Sheet Music Site

Subject: Sheet Music Site
From: Banjer
Date: 16 Nov 01 - 06:36 AM

I just found this and haven't had much time to explore it. It may be of use to some others. Has anyone seen it before? Is it worth signing up for? (it appears membership is free)

Subject: RE: Sheet Music Site
From: Steve Parkes
Date: 16 Nov 01 - 06:39 AM

Give us a clue, Banjer--where is it?!

Subject: RE: Sheet Music Site
From: Banjer
Date: 16 Nov 01 - 06:40 AM

OK, so I'm not yet fully awake. I guess it would be helpful if I included the link....Click here

Sorry 'bout that!

Subject: RE: Sheet Music Site
From: MMario
Date: 16 Nov 01 - 08:46 AM

I've been to the site before - Their selection of free sheet music isn't the greatest - all pretty much very standard pieces. I don't know about the ones that cost to download - as I haven't figured out a way to see the catalog!

Subject: RE: Sheet Music Site
From: Marymac90
Date: 16 Nov 01 - 09:40 AM

I just joined up, but their offerings under folk were dissapointing. They might hold more for someone interested in classical or religious music. Their platinum membership ($30) lets you order stuff transposed into ANY key.

Marymac

Subject: RE: Sheet Music Site
From: Sorcha
Date: 16 Nov 01 - 10:19 AM

Looks to me like DT and the numachi/DT Mirror are better......and we are free, no Platinum memberships here.

Subject: RE: Sheet Music Site
From: Gypsy
Date: 16 Nov 01 - 11:30 PM

They're ALL platinum memberships here, Sorcha. Or at least, i think they are! ; )

Subject: RE: Sheet Music Site
From: GUEST,.gargoyle
Date: 17 Nov 01 - 12:43 AM

Learn to transpose....the inherent value is far greater than 30 dollars to "cheat the the learning process."

Subject: RE: Sheet Music Site
From: Kaleea
Date: 17 Nov 01 - 01:02 AM

I just got a new electric piano (no paying a piano tuner ever again!) and have been wanting to get to the music store for a copy of the "Moonlight Sonata" by Beethoven in C# minor, and you guessed it . . .the music store lost! What a great country we have when we can print Beethoven right off the web just cause a mudcat buddy let us know about the site! Thanks, Banjer! If you need me, I'll be at my piano cussing cause I hate sharps, OOPS! I mean, uh, practicing. Kaleea

Subject: RE: Sheet Music Site
From: GUEST,.gargoyle
Date: 17 Nov 01 - 01:01 PM

Thank You for posting the site Banjer.

It is an excellent resource - and one I will use.

Sincerely,
Gargoyle

Subject: RE: Sheet Music Site
From: Mark Clark
Date: 17 Nov 01 - 02:15 PM

Yes, thanks Banjer. I've bookmarked it as well.

Gargoyle, you said:

Learn to transpose....the inherent value is far greater than 30 dollars to "cheat the the learning process."

Do you have any tips on learning to transpose? On guitar, I transpose by reading the lead line in whatever key it's in and playing out of the same scale but in another position. The guitar is handy that way since the same scale pattern can be moved up and down the neck at will.

But do you have a simple technique for transposing the lead sheet on paper without using a computer and without playing the piece? Or is that not the sort of transposition you meant?

      - Mark

Subject: RE: Sheet Music Site
From: Mary in Kentucky
Date: 17 Nov 01 - 08:13 PM

Mark, a little trick I picked up (probably from Mudcat)...when determining the chords in a transposed piece...write ABCDEFG on a piece of paper, then if you are transposing from the key of D to the key of A, on the line under this write ABCDEFG but line up the A in the second line under the D in the first line. Then you can quickly write the new chords. I suppose this could be used for melody lines also, but may be more tedious than just doing it by ear.

Subject: RE: Sheet Music Site
From: GUEST,.gargoyle
Date: 18 Nov 01 - 12:31 AM

Mark...I cheat

As a keyboard player, all the notes available are set before my eyes...it is easy to move it from C, to Eb, to G. All you do is think steps, i.e. 3 half-steps, and then identify the key and play its scale...etc. when sight reading sheet music.

The other way, by ear is easier. Just look at the starting chord, and all subsequent chords, determine the I,VI,V, pattern (then dim/aug) and move easily to any key.

The process is IDENTICAL to Mary in Kentucky's just in the head.

THANX for the tip MARY!!! Its a good teaching tool.

