Proposed in the Suggestion Box, v. 2010.2.
Patience, Please
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MuseBlog Music Project
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WOW I can’t believe this actually made it! I’m in! (because I suggested it)
SFTDP. Thank you, thank you, thank you, oh wonderful GAPAs.
YES! Thank you so much, GAPAs!!
Now, anyone who’s interested and can play an instrument to a fairly decent standard…List your instrument as well.
Let’s see how many people will do this.
And we need to figure out a way to make sure all the technical issues work out.
I’m almost as excited for this as I am for my new shoulder rest. Which is, to say, A LOT.
I can!
I play French Horn, well enough to get a reccomendation to try out for Allstates, and also I came in… 4th overall in a regional competition.
If we can get a pretty good list of people, I can write a piece, I do some composition.
I’m in! I play clarinet and piano, can play both or whichever one is necessary. *is excited*
Flute!
How long to we have to practice? How are we going to record ourselves? What song should we play?
Can we start with something pretty short and simple to see how it might work?
Vocaroo is good for recording and hosting quickly. IMSLP has lots of scores in the public domain.
Want to try Mozart’s Eine Kleine Nachtmusik, 1st movement (k525), maybe the first page (up to measure 28)? At 100 bpm?
That sounds awesome!! I’d love to do it; I can play piano.
I can play the violin.
I’m also in on the violin, although we probably have more than enough of those.
And if we need to, I can probably convince Anomylous to help. She plays flute.
I play violin, but I haven’t played in a while, and sax, but I don’t really like sax that much, and oboe. So we shall go with oboe! Everything needs more oboe.
I play bass and sax mostly.
Oh, and the Uke! I got one for my birthday and have been playing it lots!
Guitar player/singer available.
Piano and saxophone.
APPALACHIAN SPRING CAN WE PLEASE
Bb clarinet.
Trombone!
Pianist and organist here, though it seems there are already several pianists, and pieces that call for organ aren’t the most common things. Oh, if we need a tin whistle or ukulele, I could do that too.
Summary: I do unuseful things and am busy anyway.
But organs are beautiful and ukuleles are awesome!
But neither useful in this context.
What is the noun for someone who plays a ukulele? A ukuleleist?
Flute, picc. And can we do Appalachian Spring, or the Swan Lake Suite? Can’t think of the part off the top of my head… But the one with the oboe doing the melody in the beginning, and then it goes to strings and brass.
~
What we could do to record it is pick a tempo, have each person record their part on YouTube, then put it all together. It would be easy to do in Garage Band. Theoretically.
What level piece could we do? Four?
On the 1-6 scale? Sure.
Trumpet! *w00t*
Violin. And cello. But I don’t have a cello.
Wait, I know two Appalachian Springs. Do you mean the one that sounds like ‘Tis a Gift to be Simple?
As far as I know, there is only one. It’s by Aaron Copland. Part of it sounds like that.
I can play the Alto Saxophone and sing (if that comes up later).
I used to play trumpet, but I haven’t touched it since May. I play jazz piano and used to play classical, but I honestly haven’t played classical piano music in 4 or 5 years. I’d love if we could do a jazz piece, though. I could comp and improvise and stuff.
Violin and piano, here.
Since I’m assuming we have different standards of examinations/levels and the like (I know Choklit Orange and I both have ABRSM graded exams, and I have no idea what you guys in the US have – what was that about a 1-6 scale?), why don’t we all write how many years we’ve been learning our instrument(s), just so we have a rough idea of what your general standard might be like.
So:
Violin – 7 years
Piano – 9 years
SFTDP but this is what I have so far of everyone. Sorry, the formatting’s kind of messed up. Also, I’d like to have on the table the number of years each person has played their instrument as well (see above post).
Instrument Name
Violin Ambystoma Maculatum
Violin Errata
Violin Choklit Orange
Violin Selenium the Quafflebird
Cello Choklit Orange (but she doesn’t have one)
Flute Ducky
Flute Beedle the Bard
Piccolo Beedle the Bard
Clarinet fireandhemlock1996
Bb Clarinet Zinc the sorceress
Oboe Tesseract
Trumpet Ghost of Pie Girl
Trumpet speller73 (but hasn’t played since May)
Alto Sax Thanks For All The Fish42
Saxophone Pseudonym
Trombone Princess_Magnolia
Piano fireandhemlock1996
Piano Pseudonym
Piano Piggy
Piano Bibliophile
Piano Selenium the Quafflebird
Organ Piggy
Guitar muselover
Bass/sax/Uke SudoRandom
This is actually a reasonably decent balance. That’s cool! Do we have any violas, tubas, etc. who have not yet expressed interest?
Add: French Horn Enceladus
About a year. I play piano, too, for about 4 years.
3-ish years. I think.
Put me on piano, not trumpet. No way am I playing trumpet. Anyways, I’ve been playing piano for… *counts* ten years.
Oh, okay. Never mind about my post below, where I ask if you’ll still be playing trumpet.
I’ll put you down as piano then. That makes six.
Piano, 9 years. Saxophone, 4 years.
Yep, got it, thanks.
I’ve played the cello for 13 years. What is this anyways?
With any luck, we can record a song- consensus appears to be leaning toward Appalachian Spring by Aaron Copeland- individually and have one of us compile it into an orchestra piece.
… thirteen years?? Wow.
=) started when I was 4. my parents wanted a prodigy. That and I couldn’t focus in school.
My parents wanted a mathematician. Go figure.
Okay. Violin, 8 years.
