Now that your digital piano or electronic keyboard is connected to the computer, we can record something.
Go into the Volume Control Panel and enable recording for your chosen input (either Line In or Mic In).
If you are connecting Line Out to Line In, move the volume slider all the way up. Set the volume knob on your instrument about halfway.
I remember that when I started the piano I was playing pieces from my study books and I had no idea what they were supposed to sound like.
Reading the pitches of the notes wasn’t so hard, but I could never get the rhythm right, especially with 8th and 16th notes.
Of course, you try to count out loud: 1 & 2 & 3 & 4 & …
But when you’re already struggling with reading the notes and finding the right keys (in both hands!), then it’s really hard to keep count as well.
So what I did was load up my notation program — I use an inexpensive tool called Score Writer 4 — and copy the hard parts from the score into the computer.
To illustrate certain concepts on this blog, I usually include a recording. These recordings are in MIDI format, not MP3.
There are two reasons for using MIDI: 1) the files are very small so they download quickly, and more importantly 2) you can follow along with my playing on your computer screen.
MIDI files are not audio recordings. They are more like sheet music in electronic form. In other words, MIDI does not capture the sound waves coming from my digital piano, but rather which keys I press and how long I hold them down.
You can play these MIDI files directly from your web browser. But there is a better way:
