Practise any MusicXML score, bar by bar

What MusicXML gives you

MusicXML is the score itself: pitches, rhythms, voices, ties, slurs, repeats, dynamics, fingerings and the layout information a notation program writes when it exports. That is why it makes better practice material than a screenshot or a PDF. The app can read the notes, place them on a timeline and attach feedback to the exact bar and hand.

Most notation programs export MusicXML. Export the file and import it: the piece joins your library with its title, bar count, time signature and tempo already read from the file.

What happens on import

1. Read the file

   The app accepts .xml, .musicxml and zipped .mxl. A zipped file is unpacked and the score inside is read; the original stays untouched.

2. Build the timeline

   Notes become positions in quarter-note beats from the start of the piece. Repeats, endings, jumps, tempo marks and expression are carried alongside the notes.

3. Engrave the score

   The page is drawn on screen, with the cursor following playback. You can switch between the interactive score and a read-only engraved view without changing the timeline.

4. Keep it local

   The file is stored on your device with a hash and its byte size. Importing identical MusicXML again returns the existing piece instead of adding a duplicate.

MIDI is welcome too, with a caveat

A MIDI file has the notes and the timing but not the notation. Tập Nhạc offers the tracks for hand selection, quantizes the notes and writes approximate notation as MusicXML. The result is useful for drilling, but it is not a finished engraving: slurs, dynamics and the composer's layout were never in the MIDI file.

If you have both, import the MusicXML. If you only have a MIDI recording of your own playing, the converted score is still a practical way to see the bars where the timing slips. A MuseScore .mscz file opens directly, but MusicXML exported from MuseScore keeps more of the notation.

From the whole piece to four bars

Selecting a passage is the first useful edit. The app shows and plays only those bars, so the rest of the piece stops interrupting the work. A new piece is split into chunks of up to four bars, respecting section breaks where the file provides them; you can re-split evenly, type a pattern such as 4-8-4-16, split at a bar, merge with the next chunk or rename it.

The passage starts at 60 percent of the score's tempo. Three clean repetitions in a row move the tempo up one step, and two misses in a row move it back down. When one bar keeps breaking the passage, drill that bar alone and return to the full loop when it holds.

Hear it, then play it

Playback follows repeats, endings and jumps, and the written bar numbers stay the written bar numbers. You can change the speed, set a tempo override, loop a range and add count-in bars. A metronome is available, and the piano sound can be the MuseScore General grand piano or one of the sampled voices.

Listening first is useful for a new score: hear the phrase slowly, play it with the reading aids on, then turn the aids off.

Keep what you learn

A passage that reaches full tempo with a clean repetition is marked solid. It comes back for review after 1, 3, 7, 21 and then 60 days. A clean review moves it to the next gap; a miss brings it back sooner, and the passage stays solid either way. The library marks what is due, and the next-passage choice prefers due reviews, then unfinished passages, then the one practised longest ago.

Questions

More ways to practise

The method explains the passage-first loop from the first bar to spaced review. If reading the page is the weak part, piano sight reading practice covers the aids and how to fade them. If you have a keyboard connected, practise piano with a MIDI keyboard covers judged notes and hands separate.