Heard an Interview with George Gershwin

Go check out this article and hear "a rare, brief interview that George Gershwin had done on Rudy Vallee’s hyper-popular radio show in 1933."

Wow.

Composition Helpers

I enjoyed the tips from this site: http://learn2writesongs.hubpages.com/hub/Learn-How-To-Write-Songs

Here are the charts they posted.  Also see their instruction video on how to use the progression chart: 

The Truth about Genius - Quotes from Great Composers

Johann Sebastian Bach - "There's nothing remarkable about it. All one has to do is hit the right keys at the right time and the instrument plays itself."

Franz Joseph Haydn - "Young people can learn from my example that something can come from nothing. What I have become is the result of my hard efforts."

 Wolfgang Amadeus Mozart - "Neither a lofty degree of intelligence nor imagination nor both together go to the making of genius. Love, love, love, that is the soul of genius."

 Pyotr Ilich Tchaikovsky - "I sit down to the piano regularly at nine-o'clock in the morning and Mesdames les Muses have learned to be on time for that rendezvous."

Johannes Brahms - "Without craftsmanship, inspiration is a mere reed shaken in the wind."



Ludwig van Beethoven - "To play without passion is inexcusable!"

 Frederic Chopin - "Simplicity is the final achievement. After one has played a vast quantity of notes and more notes, it is simplicity that emerges as the crowning reward of art."

 George Frideric Handel - "Whether I was in my body or out of my body as I wrote it I know not. God knows."

Ludwig van Beethoven - "To play without passion is inexcusable!"


 Frederic Chopin - "Simplicity is the final achievement. After one has played a vast quantity of notes and more notes, it is simplicity that emerges as the crowning reward of art."

 Felix Mendelssohn - "Even if, in one or other of them, I had a particular word or words in mind, I would not tell anyone, because the same word means different things to different people. Only the songs say the same thing, arouse the same feeling, in everyone - a feeling that can't be expressed in words."


 Franz Schubert - "Some people come into our lives, leave footprints on our hearts, and we are never the same."

ALL Music symbols Source Document

Here you go, if you are in a pinch, and have no way other than drawing and taking a picture, you can snip and paste an obscure symbol off of this chart.   Since I like using noteflight.com for typing up music, or at least get a start on there, I have not used this "music symbols source document" yet.

I've played from a lot of sheet music, folks, and I can tell you, about 3/4 of these symbols you'll never encounter! Unless your specialty is modern atonal and avant garde instrumental compositions from obscure academic composers. 

From Tedious Combing the Internet to Ebullient

Have you ever gone on those wild goose chases and in the adventure find something worthwhile?
Well that was how I one day came upon a defining moment in my musical career.
I discovered a way to write music thru the computer online for free!!¸.·´*  Happy Unbirthday!  And of course I wondered why I hadn't been told about it after 3 years in a music college.  I'm sure there are more programs  available as well for free.  I recently heard of a sample version of Sibelius. 

Here it is: Noteflight.com :  http://www.noteflight.com/login

How I used this site:
 I've frequently wanted to change the key of a piece to accommodate a singer.  This site lets me do that. Of course on the flip side I had to learn how to use the program a little.  But if you have 20 minutes to just hit random keys (on the computer keyboard... not hitting piano keys!), you too can figure it out and use it for some time saving and organizing.

A sample of my transposed work ~ Press play!