This is a followup to my previous blog about sheet music apps for the iPad.

My favorite and the app I use the most for viewing sheet music is still forScore. If you don’t like it, another good one is unrealBook.

In addition to creating music, I also teach lessons, mostly piano, but also composition & theory lessons. Here are some apps I find useful for one or more of my musical endeavors, whether teaching, performing or creating. Some of these will also work on the iPhone while others are only for the iPad.

dbVolume – not really music, but it measures the db level of any sound source.

FinaleSong – If you use the Finale notation program, you might find this useful. (I wish there was a similar free app for Sibelius)

iRig MIDI recorder – This app could be a lot better but it allows you to record MIDI using the iRig MIDI adapter. If you could move existing midi files from your computer to it via itunes I’d find it helpful. I find that the iRig MIDI adapter tends to slip out of the iPad if there’s the least bit of motion in the iPad or the midi cables. But for free, it’s helpful if you don’t need a full-blown midi sequencer or DAW just to record MIDI.

iTalk Record  and Pocket Wave – for recording my piano students during lessons to give them more feedback about their playing. The built-in camera app is good for video of performances.

from Wikipedia

MIDI Monitor & MIDI Wrench – for troubleshooting midi connections

miniSynth2 – a nice 2 Oscillator synth with some nice features

Musical Terms – a dictionary of musical terms, with an option to hear an Italian speaker say them. (I forget if it just does Italian).

Pitch Invasion – a neat video arcade game that helps teach ear training

SampleTank Free – Another disappointment from IK Multimedia, but I guess for free I shouldn’t expect more. A 4-track only (even in the full paid version) sequencer. Contains a variety of sounds & loops. Can use with or without the iRig MIDI adapter. But really, only 4 tracks and again no way to transfer midi files from my computer to the app? Decent if you need to put together a sequence and you don’t have anything else to use.

Sound Brush – An interesting way to compose music. Useful for teaching purposes.

TouchOSC – If you use a DAW or musical instrument software (like Reaktor), this is is nice. It turns your iPad into a hardware controller. Depending on how you set it up and what you’re trying to control, you can use OSC or MIDI for the controlling. It is easy to design your own control templates. Since you already spent a lot of money on the iPad, why spend more buying a hardware controller when this can pretty much do what you want for around $5?

Native Instruments Komplete Ultimate

FM 8 (Photo credit: matt.searles)

For those that might be new to the world of creating music all on your computer or new to the world of synthesis and sampling, I thought a brief mention of what I use would be in order. There are many very good comparable products available from many sources, but for the cost, the unified look & feel and overall quality, I really like Native Instruments and their products. If you want everything, then Komplete Ultimate 9 is the one to get. You can spend years playing around and putting this software to use. It is pricey, but consider it a worthwhile investment, especially if you anticipate making money from your music or as an educational investment. But, if you don’t want to spend that much, individual parts are available.

The main components:

• Kontakt – Sampler and playback. Includes a lot of ‘default’ sounds in addition to libraries mentioned below
• Reaktor – A modular synthesizer with lots of instruments and, best of all, the ability to create your own instruments.
• Massive – wavetable synthesizer, great for bass and leads
• Absynth – semi-modular, great for pads and abstract sounds
• FM8 – FM synthesizer and more
• Battery 4 – A drum sampler, player than can be used for more than just drums
• Guitar Rig 5 – A creative effects rack with 17 amps & cabinets, 54 effects and lots of capability

With just the above programs and their factory content, you can do more than enough to get really great sounds. Kontakt & Reaktor are the main ‘engines’ on which most of the rest of the content relies.

With Kontakt, there various libraries that come with Ultimate (or are available separately). Those include Strings & Cinematic libraries like Session Strings, Session Horn, Session Strings Pro, Damage, Evolve and Evolve Mutations 1 & 2. If you want to do anything for TV, Film, video games or just generally dramatic music, these are great. For retro sounds there is Retro Machines MK2. There are several drum packages in the Abbey Road series including Vintage, 60′s, 70′s, 80′s & modern drummer. There is also a Studio drummer. These drum packages give you drum kits, thousands of midi grooves and effects appropriate to those eras. To round out the drums, there is a West African drum collection, Balinese gongs and samples from Maschine. If that weren’t enough, there are several electric bass instruments and guitar. Finally, there are keyboard libraries. These include classic rock organ (B3), several grand pianos, upright pianos, including The Giant, electric pianos, retro keyboards, and a soul loop library.

