How to Play

Connect a MIDI keyboard (or a MIDI-capable app on your phone), then pick your genre, scale, key and level from the setup screen.

The genre decides which progressions you get and which scales they are drawn from: pop and classical stay in major and minor, rock and blues add mixolydian, jazz and funk add dorian, EDM adds phrygian.

Notes and chords fall from the top of the play area. Play the note or chord shown (all its notes at once, on your MIDI keyboard) before it reaches the bottom.

Match it in time and it pops; let it reach the bottom and you lose a life. Run out of lives and the game ends.

Note names are shown on the orb at first and drop away once you are scoring, leaving the chord name and its scale degree. The pace picks up as your score climbs.

Levels 1-3 are free and cover scale notes and basic chords. Levels 4-8 add note ordering, root-in-bass voicings, seventh chords, and more. Unlock them with a one-time purchase from the setup screen.

About

Chord Nebula teaches the keyboard in the order the music itself is built. You start with the notes of a key, one at a time, until the shape of the scale is under your fingers.

Then come the chords built on those notes: how each one is stacked, what it is called, and which degree of the key it belongs to.

The part that matters most comes last. Chords are rarely played alone, so the game drills the common progressions those chords make in real music, across keys, scales, and genres, until moving between them stops being a calculation and becomes something you hear.

Found a bug, have a suggestion, or just want to say hi? Get in touch:

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Chord Nebula

Chord Nebula teaches piano in the order music is built: the notes of a key, then the chords built on them, then the common progressions those chords make in real genres like classical, pop, and jazz.

Note names are shown while you find your feet, then drop away once you are scoring, and the pace steps up as you keep going.

To play this you need a MIDI keyboard (or a MIDI-capable app). Connect it to your computer, select it from the list below, and press Continue.

Chord Nebula

Select your favorite genre and the scale that goes with it.

Chord Nebula

Pick the key you want to play in, then your level. Levels 1-3 are free; levels 4-8 unlock with a one-time purchase below.

Levels 1-3 are free. Levels 4-8 need a one-time unlock: Buy on Gumroad

Terms

This is a small, independently-made project. I do my best to keep it working and to deliver what's described here, but I can't guarantee uninterrupted access, specific features, or that the software is free of bugs.

The one-time payment for levels 4-8 supports continued development of the project -- it is not a subscription, and doesn't entitle you to guaranteed updates or support response times.

Refunds are handled through Gumroad's own policy, not this project directly. By purchasing, you agree to these terms.

Chord Nebula

Score 0 Lives ♥♥♥

Game Over