We’ll also need to decide (and forgive my poor terminology, as I have never excelled at theory) on a starting note- even if it’s in a different octave, it shouldn’t sound too horrible if we’re all in the same key. The music I have for Appalachian Spring is in D major.
I don’t have music for Appalachian Spring, and the problem is, it’s fairly recent, so IMSLP wouldn’t have it. Perhaps we should choose a piece that’s out of copyright and therefore available on IMSLP free, so that there’s no need to pay and/or wait. Any other ideas?
Oh, I forgot to add, I play cello! Level 5.
Sorry, I don’t know what Level 5 means. Can you tell us how many years you’ve been playing?
A 5 on the 1-6 scale. I’ve been playing for about 8 years.
Yeah, I was searching for a score online but couldn’t find one.
I’ve been playin oboe for a year and a half, but that’s a little misleading. I played violin for eight years and sax for four before I started oboe. Hm… I have an all-district audition today and the piece is the first two movements of Handel’s Oboe Sonana 1. It sounds quite decent, I think, so if you YouTube that you can get an idea of the stuff I’m currently playing. Also, I’ve played the oboe/English horn book for Wizard if Oz pit orchestra (but I am really bad at runs).
Appalachian Spring was composed in 1944, so it isn’t in the public domain.
IMSLP has lots of scores, I highly recommend it!
SFTDP. If you all have time, you should go look up Eric Whitacre’s virtual choir, because it reminds me a lot of why we’re trying to do here and might give us ideas. Also, Eric Whitacre’s music is wonderful.
*sqee* Yay! Virtual Choir!
I’ve played piano for eight years and clarinet for slightly over three. (Bb clarinet, by the way. Forgot to add that.)
What do you do if you can’t play any instruments but are nevertheless interested in helping out? Haven’t played the clarinet for five years now, and I don’t own any cymbals I could bang or anything, but I still want to help.
I guess we’re sharing how long we’ve played our instruments? Piano: 12 years; organ: 4 years. That’s sixteen total years of experience, which is also my age. In one year’s time I’ll have more experience playing instruments than living.
I play the cello!
SFTDP
Oh yeah, and I’ve been playing for 4 years.
Ignore below post then, sorry. I wrote it when I hadn’t seen this post yet.
I played piano for 5 years, but I haven’t played in a long time. I remember really well how to play, though.
Also, Appalachian Spring? That would be really convenient for me because I actually have it memorized (though I’ve never played it) and own it (two versions, actually).
Violin. 15 years. I’m okay.
The list so far. Question marks indicate that you haven’t told us how many years you have been playing your instrument, so if you see one next to your name, please do so.
speller – You said you haven’t played the trumpet since May, but will you still be playing for this?
Instrument – Name – Years
Violin – Lizzie – 15
Violin – Choklit Orange – 8
Violin – Selenium the Quafflebird – 7
Violin – Ambystoma Maculatum – ?
Violin – Errata – ?
Cello – Sans Orchestre – 13
Cello – Vendaval – 8
Cello – Beetles and Drakon – ?
Flute – Ducky – 3
Flute – Beedle the Bard – ?
Piccolo – Beedle the Bard – ?
Bb Clarinet – fireandhemlock1996 – 3
Bb Clarinet – Zinc the sorceress – ?
Oboe – Tesseract – 1 1/2
Trumpet – Ghost of Pie Girl – 1
Trumpet – speller73 (but hasn’t played since May) – ?
Alto Sax – Thanks For All The Fish42 – ?
Saxophone – Pseudonym – ?
Trombone – Princess_Magnolia – ?
French Horn – Enceladus – ?
Piano – Piggy – 12
Piano – Selenium the Quafflebird – 9
Piano – fireandhemlock1996 – 8
Piano – Bibliophile – 5
Piano – Ghost of Pie Girl – 4
Piano – Pseudonym
Organ – Piggy – 4
Guitar – muselover – ?
Bass/sax/Uke – SudoRandom – ?
Once we’ve chosen a piece, people who play two or more instruments can either choose one of them to go with (depending on requirements of the piece) OR record all the parts you can, if they exist. For example, Beedle can either choose the flute or the piccolo to record with, or if she can she can record both instruments separately. That will let us to have more instruments than people.
So it looks like we’re not going to be able to do Appalachian Spring, since it isn’t available online (see post 25.1). *ducks pies* Unless someone else has another way?
Anyway, we will probably have to choose another piece, one that is older and in the public domain. Suggestions, anyone? Also, if the GAPAs allow it, perhaps you could post the IMSLP link to where you found the piece, so everyone else can download the same one? Would that be all right, GAPAs?
Sorry, long post!
I’ve been playing for… 5 years, I believe.
This may be a little late, but I’ve been playing the saxophone for four or five years. I’m a little rusty, because I don’t take band this year. If I think it’s a problem I’ll tell you.
I play violin, and have for… 7 years, I think.
Well, the only composer who wrote for sax was Debussy. And I don’t know if everyone’s ready for Debussy. So the sax players might get left out.
Would they be able to play another part, though? If someone could transpose it to Eb.
You’re saying that one hundred percent of music for any type of saxophone was written by Debussy? Hrm….
I’m not sure, but what I interpreted was that en said Debussy was the only composer who wrote orchestral works that included the part of the saxophone.
Selenium is correct in what I meant.
Well, except for Mussorgsky (Pictures) and Khachaturian (Saber dance) and Prokofiev (Lt. Kije) and Vaughan Williams (ew) and Ravel (bolero) and I think some Bizet and Rachmaninoff (symphonic dances).
Bolero! Now there’s a thought. It’s not too difficult, and has a lot of instruments.
