Piano Syntax is for piano players who already have some foundation. Build chord charts and hear them back with real voicings and a real groove, explore every chord quality on every root, and take the result away as a clean PDF. It closes the gap between knowing the chords and sounding musical.
WHO IT IS FOR
You learned as a child and stopped. You can still read a little, but a chord chart means nothing to you.
Or you taught yourself from videos, and you play the same three songs every time you sit down.
Or you started recently, moved past the basics quickly, and find beginner apps patronising.
Or you write songs, and your harmony is limited to the chords you already know.
LEAD SHEETS
Build a chord chart for anything you want to play. Transpose it to any key, choose how the chords are placed on the keyboard, and hear it play back on a sampled grand piano with a groove and a metronome. Repeat markers, variable beat lengths per chord, lyrics bar by bar, and clean PDF export. Thirteen templates give you a starting point. Everything after that is yours.
Practising chords in isolation is like practising vocabulary words. This is practising sentences.
SEND A CHART
Send a chart to another player and it arrives as a chart, not a picture of one. Your harmony, your form, your voicings, playing on their device the way you arranged it. One chart or a whole set in one file. Opening a chart someone sent you is free, subscription or not.
SONGWRITER LAB
Sketch a progression, give the song sections, and hear the whole thing with a groove behind it. Keep your words in the lyric library, drop them in bar by bar, then copy the song across to Lead Sheets without losing anything.
CHORD LAB
Every chord quality on every root, from block triads through shell voicings to rootless jazz structures. Keyboard diagrams, instant playback, and curated progressions across pop, rock, jazz and classical.
RHYTHM LAB
Groove patterns for pop, jazz, blues and Latin, in common time, 3/4, 6/8 and 12/8. Load any progression and hear the harmony inside a real rhythmic context.
PRACTICE LAB
Structured sessions by genre, focus and level, with timed blocks and the scales and chords for each block on screen. A daily journal, and guided paths through the skills a tune asks for.
LEARN
Eleven chapters: Approach, Fundamentals, Harmony 1, Rhythm, Harmony 2, Pop Focus, Jazz Harmony, ii-V-I Voicings, Jazz Improvisation, Blues Focus and Musicianship. Prose, real notation, interactive keyboards and audio.
REFERENCE
The perpetual cheat sheet. Chords, scales, intervals, diatonic chords, the circle of fifths and study cards, indexed and searchable for mid-practice lookups.
NO SONG LIBRARY, AND THAT IS DELIBERATE
Piano Syntax does not ship arrangements of other people's songs. It gives you the tools to build a chart for anything you want to play, in your key, at your tempo, with your own notes on it. What you make belongs to you and stays on your device. No account, no sign-in, and it works offline.
FOR TEACHERS
Piano Syntax works alongside lessons, not instead of them. Pull up voicings, charts and rhythm patterns mid-lesson. Export any chart as a PDF for a student to take home, or send them the chart itself.
FREE AND PRO
Free: three Learn chapters, Approach, Fundamentals and Harmony 1, plus quotes and tips. Four Reference areas in all twelve keys: chords, scales, intervals and the circle of fifths. Every chart opens and plays, including all thirteen templates, and you can switch voicing modes in the player and hear them, though those changes are not saved.
Pro unlocks chart building and sending, Chord Lab, Songwriter Lab, Rhythm Lab and Practice Lab, the eight remaining Learn chapters, and Diatonic Chords and Study Cards in Reference. Monthly or yearly, with one free week to start. If your subscription lapses, your charts still open, still play, and still export.
Terms of Use: https://www.tristanwaley.com/pianosyntaxterms
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