With Reaktor, the instruments included are: Razor, a great additive synth; Reaktor Prism, a modal synth; Reaktor Spark, a dynamic subtractive synth; Skanner XT, part synth, part sampler; Monark, a new analog emulation similar to a mini-moog. Remember, these are just the added libraries that come with Reaktor. Reaktor itself has hundreds of synths, samplers, sequencers & effects including in the base package.

On top of all of that, NI includes numerous effects as plug-ins ready to be inserted into your DAW. (It should be noted that many of the above products include versions of these plug-ins as part of their implementations). These include a variety of solid state and tube emulations of compressor/limiters, EQ, reverb, gates, transient master, driver (distortion & filter effect), The Finger & The Mouth for live performance or studio manipulation of sound; and Reflektor, another reverb.

If you’re just getting started and don’t want to invest in all of these sounds just yet, I would recommend either Kontakt or Reaktor depending on your interest. If you want to design your own synths and get into the world of sound design, then go with Reaktor. If playback and maybe taking sounds you already have and making into an instrument is for you, then Kontakt. Each of these are available in a free versions with limits on what you can do with them. But, they do come with sounds that can be used in a production. Think of them as demos to get your feet wet before deciding what to do.

As to learning about them, the manuals that come with Ultimate are pretty good. There are also videos from various sources. I have some on my YouTube channel (as shown below). I also like Groove3.com for their tutorial series.

In addition to the tips you can find on my YouTube channel, I offer this. To start with, for the synths, take any piece of music you are familiar with, load it into your favorite midi sequencer or midi track of your DAW and start assigning different instruments to it. For effects, use an audio track with GuitarRig or the plugins. Mess around with the various knobs on the software and/or use automation in your DAW in order to vary the sounds. Personally, I use the Reaper DAW. Great for the price and great for what it can do.

I’ve been using Ultimate 9 since it came out and am very impressed with it. As an updater from a previous version, I think there are just enough new products included to make the upgrade worthwhile (assuming you didn’t buy any of the libraries when they came out individually over the past year or so). The effects package and Battery 4 definitely deserve a good going through.

Enjoy..

The dedication recital for this organ is scheduled for Sunday, May 19, 2013 at 2:00 pm. If you are reading this after that date, there may be other articles here or videos on YouTube about that recital. John Lowe from Holy Trinity Episcopal in Gainesville, Florida will be the organist for that program.

The audio was recorded using the direct line-out jacks located under the organ console. I recommend listening with headphones.

If you are ever in Micanopy, Florida (near Gainesville), stop by for services at 11:00am on Sundays and most Wednesdays at 6:00pm to hear the organ in services. I am also there on Tuesday (early) and Thursday (late) afternoons practicing. Feel free to stop by then as well.

The music used for the background is from my album Scenes, available on CD baby, iTunes and GooglePlay

Micanopy, Florida: Micanopy Historic District: Church of the Mediator. (Photo credit: Wikipedia)

Just a heads up to what’s going on in the Micanopy, Florida music scene. While church music and organs in particular may seem out of date or just boring, musically speaking, that’s not always the case. It depends on the instrument and the persons playing them.

The Church of the Mediator is getting a new digital/sampled organ with sound modules. The musical variety possible is far more than you probably hear in most churches. As soon as the install is done and everything is done, I’ll have a detailed look at the new instrument. For now, here’s a short teaser video showing only a fraction of its capabilities. (Remember, the audio is recorded on an iPad. It sounds far better in person). And no, that isn’t me in the video, that’s Peter of Church Organ Concepts doing some basic voicing for the temporary install.

If you are an organist who would like to play this instrument, even give a concert some day, please let me know.

Have you heard the story that says that black slaves in early America were only allowed to play the 5 black notes found on a piano? Have you heard that most spirituals only use five notes in their melodies? Have you heard that because blacks could only play black keys that’s why spirituals have 5 notes in the melody? Is this starting to sound a bit silly? I hope so.

There are some very well meaning people spreading email rumors exactly like this. They reference a video by a supposedly respected individual who apparently makes a convincing argument that the above crazy thinking is actually true. He uses the popular American hymn Amazing Grace to prove his point.

