more music software

Follow

Follow is a program that displays a musical score and shows a cursor in the score that follows what you play. The program listens to a midi interface reading the notes that you play. When you have no midi interface you can use the build-in keyboard on the (touch sensitive) screen. You can also use a microphone with the build-in pitch detector

You can select a staff that you want to play and the program will play all other staves while following you on the selected staff. So you hear yourself accompanied.

Follow can also be used in a concert setup, where multiple devices show different parts of the same score. A master device determines the tempo and all other (slave) devices follow. The master can either use the play back feature or follow an instrument played by the director (or solist).

Synchronized tablets for the "Projet Numérique" of the Conservatories of Alfortville and Créteil, France, March 2017. Tthe tablets are playing perfectly synchronized, getting the timing from a master tablet (the last one you see).

Following percussion with Bluetooth sensors on the drum sticks (Senstroke → BLE MIDI input). Follow synthesizes the background music from score while showing only the percussion part. Note how the music follows the tempo of the percussionist (Stéphane David, who also made the video). Also note that Follow always points to the next note to be played.

Following an audio recording In this video you see a young student following an audio recording on an iPad Pro and playing on a normal piano. You can just make out the cursor of follow on the tablet screen. The student must play all notes right and on time resulting in a score, which in this demo was 90% (too small to see on the video). The video is made by Pedro Martínez who also contributed many improvements to follow.

Features:

• Displays MusicXML or ABC score files.
• Follows the notes you play with a cursor in the score.
• You can select a staff to play yourself, while the computer plays the other staves.
• Listens for notes you play using either a microphone, a midi-interface or the on-screen keyboard.
• Can use normal MIDI or Bluetooth LE MIDI (or both at the same time).
• Build-in pitch-detector to follow monophone parts with the microphone.
• On-screen resizable keyboard (most useful for touch devices).
• Can play an audio file synchronized with the score, while checking/following the notes you play.
• Can import preload files from abcweb, included the audio synchronization data.
• Measures the timing of your performance.
• Build-in piano synthesizer.
• Metronome (starting with a count-in derived from the metre).
• Can extract a staff/part to play/view/follow (e.g. for multi-part orchestre score).
• Recomputes an optimal score layout for any page width you specify.
• Can synchronize multiple devices, each showing a different part of the score.
• Can show a graphical plot with various statistical information of your performance.
• Several follow modes, for instance: a health bar mode where you have to complete a score while keeping your health score well above zero.

Demos:

• follow.html Load your own score (local, dropbox).
• Rocking Three examples where you have to play single notes at the right time with the on-screen keyboard. The goal is to get a 100% score.
• Autumn Leaves, Try to play the right hand of the piano score and stay synchronized with the audio performance you will hear. If you play more than half a second too late, the audio stops and resumes (at your playing positiong) as soon as you play the correct note. Also watch the score indication. If you play all notes correctly and in time you can get close to 100%
• Ave Maria, Try to play the melody on the keyboard. Make the keys broader or smaller by press-and-hold on the green triangles, shift the keys by dragging in the area just above the keys.
• Preludium, BWV 539, with on screen keyboard enabled and the option showing the notes to be played on the keyboard. Press play to hear the score played on the internal synthesizer.
• Larguetto Chopin, first piano concert (simplified score). You have to play the melody in sync with the audio. Demonstrates tempo changes, audio synchronization and a real time line cursor, in addition to the note cursor.
• El Choclo, score for string ensemble, focussed on Violin IV. Drag the dotted line to reposition the focussed staff.
  You can mute the selected staff or all non selected staves with the menu items mute own staff and mute rest
• El Choclo, same score, Viola I part extracted. This extraction is done on the fly. Part extraction is a menu option. (Check it by switching it off!)
• El Choclo, same score with enlarged extraction (Viola II). Suited for viewing on a phone. The scaling is done on the fly by the page width menu option. (Try to change the page width in the menu to see the effect). Do not forget to select the full screen mode in the menu on a phone
• El Choclo, same score with Viola II selected, but now the Side scroll mode is selected. In this mode the score is one long system that only scrolls in horicontal direction. Also the time line cursor is enabled.

 

Apart from displaying a cursor in the score, the program can also measure the timing of your performance and make a timing plot at the end with some statistical information. There are several follow modes available with different effect on the tempo and timing while you play.

The program also has a life bar mode where you have to keep up your health by playing correctly and well timed. If you fail to do so and your health drops to zero you have to start all over again.

In a multi-part (multi-staff) score you can extract the part/staff you want to play. Only that part will be displayed and you can choose a custom page width that suits the device you use for viewing.

The program has master/slave synchronization, where all slave devices follow a master. But every slave device can show a different part of the same score (with part extraction). With such a setup a whole orchestre can read the various parts of the score while the director (or solist, when playing a midi keyboard) determines the tempo.

Download:
follow_391.zip, usage info, the change log