Show HN: My iOS app to practice sight reading (10 years in the App Store)
137 comments
·March 23, 2025gustanas
I'm not in the target audience, but as an iOS dev myself, I have to say—your app is an ASO wet dream:
- Nice logo
- Clear, engaging screenshots
- Solid title/subtitle with relevant keywords
- Amazing reviews and ratings
Really well done!
rooster117
I appreciate it
pil0u
This is incredible because it exactly matches my needs. I started learning the piano 3 years ago as an adult, I love it, but my biggest difficulty is reading scores. I do want to practice but also I'm very lazy, I tried to find a tool to help but never found yours before.
Tiny question before I purchase to unlock the microphone feature (which is really what makes sense for me): does the app understands do ré mi via microphone?
Thanks for your work.
rooster117
The mic works on the standard 440 tuning and converts the input to its midi representation. Trying to understand your question but the mic doesn't really care about the do, re, me but rather that it's the right frequency for the displayed note on the staff. The mic feature is something I'm actively working on improving as it's decent now but not perfect. If you have an instrument with a way to connect to the phone through midi it's the best experience but if you have acoustic then the mic or just the on screen keyboard is the good.
ajepst
Sight reading practice for voice is super useful, but not many of us have perfect pitch to pull a starting note out of the air! An option to get a starting note audible cue for vocal sight reading would be a great add-on (and hopefully not too difficult!)
Ericson2314
I have perfect pitch and it's overrated.
Pro tip: You can pick any note you want as the starting pitch, and do realtive pitch from there. It doesn't matter. Pitch is an affine space, there's no 0 pitch!
pil0u
Ha, I thought I could "sing" the notes, like reading them out loud (which is what my mentor suggests me to work on)
dhosek
Joining a good choir can do a lot to really build your ear in this respect. Generating a note from within your body does so much more to build your ear than generating a note by hitting a key or plucking a string (wind instruments are kind of a middle ground in this respect).
rooster117
You may be able to sing to it but since it's assuming the instrument to be in tune (piano) it may be slightly off and still register since it's estimating which note is most correct.
doctorhandshake
Do you mind if I ask what library or algorithm you’re using for pitch estimation?
rooster117
currently it's yin
rooster117
My app appears at the top of a search if you specify sight reading but if you are searching for "learn piano" or similar keywords it will be no where near the top
DidYaWipe
Apple's app-store search is a joke. Actually... it's not a joke; it's offensive to developers and users alike. You can search for the name of the publisher, spelled perfectly, and Apple will instead show you hundreds of screenfuls of apps that don't contain your search string ANYWHERE.
This despite Apple claiming that publisher name is one of the top three criteria for search.
pil0u
I just learned via your post the term "sight reading" in English. French words and expressions when it comes to music are very different.
rooster117
I've only recently localized the app but only the contents of the app. I'm sure there are a lot of easy improvements on discoverability I'm missing out on.
xibe
Indeed! When I first learnd that the English equivalent of...
Do Ré Mi Fa Sol La Si Do
... is...
C D E F G A B C
... it blew my mind :D I mean, I can see the point in using letters instead of words, alright. But why in that order?
Even today I can't find the origin/reason for that -- apart from "It's a German thing" apparently.
It could be just that the "German key notation") and the "Fixed Do key notation" were each created independently centuries ago, and thus differed. And once each system spread and reached users of the other, well, hello, my Do is your C and my A is your La :)
alwa
Out of curiosity, what’s the French term for this technique?
ppetty
That’s awesome! I’m not a musician but just impressed by an app with great focus that stands the test of time. Makes me wonder why Apple doesn’t have an area for exactly this type of app; the opposite of Latest Apps.
walterbell
Community could maintain an index.
awesome-ios-apps-timelesskibibu
Might be my pessimistic mood this morning, but I'm curious whether these "awesome x" indices are actually community-owned or whether its code for "one passionate person sifting through a bunch of garbage until they burn out"
walterbell
Hopefully the next volunteer extends the work of their predecessor, instead of starting from scratch.
In theory, reputation signals from 'awesome' lists and HN threads could inform search engines, LLMs and app market analytics.
mmacvicarprett
I am a paying user! the app is really good, it helped me as an adult starting piano 2 years ago.
Main feature request would be to generate the notes from a score, focusing in the intervals, ranges and patterns the score uses. Doing random notes feels weird, it helps with quick recognition but feels very different to what my head wants to do while playing.
rooster117
Great to hear you have been using it for that time! I’m actively working on this. If you would like to try out some changes you can contact me through the app (settings) and I can send you a beta
tianshuo
Hi, I've been using notequest before and this really hits a string for my needs. There are some places that could be improved. 1. There is lacking logic in the notes, there should be some kind of pattern that an LLM could create that sounds better. For example for left hand usually there could be eg. walking bass/ chord progressions etc, instead of just random notes. If you need ideas and help on that, you can contact me at (myhackernewsname_at_gmail_dot_com) I am willing to help
2. Now the game is like, press the notes as fast as you can, instead, a musician needs to practice, pressing the note at the right time, which means you can make a metronome + press the notes on time mode, which is even more useful than the present version.
rooster117
Great feedback. I’m working on a new way to generate lessons. It’s better but even when it’s out it’ll mostly just be a structure I’ll be able to build on.
