F-Flat Minor? Yeah, no...try e-minor!

 So....the other day I decided to write some music using a free Windows program called MuseScore 3.  It was fun placing notes on the treble staff and trying to make something halfway musical.  It's a bit of a repetitious piece.....maybe 6 or so measures of a melody, and then it repeats itself, does and interlude of a few notes and repeats itself one last time.

Unfortunately, the freebie program doesn't export as an MP3 or anything like that....but maybe "Sonata in F-Flat Minor" can be posted here in one or more forms.  I know I broke a few music theory rules in making it.  Dr. A would put all sorts of red marks on it, just like he did when I was in music theory class and part writing for hymns.  Oh well.....

GarageBand and Me

 Lately, I have become involved with an Apple application called GarageBand.  It has allowed me to build music and publish it, most times as a soundtrack in an iMovie application production (yes, another Apple app).

Here's my channel if you want to visit, and don't forget to subscribe :)

https://www.youtube.com/channel/UCNL5ijCjcsnWgIp0uHW0fyQ

Sketch-a-Song

Found a great Android app recently called Sketch-a-Song.  If you want to know more, go to Sketchasong.com.

Charles Dickens a Musician?

I was surprised to learn recently that English author Charles Dickens was a musician!!!

Electronic Music

It's fun playing with music software. . .and lately, I've been playing with Music Write Plus and Music Write 2000.

I had a MIDI interface that I thought worked but there seems to be a problem with the driver and Windows XP. Oh well....at least my PC runs for now.

Notepad 2007 Downloaded

Yesterday, I downloaded Notepad 2007, a freebie from http://www.codemaker.com. It's a free version of Finale (on the very light side). I played with it a bit and it is comparable to the MusicWrite plus software that I bought some years back (which no longer works with Windows, XP in particular.

Looking into getting a better quality program and I downloaded demos of Encore and Sibelius. . .should be fun to play with.

For Musical Pursuits

Yet another weblog started by this illustrious author(!)....and this one focusing on the part of my life that, regrettably, is in a holding pattern. I enjoy the piano, and given some moments of time, could excel again at it. Right now, I perform twice a month, both times in a church service setting.

The organ: I took three semesters from Dr. Van Knauss. . .and I still have my organ shoes for when I go organic again. OK, pipe down, bud...

The saxophone: This instrument was acquired several years ago from the house just behind the Kemptown convenience store. It works best on the high range, but maybe it's just my lip....

The clarinet: Probably the most of my musical energy learning-wise went into this instrument, yet I play it so little. Time to dig it out.

The recorder: I know instinctively how to play it, but I have not devoted the time to learn how it relates to printed music.

The guitar: Probably the best experience in recent months was playing for the Adventurer club weekend with "the band". . .and enjoying the experience except for the excruciating bar chords. Oh well....

Yet to do: play more on the electronic keyboard and do some MIDI composition, learn to play the drums with my kids, do more with the trumpet.....as I enjoy playing it with my daughter (on hers).

Later...