I don’t know anything about the difficulty of the wind parts, but it does have a huge percussion part and I don’t think we have a drummer.. Also it might be hard to put together.
Well, if the percussion part isn’t too complicated we could get Cat’s Eye or someone to bang…something. I know Cat’s Eye said en wanted to help out even though en doesn’t play instruments.
Any piece we did would be hard to put together! We do need to agree on a common tempo and things like that, though.
I had a random thought.
Beethoven’s Fifth would be truly awesome, although I’m not sure it has a piano part.
It would be awesome. Would everyone be able to play it, though? And we only have 32 instruments, so it would be pretty hard to get the full sound of a symphony orchestra. It’s worth a try, though.
Everybody, do you want to look http ://imslp .org /wiki /Symphony_ No.5,_ Op.67_ (Beethoven,_Ludwig_van) and download your part to see if it would be all right for your level?
Personally I think it would pretty hard for us to play an actual symphony. They’re quite difficult.
True. Just a thought. (We’re playing it in orchestra this year, which fully qualifies as a WIN.)
hah, I’m about to play that in orchestra. Should be fun. Although I’m in the back of the seconds, _again_.
I’m in the front of the seconds. It’s my third year in the orchestra and last year I was a first. Face, meet palm. Although the wonderful thing about Beethoven’s Fifth is that your section hardly matters, since everyone plays a piece of the melody.
Question- are we doing solely orchestral stuff? ‘Cause I think it’d be awesome to broaden our horizons.
I play trumpet, trombone, euphonium, guitar, piano, cello, and a bit of saxophone. I’m active on euphonium, guitar, and piano… Getting me on call for the others would take time and effort, but I might be persuaded if the service is really needed.
-A
Oh- and I’ve been playing trumpet for eight, nine, or ten years… Trombone for one or two, euphonium for three… Guitar for less than one (but I am pretty good if I do say so myself =]), piano is hard to judge because pianos are around everywhere pretty much but let’s just put it at less than a year along with guitar, cello for a year or so, and saxophone is not really judgable. Judgabibble. Judgible.
… JUDICABLE, darn it.
-A
What else would you want to play?
Jazz. Actually, I feel like jazz would be pretty easy to put together, because you make someone do chords, someone do a bass line, a bunch of people play the melody (perhaps adding in a few harmonies), and then just assign solos to people who want to solo.
Does anyone double on viola? Just wondering…
I wish.
As do I.
I do but I don’t have one with me.
I’m planning to start.
Clarinet for three years, but I am a first… (this’ll be hard for me to do, so just put me halfway down, kay?)
What do you mean by halfway down?
Like, I’m not really all there or… something. (don’t say a WORD.)
La Folia! ‘Tis perfect! Ish!
It’s on IMSLP- Arcangelo Corelli. Opus 5, Sonata 12. It’s a really beautiful song, and it has a lot of sections of varying difficulty, so you can record what you can play.
Isn’t it a violin sonata? How would that work, exactly? It only accommodates two instruments, violin and piano, and we do have a whole lot more…
There are transpositions (I’m pretty sure that’s not a word) all over the internet- my idea was that since it accommodates a lot of different levels of playing, you could just submit the parts you could play.
I’ve heard it played on the trombone, which I’ll admit was not the prettiest of noises, but still pretty good.
But it is meaningful to have everyone playing the exact same melody and tune, just on a different instrument? I think it would be more interesting if there were different parts, like in a proper piece written for many instruments. I don’t know, though, there may be a, um, transposition of La Folia in which it is arranged for basic symphony orchestra?
Also, La Folia is not too easy a piece on violin, and what is easy one one instrument is not necessarily so on another.
Just in case anybody wants to know, I compose music. I could write a piece with an awful lot of pianos, violins and cellos…
Judging from the number of people, I think we’d have:
3 first violin parts
2 second violin parts
2 first cello parts
1 second cello part
2 flute parts
1 piccolo part
2 clarinet parts
1 oboe part
2 trumpet parts
2 sax parts
1 trombone part
1 french horn part
3 first piano parts
3 second piano parts
1 organ part (Though I don’t know how to write for organs)
1 guitar part (Though I don’t know what sort of music you read)
1 bass/ukelele part
Wow, that would be great – thanks, Enc!
We actually have 7 violins, 3 saxophones, and 8 pianos. If you want me to post an updated list so you can roughly gauge everyone’s level, I can do that.
I can double English horn if you want me to. Also, don’t forget that you couldn’t write two flute parts and a picc part if both played the whole time–Beedle could only play one at a time, of course.
Yes, but if we’re doing it by recording it’s just a simple matter of Beedle recording twice, once on the flute and once on the piccolo, and then sending them both in (see post 35).
Oh, right! Wow! The internet is cool!
Actually, more people on one part would be helpful. It means I don’t have to wait for two(!) CD’s to ship so I can upgrade to a version of the composing program that I have to support more than just 12 staves.
But once I get that, then I’ll be able to write as much as I want!
As AM can attest, the music I write can be difficult, but now that there’s no composition teacher trying to make my music very modern and complicated. It was mostly, and I personally dislike incredibly complicated rhythyms.
Oooh please do! It would be so… awesome…
Or you could adapt something like Pachelbel’s Canon: simple, infinitely repeatable, playable on many different instruments.
Also, it’s not necessary to have parts for everyone in the score. You can do it in the mix. Software for mixing and editing music can easily plug (say) one piano into one passage and another piano into the next. You could put together a “best parts” version.
I was thinking of that piece myself, incidentally! We could try it.
That’s a good idea. I think it would be nice if we had everyone playing everything, though. Do others agree or disagree?
but Pachelbel’s is overplayed and boring and brings up bad associations with wedding gigs, like the one where they turned our lights off halfway through or the one that was outside and really hot.