I got one of those emails forwarded to me by someone who apparently took the video and the story very seriously. Here are my thoughts on the whole subject. Does the idea that blacks would be restricted to using just black notes on the piano make any sense at all? Of course not. In doing a bit of research, this or similar stories have been around on the internet since 2007. Other blog writers have also offered their opinions, with facts to back it up, that the whole idea is crazy. One author said it reminded him of the Penn & Teller show with a name I won’t repeat here. (You know what I’m talking about).

First off, John Newton didn’t write the music to Amazing Grace, he wrote the words. The tune is an early American melody, pre-1750 (not at all associated with blacks), original composer(s) unknown. So, first problem.

Throughout the world, as far back as there is a record of written music, or folk music being passed down from generation to generation, composers have used what is known as the pentatonic scale. A 5 note scale.  Much English, Irish & Scottish music, the bulk of the population in early America, uses a pentatonic scale. It so happens that playing the five black notes on the piano – and there are only 5 unique black notes (7 white) – will result in a pentatonic scale being played. As with much folk music, Amazing Grace is based on a pentatonic scale. A fair amount of The Sacred Harp titles are also pentatonic. You can also play a pentatonic scale on the piano using just white notes (CDEGA). Sometimes you may hear the pentatonic scale referred to as the ‘slave scale’ but that is not musically accurate. It is just a colloquial saying.

Nobody knows the exact history of spirituals but one leading idea is that the slaves in the plantations would be encouraged to sing happy and tonal songs while doing their farming related tasks. One person would sing a phrase, then everyone else would respond. This is known as ‘call and response.’ Sometimes everyone would sing at the same time and as is likely to happen, the spirituals got more complex over time. But, the important thing is that there was no piano around out in the fields. Spirituals were rarely sung with piano accompaniment, or for that matter any accompaniment. Since spirituals weren’t written using the piano, regardless of which notes blacks played on the piano, it would have no bearing on the history of spirituals or on the way the spirituals were composed. That should completely debunk the email.

Some people may take issues with the following, but I think there is at least some truth in it. One popular tradition holds that the slaves, mostly via west Africa, brought their own music with them to the new world and that became what we call spirituals, blues, jazz and even rock & roll. It makes sense that the slaves used what they knew musically. However, there was such a mix of different tribes that it is unlikely that any single tribe or region’s traditions were ever a part of the new world (other than in isolated situations) and even if it was, it was for only a very short amount of time. Not enough time to be of much influence. But where I disagree is the argument that spirituals and even blues were a unique invention based mostly on African music and solely the result of black musicians. From my albeit limited knowledge of west African music, that doesn’t make any sense. I see so much European music in spirituals, jazz, blues and rock & roll, etc. that I have to argue that the bulk of what is called ‘black’ music owes most of its existence to European music. Perhaps the slaves heard the European music and were influenced by it more than European music being influenced by African music. When I hear spirituals, jazz or blues or even rock & roll, I hear mostly European sounds. Just look at the harmonic structure, it definitely isn’t African, it’s more like Mozart or Beethoven. Maybe a small amount is non-European. But the common thinking that if it weren’t for black musicians we wouldn’t have jazz or rock & roll is ludicrous to my ears. What makes more sense is that the resulting sound was a merging of musical ideas into a new style. It took both black and white musicians to make what we know know as jazz, blues or rock & roll. But most of it is European music.

Much of the world’s ‘folk’ music is written in pentatonic scales, not just spirituals. So, the whole idea that slaves could only play black notes on the piano makes no sense. Plus, pianos weren’t used for writing spirituals. Finally, not all spirituals are played on just five notes of the piano.

Those are my thoughts on the subject. I may be wrong on just how much influence African music has had on early American (European) music. But, nobody knows for sure. I do know that the idea that slaves could only play on black notes of the piano is just silly.

The background

For better or for worse, one of the better gigs as a musician I’ve had over the years is playing the organ or piano for churches. I currently play for a small (less than 50) congregation that is extremely generous to the music program and really likes music and singing music.

The church decided, with a little encouragement from me, to replace their 1987 Rodgers organ with something better. After considering, and rejecting a pipe organ due to lack of space and money for the size instrument they want, they decided to go with sampled/digital technology. It is fully MIDI capable. In addition to the great pipe organ sounds in the organ already, it makes the organ into a midi controller. I have a volume pedal, CC#7, 2 manuals and 1 pedalboard (transmitting on channels 1, 2 & 4, 3 is left for their other model that has 3 manuals). It also sends program change messages from #1 to #40. It has MIDI Out, In and Thru capabilities too.

