Week 40 - Finishing a replication of a piano piece using Sibelius.

1. Stuff done this week


 Finished working on a song called Lay Me Down. Last thursday I presented it to the band and started to arrange it together. Great to have the other instruments coming together.
I used a rather odd chord in the bridge : C#DAE. Either this is an suspended D chord with a C# in the bass, or an A major (AC#E) chord with an added D. I am not sure how to make sense of this, but musically I think it sounds good. I like the tinge of dissonance.

 Found some old footage from a radio show with my band:
Radio interview "De Mannen van Maandag"
I've worked through the examples in the OCA course. One of them is a "beaming" exercise.
This is my solution, and it is - clever me - also the correct answer!



The music theory exercise up till now are not difficult; it makes me feel good, that I am starting to get an elementary grasp of reading music.

 So, using all my Sibelius skills learned so far, I worked on my first assignment for the Music Foundations course I am following at OCA.

2. Listening done this week

Studied flatpicking/crosspicking for mandolin. This rather challenging technique was introduced to the mandolin by Jesse McReynolds. Here is an example of his playing style (0:42). It is a mandolin trying to emulate the sound of a banjo, causing an impressive flurry of notes.


Here you see him demonstrate the basics of his mandolin style:


I found a great documentary with a technical perspective on this picking style, with some great footage of virtuoso guitarist Doc Watson. Amazing what this man can achieve with just a humble flat pick. Apparently Watson's ability to flat pick complicated fiddle tunes at fiddle speeds, entirely without the aid of fingers, was the "Big Bang" moment in bluegrass lead guitar.




3. What I learned


Below is an extract of a piano piece by Haydn. Using what I learned from Nickol (2008), Taylor (2014) and the OCA course material, I annotated this fragment.

Project 2: Recognising features in a score

Below my replication of a score by Bach, using Sibelius music writing software:


Replication of a piano piece using Sibelius
So that's finished! I trust this is an accurate transcription.





4. Sources

NICKOL, P. (2008) Learning To Read Music, How to make sense of those mysterious symbols and bring music alive, 3rd edition, London: Robinson.

 TAYLOR, E. (2014) The AB Guide to Music Theory, 22nd edition, London: ABRSM (Publishing) Ltd.

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