Category Archives: Midi files

Concerts, Ensembles, Listening, Live Events, Midi files, Practice, Rehearsals

East Lothian Showcase Play-along Files

New play-along files of our Showcase repertoire have been posted on the Guitar Group Midis page. They are in the same order as they will be on our programme. Begin with the slow ones (low numbers) and build up to the faster ones (highter numbers).

Check the Dates For Your Diary page for rehearsal details.

Tickets (£5) are now on sale from the Queen’s Hall Box Office 0131 668 2019; http://www.thequeenshall.net/about/the-box-office;

85 – 89 Clerk Street, Edinburgh, EH8 9JG (map).

Community, Discussion, IT, Literacy, Midi files, Technology

MuseScore

I’m endebted to J. Simon van der Walt for (inadvertently) alerting me to a free, open source, music score-writing programme entitled MuseScore.  It is intuitive to use for anyone accustomed to the basic commands which feature in most programmes e.g. hitting the space-bar to start/stop playing.

The program saves in its own file format but opens a variety of other file types, including Midi files.

While it’s not Sibelius, it’s not £449.95 either and, in these difficult times, it might be the only way for some to get their foot inside the score-writing software door.

In the spirit of open source, the first thing that happens, upon opening the program, is that you are invited to join the community. The news menu of this is reminiscent of Twitter with many (shortened) urls leading to how to videos such as this one on how to transpose a score.  A quick search for similar videos on YouTube revealed about 1,000 results.

You can download the programme (Windows, Linux or Apple) here.

And, finally, congratulations to Simon on his recent PhD in composition! You can hear some of Simon’s work here.

Concerts, Ensembles, IT, Live Events, Midi files, Technology

Midi snags sorted

Congratulations to my colleague, Liz Woodsend, for identifying the snag which had prevented 4 out of 5 midi files of Bohemian Rhapsody from playing. The problem lay in having the character “%” in the file name e.g. Bohemian Rhapsody – Performance Speed – 10%. The names have now been changed and “%” has been replaced by “percent.”

If you’re wondering why the usual formula e.g. Rondo 80, Rondo 90 etc. was not used, it was simply becuase the metronome speed changes several times in this piece. That’ll teach me to be pedantic 🙂

The fixed files can be found here.

Tickets for the Showcase are selling fast. Make sure not to miss out by contacting the Queens Hall asap.

Last rehearsal this Friday (18th) in NBHS from 13:15 to 15:15

Community, Lesson Content, Listening, Midi files, mp3s, Practice, Technology

Guitar Group Midis

New play-along midi files for NBHS PTA Burns Supper (Fri 4 Feb at 19:00) have been posted on the Guitar Group Midis page.

Next Tuesday’s lunchtime rehearsal (18 Jan) will be entirely devoted to this and, perhaps, the latter part of the full Guitar Ensemble rehearsal on Tue 25 Jan. We may also have an opportunity to practise after the next East Lothian Guitar Group rehearsal on Fri 21 Jan. Don’t forget, you can always get together without me any other day of the week 🙂