I have been thinking about music theory after working with some amazing instrumentalists, whose knowledge on the basics was very low. Of course, as a composer and copyist, I have music theory constantly shooting around my head, but it got me wondering, is it actually needed by a good musician?
Of course there are amazing professional musicians out there who can not read a note of music. There is also a whole new generation of producers and composers – who have been traditionally the theory superstars – who do not need knowledge of the finer elements of music to put notes on paper. I’m not saying theory needs to be a foundation – unbounded creativity and following the ear in creating music should be paramount.
We learn to speak by ear as a child, then we go to school and we learn how to read and write. Then in later years we develop these skills further and it only increases our level of understanding and ability to communicate. The same goes for music, and with this in mind, the thought some have that knowledge of theory can restrict musical creativity is crazy.
Is being an absolute wizard of music theory going to make you a better musician? Put it this way, there are amazing musicians who severely lack good knowledge in music theory, but can get by just playing note after note. Little do they know what they’re missing! Similarly in creating a masterwork of your own at the piano, you can make something sound good but once you know what is happening musically, it suddenly comes alive and makes sense. To communicate effectively in music, whether it be via performing or writing, you need to have a good vocabulary in music. It is like English or any other language – speaking it is one thing, but once you are literate, it opens a whole new world of possibilities, allows you to actually understand what is happening, and allows you to express your musical ideas, and this, in turn, will dramatically accelerate your musical development.
So, instead of letting your students slip by, or being held back yourself, get up to play with music theory. You’ll be far better off for it. If you want to learn from me, here are the details.
I have had quite a few enquiries as to where to buy or hire some of my pieces lately, so here is a reminder. First stop is SOUNZ. Here is a list of titles they currently have:
Recently I signed up to SoundCloud, interested to see exactly what it was all about. I really, really like it.
It describes itself as the following:
SoundCloud lets you move music fast & easy. The platform takes the daily hassle out of receiving, sending & distributing music for artists, record labels & other music professionals.
I am still only new, but have been uploading some tracks and am using it to power my music player, and soon will use its’ smallest widget to place short samples in my catalogue. It’s also easy to embed single samples in emails, pages and blog posts, like here:
The receiving and sending of music is a service I have yet to require but with a beautiful drop box which you can embed on your own site, I can see this will be an easy process, just like using every other service.
There are various plans including of course a free account, and they are limited by duration, not by file size. Hallelujah! So you don’t have to think twice about uploading your beautiful high quality recording.
What I really like is that it is set up for music professionals and there really is no attraction for others. It has great social features so there is the ability to upload a track, mark it as a work in progress, share it only between your friends and get feedback. When commenting on a track, you can select at any duration and comment there. For example, at 1:39 you may wish to say “Ryan, what’s the chord here? It’s crazy!”.
There is a nice mix of genres, everything from DJ’s to real music – classical, film and contemporary. Also an increasing amount of New Zealander’s on there which is good to see.
Musician? Got your iPhone, iPod Touch or iPad? Well, what are you going to put on it? As a musician, sharing my time between rehearsals, conducting, composing and teaching, I have fine tuned a collection of amazing apps for my iPhone that I find are absolutely essential and I hope will help you save you a lot of money and give you some great tools. Just a note, I’ve used all of these on an iPhone but they are all available (if not now, will be very soon) on the iPad.
Field Recorder – This is an outstanding digital recorder for the iPhone. One review of it says “Audiofile Engineering’s FiRe application is by far the most advanced stereo audio recording application we’ve seen for the iPhone and iPod Touch, going far beyond the limitations of previous go-to apps…”. It is a professional quality recorder and the list of features is huge so check out the link. It has a beautiful interface, the quality of recording is amazing, you can edit in the app and can export as WAVE, AIFF, CAF, AAC, Apple Lossless, AAC, Podcast, Ogg Vorbis and FLAC. So handy for capturing a rehearsal or auditions, taking field recordings and pretty much endless possibilities.