Subject: RE: Sheet Music Site
From: Mark Clark
Date: 18 Nov 01 - 01:15 AM

Oh, I thought we were talking about transposing a score. I can transpose chords while playing without much trouble. For folk and traditional music you can just hear the chord changes coming so learning the chords to a new piece is no problem. Once a set of chords is understood—once or twice throught the tune—the progression can easily be repeated in any key without much thought. I tend to think about chords as numbers, the way Rick has often suggested and Gargoyle described above. I think I have a few old posts on the subject as well.

If a lead line is based on closed scales, I can easily transpose it as well. But if a lead line includes a lot of open strings in such a way that it isn't readily moved up the neck then I'll have to stop and work it out again to transpose it to a new key. Either that, or use a capo.

If I could quickly write down a lead sheet for any passage I have in my head, I could put it in any key. I just haven't worked at developing that skill.

I'm not a keyboard player but I understand that any chord is just a fixed set of intervals that, once formed by the hand, may be moved up and down the keyboard at will. In the back where white and black keys are interspersed, all the keys are the same width.

Thanks Mary and thanks Gargoyle,

      - Mark

Subject: RE: Sheet Music Site
From: katlaughing
Date: 18 Nov 01 - 01:20 AM

Thanks, Banjer. Their idea of folk could use some work, but some of the other stuff might be usefull. All of my violin music is packed and I've been wanting to play some of the old classical pieces, recently, that mom and I used to play together. I'm sure I'll be able to find them there.

MaryinK and Gargoyle, thanks, too!

kat

Subject: RE: Sheet Music Site
From: Mary in Kentucky
Date: 18 Nov 01 - 09:06 AM

Mark, I'm not sure what you mean by any chord is just a fixed set of intervals that, once formed by the hand, may be moved up and down the keyboard at will. On the keyboard (because of the black and white keys) there are four basic shapes for a tonic chord. In teaching beginners I would have them play the cadences and simple nursery rhymes in all keys. The first group (CGF) has all white keys. The second group has a black key in the middle (DEA). The last two groups have two black keys in the tonic "shape."

I once had a student who IMO was extremely right-brained. She was in the 5th grade but had repeated one grade because of reading problems. She would learn her lessons by memorizing the feel and positioning of the keys (because she was a poor reader.) One time she put her hands in the wrong place at the beginning of the song and played the entire song in the key of G instead of C. This can be done if there aren't any F sharps! Incidentally, her mother told me I had really changed her life because she was so happy and successful with playing music...and her expression was beautiful.

Subject: RE: Sheet Music Site
From: Mark Clark
Date: 18 Nov 01 - 09:57 AM

Well, I don't mean to imply that this is proper technique, I'm not a keyboard player, but if you cut off all the white keys so they are the same length as the black ones, the width of each key is the same. Any configuration formed by the hand may be moved up and down the keyboard to play the chord in a different key. If the varying heights of the keys aren't a problem, then it makes no difference, in the execution, where the sharps and flats fall. You are approaching the problem as a skilled keyboard player, I don't have that restriction.

My brother studied piano for many years as a child, each week his teacher would give him a new assignment, and play it once for him so he could hear how it was supposed to sound. The next week he would have the assignment mastered and be ready for the next. Eight years passed before his teacher realized he had never actually learned to sight read. He just remembered what she had played and practiced that.

      - Mark

Subject: RE: Sheet Music Site
From: GUEST,.gargoyle
Date: 18 Nov 01 - 11:09 AM

I can identify with your brother Mark.

At age seven I began lessons with a tyranical old prune of a teacher. Her style was rigid and included putting coins on the back of a child's hands "to assure correct hand positioning." My younger brother began a year after me with the same teacher. After six months of my brother's tears our parents finally identified her as a witch and we were pulled out My brother went on to banjo.

Piano teacher number two. She was fun and carefree and playful. The lessons were in the back cottage of a friend's house. His lesson came first - mine second. I would watch his lesson first and quickly excelled beginning my first "public performances" in the school cafeteria. The friend's mother was furious, she identified that I wasn't reading the sheet music but simply (horror of horrors!!!) memorizing the pieces. The teacher and I were both chastised by the friend's mother and she fired the teacher on the sport.

On to three years of public education cello, followed by nothing

By ninth grade I was begging for piano lessons, my mother found LUCY ELLEN BALES. A gifted, passionate, forever forgiving piano teacher who could tolerate the strange schedules of sports, activities, and teenage life. She had a vast personal collection of pieces to tantalize any student. Her hands were crippled with arthritis; she would soak them in a vat of melted wax before being able to play. Ahhhh, the fun and pleasure, recitals and merangue cookies, that wonderful Steinway concert grand entertained within her arched living room. Lessons continued on into college.

Ear training came much, much, later. On my own.