over again.

Suggestions of a better way to do this? Maybe I should just try to learn sheet music..

[Cerrax]

The biggest problem is that video game music is (usually) not written for piano, so even if you combine all the tracks in the midi together, you probably wouldn't be able to play it. If you have experience with any sort of midi sequencer, try to arrange the tracks into a more playable fashion. There are plenty of free midi sequencers out there that allow you to combine tracks and edit the notes. If you notice The Video Game Pianst's songs sound a lot like the original, but he has removed certain harmony parts and even changed some into chords so that he can actually play the song.

Second, learning how to read sheet music is something that any performing musician needs to know how to do. So if you want to play piano, you should learn how to read sheet music.

Third, practice like crazy if you want them to sound good. This seems obvious, but you can't stress enough that performing any piece of music is not easy.

[Tensei]

http://csd.varlew.net/ct/ctsheet.php

This is what I like to use, it's not exactly piano music, but it's a decent enough transcription of most songs from Chrono Trigger. I'm pretty sure you can find piano arrangements of most popular VG songs through google, which will undoubtably keep you satisfied for some time.

Also, as a personal preference, I have to say you should check out Bladiator's work here http://www.ocremix.org/forums/showthread.php?t=3480

Both the songs are amazing and were a real pleasure to learn for me, I've been playing for about a month and a half, and it really feels like I've made some mad progress by learning Chopinesque Kirby. =P

I don't think the transcribing of midis is going to do much good for learning piano. After all, the melodies tend to be rather simple, and it will quickly become stale if you don't have a piece which really gives you interesting patterns for both the left and right hand, you got to keep yourself challenged. =)

[Lunahorum]

go to vgmusic.com and look under piano scores only. You can also use the combine staff feature, but I've never had success with that. It just puts things like 30 ledger lines above the staff and it is too hard to lower them down. It's easier just to use what is already made as piano music unless you are pro at distinguising between 29 and 30 ledger lines lol.


edit: maybe you could use fl studio to open the file then edit everything there because octave editing is easy. Just select notes you want to move and... wait for it... move them! I hate how my stupid midi sheet music thing can't do that pfft. Maybe finale can open midis. I got finale 2007 but have never used it. I prefer fl studio by far. I'll have to try finale for midis. Does anyone know if finale can open midis? Last time I was into finale notepad, it could only do .mus files. Thanks

e#2: you can also transcribe it by ear, but that doesn't give any reading practice, but definitely check out the david lucas burge relative pitch course. That is nice nice nice for transcribing what you hear onto paper/computer.

[SLyGeN]

Thanks for the guidance.

Eventually I'll probably force myself to practice- I've been noticing that I am wishing more and more that I could play music among the rest of my friends that do.

[Lunahorum]

I found that guitar pro has an option to show notes that are being hit on piano in it. As well as a fretboard. I dk if finale does this or not lol. I find myself using guitar pro more than finale lol even though finale is supposed to be some super great program. I hate its stupid license crap I can only put it on a few computers or something retarded and the gpo vst that comes with it is locked and only works with finale, but finale can't run any normal vsts so I find it only useful for printing out good sheet music or something like that.