stenzer

I was thinking of getting this library, but a composer told me the library was out of tune and he knew people that had to stop using it. Can anyone that uses this library give me some insight on this? thanks for the help

The first thing of course would be understanding that all the things you are talking about in your theory book apply to a specific era of music that can only be used up till about 1900 or so. And the things you are reading are geared to help you understand the composers in those eras. I and V the tonic and dominant ruled these times and composers would never (or almost never) change keys without some sort of cadence I.E (V-I, IV-I, V-IV etc), what you have to understand from studying this type of theory is that the music is governed by leading tones, notes that by "nature" are unstable and literally lead to another note, if I’m in C Major the note B always leads to C, the note F always leads back to E. So this is why V goes to I etc. I believe that learning the fundamentals are essential because it gives you an understanding of where things came from. These basic fundamentals govern not just classical music but pop and rock music as well (I don’t say all, but allot of it, if not most of it). I mean look at Bob Marley, he probably never studied theory but yet all his songs are going I-IV I-V, this is because there is something physical going on in the harmonic series that makes such combinations sound good. So understanding it means you don’t have to sit there messing around forever to stumble upon the same thing. In Bachs time every note had an explanation, and if you ever had to write in the style of bach you're music too would have to have an explanation for every non chord tone. In other words if I am in G Major I dont just go C# Major, the two keys are too unrelated even though there’s actually nothing wrong with doing so. In bachs time it was wrong. If I want to however go from G major to say D major I can do so by creating a leading tone not normally in the key of G (F natural) F natural now becomes the leading tone to D major, and by creating a new chord G-B-D-F, I now have a V7 of V, G7 now leads me to my new key D major. An Escape tone would be a non chord tone that skips in the opposite direction of the musical line A suspention is a non chord tone that resolves on the next beat, If I have a 4-3 suspension, lets say im resolving a C chord, F would be a 4th up from C, which would reslove down to the third, so I would have C-F-G, C-G would hold over and F would go to E. You will see this happen over and over again. I can also have a 9-1 resolution From D-C in the same fasion, Anyways I don't remember the others that you mentioned off hand (I have forgotten most of what I havent used) But i think the main thing to take from that book is a way analize music and understand what some of the greatest composers are doing. But bear in mind once you get to 20th century music this type of analysis no longer applys. I am no way saying that this is the way to write or not to write music but it is critical to have an understanding. So keep it up! People condone theroy and say it kills creativity. Most of the people who have said this to me have actually never studied. Also it is never too early nor too late to get started though like anything else the earlier the better.

We are not created equal it's as simple as that, some are born with a better ear for example. It was said that Mozart could transcribe an entire orchestra from memory, yes he was trained but so were millions of other people who lived during the same time. But every composer has studied and learned from someone, even the prodogy doesnt wake up one day and write for a full orchestra just as you dont wake up one day knowing how to read a book without someone teaching you. It's just that some are smarter then others and what we consider a prodigy is someone who is able to learn and apply at a much faster rate, someone who is able to internalize something just by hearing it versus someone like me who needs to study a piece of music to do the same. But the fact of the matter is we all have an ear, we all have a brain and we all have the ability to grow and get better as a composer just as doctor learns medicine. People have this thought that in the arts you are either born with the ability or not, but it's only true to a certain extent. And yes you have to study! Yes skills are LEARNED! And yes you copy from the greats just as the greats copied from those before them, thats the evolution of music. Each composer you study gives you a different color to work with, and theres no way to just magically write in say the style of Debussy without hearing it, without studying it. So with all that said I beileve that theroy is vital, without a basic understanding of the rules that govern different eras of music you cant break them and come up with unique combinations. You cant orchestrate without an understanding of the rules of nature that govern the instruments you are writting for. We all learn at a different pace, but we all can learn these vital skills. I wasnt personally born a genious nor do I ever intend to be one. I did however develop the passion for music at a very young age and therefore from here till the day I die whether people think im great or average I will always be a composer, which means I will never stop studying and I will never stop learning.

ya the problem is that when such values are written into the midi file, Logic or any other sequencer will read that midi data before it will read any automation or volume/pan data in the sequencer. In other words I can change the volume/pans all I want in logic but it will default back to the original settings once you start from the beginning of the sequence. It took hours of frustration for me to figure out what was even happening. Imagine setting pans and volumes for an entire orchestra only to have them instanly brought back to the sibelius settings. There should be a way to export without these settings, but i'm sure the developers of Sibelius never thought of doing that. Anyways, anyone else planning to export midi from sibelius should be aware of this, that you actually need to edit out that midi data before you start working in a sequencer. This can only be done in the midi event list.

When you export a midi file out of siblius it defaults to certain pan and volume settings which is really annoying because when I go into logic I have to use midi event editor to clean up every midi file I import, otherwise my volumes and pans would constantly default back to the settings that were exported from sibelius. Anyone know if theres a place in sibelius that will allow me to export just the midi notes and not the pans, volumes etc.?

written or improvised? or both?

All the major sequencing programs do the same thing Logic, cubase, sonar and DP. Some programs might be easier and more intuitive in certain areas. nomatter which program you use you'll have to get used to piano roll which is where all the midi data exists in a sequencer. Definetly get 4 gigs of ram in there cuz the sample libraries are beasts.Infact even 4 gigs really isnt enough, and until everything gets 64 bit you'll be stuck like the rest of us trying to make do with our limitations... these programs are not that hard to use, just do some searches on youtube or talk to someone that knows a program and you can be up in running in like an hour or two. Also find controller 11 and use it (thats expression and its one of the keys to creating realistic sounding music). Oh and as far as dual core goes you should be fine, I only have a dual core 2.4. Its more about ram and how intense the library is not so much the sequencer.

All the major sequencing programs do the same thing Logic, cubase, sonar and DP. Some programs might be easier and more intuitive in certain areas. nomatter which program you use you'll have to get used to piano roll which is where all the midi data exists in a sequencer. Definetly get 4 gigs of ram in there cuz the sample libraries are beasts.Infact even 4 gigs really isnt enough, and until everything gets 64 bit you'll be stuck like the rest of us trying to make do with our limitations... these programs are not that hard to use, just do some searches on youtube or talk to someone that knows a program and you can be up in running in like an hour or two. Also find controller 11 and use it (thats expression and its one of the keys to creating realistic sounding music). Oh and as far as dual core goes you should be fine, I only have a dual core 2.4. Its more about ram and how intense the library is not the sequencer.

Prelude to the Afternoon of the Faun. I'm currently studying this piece by inputing the notes into Sibelius and it is most definitely one of my favorites. If you have a chance Dover sells the orchestral score combined with the nocturnes for about $20. You can obviously learn allot about orchestration from Debussy. other orchestral masterpieces: The Planets (Holst), Mother Goose Suite (Ravel), Swan Lake (Tchaikovsky), Fire Bird (Stravinsky)

I’m assuming that when u say "track" you mean staff. Sibelius gives you the ability of using 4 independent voices on a staff and you can copy voices from one staff to another and split them up however you want into multiple staves. There are even plugins that allow you to condense a bunch of staves into one or vice versa. Hope this helps.