Those are disadvantages. For a project like this, though, I think it would help to have something straightforward and metrically regular. Maybe you could look at “Ashokan Farewell” (a nice waltz — bunny-proof!) or O’Carolan’s Concerto. Or, more ambitiously, Handel’s “Arrival of the Queen of Sheba” or the second movement of Beethoven’s seventh symphony.
These are all good suggestions, Robert, thank you. I suggest everyone look at their parts (for any piece suggested on here as well) on imslp to see if it’s manageable.
Ashokan Farewell is one of my favorite piece ever. Let’s do that.
oh god i know but it is one of the like three songs that i can actually remember how to play on piano. every time i do i feel bad and think “damn what happened to all that KNOWLEDGE i had”
(btw robert, another of the three is ashokan farewell)
((the third is bach’s invention #4))
(((also like bits of prelude in c. /i can fudge it enough so it sounds decent)))
Great idea. I vote for Pachelbel’s cannon. Incidentally, what software?
Ooh, how about Rimsky-Korsakov’s Scheherazade??? I love that piece, and I don’t think it’s too difficult?
Also, I’m playing Prokofiev’s Classical Symphony in Orchestra right now, if that adds any value.
Scheherazade is tricky, I think. Especially the violin solo. Also, how exactly are we doing this? Some pieces are harder to coordinate than others and if it’s something that needs any rubato at all it would be hard to do without a conductor or something.
UPDATED LIST:
Instrument – Name – Years
Violin – Lizzie – 15
Violin – Choklit Orange – 8
Violin – Selenium the Quafflebird – 7
Violin – shadowfire – 7
Violin – Ambystoma Maculatum
Violin – Errata
Cello – Sans Orchestre – 13
Cello – Vendaval – 8
Cello – Beetles and Drakon – 4
Flute – Ducky – 3
Flute – Beedle the Bard
Piccolo – Beedle the Bard
Bb Clarinet – fireandhemlock1996 – 3
Bb Clarinet – Zinc the sorceress
Oboe – Tesseract – 1.5
Cor Anglais – Tesseract
Trumpet – gradster – 9
Trumpet – Ghost of Pie Girl – 1
Trombone – gradster – 1.5
Alto Saxophone – Thanks For All The Fish42
Alto Saxophone – Pseudonym 4
? Saxophone – gradster
? Saxophone – SudoRandom
Trombone – Princess_Magnolia
French Horn – Enceladus – 5
Euphonium – gradster – 3
Piano – Piggy – 12
Piano – speller73 – 10
Piano – Selenium the Quafflebird – 9
Piano – Pseudonym – 9
Piano – fireandhemlock1996 – 8
Piano – Bibliophile – 5
Piano – gradster – 1
Piano – Ghost of Pie Girl – 4
Organ – Piggy – 4
Guitar – gradster – 1
Guitar – muselover
Bass (guitar?) – SudoRandom
Uke – SudoRandom
Grand total of 39 instruments.
Four.
Eight years on flute, and I don’t really play picc that often at all because my instrument is horrible. Anything I can do on flute, I can do on picc though.
The best way I can think of to organize something like this would be to find a basic version of the entire piece for solo piano and have one person record it and post a sound file. That would serve as a “scaffolding” for the other musicians, who would download it and record themselves playing along while listening to the piano part in headphones.
At the end, someone would take the music files and blend them into a single “performance” (which might or might not include the original piano part). It might be necessary to record some parts in a certain order and make them available for others to play along with (e.g., first and second violins).
There may already be websites that make this easy to do — I don’t know. But in the absence of such a site, that’s how I would go about it.
That’s an interesting idea, and it might work, but what I was thinking originally was to have everyone playing to a common tempo (without the sound of the metronome on, of course) so that the beats would be consistent. Then, perhaps, there wouldn’t be a need to be playing to a ‘scaffold’? I agree that it might help, but it may be confusing because the piano part might be radically different from, say, the French horn part.
Incidentally, I’m currently at school, where all I have is an electric keyboard, so it may sound kind of bad.
Also, since I saw a complaint about saxophones earlier, anyone up to doing a jazz piece?
Flute, 9 years, I got pretty good. Also piccolo.
And I have a recorder, harmonica, and xun that I don’t really know how to play much on (except the recorder because it’s so simple but it’s bad quality and doesn’t sound great).
Not sure I’d have time but it’d be fun to try.
One humongous orchestra is not going to work. There’s absolutely no way that we can find music that we can all play, difficulty wise and instrumentation wise. I think the best thing to do would be to have multiple projects that we can split up according level and instrument.
Could the GAPAs include the list of instruments in post 0 and continually update it?
I think that would be a lot of work for the GAPAs, because this is supposed to be mainly run and organised by MBers. I have the list, so I’ll keep updating it if needed, or if you want you can just ask and I’ll post it then.
Cello, 8 years. I personally would say I’m pretty good. I just got back from All-State, but I didn’t make it into All-Northwest (because I suck at auditioning. Or I might not be as good as I think I am).
I think Danzon No. 2 might be a fun thing for us. There’s quite a large piano part.
This sounds really fun! I’ve been playing viola for a bit over two years, but I’m not sure if I’m good enough, or if I have anything to record with besides my phone…
Do you have any programmes on your computer that you could use for recording (Audacity, Garageband on a Mac) etc.?
Audacity is free, and you can download it on any computer- it’s a bit hard to use at first but you get the hang of it.
