Connecting your keyboard

NoteHop listens to your keyboard over MIDI, the same signal keyboards use to talk to music software.

1. Use Chrome or Edge. They can read MIDI keyboards in the browser on Windows, macOS, ChromeOS and Android. Safari and Firefox can't yet.
2. Plug in with USB (USB-B or USB-C cable from the keyboard to your computer or tablet), or pair over Bluetooth MIDI from your system's Bluetooth settings first.
3. Open NoteHop at notehop.com/app. The first time, the browser asks for permission to use MIDI devices: choose Allow.
4. The status pill in the top corner of the library should turn green and show your keyboard's name.

Your first song

1. Pick a song in the library. Ode to Joy and Minuet in G are great first pieces.
2. Choose a mode. Waterfall Highway is best for learning notes. Harmonic Progression adds the chord name and Roman numeral for every bar.
3. Set up practice. Choose Left, Both or Right hand, set the tempo (try 60–70% to start), and turn on Wait-for-Me and finger guides.
4. Press Start practice. Notes fall toward the keyboard. Play each note as its bar touches the key.
5. Watch the combo and accuracy at the top. Pause and restart from the control bar under the keyboard.

Wait-for-Me vs tempo play

Wait-for-Me pauses the music at each note until you play it. Use it the first few times through a piece, when you're still finding the notes and fingering. There's no penalty for taking your time.

Tempo play (Wait-for-Me off) keeps the music moving, like a real performance. Every note is judged on timing: Perfect within 40 ms, Great within 90 ms, Good within 160 ms.

1. Learn with Wait-for-Me on until you can play the section with few stops.
2. Switch it off and play at 60–70% tempo.
3. Raise the speed by 5% each time you get a clean run, up to 100%.

You can switch Wait-for-Me on or off during practice from the control bar. NoteHop restarts from the bar you're on.

Looping a tricky section

Songs are split into sections such as Intro, Verse, Build-up and Climax, shown in the bar under the keyboard.

1. Tap a section to loop just that part. It lights up with a loop icon.
2. Play it until it feels easy, then tap it again to go back to the whole song.
3. From the results screen, tap any bar in the timing stream, then Loop to practice exactly the bars you missed.

Reading your results

• Rank (S, A, B, C, D) and stars: a quick summary. S means at least 95% accuracy with no missed notes.
• Pitch accuracy: right notes as a share of all notes and wrong keys.
• Rhythm & timing: how early or late you were on average, in milliseconds. In Wait-for-Me it shows your reaction time instead.
• Hand balance: hit rate for each hand. A big gap tells you which hand to practice alone.
• Max streak: your longest run of notes without a slip.
• Note density & timing stream: one bar per measure. Tall bars are busy passages, and the line shows timing drift. NoteHop highlights your trickiest passages so you can loop them.

A 15-minute practice routine

1. Warm up (2 min). Play a section you already know at full tempo.
2. New material (6 min). Loop the next section with Wait-for-Me on, one hand at a time, then both.
3. Fix (4 min). Open your last results, loop the trickiest bars at 60–70% tempo.
4. Perform (3 min). Play the whole song with Wait-for-Me off. Don't stop for mistakes.

Short, daily sessions beat long weekly ones. Your streak counter is there to help you keep going.

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