See chords as flags
Creative
music notation
SHOW HN2025
How HN took it
2 positive, 5 neutral or asking, 1 mixed, 7 critical, out of 15 comments about the project. Thread score -0.25.
Idea: 1 for, 4 againstDesign: 0 for, 1 againstDocs: 1 for, 0 againstExecution: 0 for, 1 againstPrivacy: 0 for, 1 against
The thread, comment by comment
Each row is a top-level comment and its replies, in HN's order. Select a cell to open that comment on HN.
positive neutral or mixed critical about another commenter or something else the maker
What HN said
What people liked
Intro breakdown and interactive docs are useful and fun to explore
From 1 comment
I love that breakdown you did here: https://vpavlenko.github.io/d/ Very cool! Also makes me jump right into strudel.cc and experiment with chords, progressions and melodies.
MrGilbert on HN
Idea is similar to shape notes and Hooktheory-style tools
From 2 comments
You're very close to Aikin shape note heads! These help sight-read in any key, since they're always shaped according to whatever the relative major is, and so it's easy to learn…
thrtythreeforty on HNvery cool! hookpad/hooktheory/theorytab [1] is a similar idea, but I think the annotations are created using their tool instead of sourced from MuseScore. [1]:…
FelipeCortez on HN
Objections
Colors are hard-coded to pitches so they change with transposition
From 1 comment
> This simplifies visual analysis: chords like [uncopyable image of color bars] and other structures become visible, scores become readable and interpretable. The colors are…
kazinator on HN
Standard notation loses articulation, dynamics and other information
From 2 comments
The first movement. Which is 4 pages long. You could display 2 pages on a 16" screen, so you improved density by 2x but you have no articulation, no dynamics or tempo markings,…
CGMthrowaway on HNWhy use this piano-roll visualization rather than just color coding notes on sheet music? You lose a lot of other information in the process (like, almost all of it).
CGMthrowaway on HN
Palette has no logical relation between colors
From 1 comment
This is one of the cases where choosing a better palette would improve the visualizations As now, there's no relationship between colors beyond different notes, different colors…
hamaqueto on HN
Crashes on Safari iOS
From 1 comment
Seems to crash Safari on iOS, which is pretty rare for me tbh. Not sure what did there but it could either be profitable or annoying for you.
greggsy on HN
Requests
Better color palette with logical relationships between colors
From 1 comment
This is one of the cases where choosing a better palette would improve the visualizations As now, there's no relationship between colors beyond different notes, different colors…
hamaqueto on HN
Fix playback position marker lag behind audio
From 1 comment
Pro jazz trombonist here. All there is to usefully say about piano roll notation, with or without colours has pretty much already been said. And if you want more (much more)…
midenginedcoupe on HN
Color by diatonic chord function and extended notes
From 1 comment
OK let me suggest something to meet you halfway. As someone who is fluent/sight reading/ singing etc and can "hear" harmony and/or "read" it on a page of regular notes (lines and…
CGMthrowaway on HN
Questions
Does the coloring track key changes and secondary dominants
From 1 comment
OK, so it tracks key changes? How about secondary dominants: V-I cadences targeting any scale degree at any time.
kazinator on HN
Whether publishing copyrighted melodies requires a license
From 1 comment
Don't you need a license to publish copyrighted melodies?
docheinestages on HN
Alternatives named
Hooktheory / TheoryTab
From 1 comment
very cool! hookpad/hooktheory/theorytab [1] is a similar idea, but I think the annotations are created using their tool instead of sourced from MuseScore. [1]:…
FelipeCortez on HN
Shape notes (Aikin)
From 2 comments
Have you ever explored the idea of shaped notes? There's multiple different approaches with both 4-shape and 7-shape systems being common. But the point is that your color system…
coreyp_1 on HNYou're very close to Aikin shape note heads! These help sight-read in any key, since they're always shaped according to whatever the relative major is, and so it's easy to learn…
thrtythreeforty on HN