Going on what GAPA Robert said, would any pianists be willing to record a basic version of whatever we eventually decide to play? Although the piece is most likely something we’ll need to figure out first…
SFTDP: I mean, we could record it on another instrument as well, but it might be easier to pick out the notes if it was on piano.
I think we should start with something easier, just to try it out, since it will be our first time attempting something like this. Then, if it works and sounds okay, we can progress to harder and harder things if people want to.
How do you define easy? I don’t really know the levels 1-6- like, how many years playing?
I don’t really know levels 1 – 6 either, but I wasn’t thinking of ‘easy’ as something specific, more along the lines of something that’s not tremendously difficult and that even people who have been playing for 2 years can play, I suppose. I don’t really know.
I found a good piece that is easy enough for everyone to play, I think- Bourree by Handel. The page that I got it from has a recording to listen to while playing, and it has *most* of the parts we need. Some players might have to take parts that were written for other instruments, but I don’t think we’ll have to transpose anything. Note the “think.”
Here’s the link:
http :// www(DOT)8notes(DOT)com/scores/11184.asp?ftype=gif
The midi file won’t play on my computer–is it the site or my computer?
I think it might just be computer, it worked fine on mine. You can find it on YouTube.
Oh, I think that might work! It isn’t too long, so it should be easier to put together. Good job for finding it, Beedle!
Instruments that aren’t there – if it’s feasible, perhaps they could just play along to one of the other parts that wouldn’t require transposing?
Yeah, that’s what I was thinking. I think we have all of the keys that we need.
Oh, I can totally play this.
Cutting and pasting to my part right now.
Hm… Does anyone play the harmonica? I’m just staring out. *knows harmonicas can’t really be used in this situation* Pointless post….
I think everybody should take a look at the music Beedle suggested (personally it’s a good idea) and see if there’s a part that they can play along to – another instrument with the same key, etc.
Violin – covered
Cello – covered
Flute – covered
Clarinet – covered
Oboe – covered
Trumpet – same key and clef as clarinet
Trombone – same key and clef as bassoon, I think
Alto Saxophone – would have to transpose the horn part a half step up, I think
French Horn – covered
Euphonium – same key and clef as bassoon, I think
I’m not sure what to do about the keyboard instruments and the uke.
We have eight pianos, but gradster said he’s only been playing for one year, so we might have to make that seven.
So two pianos could play the Violin 1 and Cello parts, two could play the Violin 2 and Cello parts, and three could play the Violin 3 and Cello parts. You can print it out, cut it up, and stick it on another piece of paper to play off of.
Also, I think rosebud2, since you’re on the viola, you’ll have to transpose to alto clef unless you can read in treble clef? I know some violas that know how to read treble clef (I think you’re supposed to be able to) but since you’ve only been playing two years, I’m not sure if you know or not.
Has my part been transposed? I kind of can’t tell.
Trombone plays in Concert key, I know that.
I’m not sure. Does anyone know if symphony scores have the different parts all transposed to Concert key, or just show them as they are? Try listening to the recording and see if it matches up.
SFTDP Never mind, I found out. Conductor’s scores (such as the one from the link) generally have them written in transposed form, the same as what would be in the instrument part. So I suppose yes, the horn part has already been transposed.
Is it okay if I assign parts now? If you have a problem with the part you’ve been assigned, just tell me and I’ll see what I can do. I’m assigning them based on the piece suggested by Beedle, the Handel Bourree.
1st flute – Jadestone
2nd flute – Beedle the Bard, Ducky
Piccolo – Beedle the Bard (just play the 1st flute part)
Oboe – Tesseract (also on the Cor Anglais, if you want?)
Bb Clarinet – fireandhemlock1996, Zinc the sorceress
Trumpet – gradster (playing the Bb clarinet part) and Pie girl, if it’s up to her level
Euphonium – gradster (you’ll be playing the bassoon part, which should be fine according to Tess)
Trombone – Princess_Magnolia (also playing bassoon part)
Horn – Enceladus
Saxophone – TFATF42, Pseudonym, (gradster if you want) (transpose horn part half a step up – see Tesseract’s guide)
Violin 1 – Lizzie, Choklit Orange
Violin 2 – Selenium the Quafflebird, shadowfire
Violin 3 – Errata, Ambystoma Maculatum
Viola – Rosebud2 (like I say above, you should play a transposed version of the Violin 3 part)
Cello – Sans Orchestre, Vendaval, Cello-Playing Mathmetician, Beetles and Drakon
Piano – Violin 1 + Cello parts – Piggy, Pseudonym, Pie Girl
Piano – Violin 2 + Cello parts – speller73, fireandhemlock1996
Piano – Violin 3 + Cello parts – Selenium the Quafflebird, Bibliophile, (gradster – if you choose to play the piano, I will move either myself or Bibliophile up to the Violin 2 + Cello part. Please let me know.)
I hope everything is clear! If there are any questions or complaints, please ask. If anyone is having problems transposing, ask your teacher if you have one, or ask someone else on the ‘Blog if they know how. Rosebud2, if you don’t know how to transpose to alto clef, Lizzie might know how to transpose from treble to alto since she plays both. Also, Enceladus, would you be able to help out if needed since you take composition?
Saxes will definitely want to check the transposition before playing the horn part. I’ll ask my band director about it today.
Also, English horn plays in F, not C, so I’ll play the French horn part on English horn, if that’s okay?
One more thing: Make sure to tune to a tuner first!
If you could do that that would be great, thanks Tesseract! Post about it here once you’ve found out.
Oh, I hadn’t realised. I’m not very good with band instruments, I’m afraid. Yes, that’s fine, just play a part that works for your instrument.
