A MIDI player that allows you to play and loop MIDI tunes for learning them by ear. The code uses the default sequencer/synthesizer included with Java's javax.midi classes. It's pretty simlple really and as it turns out I don't use it much myself. (See music links below). My intention in building this was to investigate the Java Swing API since, even though I do a lot of java, most of the interfaces I've produced have been for web page automation.
You can download the program here.
Other Stuff You'll Need
You should be able to just run:
java -jar midiplayer.jarfrom a command line. Download this batch file and save it in the same directory as midiplayer.jar if you want something you can just double click.
I'd appreciate feedback from anyone using this.
ABCs are a text based music notation format. Thousands of tunes are available on the web.
ABC Tune Finder is a great site for finding, playing and downloading tunes.
Skink is a Java based ABC reader/player for converting abc files to standard musical notation. You can get the same end result without a Java download but with more work by using the abcmidi tools The abcmidi tools also will let you produce very nicely formatted standard musical notation .pdf files.
Camproad Music is the site for Tim Brown and Peter Gilmore. Great musicians.
The Riley School of music publishes fiddle tunes in MP3 format once per quarter. The tunes are not played too quickly for learning by ear.
The Contemplator had a number of links for folk tunes from the British Isles. There is a nice link to a bunch of midi files of traditional fiddle tunes.
Green Linnet Music is the source for Celtic music. Buy your CD's here rather than from a well known very large site.
Fiddle Jam a group of local fiddle players who meet once a week to learn tunes by ear. Our contact info was near the bottom of the page when I linked this.
Saltspring Musicworks Is the site of Jaime Rokeby-Thomas. She runs a couple of yearly fiddle camps on Saltspring Island. I had the pleasure of attending a session she gave at Courtenay's Fiddle Fest this year and I learned a great deal just from the little things she gave away while teaching a tune. You can also get books of music from the site. The books include CDs with slow, fast (or normal) and piano accompaniment only tracks.
The Amazing Slowdowner allows you to play back MP3 and CD files at any speed but in correct pitch. Amazingingly cool!