Projects

Music

Play, learn and listen: a piano, a synthesizer and a guitar chord finder in the browser, music theory guides inspired by the syllabus of the École de musique Vincent-d'Indy, guitar chords, and scores to open in the piano. Everything is free, sources included.

Play

01 / PIANO

Sodor Piano

An 88-key piano with recorded grand piano sounds. It opens MusicXML and MuseScore scores, plays them with their dynamics and repeats, and scrolls them above the keyboard.

 02 / SYNTH

Sound Synthesizer

Explore the physics of sound by generating and visualizing different sound waves.

 03 / CHORDS

Chord finder

Type a chord name, in letters or in solfège, to see its guitar fingerings and hear them strummed or picked.

About Sodor Piano and its source code

Learn

Music theory

Guides engraved with LilyPond, inspired by the music theory syllabus of the École de musique Vincent-d'Indy (Montreal), levels 1 to 6, and the cadences of levels 7 and 8. Each guide states the levels it covers, and the table below shows what to read at each level. Frequencies, beyond the syllabus, explain what intervals measure and how equal temperament tunes them.

Level 1 · elementary cycle Reading notes, Note values, Metre, Scales
Level 2 · elementary cycle Reading notes, Note values, Metre, Intervals
Level 3 · elementary cycle Reading notes, Note values, Metre, Intervals, Scales, Ornaments, Mordents
Level 4 · intermediate cycle Note values, Metre, Intervals, Performance markings
Level 5 · intermediate cycle Metre, Intervals, Scales, Ornaments, Mordents, Performance markings, Keys, Chords
Level 6 · intermediate cycle Reading notes, Metre, Intervals, Scales, Keys, Chords
Level 7 · advanced cycle Cadences (in French)
Level 8 · advanced cycle Cadences (in French)

Guitar Chords

A visual guide to chords in standard tuning (E A D G B e), drawn with TikZ: open chords, movable barre shapes and the fretboard notes that place them, extended and slash chords, and the 12-bar blues.

Scores

Listen to them in Sodor Piano, which scrolls the score as it plays, or download them for MuseScore, Finale, Sibelius, Dorico or any score editor.

Music theory

The examples of the guides, in reading order: note values and metres; the intervals, each played one note after the other, then both notes together; the scales, in all fifteen keys, ascending then descending, then the chromatic, pentatonic and whole-tone scales; the ornaments and mordents, written out note by note as they are played; one phrase under each articulation, dynamic and tempo marking; finally keys, their modulations and the church modes, then chords; finally the cadences, on a piano grand staff, with a listening exercise.

Sources

Each document is an independent repository, mirrored here with its sources, so that anything can be rebuilt or adapted. Build instructions are in each repository's README.