Tuning, right. Should we tune concert A to 440 or 441 or something else?
Also, I listened the midi file and compared it to a metronome, and it seems to be around the crotchet/quarter note = 120 range. Should we take it slower, perhaps around 110?
The midi still won’t work for me but quarter note=110 sounds good. Let’s tune to A as 440. Also, to transpose from F horn to Eb alto sax, you take the pitch down a whole step.
For people who don’t have a metronome or tuner, you can find both at freemetronomeonline dot com.
SFTDP,
If anyone doesn’t know what note a concert A is on their instrument or doesn’t know how to tune, just ask, but I’m not going to post a lengthy explanation if you all know how to.
Can I assume that my electric keyboard is in tune? (Warning: the tone is terrible. But it’s all I have in my dorm room.)
if the GAPAs will permit the link, violin part 3 in alto clef here: http ://img203[DOT]imageshack[DOT]us/ img203/4854/handely.jpg
I didn’t bother to mark in dynamics, accents, or when it changes from arco to pizz, so rose, if you use this, you might want to do that.
Wow, thanks Lizzie!
Wow, thanks, Liz!
That works for me. By the way, I’ve been playing for about three years.
If you need somebody else on viola, I can probably do that, but it would take a while because I don’t play viola, but we have one sitting around the house because mom used to play, and I’ve been thinking about learning to play that one.
Is it too late to join this?
I’ve been playing cello for 9 years, if you need me.
Of course it’s not too late! I’ll add you to the list. Just read through the thread to get a general sense of what’s going on. The music we’re probably going to play first is here:
http :// www(DOT)8notes(DOT)com/scores/11184.asp?ftype=gif
(suggested by Beedle the Bard). You can print out the music and cut it up so it has only the cello part on one page (it’s only about 8 lines).
I love how this thread has 140+ comments in the space of four days.
Is the piece good for everyone? Transposing people, let us know if you can do it.
Since it doesn’t seem like there are any major issues, everyone can start practicing, I guess. Shall we set a date that everyone should have their part in by?
GAPAs, is it okay if everyone posted a video of just the recording of themselves playing on YouTube and send post the link?
If that poses a problem with contact info, we could either a) all make new accounts with names that are only like, “MBoboeTess” to be used solely for this purpose or b) email the files to the GAPAs, who could forward them all to one person.
I think if it’s not too much trouble for the GAPAs, it would be better if everyone just recorded an mp3 file without the video (easier to put together I think) and send it them, who would forward it to the email of whoever decides to put it together.
We need a theramin ( I believe I spelled it correctly): Instrument that makes UFO noises!
Just one problem for me: I don’t know how to make an mp3 file, and I don’t know how to record. Any advice?
Do you have a PC or a Mac? A Mac should have Garageband, and you can use that to record, then share it (export it) as an MP3. If you have a PC, you can download Audacity to record, and it’s pretty simple. Just press the red button to record and then when you’re finished, export it as an MP3.
you can also download audacity on a mac. I recommend it. Garageband’s always frustrated me.
Okay…
Tell us if it doesn’t work and we might be able to figure something out. Hopefully it’ll work though.
What sort of computer do you have? If you have a PC, you probably have Audacity. Use it. If you have a Mac, you have Garageband. Use it.
ATTENTION EVERYONE WHO HAS STATED THEIR INTEREST IN THIS PROJECT:
I believe we have now chosen a piece to record with. It doesn’t have to be the only one, we can play other pieces later on too if this idea works out.
The piece is Handel’s Bourree in G, suggested by Beedle. You can print the music from this link:
http :// www(DOT)8notes(DOT)com/scores/11184.asp?ftype=gif
and also listen to the midi file if it works for you.
When should the deadline for the recording to be sent it by? Does two weeks sound reasonable? The piece isn’t too hard, I should think.
About the pieces- could we send them in to gapa @ gmail . com, and then the GAPAs could forward it to me and I could compile them? I hope that’s not too much trouble for the GAPAs, given the enormous volume of interested orchestra members. If not… well, we’ll figure something out.
Perhaps you (Choklit Orange) could set up another email account to be used just for this, that we could send it to? GAPAs, would this still be against the rules? Otherwise it looks like we’ll have to do it through you, if that’s not too much trouble…
Sorry, forgot to thank you for the idea. You’re brilliant. It has been done.
Wait, you mean the idea of you setting up another email account just for this? Why, thank you. I still don’t know what the GAPAs think of this way, though, and if it breaks any rules. GAPAs?
Yes, email contact is against the rules. We’re looking into the possible alternatives.
All right. Right now I think the only other way would be forwarding through the GAPAs, which would mean more work for you, so any possible alternatives might be a good idea.
Also: what speed? And does anyone know of an online metronome device? I left my metronome/tuner in California.
Quarter note/crotchet = 110
Concert A = 440 Hz
Just Google ‘online metronome’ or ‘online tuner’ and you’ll find plenty. (:
freemetronomeonline dot com
Something I forgot to say which might be important – when you’re recording, you need to have the metronome on so everyone plays the the same beat. However, you should use headphones or earphones plugged into a computer (use an online metronome) so that you can’t hear the metronome on the recording, because that would be bad.
If I plug in earphones, my computer won’t record from its normal microphone… sigh. There should be some sort of visual microphone among my many music programs, but no. I mentioned this to my father and he said, “There’s an app for that! Wait, no. There’s not.”
Well, maybe you could have the metronome on but with no sound, so you could look at it out of the corner of your eye while playing? Or memorise the piece so you could play the whole thing looking at the metronome. It’s only 8 lines or so, and you could look for the rests (if you have any).