Dr. Betotte TC – There are many metronomes but few powered up for the music professional. Dr. Betotte TC has all the normal features of a normal metronome such as playing any time signature, beat divisions, the ability to save your tempos and settings to a playlist, tap in a tempo – but it has got so much more. For a start all of the rhythmic divisions have their own volume sliders, one click halftime feel, options for swing tempo, you can import your own audio samples and the playlist can auto advance. Some nice other features (which are so easy to access) include an alarm timer that syncs with the metronome and customisable gradual up/down, step up/down and quiet count buttons. These step up/down buttons are so handy for students learning a passage, as it gradually gets faster over time (or however you set it up). What I do like about this metronome is its visual capabilities – it’s often really unhelpful just having a “beep, beep” metronome. For learning scores or for reference in rehearsals it is so handy to just have a ticking needle, or a huge “1, 2, 3, 4, …” being counted on screen. This is by far my metronome of choice.
Stay In Tune – There are a lot of tuners available, a lot of good ones and generally they all have the same features. It’s how they deliver the features which makes the difference. Stay In Tune is my favourite – it has a wonderful, clear interface, you can also easily produce tones, calibrate and select specific tunings for different instruments. It is also one of the most accurate and gorgeous I’ve found.
Backline Calc – It’s a musical calculator and perhaps the last app you would think about looking for, but once you have it you’ll realise how handy it is. There are six categories and some examples include: Length (sum times, compare tempos, song length, beats to tempo, time to samples), Pitch (MIDI note, frequency and wavelength conversion), Timecode (frames to timecode, convert timecode), Electric (power, voltages), Acoustics (distance to time, sound pressure level, panning) and Files (file size). These are only a few examples – a very handy little app.
Chordmaster by Planet Waves – The most advanced and intelligent guitar chord reference. You can make chords easily with sliders, you can strum them and the overall interface is beautiful. It’s also nice to see a popular and well known music accessory company delving into apps.
SoundHound – We all hear a song on TV and want to know what it is and there are several apps who help you out with this, the most popular being Shazam – but these don’t go much past the novelty factor of holding the device to a speaker and finding out the song. I like SoundHound as it provides a few more features such as effectively picking up you singing personally, or you can just type the title, album, artist or lyric. Also, in the results, it provides iTunes links, all the lyrics, YouTube videos and the ability to easily share.
Karajan® – Music & Ear Trainer – Karajan is by far the finest ear trainer. It is powerful and very customisable in each of the categories – intervals, chords, scales, pitch and tempo (bpm). It has detailed statistics so is great for students using in lessons or for your own interest. Personally, I use the tempo recognition all the time (great for conducting) and the pitch recognition is handy too. The pro version is entirely worth the money. (iPad screenshot below)
Oxford Dictionary of Music – Yes, your dream has come true. The entire Oxford Dictionary of Music is available on the iPhone, iPod Touch and iPad. It has a wonderful interface, easy search and is regarded as the most up-to-date music dictionary out there. Also good to note that no internet connection is required to use the app. These guys only do dictionary apps so they know what they’re doing. This is a must.
Circle Theory – Based around the Circle Of Fifths, this is a handy reference tool. I use it mainly with students using the more straight forward functions like seeing the relationships between notes, key relationships, key signatures, intervals and triads. But I’ve also used it myself for transposing between keys, checking notes of transposed instruments and as a reference for modes. A great little app.
Virtuoso Piano – Well we have to touch on some instrument apps. I’m sure the first app any musician gets is a piano but many are very basic. My favourite is Virtuoso Piano Pro as you can have multiple keyboards, easily flick between octaves, calibration and record/play features. Another really great app.
Guitar: Play and Share – Without question this is the finest acoustic guitar app. I’ve been playing around with it a lot lately and it is wonderful. Very clever, very easy to use and the sound quality is fantastic. Loads of features and ways to customise, different guitars – who needs a real one?
I won’t mention any more instruments as there are so many good ones (and far more that are rubbish). But if you’re interested in these, the video below is a great watch. It is from the Rend Collective Experiment featuring David Crowder and they produce the whole song from iPhone instruments. Awesome.
