🎹 Hakolah Sounds
Play the piano with your keyboard or by touching the screen, let Hakolah compose a brand-new piece for you, and learn the basics of music while you listen.
🎛️ Instrument
No instrument matches that name.
🎹 Keys
🪕 Plucked strings
🎻 Bowed strings
🎷 Wind
🔔 Tuned percussion
🎛️ Electronic & voice
Turn any sound into an instrument: record two or three seconds (a cow's moo, a whistle, a laugh…) or pick an audio file, then choose "🎙️ Your sound" and play it on the piano.
Middle row A … ' for the white keys, the row above W E T Y U O P for the black keys, and Z / X to shift the octave. It also works with a keyboard plugged into your phone, or by touching the keys directly. Recording shortcuts: R start/stop, and Space play/stop after your first recording (the full list appears with it).
↔️↕️ Drag any layer freely: left and right in time, up and down between tracks (drop it below the last track to start a new one). Drag a layer's left or right edge to shorten or lengthen it without cutting: nothing is deleted, and lengthening brings the hidden notes back. To place the white line, click or drag on the ruler or any empty space, or grab the circle at its top; then select a layer and press Split to cut it there. The Delete key removes it, the arrow keys move it, and a double-click sends it back to the start. All layers play together whichever track they're on.
⌨️ Keyboard shortcuts (Ctrl+/)
- SpacePlay from the white line / stop
- Shift + SpacePlay from the start
- RStart / stop recording
- EscStop everything and deselect (back to playing with letters)
- Enter · Home · EndMove the white line to the start · start · end
- ← →Move the focused layer (or the white line if no layer is focused); Shift = one second; ↑ ↓ between tracks
- SSplit the selected layer at the white line — only while a layer is selected; otherwise S plays a piano note
- Delete · BackspaceDelete the layer
- Ctrl + C · X · VCopy · cut · paste at the white line
- Ctrl + DDuplicate the layer
- Shift + MMute / unmute the layer
- Ctrl + Z · Ctrl + Shift + ZUndo · redo
On a Mac use ⌘ instead of Ctrl. The other piano keys (A…' W…P Z X) stay for playing.
🎼 The notation as it plays
🎚️ The four parameters of sound
🎨 Timbre (the color of the sound) is the instrument itself — change it from the "Instrument" panel above to hear the same melody in a different color.
⬇️ Download & share
🎧 Headphones recommended — and every piece is a completely new tune, so try it more than once.
🎚️ The four parameters of sound
Every sound you hear can be described by four parameters: frequency (how high or low the pitch is), rhythm (note lengths and the speed of the pulse), timbre (the color that tells one instrument from another), and dynamics (loudness, marked p for soft and f for loud). Try changing each one on its own in the "Compose" tab.
💰 Note lengths are like money
Whole note (hollow, no stem) = 4 dinars · half note (hollow with stem) = 2 · quarter note = 1 dinar · eighth note = 500 fils · sixteenth = 250 fils. A dot next to a note adds half its value (a dotted half = 3 dinars).
🎹 Major vs. minor chords
The only difference is the middle note: 4 semitones above the root in a major chord, 3 in a minor one. That small gap is what makes major sound bright and minor sound sad.
🎬 Scoring exercise: the first 36 seconds of Piper
An exercise from a music production course: score a short scene that moves through five emotional states, each with its own instruments and instruction. Press the button to hear an example that applies them, and watch the highlighted section follow the music.
- 0:00–0:03CuriosityClarinet solo (motif)Create a short, repeating motif using two or three notes.
- 0:03–0:08TensionString ensemble + Beauty BlubbersAdd dissonance and gradually increase the volume using automation.
- 0:08–0:13Danger / WavesString ensemble + Dusty Strings + Foley (waves)Increase tension through dissonance and intensity.
- 0:13–0:23Time freezesEvent Horizon + Foley (bubbles)Use static harmony and long sustained sounds, with little or no rhythm. Use reverb to create space.
- 0:23–0:36Uplifting / HappyString ensemble + clarinet solo (motif) + marimbaUse consonant, major harmony and gradually increase the energy.
Technical
- Automation: volume and panning.
- Tempo: use the Tempo Track when appropriate.
- Plugins: EQ + reverb (Space Designer) on each layer.
🎧 The example is generated in code to apply the instructions; it is not the film's original score. Beauty Blubbers and Event Horizon are sounds from the course library, so they are stood in for by a celesta shimmer and a long choir chord.
👂 Ear training: what changed?
You'll hear the same clip twice; the second time, exactly one parameter changes. Guess which.
📚 The learning tools here are inspired by a music production course the site's owner is taking at university.