Frequently Asked Questions

Pianotify is a free online piano learning platform that helps you learn to play piano using interactive MIDI tutorials with falling notes (similar to Synthesia), PDF sheet music, MuseScore files, and video covers from YouTube. Our mission is to make piano learning accessible and enjoyable for everyone, from beginners to advanced players.

Yes! You can use Pianotify for free indefinitely. The free plan includes browsing the library, playing any MIDI piece in full (your own imported files included), reading PDF sheet music on screen, watching video covers, and publishing your own uploads. Premium unlocks the practice tools, downloads and more.

While both offer falling-notes visualization, Pianotify has several advantages: it's free to start with no purchase required, it runs directly in your browser with nothing to download, and it comes with a community library of thousands of user-uploaded MIDI files, along with PDF sheet music, MuseScore files and video covers from YouTube.

Pianotify works best on modern browsers: Chrome (recommended), Firefox, Safari, and Edge. For the best experience, make sure your browser is up to date. Some older browsers may not support all features.

Currently, Pianotify is a web application optimized for all screen sizes. You can access Pianotify from your mobile browser, though some features like the MIDI player work better on larger screens. We are considering native mobile and tablet applications for the future.

Yes! Pianotify is available worldwide. Our platform is accessible from any country with internet access. The interface is available in 16 languages including English, French, German, Spanish, Japanese, Korean, Chinese, and more.

Using the MIDI player is simple: browse or search for a song, click on a MIDI file to open the player, press Space or click Play to start, and watch the falling notes and play along on your piano. Use the controls to adjust speed, volume, and other settings.

Yes! Everyone can switch between 75%, 100% and 125% of the original tempo. Premium adds fine control from 10% to 200%, which is perfect for slowing down difficult passages, gradually increasing speed as you improve, and playing along at a comfortable pace.

It depends on the MIDI file. Some MIDI files have separate tracks or channels for each hand (left/right), while others combine everything into a single track. When hands are on separate tracks, Premium lets you mute the left hand to practice right hand only, mute the right hand to practice left hand only, and adjust the volume of each hand independently. Use the track controls in the player to toggle each track — track-by-track work is a Premium tool.

You can choose from several piano sounds in the player settings, including Grand Piano (default), Electric Piano, and more. Click the settings icon in the player to access sound options. The instrument sounds come from the SGM v2.01 sound bank by Shan, modified by John Nebauer and prepared for the web by Google's Magenta project, used under its attribution license (CC BY).

MIDI keyboard support is a feature we are working on. Soon you'll be able to connect your MIDI keyboard via USB, see your played notes highlighted in the player, and get feedback on your accuracy. Stay tuned for updates!

The player supports keyboard shortcuts: Space for Play/Pause, F (or F11) for fullscreen, R to rewind 10 seconds, S to open the settings, M to mute/unmute, B to toggle the metronome, I and O to set the A-B loop points and L to turn the loop on or off (Premium), + and − to change the playback speed, Left/Right arrows for the previous/next measure, and Up/Down arrows to skip backward/forward. Click the keyboard icon in the player to see the full list.

Yes! The built-in metronome helps you keep time while practicing. You can switch it on and off, and it automatically follows the song's tempo. Premium adds the one-bar count-in, the first-beat accent, double speed and the metronome volume.

You can find songs in several ways: use the search bar to type the song title or artist name, browse by category (MIDI, Sheet Music, Videos, MuseScore), or use filters to narrow down by difficulty, genre, or artist.

Import is private: quick drag and drop, play immediately and in full, not saved permanently, only you can access it. Upload is published: saved to your account, shared with the community (Premium members can keep an upload private), and you can add title, artist, and description.

We support MIDI files (.mid, .midi), PDF sheet music (.pdf), MuseScore files (.mscz, .mscx), and YouTube URLs for video covers.

Yes! You can submit song requests from the Song Requests page. Other users can see your request and may upload the song. If you search for a song and get no results, you'll be offered to submit a song request directly.

If you find content that violates our terms (copyright infringement, inappropriate material, etc.), click the Report button on the content page, or contact us with the URL. We review all reports and take appropriate action.

Yes! You have full control over your uploads. Go to My Library › Uploads, open any upload to edit its details, or delete it from its edit page. Note: deleted content cannot be recovered.

Premium unlocks the tools: A-B loop, transposition, count-in, fine tempo and per-track work in the player, reading comfort in the sheet-music viewer, up to 50 downloads a day of the files you play, sheet-music printing and video cover publishing. It also raises your upload quota to 500, lets you keep uploads private, and shows your social links and Premium badge on your profile.

New users may receive a free trial of Premium with all the Premium tools. If you don't cancel before the trial ends, the paid plan starts automatically.

We accept all major payment methods through Stripe: credit cards (Visa, Mastercard, American Express), debit cards, Apple Pay, and Google Pay. All payments are processed securely. We never store your card details.

Yes, absolutely! You can cancel your subscription at any time from your account settings. There are no cancellation fees, you keep access until the end of your billing period, and your uploads and favorites remain saved.

Consumers in the EU have a 14-day right of withdrawal. For other cases, we offer refunds on a case-by-case basis. If you're not satisfied with Premium, contact us to explain the issue and we'll review your request promptly.

We don't currently have a formal student discount program, but our pricing is already very affordable and the yearly plan offers significant savings. Watch for seasonal promotions! If you're a music school or educational institution, contact us for special arrangements.

When you cancel Premium, your account remains active on the free tier, your uploads stay in your account, your favorites and history are preserved, but you lose access to Premium features (the practice tools, downloads, printing). You can resubscribe anytime to regain Premium access.

Creating an account is free and easy: click Sign up in the top menu, enter your email and choose a password, or sign up with Google for quick access. Then verify your email address to unlock all features.

Forgot your password? Go to the login page, click “Forgot your password?”, enter your email address, and check your inbox for the reset link.

Yes, you can update your email in your account settings. After updating, you'll need to verify the new email address.

You can delete your account from your account settings. It is irreversible: the account is anonymized and your personal data removed. Your uploads are kept by default — a box lets you delete them instead — and a few records must outlive the account for legal reasons, such as invoices and download logs. The Privacy Policy lists them.

Yes, we take security seriously: all data is transmitted via HTTPS with encrypted connections, payments are processed by Stripe (PCI compliant), we never store plain text passwords, and we never sell your personal information.

Yes! You can log in with your Google account for quick and secure access. We only access basic profile information (name, email).

If you don't hear any sound, try these steps: check the player volume isn't muted, check your computer's volume settings, some browsers block audio until you interact with the page so click anywhere first then press play, and try another browser (Chrome usually works best).

Performance issues can usually be fixed by closing other tabs to free up browser memory, refreshing the page, updating your browser to the latest version, disabling extensions that can interfere, and ensuring a stable internet connection. Still having issues? Contact us with your browser and device info.

Downloads are a Premium feature. If you're Premium and can't download, make sure you're logged in, check your subscription status, try refreshing the page, and disable popup blockers.

If your MIDI file fails to import: check the format (must be .mid or .midi), check the file size (maximum 10 MB), try opening it in another app first to verify it's not corrupted, and try with a different MIDI file. Some MIDI files may have compatibility issues.

Try these troubleshooting steps: hard refresh with Ctrl+Shift+R (Cmd+Shift+R on Mac), clear your browser's cache and cookies, try incognito/private mode to disable extensions, and try another browser (Chrome, Firefox, or Safari).

Found a bug? Help us fix it! Please include: what you were trying to do, what happened instead, your browser and device, and screenshots if possible. Use our contact page to submit the report.

We're here to help! You can reach us through our contact page. We usually respond within 24-48 hours.