Free Music Writing Program

Here's a free program you can use to write your Incredible Compositions for posterity. If you have used Sibelius at school, this program should feel familiar. When you have written something, you can press a 'play' button so you can actually hear what you've done. It's fun. Ask me if you have any questions regarding program installation, how to actually write the music in the program - anything you need.

I had a go at this program a couple of months ago, and it was pretty easy to get the hang of. You can see the tasteful results of my efforts at the beginning of this post.

Link: http://musescore.org/

Glossary of musical terms

OK, let's face it - my mind is like a sieve. That is why it's important for you as a student to make sure you know the meaning of EVERYTHING that appears on your music, because I can't remember all the terms myself. There's like a zillion of them. One tiny direction written somewhere in Italian could be the key to getting the right vibe for the entire piece.

So, I'm attaching a link to Wikipedia's glossary of musical terms. I recommend grabbing a new piece, jumping onto this website, and writing the meaning in pencil next to all the musical terms on the page. Also, an examiner is going to check out your knowledge of the terms in your music, so get them all locked into your brain as early as possible.

Link: http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Glossary_of_musical_terminology

ANZCA Grade 5 Classical - Grieg's Poetic Tone Picture 6

Here's a slow-ish version of the tune for learning purposes. There are sudden changes in volume to observe, plus the coda must be practiced with emphasis on each quaver beat to get the feel right. Ooh, also notice the bit that gets loud and faster about two-thirds through - it's not me going all speed demon for the sake of it: the speed-up is one of the directions on the music - stringendo.

To listen to a full-speed performance of the tune, see my post on the Poetic Tone Pictures somewhere below here...

Poetic Tone Picture No. 6 - Edvard Grieg