Hendrix? Check. Modern? Check. Uses a hardly used member of the sax family? Check. I present Colin Stetson.
Year: 2011
Sheet Of The Week (Bonus) – E.T. (Katy Perry)
Bonus sheet(s), E.T. by Katy Perry.
E.T. - Bb Instruments (62.0 KiB, 146 hits)
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E.T. - Eb Instruments (64.0 KiB, 162 hits)
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Sheet Of The Week – Fireflies (Owl City)
Fireflies by Owl City. This is a great band (well, it’s ONE guy, and he is great).
Fireflies - Owl City - Bb (92.9 KiB, 205 hits)
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Fireflies - Owl City - Eb (91.9 KiB, 290 hits)
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Virtual Choir 2
If you haven’t heard or seen this, it is amazing. Here is the latest one.
And here is version 1
Someone needs to do this with saxophones. Like 2000 people playing Giant Steps or something…..
Does The Finish Affect The Sound?
Found this interesting article at WWBW (which is a great place to get stuff BTW) by Greg Vail.
“With that said, let’s start with the most common finish – lacquer. Lacquer is a liquid substance that dries hard, protecting the metal of the sax and maintaining its beautiful appearance. Most saxophones are made primarily of brass, and then lacquered. There are saxophones available that do not have lacquer on them known as un-lacquered instruments. The difference between the same model with and without lacquer can be significant.”
Check it out.
Band in a Box 2011
PG Music has updated their awesome program, Band in A Box to the 2011 version. The main new features are:
- More natural sounding real tracks over various tempos (ie: better pitch stretching and compressing technology)
- Takes up less space (I haven’t been brave enough yet to try this on my install of Band in a Box yet)
- Multistyles and Change of individual RealTracks. So you can pick your favorite parts of RealTracks and put them all together or have the style change midstream.
- Scales Wizard which is great for students of Jazz
The basic look and feel of the program is the same, which if you love it, then all is well in the universe, and if you think the circa 1991 look sucks then….well….it’s going to suck. I think PG Music really needs to hire an interface specialist and completely overhaul the look of the program. Functionality wise, it is amazing. But a LOT of things could be better, like the Preferences area (please PG Music, look at like Digital Performer or even FINALE on how to clean up the Preferences), or just navigating the program in general. I know the program’s roots are from the Atari ST days, but the whole concept of GUI is different now, and PG Music still doesn’t seem to get it.
Take for example the new Mixer. While it is very nice to have a mixer, it is completely backwards. And there are 5 tabs to access the features, where a smart design could have put them all in ONE spot. And left right for volume? The only program I use that has that is Garageband. A standard DAW type mixer where there are UP DOWN volume, knobs for panning and tone, a pop up level thing for reverb. And it always wants to be the top window. DAWs like Digital Performer or even ProTools let you the mixer behind other windows.
Things like this drive me mad. I mentioned the whole mixer thing several times in the Beta test, and nothing happened. *Sigh*
Band in a Box is still a program without equal though. The complaints about interface quirks don’t tarnish the program. As a musician, you’d be foolish NOT to own this program with ALL the RealTracks. Once you hear it, and use it, you won’t be going back to your Aebersold play-alongs.
I give it a 9.5 out of 10. More features, smaller footprint for the RealTracks, generally faster than the previous version, more RealTracks, more options. All great additions to an already great program. 0.5 deducted for PG Music still not fixing strange things in the interface or just cleaning it up. Though, this program still runs FINE on my 2006 iMac as well as my MacPro.
PS, I HIGHLY recommend getting the Hard Drive versions. Since downloading the program can take hours, and several 10s of gigabytes. A lot of ISPs are now capping your monthly allocation as well (Comcast, and now AT&T). PLUS, getting it on a hard drive means you can RUN it from there or have it as a backup.
Sheet(s) Of The Week – Afterlife/Seize The Day (Avenged Sevenfold)
If you haven’t heard this group, you should. Their music is varied and very good.