Oh, I know the piece- but if I don’t look at my violin my bow slides, or I miss a note or something. I’ll think of something.
GAPAs, I hope this isn’t going too far, but it might save you a lot of trouble- I have created an email to send your recordings to, and I can then compile them. The email is:
museblogmusic @ yahoo . com.
I promise not to use your emails when you send the recordings to me, or you can send them from a fake account, whichever.
So if we can’t use email contact, shall I assume that we should send the recordings to the GAPAs, who will forward it to me, or something, ish?
Can we have the deadline a bit later? I still need to download Audacity, and it will take me a while to figure out how to use it.
How much time do you think you’ll need? A month? Would that be too short/long?
Actually, I’m not sure I’d need a later deadline. I’m doing a prelimenary recording right now.
SFTDP
Also: My microphone is really, really, really bad. My tone sounds terrible on it, much worse than real life.
QUESTION FOR EVERYONE:
How long should we wait before we start playing? 3 beats? 1 measure and 3 beats?
SFTDP
I don’t think it matters. If I’m the one putting it together in Garage Band, it *should* be easy to do, whichever way.
I think Choklit Orange wanted to put it together, but again, it doesn’t really matter how much space you have before you start playing.
I want to clarify on the alto sax transposition. By a whole step down you mean like a C to B (just making sure)? If that’s so, then I can’t play all of the notes; some are too low for an alto sax. This site: http : // www. hpsymphony. org / transpose / has a transposition from an F Horn to Sax that shows it as one step up. I’ve been looking for an hour now and I can’t seem to find a definitive answer, but it seems to me that simply wording it differently in a question about transposition changes the answer. Sorry for confusion, but if it goes down I can’t play this piece.
I’m actually not sure; I’ll ask my friend who is very into music theory tomorrow.
Is there any way to get the parts for individual instruments?
I don’t think so. But you could always write it down.
You can print the pages, then cut them up and tape the lines from your part onto another piece of paper, or use screen capture to paste your lines onto a Word document and print that. Writing each note down seems a bit unnecessary.
Okay, crazy idea #14 that came to me after drinking two cups of coffee: what if I create an email address and give everyone the password and username, and then we can all save a blank email draft with our Mp3 attached?
It’s probably easier just to send it to me via the GAPAs, but I enjoy elaborately convoluted ideas.
Patience, please. We’re working on possibilities.
Soundcloud?
How does that work?
What’s a soundcloud?
It’s probably simplest to keep this in-house. I can create a special folder (say, musefanpage.com/MusicProject) from which everybody can download the files. The only question is whether our e-mail can handle files that big (music files are huge). It may be necessary to send them by FTP. That shouldn’t be too hard, but we haven’t done it here before, so I need to find out how it works. There will be time before your recordings are ready, I’m sure.
Guys, we have a problem. That piece left everything untransposed (hence why it shows clarinet playing in the same key signature as oboe).
So, here’s what we have to do. Clarinet, take everything up a whole step and add one sharp to the key signature. Saxes, to read the horn part as a sax part, take it up a sixth and add four sharps. (On a normal, transposed horn part, saxes would take it up a whole step and add four sharps.)
Everyone say thank you to my friend!
No wait, correction. Clarinets add two sharps to the key signature, not one. Thanks for the false information, Adam-who-is-creeping-on-this-page-right-now.
Sorry for the triple post, ahh! To make the horn part playable on horn, keep the key signature the same and raise everything by a fifth.
Well, that complicates things. Shall we say FEBRUARY 28TH? I think we should allow for around a month, so everyone can transpose, practise, record and whatnot.
Also, could people post on here or something so that we can be sure you guys know the various changes in plan, just to confirm that you are actually looking at this thread and know what’s going on? Just a short post to let us know that you agree with what several of us have been planning or something.
And GAPAs, would a month be enough time to figure out how we’re going to send in our recordings?
I swear I’m not completely musically illiterate, but what is a sixth? So sorry. >.<
An interval of six steps.
Nine half-steps, more specifically.
Or nine half steps.
Jinx!
Do I owe you a soda now?
I believe that’s how jinxes are commonly handled, yes.
Quick question also:
What tempo are we taking this at?
Quarter note/crotchet = 110
Concert A = 440 Hz
“Crotchet”?
Yes, or quarter note for you Americans. There’s also quaver for eighth note, minim for half note, semibreve for whole note, etc. We have much more interesting names than you fractional (?) people.
Those are actually words in American English, too, just not at all widely used ones. I just learned them, coincidentally, along with semiquaver, demisemiquaver, hemidemisemiquaver, etc… A breve would be a double whole note, then, right (There must be a breve if there’s a semibreve…)? It wasn’t mentioned in the book I was reading. I want to know because I decided those were the words I’m now going to use.
Yes, a breve would be a double whole note. It’s just not very common.
Before I stopped taking lessons I had an Australian violin teacher, and I never understood a word he was saying.
May I just say I love playing Handel pieces, so yay. It’ll be nice ot have something to practice again.
I agree with February 28th, or at least sometime in February. I am nowhere near being able to record, particularly as I have finals this week.
Okay, checking in. I printed the alto clef transposition and marked in all of the stuff it didn’t have. (Are you playing viola, Errata, or not? Because if you are then I can send in a scan of my copy so you don’t have to mark everything too…) My part is definitely not too challenging or anything of that sort. Oh, and I was wondering, do I have to include the couple measures of rest at the end of my part or not?
That’s great! I wouldn’t think that you have to add rests at the end or beginning, but it might help Choklit Orange compile if it’s not suddenly cut off at the end, or beginning.
