Freeware Piano program?

Infopackets Reader Ray M. asks:

" I had a program that allowed me to play piano notes using my keyboard [on my old computer] ... [unfortunately I can't remember the name of the program] ... and would like to install one on my new computer. If you can [suggest] a program [which plays piano notes on the keyboard], I would greatly appreciate it. "

My response:

I didn't know of any piano programs off of the top of my head, so I searched Google and came across a site which provided an extensive list of shareware piano programs.

http://pianoeducation.org/pnodsoft.html#IBM

Many of the programs listed on the page are for Windows 3.1, but should still work under Windows 9x / NT / 2000 / XP. Here are a few links which caught my eye:

Muzika: (Windows 3.1 shareware) - music notation program.

ftp://ftp.simtel.net/pub/simtelnet/win3/music/muzika31.zip

NoteWorthy Composer: (Windows 3.1 / 95 shareware) - NoteWorthy Composer is an award winning music composition and notation processor. It provides for the creation, play back and printing of you own musical scores. Notes and rests are added simply by selecting the item from the dockable tool bar and pressing a key. Use the included tools to automatically transpose, beam, and arrange accidentals in your score staves to make them look professional, create up to eight lyric lines per staff, and add various performance expressions, such as crescendos, fermatas, breath marks, and accelerandos that are recognized and performed during play back.

http://www.ntworthy.com/

Mozart 3.1: (Windows 3.1 shareware) - is a Music Processor for Windows. Using only the computer keyboard, you can create and edit sheet music. This can be printed with high-quality TrueType symbols on printers supported by Windows, and appears on the screen in standard notation as a WYSIWYG display.

ftp://ftp.simtel.net/pub/simtelnet/win3/music/mozart31.zip

Piano Professor: (Windows 3.1 shareware) - Piano Professor for Windows was designed to help you learn how to read music. Among it's features are: The Note Tutor [teaches the student how to read music and identify the corresponding keys on the piano keyboard], Chord Encyclopedia [a full complement of over 450 chords using sight and sound], Key Signatures Screen [shows the many keys that music is written in], Name that Note [helps you to recognize notes by sound and train your ear], Keyboard Teacher [aids the beginner by explaining the basics of the piano keyboard] and a detailed help system.

http://www.stmm.com/pianoprofproduct.htm

Sweet Little Piano: (Windows 3.1 / 95 shareware) - allows the computer keyboard to act as a piano keyboard. Pressing a computer key generates a MIDI note and sends it to the selected device. Different aspects of the generated MIDI message may be changed with different menu commands, keyboard commands, and control bars.

ftp://ftp.simtel.net/pub/simtelnet/win3/music/swlipi14.zip

Do you have a favorite freeware piano program that works on the computer keyboard? Send me your picks, and I'll try to include an update in the following newsletter.

Update 2003/07/23: This article has been updated. Click here to read!