James Gilbert MusicAs previously announced, I’m releasing a new Christmas CD – A New Old Christmas. This consists of several familiar carols and holiday favorites set in some new ways. It contains a variety of styles so there is sure to have titles that everyone will like. This would be a good album for the family to […]
I’m not sure if anyone actually reads this or not, but I hope someone does. I wanted to let those that are interested know that I’m still around & busy with music projects. That’s one reason I’ve not posted in a while. The main reason I’ve not posted is that I’m not getting any feedback […]
Among my regular activities as a musician, I was hired to work on special MIDI project. I thought you might be interested to hear some of the details. There are a number of churches that have organs but nobody to play them. Many of the organs are midi capable but the midi files they can […]
iPad music apps See also an updated article HERE If you have some time, please listen to my music on iTunes (Click here) This is a followup to my previous blog about sheet music apps for the iPad. My favorite and the app I use the most for viewing sheet music is still forScore. If […]
Komplete Ultimate 9 Native Instruments Komplete Ultimate For those that might be new to the world of creating music all on your computer or new to the world of synthesis and sampling, I thought a brief mention of what I use would be in order. There are many very good comparable products available from many […]
I’ve put together a video that shows pictures of the final install of the new organ at Church of the Mediator, Micanopy, Florida. The new organ is an Ahlborn-Galanti Chronicler I with an Ahlborn Classic sound module and Korg X5DR sound module. There is a six-speaker system with subwoofer. Two of the speakers are at the opposite […]
Introduction to Music for those wanting to become musicans, or improve their musicianship Conclusion I hope this Introduction to Music series has been helpful. While it is obviously not a comprehensive look at all there is to music notation and music theory, if you know this stuff, you have a great amount of tools to […]
Session Strings Pro Animator Revisited Back in 2011 I did a YouTube video showing the Animator function of Session Strings Pro. It was a quick overview and not terribly detailed. At the request of a few people, I’ve come back to the Animator to take a more detailed look. The video is intended as a […]
Introduction to Music for those wanting to become musicans, or improve their musicianship Scales and Modes Rather than a long blog article about scales, I’ll point you to a video I did on YouTube about scales and modes. I’ve added a few things below the video, so come back here when you’re done with the […]
Introduction to Music for those wanting to become musicans, or improve their musicianship Chords and Intervals Intervals An interval is the distance between two notes. We describe intervals in numerical terms, 2nd, 3rd, 4th, etc. From the note C to the note D is a 2nd. Although D is only one note away from C, […]
Introduction to Music for those wanting to become musicians, or improve their musicianship Music symbols, part 2 As we look into more symbols a reminder of how we will talk about symbols in this series. I divide symbols into a few categories: 1) Articulations; 2) Accidentals; 3) Dynamics; 4) Tempo or rhythm; 5) Ornamentations and […]
Introduction to Music for those wanting to become musicans, or improve their musicianship Music symbols, part 1 First of all, notice the time signature is “C”. That is known as Common Time which is the same as 4/4 time. Let’s take a break from rhythm and counting and look at various symbols that can affect […]
Driver Plugin Native Instruments came out with a free (through 12/31/2012) plugin called Driver. I did a first-look video of it on YouTube [youtube http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Zd2VZsK6btM] Hope you enjoy it. Please check out my website for free sheet music and links to all 6 of my currently available albums.
Introduction to Music for those wanting to become musicans, or improve their musicianship Time Signatures and Counting Up until now we’ve talked about each measure having 4 beats and the quarter note equaling one beat. Can we have 20 beats in a measure? Can the 8th note equal one beat? Yes, to both questions. But […]
Introduction to Music for those wanting to become musicans, or improve their musicianship Measures and rhythm Rhythm is the relationship of note values to one another and their placement in a measure. A measure is the space between the two bar lines. We are measuring beats. If we say that a 1/4 note is one […]
Introduction to Music for those wanting to become musicans, or improve their musicianship Note and Rest Values Now that we know what the letter names of the Treble and Bass clef are, we need to learn about note and rest types and their values as well as an introduction to rhythm. Shown are the most […]
Introduction to Music for those wanting to become musicans, or improve their musicianship Basic Notation, Part 2 To review from our last posting – Basic Notation, Part 1 – refer to the grand staff shown here.. We have staffs made up of lines and spaces. We have two clefs, the treble for the high notes […]
Introduction to Music for those wanting to become musicans, or improve their musicianship Basic Notation, Part 1 You may be thinking, ‘why a piano keyboard, I’m not a pianist.’ Knowing the layout of a keyboard can be helpful in figuring out some elements of music. This will make more sense later, but for now, be […]
Introduction to Music for those wanting to become musicans, or improve their musicianship A quick word or two before we get started This series is designed to introduce you to the world of music. It is not intended as a music appreciation series for the non-musician, but rather it is intended for those who want […]
UPDATE January 2016. Miroslav Philharmonik version 2 was released in December 2015. Based on the SampleTank 3 engine, the user interface is a thousand times better than the version reviewed below. I can actually use it without having to pull out the magnifer. There are new sounds and key-switching instruments are also provided. The instruments […]
Update May 2013. See this followup article If you have some time, please listen to my music on iTunes (Click here) I’ve uploaded a video showing three iPad apps that I find useful as supplemental material when teaching my piano students. When I downloaded them, they were all free apps. QF Notes is a basic […]
I’m happy to announce that I’m now teaching piano lessons and general music lessons via the internet. Please pass the word on to all you know. I mainly teach piano lessons, but I am also available to teach Composition, Music Theory, Sibelius 7, Reaper DAW and Native Instruments Komplete 8 (with the various software like […]
Don’t forget, ALL of our sheet-music is now available at our website for FREE! I’ve uploaded a new video to YouTube. This is another with animated fractals. If anyone has questions about how I do the fractals, leave a comment and I’ll give the details. The background music being used is my own composition. I […]
Latest happenings I didn’t realize I haven’t posted in a while. The summer is a somewhat slow time of the year for posts. Here’s some of the things I’ve been up to. YouTube Videos I’ve been trying to post a music video of sorts every couple of days. These consist essentially of still images of my […]
Professional organizations for Piano Teachers I ran across a Piano Pedagogy book that got me thinking. I won’t mention the book’s name because, frankly, there are too many assertions in the book with nothing to back them up. The first part of the book has some comments and assertions about professional organizations and piano teachers […]