It doesn’t really matter too much, as long as you’re on the same tempo.
No, that was just because I had created too many measures and was too lazy to delete them.
So, where do we stand with this?
1. What are we playing?
2. What are the piece’s specifications?
3. When is the deadline?
4. Who’s playing what?
(I did skim the comments just now and determined that I think the answers to those questions are as follows, but I want to check, just in case:
1. Bourree in G, Handel arr Wildridge. (htt p://ww w.8notes.co m/scores/11184.asp?ftype=gif)
2. Crotchet = 110, A440
3. Possibly February twenty-eighth?
4. That gigantic list someone posted a while back – it would be convenient to see it posted again with a more recent date, just so we all know what’s expected of us.)
-A
Oh, and by the way- if anyone has Sibelius, we can feed the piece in and transpose it or anything we want to do with it, really.
Also, has anyone heard of Bandcamp?
-A
(I’m quoting this from a long time ago because I never did reply to the query, originally.)
ht tp://grab.b y/8W2E
Oh, please. PLEASE. YES, DEAR GODS, PLEASE. I would SO love to do jazz you have NO IDEA.
-A
ATTENTION EVERYONE WHO HAS EXPRESSED INTERESTED IN THIS PROJECT:
In case you didn’t see before, the deadline was set for February 28th (next Monday), but I’m not sure if the GAPAs have figured out a way to get everyone’s recordings sent in yet. GAPAs?
Just to summarise all the information (and also in reply to gradster):
Bourree in G, Handel arr Wildridge. (htt p://ww w.8notes.co m/scores/11184.asp?ftype=gif)
Crotchet/quarter note = 110 – when you are recording, have the metronome on visually so you can see the beats, but turn the sound off so it can’t be heard, since that wouldn’t make it sound as nice. You can google ‘online metronome’ and look among the many that are out there for one that has both the audio and visual metronome.
A = 440 Hz
1st flute – Jadestone
2nd flute – Beedle the Bard, Ducky
Piccolo – Beedle the Bard (just play the 1st flute part)
Oboe – Tesseract (also on the Cor Anglais, if you want?)
Bb Clarinet – fireandhemlock1996, Zinc the sorceress
Trumpet – gradster (playing the Bb clarinet part) and Pie girl, if it’s up to her level
Euphonium – gradster (you’ll be playing the bassoon part, which should be fine according to Tess)
Trombone – Princess_Magnolia (also playing bassoon part)
Horn – Enceladus
Saxophone – TFATF42, Pseudonym, (gradster if you want) (transpose horn part half a step up – see Tesseract’s guide)
Violin 1 – Lizzie, Choklit Orange
Violin 2 – Selenium the Quafflebird, shadowfire
Violin 3 – Errata, Ambystoma Maculatum
Viola – Rosebud2 (like I say above, you should play a transposed version of the Violin 3 part)
Cello – Sans Orchestre, Vendaval, Cello-Playing Mathmetician, Beetles and Drakon
Piano – Violin 1 + Cello parts – Piggy, Pseudonym, Pie Girl
Piano – Violin 2 + Cello parts – speller73, fireandhemlock1996
Piano – Violin 3 + Cello parts – Selenium the Quafflebird, Bibliophile, (gradster – if you choose to play the piano, I will move either myself or Bibliophile up to the Violin 2 + Cello part.)
Please reply if you think you are able to do the recording, so we can see how many people are still able to do it, or if we need to extend the deadline. I understand that people may be busy, and I know it’s been a while since people last posted much on this thread, but I just wanted to make sure that it hasn’t disappeared from the minds of everyone who was interested. (:
Due tomorrow! I look forward to hearing it!
I’m sorry, but I’ve been really busy and won’t be able to do the recording, at least not in time. *curses self for making premature commitments*
I can’t do it. Our computer can’t record sound.
Sorry, I won’t be able to.
Oh god… I have been so busy. Sorry…
I think I’ll probably be able to do it, assuming my microphone works, but extending the deadline may be a good idea.
I won’t be able to do it, either. I’m sorry, but I’ve been really, really busy lately.
I think it would be best if we did extend the deadline, yes, until more people have time and the GAPAs come up with a solution for putting this together.
Why don’t people post a short comment here once they’ve actually finished the recording, so that we can see what progress is being made and also how many people have done their recordings so far?
So, this petered out. But. “I Am the Doctor.” You guys think? (Search it up on YouTube if you haven’t heard it; it’s really good.)
Just as a preliminary not-committing-to-anything question, who might be interested, and what instrument would you prefer to play?
I would be interested, and I would play trombone or tenor sax, depending on what was needed for the instrumentation to sound right.
I might be. I’m on violin, and if there’s a voice part I could contribute as well.
(On a related note, there’s an orginazation (Doctor Who Fan Orchestra, maybe?) that’s devoted to doing basically this. It think they’ve done two or three songs from Doctor Who, but I don’t remember exactly which ones.)
Definitely definitely interested! Clarinet and/or piano, as needed.
So! I actually found an online score with several parts that we could juggle! GAPAs, could I post a delinkified link?
w w w. musicianspage. com/ musicians/ 8565/ sheetmusic/ 1450/ PDF
If not, I could place and link to the PDF, maybe.
It’s not by any means complete, but it’s a start!
I could probably transpose any of the violin parts to clarinet, easily.
I could read the cello parts on trombone.
I’d be delighted to layer it all and arrange it in Live.
I’d play something, but all I can play is guitar, saw and horribly bad piano, so there’s that.
Oh hey, speaking of this… Could we ever do the Witnesses Waltz performance we discussed on July 4th?