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Sax in the City Alain Crepin

in Saxophone

Transcription to C-instruments

I own the partiture of 'Sax in the City of Alain Crepin' inclusive all parts and the altsaxophone solo for saxophone-orchester (Es and Bes instruments). I want to play the altsaxophone-solo with my accordeon-ensemble (all C-instruments). How can I transcript all the music to C-instruments (exclusive the Alt-saxophone solo)? Can someone help me?

7 days ago
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Jazz standards transcription plan

in Jazz Standards Lead Sheets

Below are song titles from a "transcription plan" that was being pursued by this group in 2017-2018. The idea was to take the top 100 jazz standards appearing on the jazzstandards.com list and provide lead sheets. The jazzstandards.com list was  compiled statistically, and is ordered by frequency of recording (see the site for more details).

As of this writing, lead sheets for about 2/3 of the top 100 songs on the Jazzstandards.com list have been submitted to the group. (The full jazzstandards.com list includes 1,000 tunes, in case you were wondering.) At the bottom of this message are the titles that have not been done.

You are welcome to work on the remaining titles, or any other titles considered to be jazz standards (or popular song standards from the classic jazz/swing era--roughly 1910 to 1960). If your song isn't one of the 1,000 songs on the full jazzstandards.com list, it's probably not what most musicians and jazz fans would consider a jazz standard. That doesn't mean it's not a great tune, but in most cases it means the tune is not widely performed. (Perhaps we need a Musescore group dedicated to overlooked and under-appreciated  jazz tunes and traditional popular songs.) We will try to be as inclusive as possible when adding submissions to the group, while still keeping the focus on tunes that you might hear played and sung in jam sessions or on gigs by relatively mainstream jazz performers.

You are also welcome to submit improved versions of any songs that have already been done for the group. Perhaps a song previously submitted is missing lyrics, or missing the introductory verse, or has chord changes that are not widely used by musicians in performance. So far, the group has not been flooded by multiple versions of any given song--if we were to get, say, 10 charts for "I Got Rhythm," we might need to pick the best 2 or 3 for the main listing, but currently that's not an issue.

Note that if you are starting a new chart, you may save yourself some time by working with an existing "Wikifonia Archive" chart and adding your own corrections, improved formatting, and missing sections / lyrics as needed. See the following discussion for more details: https://musescore.com/groups/jazz-standards-leadsheets/discuss/5019538

To add a score to the group's collection, open the score in Musescore.com or find it in your account's list of scores, click the "three dots" action icon at the top right, and then choose type in "Jazz Standards Lead Sheets" to search for and choose this group. You can then leave a comment here with the song title and the URL for the link to let us know you've added a new score. If your chart has notable features or corrections, add a note about it when you post, and consider adding the details to the comments on the score page as well.

Jazz standards not currently in the collection of this group (ranking from jazzstandards.com)


19. In a Sentimental Mood
25. On Green Dolphin Street
26. Tenderly
53. You Don't Know What Love Is
69. Lover Come Back to Me
72. More Than You Know
74. Just One of Those Things
79. Polka Dots and Moonbeams
80. Easy Living
81. Pennies from Heaven
82. I Didn't Know What Time It Was
84. It Don't Mean a Thing
87. Star Eyes
89. Alone Together
90. Just You, Just Me
92. Things Ain't What They Used to Be
93. Do Nothin' Till You Hear from Me
94. Blue Moon
95. I Surrender Dear
96. You Stepped Out of a Dream
97. My One and Only Love
98. 'S Wonderful!

4 months ago
17 comments
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List of available jazz standards

in Jazz Standards Lead Sheets

Here is the alphabetical list of jazz standards lead sheets that are already done and available in our group. Titles that have been contributed by two or more different group members have additional links to the alternate versions of the leadsheets (noted with "alt chart").

Note that everything can be downloaded as .mscz file and transposed to the key of your choice.

