Synthesia is an easy-to-use Mac application that provides you with a simple and fun way to learn how to play the piano. You can use this tool regardless if you are a beginner or an experienced piano player looking for a fun and convenient way to practice your skills.
The first thing you will have to do, after launching Synthesia, is to create a profile in order to keep track of your score. You can either create a simple one or a Synthesia online account with extra statistics available. Once you have done that, you can start practicing by playing one of the provided songs, lessons or exercises. You can add additional songs and exercises into your list with just a few clicks of a mouse.
Synthesia allows you to use any hand you want in order to practice or play any song (or you can use both hands) and you can even set the speed you want to play your songs with. Furthermore, if you are uncomfortable with the key assignments for the piano keys, you can easily change that by accessing the "Keyboard Setup" menu.
These are just some of the features that Synthesia puts at your disposal. Get your hand on this fun Mac application and discover how easy it can be to learn piano or practice your skills from your computer.
v0.8 [Dec 13, 2010]
The song progress screen gives you a clear path and set of goals for every
song that has a left/right (or both) part defined.
NEW: The song library has been updated to support hierarchical groups of songs.
Navigate groups using the "breadcrumb" display at the top of the screen.
NEW: Reworked play screen to maximize usable area. Much cleaner now. Use the
Gameplay.PinMenuDrawerOpen setting to disable the auto-collapsing menu.
NEW: Synthesia auto-associates the synthesia:// URL scheme and understands URLs
that match the synthesiagame.com/wiki/Synthesia_Manual#Synthesia_URLs spec.
NEW: Added Ash's Exercises: a set of scales and arpeggios with finger hints.
NEW: Some error messages can now direct you to the Synthesia website to obtain
more information and solutions.
NEW: Melody practice scores are now submitted automatically to the Synthesia
website. (Disable via the options screen.) Practice scores are generally
private/anonymous, though if you've ever submitted a recital score using
your Synthesia Online account, graphs and charts showing your progress will
be available on the website.
NEW: The screen you were on last (up through track settings) is recalled the
next time you start Synthesia.
NEW: Keybind to exit Synthesia (like an Alt-F4 you can bind to your MIDI device)
not set to anything by default.
NEW: Songs from a particular folder can now be hidden without removing that
folder from the folder list, to quickly hide and show songs conveniently.
NEW: Added a fourth "Very Quiet" metronome volume option.
NEW: Added advanced settings to optionally send GM/GS/XG Reset SysEx messages
whenever the device is reset (between screens).
NEW: Added a key bind to reset falling note squish/stretch. Unbound by default.
CHG: All of the "Primer Pieces" from the G Major Music Theory song set now count
as Learning Pack demo songs and allow all Learning Pack features!
CHG: Don't show the loop stats window when no tracks are played by the user.
CHG: Removed dependence on d3dx9_42.dll in Windows.
CHG: The time between device-unplug checks can now be set with the advanced
"Midi.DeviceCheckMilliseconds" setting in the config tool.
CHG: Relaxed rhythm practice / recital note timings a little bit.
CHG: Added 18 browser/media extended keys that will be recognized in the key
binding screen (on Windows). These will no longer generate bad text input
in text boxes, too.
CHG: Added secondary key binding defaults for "Menu Continue" and "Menu Back",
set to Browser Forward/Back, should your keyboard have those keys.
CHG: Improved the visual effect that occurs when unlocking the Learning Pack.
CHG: Synthesia online account passwords will now persist for the entire play
session (or until you switch users) even without checking "Save Password".
CHG: The sign-in flow for recitals using Synthesia online account users has
been improved a bit. Passwords are checked before playing the song now.
CHG: Recital scores are now shown together with rhythm practice scores. To see
online scores from other players, use the button to launch your browser.
CHG: Removed "PlaySettings" value from the --on-startup command-line option
because the Play settings screen no longer exists.
CHG: The "Toggle All Notes Hidden" feature (F5 by default) no longer hides the
sheet display. You can use this now to show only the sheet music.
CHG: All Synthesia-related programs are now digitally signed by Synthesia LLC.
FIX: Tooltip backgrounds were displaying incorrectly.
FIX: Ignore Windows/Context menu keyboard keys in search boxes and key bindings.
FIX: In certain cases, non-note events were being duplicated (exponentially)
depending on the complexity of a song.
FIX: Synthesia will now run correctly even if files are hidden in the Synthesia
data directory.
FIX: Entering a folder without the required permissions in the "Add Folder"
screen will no longer cause the folder list view to become corrupt while
inspecting subsequent folders.
FIX: Don't crash when notes outside A0-C8 come in while sheet is displayed.
FIX: The song title is now always shown when launching with "--on-start Play".
FIX: Interacting with an invisible finger hint interface in the top-left corner
of the screen (outside of finger hint mode) could corrupt finger hints for
the current song.
FIX: SysEx on Windows wasn't being sent to output correctly in 0.8.2.
