What is PianoMemories?

PianoMemories is a Simon-style memory game on a piano keyboard. The app plays a growing sequence of notes and you repeat it by tapping the keys.

How it helps you

It trains musical memory, pitch recognition, and finger-to-note mapping. By staying inside a chosen major key, it also reinforces scale awareness and common note patterns.

How to play

1. Choose a game (Memory / Know the key / Know the scale).
2. Choose a Scale (used by Memory and Know the scale).
3. If you play Memory, choose a Mode (Easy / Normal / Hard).
4. Flip your phone to landscape and tap Play.
5. Follow the prompt in the top bar and tap the correct keys.

Games

• Memory: the app plays a growing sequence and you repeat it.
• Know the key: reaction-time trainer for finding random notes.
• Know the scale: speed trainer for playing a major scale in order.
• Ear trainer: pitch discrimination game — guess if a tone is higher or lower than middle C.
• Guess the chord: identify diatonic chords of C major by ear.
• Rythm trainer: train your internal clock by following 10 guided clicks and finishing on the target time.
• Modes apply to Memory and Rythm trainer.

Know the key

1. Tap Play to start a 3-2-1 countdown.
2. A note name appears in the middle box (example: C#) and its tone plays.
3. Tap the matching key as fast as you can. Every piano key you press also plays its note.
4. There are 12 rounds (each note appears once). A wrong tap ends the run.
5. Your total time is shown at the end and saved as your best.

Know the scale

1. Choose a Scale (or Random key) and tap Play.
2. The middle box shows the scale name (example: D Major).
3. Play the 7 notes of the major scale in exact order starting from the root.
4. A wrong note or wrong order ends the run.
5. Timing starts when you tap the first note (root). Your total time is saved as your best.

Ear trainer

1. Tap Play to start.
2. You hear a reference tone (middle C, ~261 Hz) for one second, then a short pause, then a test tone. Tap the speaker to repeat the last pair.
3. Tap the up arrow if the test tone is higher, or the down arrow if it is lower.
4. The first 3 levels halve the interval (2, 1, ½, ¼ semitone). After that, each correct answer shrinks it by 15%.
5. A wrong answer ends the run. Your best level (number of correct answers) is saved.

Guess the chord

1. Tap Play to start.
2. You hear a C major chord as a reference, then a short pause, then a mystery chord. Each voicing keeps the root in the bass while the upper notes use a close inversion.
3. Pick the correct chord from the 7 buttons on screen (C, Dm, Em, F, G, Am, Bdim).
4. If correct, the chord you just identified becomes the new reference for the next round. Tap the speaker to repeat the last reference and mystery chord.
5. A wrong answer ends the run. Your best level is saved.
6. After 20 correct answers, 7th and sus4 chords are added. After 35, 9th chords (5 notes) join the mix.

Rythm trainer

1. Tap Play to start a 10-second guided count with one click and one number per second.
2. Listen to the clicks and follow the visual count from 1 to 10 to lock into the tempo.
3. After 10 seconds, all help stops. Keep counting internally, clap, or tap along away from the app if that helps.
4. Press Finish when you believe you reached the target time for the selected mode.
5. Easy targets 20 seconds total, Normal 30 seconds total, and Hard 60 seconds total.
6. The result shows your actual time and how early or late you were to the nearest hundredth of a second. Your best result is the smallest error.

Scale & Random key

• Memory: the game picks notes only from the selected major key, so you practice inside that key.
• Know the scale: uses the selected Scale; if set to Random key, each restart picks a new scale.
• Know the key, Ear trainer, Guess the chord, and Rythm trainer: the Scale setting is ignored.

Modes (Memory)

• Modes affect Memory and Rythm trainer.
• Memory Easy (fifth): a smaller keyboard window from the root up to the fifth.
• Memory Normal (1 octave): notes span one octave from the root.
• Memory Hard (2 octaves): notes span two octaves from the root.
• Rythm Easy: finish at 20 seconds total.
• Rythm Normal: finish at 30 seconds total.
• Rythm Hard: finish at 60 seconds total.

Play screen

• Top bar: shows status and a prompt for the current game. Memory shows Scale/Mode/Level; the other games show a center prompt box.
• Blue highlight: shows notes played by the app during the sequence.
• Red highlight: shows your taps while repeating the sequence.
• Max: shows your best result for the selected game (best level for Memory, best time for the other games).

Settings

• Show note names is disabled in Know the key and Know the scale.
• Show note names: shows labels on the keys (Memory only).
• Selected Major scale only: when enabled, only notes that belong to the selected major key show labels (useful for learning the scale).
• Audio uses piano samples (or a fallback tone if missing).

Achievements & Max

• Achievements on the home screen show best levels for Memory modes and best times for the other games.
• Max (green) on the play screen shows the best for the currently selected game.

Mistakes & restart

• If you tap a wrong note, you'll see a message and input stops for that run.
• Tap anywhere to dismiss the message.
• Press Restart to start over and try again.

Tips

• Start with Easy mode and one key (C Major), then add more keys.
• Use "Selected Major scale only" to focus on scale tones while still seeing the full keyboard window.
• Try Random key to build fast recognition across all major keys.