Chiff and Fipple Forums

Hi all,

I am new to the forum and new to Penny Whistles. I did not know the instrument but am very impressed by what you all can do with it. I like to ask your help to improve an app I made which Is 100% free.

Some time ago I started to learn to play harmonica, thinking that must be simple instrument. I was very wrong. To learn to play it I created software that could “translate” normal sheet music to harmonica tabs to tell me which hole to blow or draw. That worked very well. After some time I could actually play songs and it would sound like the real song.

Now I am expanding the list of instruments. I added string instruments like the guitar, ukulele, mandolin and banjo. Now I am adding wind instruments. So far I added Penny Whistles in all keys, the recorder and MiniSax.

Again it works. The app will show me what fingering to use for each note.

I did add other features such as the app playing the tune so I could listen to the correct rhythm. And I added fingering charts for each note on each key of Penny Whistles. I can change the key of the song so that it can be played within the note range of my whistles.

The app is 100% free. No ads or anything, just free. I like music, love to learn it and hope to help others. You can create your own tunes starting with regular sheet music or use tunes made by others.

I like to ask your help to try the app and give me feedback how it could be improved. The app comes with some examples to get started right away.

I will really appreciate your help.

Is there interest in trying out my app? It runs on Windows and on Macs using Parallels. I have not created a phone app as those screens are just too small.

Thanks,
Oscar

Here are two screen shots of the T3 software:

Main screen: https://1drv.ms/u/s!AiQKBYOCd7DYsdoJxN3OLU6uHvxENw
Penny whistle C info (with scale and fingering charts): https://1drv.ms/u/s!AiQKBYOCd7DYsdoINQlc5_zr8gMxGg

This Looks cool. Nice work
I also play harmonica, and am new to the whistle.
Careful whistles are more addictive than harmonicas.
This looks like it would be useful for learning a new tune, or for moving a tune from one instrument or tuning system to another, and for quick transcription between keys.

Hello, Oscar, I've seen you offering this app on the ukulele forum - but I use Linux & BSD.

(From comments on my other forum, this is a good bit of software, so if you feel like it, jump in & help.)

P.S. I won't 'vote', as I can't run it.

Harpbender wrote:Hi all,
I am new to the forum and new to Penny Whistles. I did not know the instrument but am very impressed by what you all can do with it. I like to ask your help to improve an app I made which Is 100% free.
I did add other features such as the app playing the tune so I could listen to the correct rhythm. And I added fingering charts for each note on each key of Penny Whistles. I can change the key of the song so that it can be played within the note range of my whistles.
Thanks,
Oscar

OK Oscar, Tommy is voting yes. Looks like you have created an app that covers the three basic ways people learn. See it, hear it, and do it. Are you in the education field?

Tommy wrote:

Harpbender wrote:Hi all,
I am new to the forum and new to Penny Whistles. I did not know the instrument but am very impressed by what you all can do with it. I like to ask your help to improve an app I made which Is 100% free.
I did add other features such as the app playing the tune so I could listen to the correct rhythm. And I added fingering charts for each note on each key of Penny Whistles. I can change the key of the song so that it can be played within the note range of my whistles.
Thanks,
Oscar

OK Oscar, Tommy is voting yes. Looks like you have created an app that covers the three basic ways people learn. See it, hear it, and do it. Are you in the education field?

Hi Tommy, I work at Microsoft, and thus I like software , but my passion is education. I am an evening coder but during the day, I work with our PC OEM partners to design PCs optimized for use in classrooms. So we are adding ruggedization, full day battery life, etc, etc. Glad you like T3. When there is interest I will share how to download the app [for free!] and how to use it. Love to get feedback to make it even better.

Harpbender wrote:When there is interest I will share how to download the app [for free!] and how to use it. Love to get feedback to make it even better.

If a new person to playing music has a challenge reading music or playing music by ear... With your app they will see and hear the notes along with the tabs. Making it posible to learn all three?

Tommy wrote:

Harpbender wrote:When there is interest I will share how to download the app [for free!] and how to use it. Love to get feedback to make it even better.

If a new person to playing music has a challenge reading music or playing music by ear... With your app they will see and hear the notes along with the tabs. Making it posible to learn all three?

Yes, the basic goal behind T3 is to learn to read sheet music by seeing the sheet music, hearing the notes and by seeing the finger positions. After a while you will connect the sheet music with the right tone in your head and know what the finger position is to get that tone. Then you no longer need T3 and can just play the massive amount of available sheet music.

T3 can do this for whistles, recorder, sopranino, mini sax, harmonica (any key diatonic and chromatic), guitar (any tuning), ukulele, mandoline en banjo. I am finishing up the latest version and will post a link to download shortly.

I'd very much appreciate your feedback and ideas.

It would probably help to give players of non-D whistles the option of seeing notation for sounding or fingered pitches. For example, your screenshot C scale for C whistle, where most might find the scale notated in standard fingered D more useful despite the C sounding pitch, but some still appreciate the ability to switch to C notation. Likewise for tunes, where you might be playing in C, F, D minor, G minor etc. on that same C whistle but prefer to see notation for D, G, E minor or A minor respectively.

Hi all,

Thanks you very much for your valuable comments and feedback. The poll results show a good mix of players who may have use for the app and others that are good without. As my biggest goal is to be able to play without needing any app I appreciate that.

For those that want to try it out I posted a preview of version 2.8.0.0 on www.harpbender.com. This is just link to my cloud storage so no fancy website, just a place to download the zip file. Installation is super easy: just copy the content of the zipfile to any folder on your harddrive --> done. When you first run TTT.EXE, Windows will ask you for a confirmation to run it as the Windows SmartScreen filter has not seen this executable before on your PC. Click more info and then run. This you will only have to do once.

The app comes with a few sample Tunes and backing tracks to try out.

Enjoy and please let me know what you think.

Harpbender wrote:Hi all,
Thank you very much for your valuable comments and feedback. The poll results show a good mix of players who may have use for the app and others that are good without. As my biggest goal is to be able to play without needing any app I appreciate that.
For those that want to try it out I posted a preview of version 2.8.0.0 on http://www.harpbender.com.
Enjoy and please let me know what you think.

Thank you for sharing this.

I uploaded version 2.8.0.0 to www.harpbender.com. Those of your with Windows 10 can also find it in the Windows App Store here: https://www.microsoft.com/store/apps/9P98C0K870GB

Both versions are free. Advantage of the store version is that you will get automatic updates when I release a new version. Functionality is the same except that the Windows desktop version on Harpbender.com uses midi to play back your tunes.


I am working on something new: I am looking into adding compatibility for the notation used on www.abcnotation.com. That site hosts more than half a billion (!) tunes. At first T3 won't be able to read all tunes as the ABC notation allows super complex tunes. But as T3 is more for the beginning player, this is not a problem.

Is this something of interest to the forum?