MIDI Player Piano Tools
For Yamaha Disklavier, PianoDisc and QRS Pianomation Pianos
Introduction
It could be argued that the old bellows-driven player piano that used an air motor to run punched paper piano rolls over an 80 hole tracker bar in the 19th century was the world's second computer - the loom using cards to weave patterns being the first. MIDI Players are the modern version of the old-style player pianos that used paper player rolls. Today’s MIDI Players use digital "rolls" called MIDI files that can be accessed from floppy disks or playlists located on a computer. Unlike Audio files that play on your stereo system, MIDI based music is data that can be controlled and edited by the user.
These pages are an attempt to explain some of technology that expands the creative possibilities of your MIDI Player Piano. It presents information to help manage your music files, control the volume of the songs played on your piano and use a computer with your MIDI Player. It will show you where to find music files on the internet and how to play them on your piano.
Music software that can turn your piano into a music publishing machine, a jukebox, or an orchestra will be explored. There are programs that can teach you to play your piano, create sheet music, transpose music to better fit the range of your voice and create piano accompaniments for solo instrument playing.
This handbook of MIDI Player Piano Tools is constantly being updated. The music software presented here is continually being improved and repackaged in different forms. There are many more programs out there than the ones evaluated here, but each of these I have personally found useful. The library of MIDI files you will find here will play on all MIDI Players and will continue to be expanded. Have fun!