ProRemote – This is the only app I don’t own due to the whopping price tag (NZ$124.99, US$99.99), but it gets my attention and admiration. It is a remote control for ProTools, Ableton Live, Apple Logic or Soundtrack Pro. They say it “is like having four Mackie Control Universal Pro’s but better because it is wireless and much less expensive. You get almost $5000 of hardware for the price of ProRemote.” Very impressive. (iPad screenshot below)
Well it is an amazing series of products that I hope you will all enjoy checking out and using. I have found them all to be essential with my day to day work, saving so much time and hassle. Please let me know any other feedback, any great apps I have missed or your comments.
I remember seeing digital music stands for the first time a few years ago in a series of concerts in the UK where some DJs collaborated with composers and live musicians. I can’t find the link to it now, but basically composers were writing music alongside the DJs and the musicians were playing it in realtime from their digital stands. I remember thinking how great it was, and even now, that weighs up as some pretty adventurous activity!
Yesterday I posted a tweet mentioning my enjoyment at seeing Harry Connick, Jr. and his band using digital music stands on American Idol. This ignited a great response of knowledgeable and intrigued comments. They are not yet being used professionally in this part of the world, and I can’t say I’ve seen one in person, so I thought I’d explore them a little – here are my findings.
There seem to be three companies whose products are being used widely. The first is Music Pad, who it seems are the most popular and are the only (as far as I can see) company who have the whole product (a dedicated 12.1″ tablet), not just the software. The Music Pad Pro is their main product – looks fantastic and packed with features.
If you are thinking, “Yeah okay, fair enough, great for a brass player reading a chart, but how about a conductor reading an orchestral score?” Well, you need the Music Pad Maestro.
Ah yes, the possibilities of usage are wonderful to dream about. Let’s come back down to reality – for a Music Pad Pro plus carry bag, foot pedal and a few various cables, you could expect to pay around US$800.
A far more cost-effective option is just to purchase the software and you can run it on your own device. What looks to be the supreme product is the Music Reader, which sits at around US$99 for the full professional version. It is Mac and PC compatible and perfect for flat widescreen monitors, tablet and other touch screen PCs and, as of recently, the Music Reader is available on the Apple iPad – where it is a free download.
Another option is the eStand, although very sadly it only runs on PCs. Still not cheap – for the full professional multi-page package, you can expect to pay US$499.
So I am guessing you have many questions about how certain things work – let’s try and answer some.
Turning pages – three options: touch the screen, use the foot pedal or use a MIDI trigger.
File format – sibelius, finale, PDF and image file formats.
Annotations – you can still annotate on the score as you would with a pencil on traditional paper.
Portability – well, beats potentially carrying around hundreds of pages of music.
Stand lighting – you won’t be needing that anymore.
Syncing – you can sync devices on stage so everyone is on the right track.
Viewing – several options of single to multiple page views and you can “look ahead” with a half page turn.
Page order – you’ll never get them out of order again.
Printing – you can print from the programme … but why would you want to?
Extras? – Yes, there is of course a metronome and tuner.
If you’re thinking “is a tuner and metronome the only extra features you can give this?”, well that’s just what I was thinking. But, the Same Page Music Performance Station has both the sheet music as well as metronome and tuner features … AND a personal monitor mixer. Yes, you can take charge and adjust your own monitor levels.
See a great video of the Same Page system below:
I look forward to seeing the developments with these products. As a copyist, it’s exciting to see the ability to make the score or parts and have it in front of the players in seconds. Even in more relaxed environments such as teaching, its potential is exciting. Maybe this is my excuse to buy an iPad?
Let me know your thoughts, experiences if you’ve had them or links to any videos with these in action.
There are a few things that, honestly, if I didn’t have to help me out day-to-day, I would completely fall apart. Sounds drastic, but the amount of things to be done, managed, scheduled and announced each day is crazy.
Things
Things is mind-blowingly clever – it’s my to do list and task management. It’s made for the mac so runs seamlessly and of course looks beautiful. You have all of your tasks and projects lined up in the Next list, then each day you can manually filter them through into the Today list, or if you have set a due date or recurring task, it will automatically appear. All tasks are categorised into projects or areas of your business. You can even tag each task to have even more control.
