March, 2015 University of Kentucky Music Education: Winds, Percussion, and Jazz General Resources Page 2 Flutes, Oboes, and Bassoons Pages 3-4 Trumpets, Horns, and Percussion Pages 5-7 A Note from Dr. Wright This month s WPJ newsletter focuses on educational technology for the developing musician. We ve asked our faculty to include some of their favorite apps, websites, and programs that make practice more effective, efficient, informed, and even more fun. If you read through some of our suggestions, and you discover we have not included one of your favorite electronic resources, please drop me a line, and will be thrilled to add your suggestion to our list. With the current explosion of online resources available to the music student and music educator, this will certainly be just the start of a list that we will update with frequency over the upcoming years. We d like to hear from you! If you have suggestions for future topics, please contact Scott Wright at any of the numbers or addresses listed below; we look forward to hearing from you! Scott Wright, D.M.A. Professor of Clarinet Chair: Winds, Percussion, and Jazz scott.wright@uky.edu 859.321.8278 As always, we appreciate your input, and we look forward to hearing from you about topics of interest that we might include in future newsletters. Now, Think SPRING!
General Resources metronomeonline.com - An online metronome. Basic, and very easy to use. alexandertechnique.com Website for Alexander Technique, which is a system that helps musicians (and people from all walks of life) be more relaxed, have less stress, and perform to their highest potential. This website is particularly important for musicians who struggle with physical pain and performance anxiety. http://themusicinteractive.com - creative games for musical instruction and learning; also has an app www.musictheory.net - includes many different options for lessons, exercises, and tools when practicing music theory https://sightreadingfactory.com/ - generates customized sight-reading for all instruments based on parameters you choose (time signature, key signature, range, difficulty, etc) http://www.good-ear.com/ - practice hearing intervals, chords, scales, cadences http://www.ossmann.com/bigears/ - drills intervals http://practicetracker.com/ - keep a practice journal, set goals, and have your teacher monitor your progress On Music Dictionary Simply, the most extensive reference out there. http://dictionary.onmusic.org/ An important note about free music online: Watch for American copyright versus Canadian or European copyright just because it is on IMSLP or any of these other websites does NOT mean that it is automatically public domain in the US and therefore okay to download when in doubt, ask someone first!! 2
Flutes FLUTES AND MUSIC FOR PURCHASE: Flute World (in Michigan): www.fluteworld.com Carolyn Nussbaum Music (in Texas): http://www.flute4u.com/store/ Sherry Lee, flute dealer: (email) lflutes@aol.com Cincinnati Flute Works: www.fluteworks.com NATIONAL FLUTE ASSOCIATION: www.nfaonline.org Dr. Julie Hobbs Over 5,000 flutists belong to this largest flute organization in the world. Great online resources for teaching, including a graded repertoire guide listing a terrific rubric for evaluating solos, collections of solos and quartets and an annotated list of Intermediate works for flute. Also, information on the annual convention (in August each year, locations TBD), teaching, and access to the NFA s quarterly publication, The Flutist Quarterly (you don t need to be a member of the NFA to access most of the online resources) Great blog for younger students: http://theflutehoot.blogspot.com/ Larry Krantz s Flute ListServ for email notices about all things flutes (questions, commentary, recitals, masterclasses, etc.): http://www.larrykrantz.com/fluteweb/fluteweb.htm Great all-around resource for teaching tips, free downloads, repertoire suggestions, and music for purchase: www.jennifercluff.com Library resources, history, academics, etc.: http://www.johnranck.net/ Good teaching tools, vibrato studies, downloadable arrangements, etc. from former professor of Flute at the Hartt School of Music and retired principal flutist in the NY City Opera: www.johnwion.com Favorite Apps: Oboes Dr. ToniMarie Marchioni Oboe Reed MakerPRO - a step-by-step guide for scraping a blank into a finished reed as well as a "Reed Doctor" for finishing adjustments. itanpura Lite - a free drone that creates an interesting back-drop for improv games in the classroom. TonalEnergy - chromatic tuner Recorder Plus - audio recorder Cleartune - chromatic tuner Tempo - metronome 3
Bassoons Web based bassoon tools: University of Kentucky Bassoon Studio site http://www.uky.edu/~pcsimp01/bassoon_studio/ Professor Peter Simpson There are so many resources online for students and teachers. Make sure you are getting your information from a respected and reliable source. International Double Reed Society Publishes journals and information about oboe and bassoon; has extensive fingering diagrams www.idrs.org Bassoon.org Contains links to other sites covering sheet music, instruments for sale, reeds, lessons and tips, books and articles about bassoon, index of teachers and schools, index of festivals and summer camps, and an index of repair shops http://www.bassoon.org/ Kristen Wolf Jensen s Music and the Bassoon Has 50 units of beginning lessons including videos, many melodies with and without piano accompaniment, exercises, and audio clips http://www.musicandthebassoon.org/ Bassoon, reeds, and more Contains reed adjustment advice from Christian Davidson http://www.canit.se/~chrisdav/index.html Anselma Music (Austria) Easy to intermediate bassoon and bassoon ensemble music http://www.anselmamusic.com/fagott/index.php Fagotizm Eastern European site Contains quite a bit of downloadable bassoon music http://www.fagotizm.narod.ru/index-eng.html Orchestra excerpts for bassoon http://www.orchestralbassoon.com/ 4
