Song Sheets to Software: A Guide to Print Music, Software, and Web Sites for Musicians - Softcover

Axford, Elizabeth C.

9780810850279: Song Sheets to Software: A Guide to Print Music, Software, and Web Sites for Musicians

Softcover

ISBN 10: 0810850273 ISBN 13: 9780810850279

Publisher: Scarecrow Press, 2004

This second edition of Song Sheets to Software includes completely revised and updated listings of music software, instructional media, and music-related internet web sites of use to all musicians, whether hobbyist or professional. This book is a particularly valuable resource for the private studio and classroom music teacher.

Organized into five chapters, the book includes a history of printed music, information on publishing and copyright laws, software and other instructional media, Web sites for musicians, and an extensive glossary of technical terms. Newly included is information on instructional DVDs as well as book and audio CD sets produced for music instruction for everything from children's music to high-end professional recording. New sections have also been added to the software chapter, including programs available for drums and other percussion instruments. Also new to the software chapter are programs for folk and traditional instruments.

The updates and revisions together make this the most complete and exhaustive resource of this kind available.

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From the Author:

The entire Web site section of "Song Sheets to Software" is completely indexed in the front pages of the book in the Contents (including 48 sub-headings for the Web site section alone), and throughout the text itself, with centered headings separating the alphabetical listing of sections. A "back" index is not included as it would have been redundant to do so, according to my editors at Scarecrow Press. The reason for this is that the contents of the book itself are essentially an index. While many books listing URLs offer no annotations, this book offers brief summaries to help guide the reader, assuming they will visit those sites which interest them, and explore further once online. Again, the information presented is well-organized and alphabetized, without unnecessary repetition or explanation. This book is about learning and teaching music through new and stimulating means—computers and the Internet. It is intended for anyone who wants to know more about music. We can go to countless Web sites and use any number of music software programs to learn what this music stuff is all about. So, here they are . . . go for it!

From the Inside Flap:

The idea for this book came to me when I was working with the Opcode Vision sequencing program on my recording project Merry Christmas Happy Hanukkah—A Multilingual Songbook and CD.

As my producer and I were editing the keyboard/MIDI performances using the music notation-editing feature, I realized this program was picking up every little nuance of my playing. Every slight off-the-beat was notated as a sixteenth or thirty-second note. So, we quantized. I thought to myself, how could a person who does not read music use this editing feature? I suppose they just don’t—they rely on their ear or the other editing features such as the piano roll. This is fine, I thought. Our ears are always the final musical judges anyhow.

Still this bothered me. I know many successful musicians and songwriters who would not know their own music if the score were set in front of them. They cannot read it. And how ironic—a software sequencing program with an editing feature that requires the ability to read music, used by musicians, many of whom do not read music! Perhaps I could help fix this situation, I thought.

Remembering not too far back, I was asked by someone who knew I read music if I ever "played by ear." I stopped and thought for a minute—what does she mean? When I am playing the piano, I suppose. Or does she mean, "Can I pick out a tune, add chords to it and improvise?"

My answer was "yes" to either question, whichever she had intended. But it felt like I was being tested, like I was being asked with a certain amount of suspicion, i.e., "you can read music, you must not play by ear." Which I interpreted to imply other inadequacies, of course.

My firm belief is that one ability, either reading music or playing by ear, does not have to exclude the other. Both are important skills for all musicians. And why should we deny ourselves any form of skill or knowledge—or discount that which we have?

In any case, this experience made me evaluate my own musical background, comparing it to those of other musicians I have known. I was fortunate to have piano lessons growing up, study music in college, and acquire a master’s degree in music. One thing I know for certain is, in the United States, there is no singular, standard "music background."

Many of us took algebra and geometry in high school, U.S. history, world history, and all those college prep courses. Yet, we all come from such different experiences in our musical training. Can we pretty much vouch that we "don’t know much about geography" only substitute the word "music" as Sam Cooke so aptly put it in his song Wonderful World?

And what in the world do we all know about music? Did we all take music courses x, y, and z in high school or college because they were required? No. Did we all take private lessons on an instrument? No. Did we all play in a marching band? No. Are there music flash cards or workbooks for sale in the children’s toy section of the drugstore? No. So, where’s the common ground? Simple . . . there isn’t any.

Music has not been a priority in our American educational system. Budgets, academic priorities, all these "grown up" reasons have successfully helped us to fail to learn music in any standardized fashion.

So how do we learn it? Where do we go? Simple . . . we scavenge. We find coaches, private teachers, extension courses, junior college classes, songwriting workshops, books, computer software programs, the Internet, anything we can to learn music!

Because nobody made learning music a priority for us, we have had to make it a priority for ourselves. And then we wonder why some people bang guitars, make loud, unappealing noises, and call it "music"! Well, they are all "stray musical cats" in my opinion that never had a proper "musical home."

So what do we do? I know what I did. I spent countless hours gathering (scavenging) the information on these pages. It all looks so neat and pretty in its final form, like it was so easy. It was not, by any stretch.

I relentlessly sifted through piles of catalogs, magazines, brochures, whatever I could get my hands on, including pamphlets left on women’s restroom sink countertops at trade conventions in Los Angeles. I spent hundreds (maybe thousands) of hours online combing (scavenging) the Internet for worthwhile Web sites.

This book is about learning and teaching music through new and stimulating (and hopefully accessible) means—computers and the Internet. It is intended for anyone who wants to know more about music. We can go to countless Web sites and use any number of music software programs to learn what this music stuff is all about. So, here they are . . . go for it!

And I truly hope this book helps you stray musical cats find a home.

P.S. I would like to extend a special "thank you" to all the people who helped me with this book and who offered their support and encouragement along the way. Thanks for your contributions to the "self-esteem fund." At the risk of leaving out someone’s name, I’ll just say, "You know who you are!"

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