We also have an organ sound module hooked up via midi as well as an older Korg orchestral module via the midi thru in the organ module.

The need

Since I have an iPad, I would like an app that can play a midi sequence, just a sequence, no sounds. It could send the sequence via something like the iRig midi interface. I would also need to buy some sort of midi interface for the ipad so any suggestions on that are welcome too. The end result is that I could program or play a sequence not only for the organ but for the orchestral sound module. The sequence could have the data for the orchestral module on midi channels that aren’t used by the organ. (The organ sound module uses the same channels as the organ). While it is nice to control the orchestral module from the organ, sometimes I don’t want it to duplicate what the organ is doing. Thus, have the iPad send data on channels 5-16 to trigger the orchestral module, while I play the organ and have it trigger itself and the organ module on channels 1-4.

I’ve looked through the app store and there are lots of sequencers that trigger sounds that are on the iPad. There are some sequencers that only seem to work on one midi channel or those that don’t provide enough information in their descriptions to tell me if it does what I want. I don’t really have time to go through all the free midi apps to see if they do what I want and I’m certainly not going to pay for anything unless I know it does what  want.

Obviously, being able to program or record the sequence on my home computer and transfer to the ipad would be a need. Also, being able to record the organ onto the iPad would be ideal too.

Any help is appreciate.

Thanks

for those wanting to become musicans, or improve their musicianship

Conclusion

I hope this Introduction to Music series has been helpful. While it is obviously not a comprehensive look at all there is to music notation and music theory, if you know this stuff, you have a great amount of tools to help you as either a performer or composer, no matter the style of music.

I have a number of YouTube videos that cover a range of music topics, some duplicating what was in this series, but many that go beyond this series. Here are a few below for you to take a look at.

To see and hear how I’ve used my musical knowledge, you can download any of our sheet music for Free at the website. I also have six albums (as of January 2013) available on GooglePlay, Amazon, iTunes and CD Baby.

If you would care to make a donation to help in my efforts with free content – blogs, videos and sheet music – your Donation is most appreciated.

Introduction to Piano Lessons and general music theory

Introduction to Chords

A Review of iPad Apps of help for musicians

12-tone, Dodecaphonic Composition Overview

Scales and Modes

Some Sibelius (notation software) Tips

Making another Arrangement using Sibelius

Making an Organ arrangement in Sibelius

I hope you enjoyed this. Your comments and questions are welcome here or via the contact page on the website.

Back in 2011 I did a YouTube video showing the Animator function of Session Strings Pro. It was a quick overview and not terribly detailed.

At the request of a few people, I’ve come back to the Animator to take a more detailed look. The video is intended as a starting off point for you to be able to use the Animator function yourself.

 

Please consider subscribing to the YouTube channel and checking out our website

for those wanting to become musicans, or improve their musicianship

Scales and Modes

Rather than a long blog article about scales, I’ll point you to a video I did on YouTube about scales and modes. I’ve added a few things below the video, so come back here when you’re done with the video.

Types of scales and modes

There are basically 2 types of scales, Major and Minor that are used the most. The Minor scale has 3 variations. As to modes, which are used less often, there are 7, one for each letter used in music. The Major scale is also known as the Ionian mode while the Minor scale is also known as the Aeolian scale. There are of course, other scales, from blues to whole-tone that are used less often.

One of the easiest ways to remember the correct order of the various scales is by the half-steps, whole-steps order between the notes. Here’s a list:

Major:
whole whole half whole whole whole half
(C-D) (D-E) (E-F) (F-G) (G-A) (A-B) (B-C)

Minor:

Natural: whole half whole whole half whole whole
Harmonic: whole half whole whole half whole+half half (note augmented 2nd from 6 to 7)
Melodic: whole half whole whole whole whole half (Ascending ONLY)

Dorian:
whole half whole whole whole half whole

Phrygian:
half whole whole whole half whole whole

Lydian:
whole whole whole half whole whole half

Mixolydian:
whole whole half whole whole half whole

Locrian:
half whle whole half whole whole whole