Afterlife - Eb Instruments (127.4 KiB, 208 hits)
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Afterlife - Bb Instruments (128.9 KiB, 96 hits)
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Seize The Day - Eb Instruments (85.0 KiB, 143 hits)
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Seize The Day - Bb Instruments (82.6 KiB, 75 hits)
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Why an “A” is NOT enough
Pretty much sums up the state of Education…..
Sheet Of The Week (Bonus) – What The Hell (Avril Lavigne)
Catchy little tune.
What The Hell - Bb Instruments (91.5 KiB, 127 hits)
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What The Hell - Eb Instruments (93.2 KiB, 132 hits)
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Sheet Of The Week – Don’t Stop Believing (Journey)
Great song. Classic.
Don't Stop Believing - Eb Instruments (105.4 KiB, 445 hits)
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Don't Stop Believing - Bb Instruments (110.5 KiB, 230 hits)
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The Problem With Band Teachers
I have to vent this out. There are a couple of band teachers in my area who I think need to be fired or at the very least severely reprimanded. These teachers have tenure in California, which makes it pretty much impossible to get rid of them. One of the teachers openly flaunts that they are tenured and pretty much has a carte blanche to do whatever he wants.
These teachers openly swear in class, and basically verbally assault kids. One of the teachers last week had a meltdown (again) in class and called the class “F***ing Idiots”. A friend of mine has a private school teaching job, and if he did ANYTHING like that he would be terminated immediately.
My concern is, besides the total lack of professionalism, what good does this do? In this age of instant gratification, where we think American Idol constitutes real singing, where we have iPad applications like Garageband which makes anyone pretty feel they are a musician, we should be ENCOURAGING students to play and enjoy music. Not having the students DROP music because of fear of Mr. X having a meltdown or because they intimidated them to play. This certainly was NOT the environment I was exposed to when I was in school, and if it was I seriously doubt I would have stopped playing in High School.
Comments? I think a lot of the problem is that these guys, and teachers in general, are tenured and they pretty much cannot be touched. Given the state of California’s budget and such, I kind of wish the district didn’t have funds to pay these guys.
Sheet(s) Of The Week – Hey Soul Sister/Drops Of Jupiter (Train)
It’s Train week. Somehow, these songs never get old.
Drops Of Jupiter - Eb Instruments (110.5 KiB, 175 hits)
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Drops Of Jupiter - Bb Instruments (110.3 KiB, 109 hits)
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Hey Soul Sister - Eb Instruments (97.9 KiB, 281 hits)
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Hey Soul Sister - Bb Instruments (102.5 KiB, 189 hits)
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Yamaha’s Pricing…..WTF?
So, the other day I got the latest woodwind and brasswind catalogue the other day. Other than the prices on everything going through the roof, Yamaha seems to have some strange pricing happening. A YAS-475 (intermediate alto) and a YAS-23 (student alto) are separated by about $110. The same holds true for the YTS-23 (student tenor) and a YTS-475 (intermediate tenor).
The question is why? What is the point in having them so close in price? I’ve played on these instruments too, and they both play the same……and it’s not anything to write home about.
Sheet Of The Week (Bonus) – Grenade (Bruno Mars)
Grenade by Bruno Mars. There will be more…..Lots more…..
Grenade - Bruno Mars - Bb (104.0 KiB, 308 hits)
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Grenade - Bruno Mars - Eb (99.1 KiB, 392 hits)
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Sheet Of The Week – Firework (Katy Perry)
I’m going to start a new thing here to maybe generate some more hits (and potentially money for sustaining the site). The “Sheet Of The Week”.
This will most likely be some sort of pop song “saxophonized”. It will be good. We will start off with something by Katy Perry…..Firework. To download the sheets, you simply need to be a registered user (free) and logged in. Enjoy!
Firework - Bb Instruments (78.2 KiB, 272 hits)
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Firework - Eb Instruments (72.0 KiB, 409 hits)
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