The Simplified Notation app for Sheet Music

SNapp is an internet browser application that converts MusicXML files to sheet music with WYSIWYP simplified notation and displays them on a handheld device or personal computer. As a browser app, it is available on all screen devices for Windows, Linux, Android, and Apple operating systems.

Limitations of Notational Elements

At this time, SNapp is still in the prototype stage of development (i.e., a Beta version). The initial implementation is prioritized to support a beginning student of the piano. And because it implements all of the WYSIWYP changes to Traditional Notation, it should also be sufficient for informal, or even formal, academic evaluation between the two. All other notational remain the same, but they are not all implemented in the SNapp prototype. Here are still some symbols not yet implemented that would be useful to beginners as follows (these are of the highest priority for future development):

Slurs
Repeats
Articulation marks

In addition, there are other items that more advanced players will need are as follows:

All of the other miscellaneous Traditional Notation symbols listed here on Wikipedia that are not yet implemented.
Support changing of key signatures and time signatures in the same score.
Support for additional staff types (clefs).
Support for multiple parts (instruments)/voices.
A limitation of the SNapp prototype is that it sets the Treble and Bass staff tonal note ranges throughout the score according the widest range in the score. This results in a lot of wasted sheet music page space for measures that don't need that entire range. It would be better that the staff ranges be set according to the range of each Grandstaff row on the page. The implementation of this could be enormous and since it's more of an annoyance than limitation, it is listed in the "Future Functional Enhancements" section.

List of known functional issues

The lists above are for new functionality. Alas, like most app betas, there are some issues with existing functionality as follows:

Creating PDFs
Home page: link to open a file is shorter than the text
Saving file changes and re-opening them

Future Functional Enhancements

Beyond implementing the remaining notational elements, there is also a list of functional and user preference options that permit the student to customize the sheet music and that provide learning tools. These proposed enhancements can be found here.

Starting SNapp

As a web app, the browser on your device must have an internet connection. The internet connection is needed only to load the app into the browser and is subsequently not needed to convert MusicXML files to sheet music. If the browser (or the tab containing the app) is closed, the app will have to be reloaded from the internet. Here is the URL: snapp.wysiwyp.org This URL opens the SNapp Home page.

The SNapp Home page

The first time you try SNapp you may not already have a MusicXML file to open. To get a sample file, click on "download sample MusicXML files" to go to the WYSIWYP site music files page. See below.

Clicking on "open Sheet Music from a MusicXML file" lets you navigate on your device to select the MusicXML file. If you downloaded one from the WYSIWYP site then navigate to your browser's download folder. (FYI compressed files will have the extension .mxl while the uncompressed files have .musicxml. Either is acceptable.)

Select your file and SNapp then opens the Sheet Music page (see below) with the sheet music displayed in WYSIWYP notation.

The WYSIWYP site music files page

This page allows you to preview Sheet Music PDF files to see what they will look like when displayed in SNapp. Pick one of the compressed MusicXML files and click the download text. The compressed MusicXML file will have a file extension .xml. The MusicXML file is downloaded to your browser's download folder. A pdf file can be optionally downloaded as well from your pdf viewer, e.g., Adobe Acrobat.

The Sheet Music page

Click here to get a complete description of this page.

Future enhancement to SNapp