Choral Music Tutor

What is Choral Music Tutor?

Choral Music Tutor is a web app that plays MIDI files.

It is designed to help choral singers learn their parts by playing the music with one part louder while the other parts play quietly. The aim is not to produce a beautiful sound, but simply to allow one part to be heard clearly above the others.

Choral Music Tutor runs on any device that can browse the internet. It is not an app that you have to download or install. It is a collection of JavaScript files that run in the browser on your device. It does not use cookies, and the only information it uses are the name of the MIDI file you are playing, and anything you share or send as feedback.

What are MIDI files?

A MIDI file is a computer data file containing a set of instructions that tell a digital device (computer, keyboard, smartphone) what notes to play and how to play them (instrument, volume, tempo, etc). For a choral work the file will probably contain tracks for the voices and the accompaniment, and each part (Soprano, etc.) will have its own track in the file.

When Choral Music Tutor plays a MIDI file, it can adjust the playback in various ways, depending on how you have set the controls in the Play tab:

Making some parts louder and others quieter
Moving the different parts to the left or right
Playing faster or slower
Playing at a higher or lower pitch

How Choral Music Tutor can help you

If you sing in a choir

If you sing in a choir then Choral Music Tutor can help you learn your part by playing the music with your part louder while the other parts play quietly.

To play a MIDI file from the internet

Find a MIDI file for the music you want to practice somewhere on the internet
Copy its address to the clipboard (right-click and choose "Copy Link")
Go to choralmusictutor.com and open the File tab
Press the "Paste ..." button (or press the "Open a MIDI file from the internet" button and type or paste in the URL)
That opens the file and takes you to the Play tab
Press the Play button
You can adjust the playback in various ways as described below

To play a MIDI file that is already on your device

Go to choralmusictutor.com and open the File tab
Press the "Open a MIDI file from the local file system" button
Find the MIDI file you want and open it (how this is done will vary from one digital device to another)
That opens the file and takes you to the Play tab
Press the Play button
You can adjust the playback in various ways as described below
You won't be able to share this file: only files on the internet can be shared

If your choirmaster has sent you a link

If your choirmaster has sent you a link that uses Choral Music Tutor to play a MIDI file then you should be taken to the Play tab automatically when you click the link.

Press the Play button
You can adjust the playback in various ways as described below

Here is an example of a link that has the Alto part already emphasized:

Elijah - And then shall your light break forth + Lord, our Creator

If you are a choirmaster or a webmaster

If you are a choirmaster or a webmaster then you can help your singers learn their parts by creating an email or a web page with links to Choral Music Tutor for your singers to click on.

You can have a link for each part with that part already emphasized, so that your singers do not have to emphasize their part themselves. Here are some examples:

Instructions on how to create these links are given on the Choral Music Tutor website.

Changing the volumes/tempo/etc. using the Play tab

The Play tab has controls to change the volumes/tempo/etc. of the playback. Some controls affect the whole piece, others affect individual parts.

Controls for the whole piece

		These are the controls for the whole piece. Each control is described below.
https://chrishills.org.uk/BWV550.mid		This box shows the name of the MIDI file being played.
	Play/Pause/Resume	This is a toggle button, press it to start or resume playing, press again to stop playing. If you are at the end of the piece then press this button to start playing from the beginning.
	Back to start	Move back to the start of the piece, ready to start playing.
	Skip backwards	Press this button to skip back a few seconds.
	Skip forwards	Press this button to skip forward a few seconds.
		The Play Position control shows the current place in the music as mm:ss (minutes:seconds). You can drag the slider or type in a new value to change the current play position.
		The Bar number control shows the number of the bar currently being played. There might be a small difference between the bar number shown here and that in the printed music (particularly if there is an incomplete bar at the start of the piece). If the time signature information in the MIDI file is incorrect then the bar number shown here could be completely wrong. You can drag the slider or type in a new value to play from a different bar.
		This is the master volume control. It applies to all parts. You can drag the slider or type in a new value to change the volume. This volume control works independently of any other volume controls on your digital device.
		This is the tempo control, as a percentage of the tempo in the MIDI file. You can slow the music right down for tricky semiquaver passages. Or you can speed things up if the MIDI file is taking the music too slowly. You can drag the slider or type in a new value to change the tempo.
		This control allows you to transpose the music up or down by up to 12 semitones (a whole octave). You can drag the slider or type in a new value to transpose the music. Positive numbers transpose up. Negative numbers transpose down.

Controls for individual parts

	These are the controls for the individual parts. This example has 4 parts. If there are too many tracks in the MIDI file to fit them all on the display then you can drag and scroll them left and right to see them all. Each control is described below.
Volume	These are the volume controls for a single part. The slider on the left controls the volume for the part: as you make one part louder, the other parts get quieter. The blue vertical bar on the right shows how loudly that part is playing (it's all grey if that part doesn't have any notes at the moment).
Pan	This rotary knob moves the sound for this part to the left or right (this is in addition to any Pan commands in the MIDI file).
Soprano	This is the name of one part (ie. one track in the MIDI file). If the name is too long to appear in full then you can see it by hovering the cursor over it.
	These are toggle controls for one part. Press each one to enable, press again to disable. When Emph is enabled (as shown here), this part is played louder, so that it can be heard clearly against the other parts, which are played more quietly. When Solo is enabled, only this part is played (along with any other parts that have Solo enabled). When Mute is enabled, this part is not played.

What do the other tabs do?

File

The File tab has buttons that allow you to open a MIDI file from the internet, or from the device you're running Choral Music Tutor on. You can also drag a MIDI file from a website or email and drop it anywhere onto the Choral Music Tutor window.

Info

The Info tab shows what MIDI files have been opened and whether they have been processed correctly. If you have a problem opening a MIDI file then this tab should show you what has gone wrong.

The Share tab has buttons that allow you to create a link to the MIDI file that other people can use. The link can include any changes you have made to emphasize or change the volume of different parts, or to change the speed or pitch of the music. You can paste the link into an email or onto a website.

Feedback

The Feedback tab allows you to say what you think of Choral Music Tutor.

Help

You are currently viewing the Help tab. It has help on what Choral Music Tutor is, how you can open MIDI files that you have found on a website or that you have been sent in an email, and how you can adjust the playback to help you learn your part.

I can't hear anything!

If you can't hear anything on a smartphone then it might be because the phone is in vibrate mode. So make sure you have turned off vibrate or silent mode, and turned up the volume. If you still can't hear anything after doing this, try reloading the page, and if that doesn't work then try rebooting your device.

The sound is breaking up

If the sound doesn't play evenly then there are a few things you can try:

Press the Pause/Play button on the Play tab to pause the music, then press it again to start playing.
If you used one of the buttons on the File tab to load the MIDI file then try loading the MIDI file again in the same way.
If you clicked on a link in an email or on a website to get to Choral Music Tutor then click on the link again.
Close all the apps on your device except the browser tab you're using to play the music.

If none of these works then please use the Feedback tab to let me know and include a link to the MIDI file you're having trouble with.