Dr. Jason Dovel Trumpets Favorite Websites for Trumpet Players: Trumpetguild.org This is the official website of the International Trumpet Guild (ITG), the world s largest organization specifically for trumpet players. The website has job postings, news from the trumpet world, free PDF downloads of sheet music, and many other resources for trumpet players. Special features of the website, including access to every Journal published by ITG since 1977, are available to members of ITG. trumpetexcerpts.org This website has sheet music and recordings for many of the major audition excerpts for trumpet. The website is conveniently organized so each musical example is cropped neatly and several professional recordings of performances of the excerpt (usually by top-tier ensembles) are listed beside each excerpt. An invaluable resource for trumpet players! nationaltrumpetcomp.org Website for the National Trumpet Competition, which is the largest instrumental competition in the world. Students may compete as soloists or in trumpet ensembles for various prizes. The competition is also an educational event, with free concerts and master classes by guest artists from all over the world. 5
Horns Professor David Elliott My number one suggestion is a subscription to Smart Music. It is quite possible that there is a master subscription available through you band. If not, urge the director to set one up. All the students can then have a very inexpensive subscription that can be used at home or anywhere there is a computer. With this tool one can learn much of the standard literature with an electronic accompaniment that will follow you. You can set a tempo that can be easily adjusted as you become more familiar with the given composition. You can also have a metronome play with you. A tape loop can be established to help you concentrate on a particular difficult passage. The program has many of the standard band and orchestra works that you can play your part with the whole ensemble. Manipulations of tempo and many other features are also available. There are also patterns that you can use to learn scales and have fun at the same time. Also it is possible to record yourself with the accompaniment and play your work back. There are a few separate pieces of equipment I would suggest. One would be one of the Zoom audio or video recorders. It is really important to record your practice and listen and maybe see what you actually sound and look like. Also everyone should have a tuner and metronome. There of course are several apps that do this but I would definitely recommend the Korg TMR50BK TMR-50 Tuner Metronome Recorder which includes both a tuner and a metronome as well as a recorder. Also a Korg CM-100L Clip on Contact Microphone for Tuners is very useful. Here are a few web sites that are really good for horn players: Orchestral Horn Excerpts http://hornexcerpts.org/ This site shows you the actual horn parts for major orchestral excerpts. You can print out the music and listen to several major orchestras play the particular passage. Horn Articles On Line http://www.public.asu.edu/~jqerics/articles_online.htm This is Professor John Erickson s site which article on all things related to the horn. His links are also very useful. Horn Matters http://hornmatters.com/ This is a great horn blog site Pope Instruments http://www.poperepair.com/ This site is one of several large music stores which deals mainly in French horn. You can see mutes, mouth pieces, new and used horns, horn music and recordings. Even if you don t buy from this source, it allows you to browse and see what is available. International Horn Society http://www.hornsociety.org/ This is the web site of our international horn organization. Every serious horn player should join this society. The site is full of all sorts of horn information and news items. It also has excerpts from The Horn Call which is a magazine published three times a year and sent to members. 6
PERCUSSION Apps: SoundyThingie an application that translates drawn lines into music. Each sound then loops. Lots of custom editing available. Tempo Advance - This is a metronome with polyrhythms and setlists. It has a lot of presets and other little tools like timers and stopwatches to help with practicing. By Frozen Ape Pte. Ltd. Amazing Slow Downer. Slow down recorded tracks, it's great for doing transcriptions. By Roni Music. Professor James Campbell Coach's Eye instant replay video analysis. Record HD video and instantly review them in slow motion. This is obviously most helpful for percussionists or conductors, since some aspects of technique can be fixed visually. Websites: BoCo's Percussion Database Tempo Reference. Very often we classical musicians use classical music references to recall tempi. This is useful, but not accurate, since the same music may be performed at a variety of tempi depending on conductor preference. Pop songs are more reliable because the music is set in recording with a consistent tempo. https://www.bostonconservatory.edu/percdb/tempo-reference DrumChattr.com is your internet percussion hub! Discover thought provoking videos, important percussion news, and more! Engage in daily blog post related discussion, and share your thoughts with the community! Subscribe to the DrumChattr podcast to stay up to date and hear interviews from leading figures in the percussion world. Drumchattr.com: discover. engage. share. DrumChattr.com The Percussive Arts Society is a music service organization promoting percussion education, research, performance and appreciation throughout the world. http://www.pas.org/