About a Quarter to Nine
After You've Gone || (alt chart) 
Ain't Misbehavin' || (alt chart, Eb)
All Alone
All of Me
All the Things You Are || (alt chart)
Among My Souvenirs
Angel Eyes || (alt chart)
April in Paris
As Time Goes By
Autumn Leaves (Les Feuilles Mortes)
Bag's Groove
Begin the Beguine || (alt chart)
Black Coffee
Body and Soul
But Not for Me
Ballin' the Jack
Best Thing for You
Born to Be Blue
Call Me Irresponsible
Caravan
Charleston
Cheek to Cheek
Cherokee
China Boy || (alt chart)
Come Rain or Come Shine
Crazy Rhythm
Christmas Song, The
Darn That Dream
Dream a Little Dream of Me || (Mamas & Papas arr.) 
Do You Know What It Means to Miss New Orleans
Don't Be That Way
Don't Blame Me
Don't Get Around Much Anymore
Don't Take Your Love from Me
Drop Me Off in Harlem
East of the Sun
Embraceable You || (alt chart)
Estate
Fly Me to the Moon (4/4) || (3/4) || (alt 4/4 chart)
Flying Home
Foggy Day, A
Frim Fram Sauce, The
Georgia on My Mind
Ghost of a Chance, (I Don't Stand) A
Girl from Ipanema, The (Garota de Ipanema)
Groovin' High
Here's That Rainy Day
Honeysuckle Rose
How Am I to Know?
How Deep Is the Ocean?
How High the Moon
I Can't Believe That You're in Love with Me
I Can't Get Started
I Cover the Waterfront
I Got It Bad (And That Ain't Good)
I Got Rhythm
I Let a Song Go Out of My Heart
I Should Care
I Wish You Love
I Won't Dance || (alt chart)
If I Had You
I'll Remember April
I'll See You in My Dreams || (alt chart)
Indian Summer
Indiana
Isn't It Romantic
It Could Happen to You
It Had to Be You
It Might as Well Be Spring
Joint Is Jumpin', The
Just Friends
La Vie En Rose
Laura
Lester Leaps In
Let's Fall in Love
Let's Get Lost
Louisiana Fairytale
Love for Sale
Love Is Here to Stay || (alt chart)
Lover Man (Oh, Where Can You Be?)
Lush Life
Man I Loved, The
Manhã de Carnaval  (also known as A Day in the Life of a Fool)
Maple Leaf Rag
Mean to Me || (alt chart)
Memories of You
Misty
Mr. PC
My Funny Valentine
My Romance
My Ship
Nardis
Nearness of You, The
Night and Day
Night in Tunisia
Nightengale Sang in Berkeley Square, A
Oh, Lady Be Good
Old Country, The
On a Misty Night
On a Slow Boat to China
On the Sunny Side of the Street
Only the Lonely (Jimmy Van Heusen song)
Over the Rainbow
Out of Nowhere
Perdido
Pick Yourself Up
Poinciana
Prelude to a Kiss
Puttin' on the Ritz
Que reste-t-il de nos amour?
Rosetta
Round Midnight
Royal Garden Blues
Satin Doll
Secret Love
Sentimental Journey
September Song
Shiny Stockings
Skylark
Smile
Smoke Gets in Your Eyes
Sophisticated Lady
Someone to Watch Over Me
Sonnymoon for Two
St. James Infirmary
St. Louis Blues
Stardust [with verse] || (alt chart)
Stars Fell on Alabama
Stella By Starlight
Stompin' at the Savoy || (alt chart)
Summertime
Sweet Georgia Brown
Sweet Lorraine
Take the 'A' Train
Taking a Chance on Love
Tea for Two
There Is No Greater Love
There Will Never Be Another You || (alt chart)
These Foolish Things
They Can't Take That Away from Me
This Can't Be Love
Topsy
Turn Out the Stars
Two Sleepy People
Walkin My Baby Back Home
Way You Look Tonight, The
What Is This Thing Called Love?
What's New?
When You're Smiling
Where or When
Willow Weep for Me
Wrap Your Troubles in Dreams
Yesterdays
You Go to My Head || (alt chart)

+++++

4 months ago
17 comments
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Using MuseScore to Play Saxophone Music

in Saxophone

 
I have spent a couple months learning MuseScore with the specific goal of using it to play my  favorite classical music solos and jazz music exercises from my teenage years in the 1970's.
  
I was an alto sax player in my local high school concert band and jazz band. I have only played infrequently since that time and my playing skills have deteriorated.
My two main careers have been as a design drafter and IT professional.  I decided to take the  software learning skills I have acquired from these careers and use them to play my beloved  sax music using a computer.