The scheduling of tasks is great. Say you submit a weekly timesheet, have it pop up in your to do list on the day so you don’t forget. Do a thorough computer backup once a month? Be reminded. You can select that it reminds you on the day it’s due or however many days beforehand. Got your tax return due? Have it remind you two weeks prior so it’s done well before due date.
There is also an Inbox, which I love. It’s where you throw all your ideas in so you don’t forget any, then later you can filter them into where they should be. For example, at the end of a rehearsal I have so many things in my head – music to be copied, extra players needed, absentees and so on. I fire all these into my Inbox, then later that day I will tag these with “conductor”, put a due date if necessary and file it away.
How do I efficiently list all these things I need to remember at the rehearsal? Well, Things has an iPhone version. By the time I get home from the rehearsal, all these tasks are sitting on my desktop waiting for action. Likewise, if I’m at home I can list all the jobs I need to do out, and while I’m out, I’ll be checking all the tasks off and of course when I arrive home again it’s all checked off there too.
When you complete a task it doesn’t just disappear either – it goes in to your logbook, so if you ever need to check back for anything, it is there waiting.
These guys have won many Apple and product design awards, it’s brilliant. It is rather expensive if you want both versions, Things Mac is NZ$79 and Things iPhone is NZ$13.99 – but worth every cent.
iCal and iCal Duration
Okay, yes yes, iCal is a nice calendar and every Mac has it. But there are a few nice ways to use it and to “pimp it out” for some serious usage.
I work for myself and I like to keep track of all the time I spend on what. Not just each project, but what areas of my work eg: how many hours of conducting I did last month, or how many hours of composing I have scheduled next week. Of course you could do this manually and count up all the hours, but having the ability at a few clicks is very handy.
To ensure it is set up right, I make sure the title of each event is the same eg: “Kristin orchestra rehearsal” or the title of the piece I am writing – each time it is entered. Then in the “notes” field of each task I enter what area of work it is eg: “teacher”, “composer”.
Then you use the Search feature and put in “composer” or “Kristin orchestra rehearsal”, or whatever, and you are given all of those entries. This is where a neat little tool comes in.
iCal Duration is a great piece of Apple Script that is so simple. Once you have done the previous step, select all of the entries you wish to and click the iCal Duration button. In seconds you will have the total hours and minutes of your selection.
This is so handy, and say I was orchestrating a job, I’ll just work, work, work and keep good track of the time in iCal, then when it comes to invoicing I just put the job name in to Search and there is the total. Brilliant. Of course, iCal syncs seamlessly to iPhone also.
TweekDeck
There is so much to keep on top of these days and it really can be time consuming, far too time consuming, but there are some great tools which allow you to do a lot in very little time and effort.
For Twitter, I was a diehard addict of Tweetie, and I still think they have the most gorgeous iPhone app, but recently I just needed a few more features. I debated between HootSuite and TweetDeck for some time and settled on the latter. HootSuite does have scheduled tweets and inbuilt stats, but has an appalling iPhone app which straight away puts them at the bottom of my pile.
TweetDeck lets you manage twitter, facebook, myspace and linkedin in the one place. You can send updates to all, some or just one place. You can do everything you’d ever need to do on Twitter, your friend feed comes through from facebook and you can “like” or comment, and for myspace and linkedin you have the status updates. You can have columns for almost anything from latest friends so you don’t forget any of those follow backs, to keyword searches to keep on top on trends and the area(s) you are working in.
TweetDeck can’t feed your blog RSS into tweets or doesn’t have the inbuilt stats like HootSuite, but for me who has used twitterfeed (feeds blog to tweets) and bit.ly (shortening and stats) for quite some time, I was quite happy to be able to keep using these services.
TweetDeck also syncs between your iPhone version and desktop version, so all your columns and settings are always up to date. TweetDeck saves me hours of time each day as in a few seconds I can do what I need to do without the hassle.
What are your indispensables?
What are the sites and software that help make your life easier every day? Let me know.
Posts on my music and work in the music industry. Also on Apple, Sibelius, online music marketing and music technology. I look forward to your comments and feedback.
