u/manh9011

The group has been a little quiet lately, so I accidentally decided to open-source my 100% Synthesia clone that runs cross-platform, just as promised. 😅

GitHub: https://github.com/manh9011/PianoGame

PianoGame is a piano learning and visualization project inspired by the Synthesia experience, built with the goal of making the whole thing open, extensible, and available across platforms.

Some of the features include:

• Synthesia-style falling notes / piano roll
• MIDI import and playback
• MusicXML support
• Karaoke / lyrics synchronization
• Multi-staff piano notation
• SoundFont playback
• Cross-platform support
• An architecture designed to be extended into more advanced music applications

But the main reason I'm releasing it isn't simply to make another Synthesia clone.

I think projects like this can become interesting building blocks for the next generation of AI-powered music applications.

We're already seeing AI being used for things like music generation, transcription, MIDI manipulation, music understanding, lyrics alignment, and automatic score generation. Having an open platform for rendering, playback, visualization, and interaction can make it much easier to experiment with all of these ideas.

For example:

Audio ➔ AI transcription ➔ MIDI ➔ PianoGame ➔ notation ➔ playback ➔ interactive practice

Or perhaps:

AI-generated music ➔ MIDI ➔ visualization ➔ piano learning game

There are a lot of possible directions, and I honestly don't know what people might build on top of it.

That's also why I decided to release the source instead of keeping it as a closed project.

You can find the repository here:

https://github.com/manh9011/PianoGame

Fork it, modify it, break it, build something completely different with it.

Maybe someone will turn it into a better piano learning app.
Maybe an AI music workstation.
Maybe a MIDI editor.
Maybe a rhythm game.
Maybe something I haven't even thought of.

PRs, issues, forks, experiments, and crazy ideas are welcome.

Hopefully PianoGame can give the music-dev/AI community another open building block for creating new things around MIDI, piano, notation, visualization, and AI music.

Have fun with it.

I’ve just added two new features to PianoGame:

Kara Sub - play a piano piece while singing along with subtitles. The lyrics are embedded directly in the MusicXML file, so the lyrics stay synchronized with the score while you play.

Score Library - import a score directly from a MuseScore link into PianoGame, making it much easier to bring existing scores into the program and play them.

Try it here: https://pianogame.vercel.app (Press Ctrl+F5 to refresh the cache)

Would love to hear what you think, especially if you use PianoGame for practicing piano + singing.

I was looking for a way to display the current chord while practicing in PianoGame's Free Play mode, and during my search I came across ChordViz.

It looks like a nice tool, but at nearly $30, it was a bit too expensive for me. I also prefer open-source software whenever possible.

So... I ended up building my own instead. 😄

It's a free, browser-based chord visualizer that detects the notes you're playing and displays the recognized chord in real time.

You can try the demo here: https://chordvisualizer.vercel.app/

Or use it directly while playing here: https://pianogame.vercel.app/

I'm not a music theory expert, so there are probably edge cases where chord detection or naming isn't perfect. If you notice anything wrong, please let me know.

The source code is open source, so feel free to fork it, report issues, or contribute:

https://github.com/manh9011/ChordVisualizer

Hopefully some of you find it useful for practicing in Free Play. Feedback is always welcome!

I'm exploring a new feature for PianoGame.
If a MusicXML file contains lyrics, PianoGame can display synchronized karaoke-style lyrics while playing the piano accompaniment. You can follow the falling notes and sing at the same time—no separate karaoke video required.

The idea is simple:

• Play piano and sing simultaneously.
• Lyrics stay perfectly synchronized with the score.
• Any MusicXML with lyrics becomes an interactive karaoke experience.

This is an early prototype, and I'd love to know if it's something people actually want. If you'd use it, let me know in the comments.

This feature is being prototyped for PianoGame, my Synthesia alternative, free to play here: https://pianogame.vercel.app

Please give your feedback or features suggestions.

Note: MIDI devices can only be used with one program, so you need to close Synthesia or similar software before using it.

Play online: https://pianogame.vercel.app/

Or support me and download Windows/Mac/Linux app: https://manh9011.itch.io/piano-game

------ Update 2: Jul, 29th 2026 https://www.reddit.com/r/synthesia/comments/1v56arf/comment/p0hmi9y/

------ Update 1: Jul, 27th 2026 https://www.reddit.com/r/synthesia/comments/1v56arf/comment/p01r9xk/