I agree on the metronome and it’s high on my list of TODO’s. I think it would be very helpful.
pseudosaid
Please add the ability to import midi into the songs section. I would prefer to use this app to learn new music than my current solution. Great app!
rooster117
It's one of my "North Star" goals but there is a lot of work between now and then. A middle stage may be the ability to record songs on the app which can be saved for later.
mortar
Thanks, just downloaded it to try and purchased instantly - great app! Have been “playing” Für Elise for so many years on piano, but forgot how to read sheet music years ago and didn’t quite know how to get back into it. Thought Synthesia would help but struggle at certain parts so the repetition and score based learning will help a lot.
rooster117
It'll probably come back to you fast. My app is best to learn the note (letter/octave) of what's on the staff and mixed with practice on a real piano should get you back to reading
shermantanktop
I am cursed with enough musical memory that if I learn a piece from sheet music, my sight reading literally turns off and I play from some combination of muscle memory and ear. That might sound like a humblebrag, but it's not -it's quite frustrating to "work on reading" and then realize I'm not actually getting better at reading. When I come back to the material later, the short-term musical memory has usually faded and I'm starting over.
That's what comes from playing simpler rock stuff by ear/memory for many years and then moving to large amounts of material which can't be done only by ear.
My solution is to have a large amount of unfamiliar material and just open to a random page and start working things out.
spunker540
This may sound crazy but my sight reading improved a lot after I took an ear training class that required me to work in arbitrary clefs. I always knew treble and bass from playing piano, and had really memorized the note positions in each.
When I was suddenly forced to work in tenor, alto, soprano, baritone clefs, I could no longer rely on memorization of note positions. I had to pivot to “reading intervals”. A fifth looks the same in any clef, so if you know the current note, and the next note is a fifth above, you know the next note too, clef be damned.
thaumasiotes
> A fifth looks the same in any clef
Really? I don't think all fifths look the same even if they're all in the same clef. If you're working in C major, B to F looks like it's a fifth, but it's a tritone. Everything around this becomes a little weird; A# to E# looks like a fifth and is one, but A# to F is a fifth and doesn't look like one.
Random clefs seem like they would make that problem worse.
whiddershins
In my experience, accidentally memorizing what you are reading doesn't really get in the way of what most people think of as sight reading. Internalizing structures and patterns is 99% of what it means ti "learn to read."
benoliver999
Been using this for years now, it's precisely what I needed given that I came to bass clef late in life
rooster117
Love to hear it
palla89
I'm trying it and I love it! can I ask you a question? I'm not playing piano since at least 15 years, but why are you using C,D,E,etc instead of the real notes? I found an option to enable do,re,mi,etc but it's only applying on the piano notes instead of the middle screen "note" to play
Am I missing something?
amszmidt
> instead of real notes?
C, D, ... are real notes? Some countries do Solfège, some don't.
palla89
TIL this, thank you! I'm italian and only knew about the do re mi fa sol la si do :D
From ChatGPT:
The choice between using letter names (C, D, E, etc.) and solfege (do, re, mi, etc.) largely comes down to tradition and purpose: • Historical Convention: In Western music, the letter system has been the standard for centuries. It provides a clear, concise way to notate specific pitches on a staff, which is especially useful for instruments like the piano or guitar. • Clarity in Notation: Letters denote fixed pitches, making it easier to communicate musical ideas in written form. This helps performers quickly identify which keys or notes to play without additional context. • Educational Focus: Solfege is typically used as a tool for vocal training and ear development. It emphasizes the relationship between pitches (intervals) and is often taught using a movable system (where “do” represents the tonic of any given scale) or a fixed system (where “do” is always C). This system helps singers internalize pitch relationships and improve sight-singing. • Different Purposes: Essentially, the letter system is more suited to the precision required in written music scores, while solfege is more about developing a musician’s internal sense of pitch and harmony.
In short, both systems have their place in music, with letters serving as the backbone of Western musical notation and solfege acting as an invaluable educational tool.
hackerdood
Chiming in to say I downloaded this what feels like ages ago and occasionally come back to it when I’m away from my keyboard for too long, so thank you for this amazing app!
rooster117
Love to hear it. Thanks for the years of usage!
LVB
Excellent timing, as I was just looking at some apps to help get back into after 20 years away. I’ve noticed that a number of them, including yours, do include microphone input. That’s great since I only have an upright, but I wondered how well it actually works, especially with more complex drills, or if I should look at getting an affordable midi keyboard for the app-supported practice sessions?
rooster117
Well it’s an area I’m working to improve. It works well for me but everyone’s acoustic instrument and device is a little different. I’d say it isn’t worth getting a new keyboard to use midi for this purpose. Acoustic pianos are awesome and using my app (or others) on the go to drill in note recognition to supplement your physical practice is a great combination.
block_dagger
I've been using Simply Piano for a while, but will give this a try.
Noticed a typo: "Notes is your is your tool..." in the app store description.
rooster117
thanks haha
Hello HN, this has been my personal project for quite some time now. It has been a slowly evolving project over the years and its core function is for users to expose themselves to progressively more difficult lessons of music notes.
NOTE: It is free and there are no ads. There is an in app purchase but most of the app doesn't require it.