30th July 2008 - by Daniel E. Friedman
Free Piano Music is a Double-Edged
Sword
"Hey, while you're here, here's some old free piano music that
I've had in my basement for the last few millennium. Take it.
Have fun!"
Oh boy, that's certainly an offer that I'm more than used to
accepting. I guess you never know if you're going to come upon
a rare score that you and the top musicologists in the world
have never seen before. In the back of my mind, and with a lot
of suspension of disbelief, there's this peculiar hope that
I'll find that rare score, which would mean retirement, secured
investments for the future, and a primary worry consisting of
where your next extremely decadent vacation would be.
Well, I haven't hit the jackpot yet. What I have done is
produced a blue bin with an enormous appetite. It's almost as
if my blue box is throwing verbal abuse at me the second I
haven't given it its weekly gorging of junk music.
Truth be told, rare scores are indeed named appropriately.
They're few and far between. On top of that, music books, like
comic books, have to be in near mint or mint condition in order
to be an acceptable item for a dealer to consider purchasing it
from you. The best condition hand-me-down music that I've come
across over the years has been in fairly good shape, certainly
acceptable for piano readings and practice.
Another type of free music is, of course, arrangements through
download. As a music teacher, I cannot control what my students
do and don't do on their personal computers. I've seen many
pupils bring in arrangements from all styles and eras for my
stamp of approval. Many times the works online are not arranged
well. They often lack dynamics, phrasing and common sense.
Common sense? Now what on earth do I mean by that? I'll tell
you exactly what I mean. When I'm reading bass clef notes that
have enough ledger lines to make me want to go to the eye
doctor for a prescription change (and a stigmatism checkup),
then we have on our hands what I had previously termed as a
score with a lack of common sense.
These scores are often generated from midi files. I don't even
want to start talking about the copyright legalities of such
scores. Suffice to say, I like to stay clear of this type of
music, for legal and optical health reasons.
Some free music is advantageous. Scores from the classical era
and thereabouts are slowly being offered for free to the
general public. I'm still a fan of a decent, store-bought book,
but at least this type of free music has copyright clearance
and some effort, in terms of decent editing and music
spacing.
Of course, the best type of free piano music is the type that
you pick up by ear. A well trained ear and some improvising
skills will ultimately save you hundreds of dollars in music
purchases. You know what? Sheet music is expensive. Let's
revise that and say that a good ear potentially saves a pianist
thousands of dollars.
So what's to be learned from all of this? Well, as we all know,
words of wisdom stand the test of time, so remember that you do
indeed 'get what you pay for' in terms of original music and
score arrangements. Also, playing and figuring out music by ear
is extremely economical. Start bothering your piano teacher for
ear-training lessons. Theory lessons would be a worthwhile
investment as well. Let the savings begin!
Article Source: http://www.megamusicsite
| 
BlinkList
Delicious
Facebook
Digg
Google Bookmarks
Stumbleupon
Yahoo My Web
Ma.gnolia
Fark
Furl
Livejournal
Netvouz
Newsvine
Reddit
Spurl
Wists
