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Smart Music

Granted you might not find the current "pop" tunes heard on the radio, but you might want to take another look at the solos and jazz improvisation selections. It is not all "classical" and "school band" music. Here are just a few I turned up in a few minutes of searching:

In the Solos Section
  1. Batman Themes
  2. Popular Movie Themes
  3. Classic Rock Selections
  4. Songs from Harry Potter
  5. Songs from the Hobbit
  6. Songs from Lord of the Rings
  7. Tunes from My Fair Lady
  8. Selected Jazz Standards
  9. Selections from Star Wars
  10. Selections from the Wizard of Oz
In the Jazz Improv Section
  1. Wynton Marsalis Volume III - Standards (great!)
  2. Strayhorn and More - (great!)
These are just the ones that provide the music on the screen. There are lots more you can play along with the backing tracks if you buy the music book(s).

Oh, I agree there is plenty of stuff to choose from. I just wanted to make sure folks weren't expecting to find their latest favorites they are hearing on the radio or something like that, and get disappointed after they pay their money.
 
Yeah the piece with your mugg shot with it. Nice pic by the way :)
Apologise Jx. Only found your thread now. Didn't realize I had to tap HERE as the question mark fooled me.
 
Jet lag has given me time to explore this program/software/app more and watch some of @jbtsax 's hard work. (Please don't ever remove your teaching hat completely). I am beginning to see why he is enthusiastic about it.

I decided to use it to try to learn something new, "In Dreams" from The Fellowship of the Ring, it is in the Easy Popular movie instrumental solos. This is a slow piece but my reading is even slower, however the ability to slow the tempo down and mark a section and have it play repeatedly meant that it did not take me too long to get the hang of the first half dozen bars, and the cursor helps with the timing. ( I had set it to stop on every note, it also stops on rests)

I think the problem I had when I last looked at it about 8 months ago is that I simply did not have even the most basic skills to make use of it. At that time I was looking at the dots thinking is it A or B, how do I finger that. Now at least with dots on the stave I am not going through that process, I look at it and play it without thinking.

I also had a look at Sao Paulo nights and although I did not attempt to play any of this, I can see how using SmartMusic with ensemble pieces can teach how to play a part and keep time with others. I will have to have a go at this piece sometime.

One thing I have not got sorted is why with some pieces it insists on playing my part on the piano when I have set the instrument in the settings to alto sax. Maybe some one can help me with this and save me searching the instructions and help files.

I did discover that you can load your own backing tracks into it but so far I have not explored adding the dots though from what @ellinas said it is possible, he is probably the best person to describe in detail how to do that.

If like me you have a slow internet connection it is better to download and save the music in advance.

As far as I can see you cannot down load a trial version which is a shame. There is a free iPad app which I have not tried. I will ask my wife to put it on her iPad and give it a try. ( I have windows and android) Laptop speakers are not good enough for it, I use some external ones, but yesterday I used the mic built into my laptop. I suspect it will work with any mic. I have a cheap mic on a clothes peg, I will try it sometime.

Overall I think it is very useful and as jbt's videos show it can do much more than I have explored so far. I shall continue using it
 
Smart Music will always play "your part" on piano regardless of the instrument you choose. It is great to see others finding out how useful Smart Music can be.

 
@Rob Pealing
I import Finale sheet music to SmartMusic and it plays nicely. Finale is a notation suite and I don't think you need it for practice unless you transcribe or compose a lot.

What do you want to do exactly? Play with a backing track? Select an instrument from a composition and play against SmartMusic?
 
@Rob Pealing
I import Finale sheet music to SmartMusic and it plays nicely. Finale is a notation suite and I don't think you need it for practice unless you transcribe or compose a lot.

What do you want to do exactly? Play with a backing track? Select an instrument from a composition and play against SmartMusic?
@ellinas Sorry to be so tardy getting back to you. I have found out how to import backing tracks to SmartMusic I am wondering if there is some way of importing the music that at present is written on paper, such as from a scan and using OCR programs.
 
Finale does a nice job with Smartscore Pro that is included and scans sheet music.
It's not that good with hand written notations and somehow good with printed ones.

There's an other software called shapeye that I haven't used.

A free solution is Audiveris that doesn't play nice with my mac's Java. Maybe it's OK in windows.
 
Finale does a nice job with Smartscore Pro that is included and scans sheet music.
It's not that good with hand written notations and somehow good with printed ones.

There's an other software called shapeye that I haven't used.

A free solution is Audiveris that doesn't play nice with my mac's Java. Maybe it's OK in windows.

@ellinas , Many thanks for your suggestions. I had a look at Shapeye and Audiveris, as far as I can see they do not produce files in a format that Smartmusic cannot use. It appears that Smart Music uses its own file format that nothing else uses, so as far as I can work out the only way to import printed music into it is the way you do it.
 
I was put off by this statement on their web page: *3rd party microphones (including built-in computer microphones) are not supported in SmartMusic

Hi Jimmy, I was worried too, but I went ahead and bought it anyway. It works with my Telefunken and Rode mics (in fact any mic that runs through my sound interface), even with my Logitech headset meant for phone calls. Not supported often simply means "if you have a technical problem with an unsupported mic, we can't help you"; since there are thousands of different mics out there.
 
I have realised that there is a trial version. Install the regular version and on the screen that asks for login and password there is a trial button. I have not tried it.
 
I've been using smart music for several weeks now. I've been working on the sight reading exercises for about an hour a day. Just when you think your timing is good using a metronome by yourself.... This shows you all your mistakes. lol. I don't let myself go to the next exercise with out scoring 100%. I can tell already my timing is getting better because I'm starting to get past some on the first try.
 
I have just spent some time exploring the trial version of Smart Music, it seems to have all the features of the full version, but limits access to music to about a dozen pieces of a variety of genres.
I would encourage those of you who are not sure about it to give the trial version a go.
 
I have just spent some time exploring the trial version of Smart Music, it seems to have all the features of the full version, but limits access to music to about a dozen pieces of a variety of genres.
I would encourage those of you who are not sure about it to give the trial version a go.

Thanks Rob, when I have a bit of time I am keen to look at this :)

Jx
 
I've finally got around to signing up to this to help with my timing but now find there is hardly anything for soprano and whilst I know I can play tenor parts, as the notes are not at the right pitch they are all red so even if I get the timing right it won't help.....

If anyone has come across any sop pieces let me know but searching doesn't appear to bring anything up or is there a setting I can change?

Guess I'll have to get the alto out but I really wanted to concentrate on sop

Jx
 
Update may have just find some, different way of searching, I'll report back :)

Jx
 

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