Lessons & Songs

Harmonicon’s lessons and songs don’t come inside the game: they live in online git repositories, so new lessons and songs can arrive without a new version of the game. Options → Lessons & songs shows where yours come from and keeps them up to date.

The page has a list for songs and a list for lessons. Each repository shows its name, its address, and how it stands:

• Version …, up to date — nothing newer is published.
• Version …, an update is available — an Update button appears. Harmonicon never updates on its own; it asks first, and only downloads the newest version, not the whole history.
• Checking for updates — Harmonicon asks each repository when the game starts, and again whenever you press Check for updates. Asking downloads nothing.
• Not downloaded or Could not download — press Download to try again (an internet connection is needed).
• Can’t be used — usually because the repository needs a newer Harmonicon. Update the game, or remove the repository.
• A folder on this computer — see below; it is read as it is, with nothing to update.

Remove takes a repository off the list and deletes what was downloaded for it. Your progress is kept: if you add the same lessons back later, the ones you passed are still passed.

Adding a repository

Anyone can publish lessons or songs: a git repository laid out like Harmonicon’s own (harmonicon-lessons, harmonicon-songs; each has a README describing its layout) works on GitHub, GitLab or any other git host. Type its address — https://… or git@host:owner/name — into the box under Songs or Lessons and press Add. Harmonicon downloads it straight away and its songs or lessons appear alongside the others.

You can also type a folder on this computer. Harmonicon reads it in place and never changes it, which is how lesson and song authors try their work before publishing it: edit the files, and the game picks the changes up.

Lessons and songs are only data — charts, text and pictures, never programs — but add only repositories from people you trust.

The first start

The first time Harmonicon starts, it downloads its lessons and songs before opening the menu (see Getting Started). You can leave downloads running with Continue without missing packs. If a download fails, Retry tries again. Continue without missing packs opens the menu with whatever content is already available. You can then open Options → Lessons & songs to retry downloads or add a local folder.

If you remove every repository, the game still starts; it just has no lessons or songs until you add some.

Song updates preserve songs removed upstream. The song picker labels those local copies with their original repository. Delete song in the picker hides a song persistently from that source, including after future updates; a copy supplied by another repository stays visible. See Removed and hidden songs.