I started out with the MIDI Edition of Musitek's SmartScore music notation program with its  built-in Aria player on-add that uses Garritan sounds. I even purchased the Garritan's Jazz  and Big Bands add-on for Aria but found the added controls did not provide the effects I  wanted.  Perhaps with some work and/or using a Midi keyboard for input, I could get more realistic sounding sax music from the programs, but I wanted an easier (and cheaper) way. I also found SmartScore's focus was more on scanning in existing music. The amount of work need to learn to edit the scanned-in scores seemed a bit daunting.

So, I decided to try out the OpenSource MuseScore music notation program instead.  I spent about a month reading the entire manual.  I found it easy to learn and was relieved to find that my knowledge of reading music had not deteriorated as much as my manual dexterity has. I also discovered that transcribing the music is an enjoyable activity in itself.  In fact, I find writing and modifying the scores as much fun as I do to listening to MuseScore playing them.

I have now transcribed about ten scores into MuseScore and played around with how to adapt  them to get the best sounding saxophone I can. I have found that the native MuseScore alto sax  soundfont is pretty good in that it has some vibrato built in.  I also have experimented with  a number of other other sax soundfonts recommended on the MuseScore forum. I recommend that other folks who want to get better sax sounds to try these other soundfounts out too and find one that meets their particular needs.

I wish to pass on a few methods I have learned for how to adapt music scores written using MuseScore for the purpose of using MuseScore to play them and export them out as WAV files.  Of course, these hints focus on making MusceScore play in the style that I have used on my actual saxophone.

1) MuseScore does not play Breathe marks so you can leave them off of scores. You can imitate a breathe by adding short rests instead.

2) I like to play musical phrases in a swelling style where the volume gets louder as the  phrase proceeds and then gets softer as the phrase ends. To get this effect, I have to exaggerate dynamic changes for the crescendos and decrescendos.  I find the phrase has to start at "mp" or "mf" and increase to "ff" or even "fff" to get the effect I want.

3) For accelerandos and decelerandos, I have found changing the tempo for each meaure in the  range of measures where the tempo changes to get the effect I want.  Another method I have used is to literally extend the lengths of the notes. For example, using quarter notes in places of eight notes.  This works well for situations where the tempo change must be dramatic.

4) I have found I need to add more accent notes and staccato notes in MuseScore than in the original scores to reproduce my playing style. The musical scores modified in the ways I have described above would not be suitable for scores that you need to print out and have someone actually play using a musical instrument. However, they do give a bit more life to how MuseScore plays them.

I hope those wishing to use MuseSore in the way I have may find the methods listed above useful.  I would love to hear any hints others may have for using MuseScore to play in a more lifelike manner.  Finally, I wish to express by deepest gratitude to the makers of MuseScore for creating such a tremendous software program.

12 days ago
no comments
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HELP! Alto Saxophone Articulation

in Saxophone

Hello everyone,

I am a alto saxophone player who has around 2 1/2 years of experience and has been in private lessons and band the whole time

I never learned/misunderstood articulation and have been just blowing air. I believed that I sounded pretty good that way and could play advanced pieces.

Recently I learned this was wrong and I honestly sound terrible if I try to articulate. Should I play in band without articulation and practice articulation at home until I can articulate in band without sounded bad? Not sure what to do and if you all have videos for me to watch to help with my articulation (not that I think they will help; my private lesson teacher is very helpful and I still couldn't get tonguing down at all in 30 minutes; this could be because I have been playing a different way for 2 1/2 years) 

I do wear Invisalign (not sure if that makes it harder to articulate) 

3 months ago
26 comments
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Getting chord symbol playback, manually

in Jazz Standards Lead Sheets

Lead sheets are of course disappointing to listen to in MuseScore because there is no built-in facility for generating accompaniment based on the chord symbols.  Programs like Impro-Visor, iReal Pro, and others excel at this, and maybe some day MuseScore will have this ability.  Meanwhile, I have created a resource you might find useful.  It's a "cheat sheet" score with typical jazz piano voicings (as well as more generic voicings for folk/pop etc) for a wider variety of chords.  Just add a piano part to your lead sheet (using Edit / Instruments), copy and paste from the "cheat sheet" to the piano, then mark the piano invisible (also in Edit / Instruments).

Here is the "cheat sheet":



You can download it here: https://musescore.com/marcsabatella/scores/5236325

3 months ago
9 comments
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