Music resources

III

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This sticky thread is a place for everyone to post links / advice about music resources (online lessons, scale generators, mp3 hosting sites, recording software, etc.) We’ve had some great threads about this in the past, so I’ll try to dig through and port some of the posts here. Thanks for this idea Nolita and RugCat!
 

truelyana

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This is neat. I have a couple of websites to add, to help.

http://www.freebyte.com/music/#free_lessons -Resources and websites of anything music related.
http://www.mysheetmusic.com - Music sheet's of various instruments
http://www.lessons4you.com - Free online learning lessons
http://www.music-scores.com/ - Classical Music sheets
http://www.8notes.com - Free music and online lessons online. You will need to register to gain access to some lessons, they offer a forum too which helps.
http://ezmusic4u.com - Keyboard online lessons. You can download free sheets, you must register with them first though.
http://www.tabs4acoustic.com - Acoustic guitar tabs, chords and songs for the acoustic guitar.

These are my personal favourites, If I find some more, I'll be sure to post them. :)
 
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III

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Here are some old posts that were very helpful.

I know there are software programs that use a keyboard, so i can't believe there's not something similar for the guitar. I think Guitar Pro has a midi interface.

But speaking as a musician who had to learn to read and write music later in life, some music theory lessons would be the best investment imaginable. (Although at twelve, I doubt he'll see it that way.)

Not learning music is sort of like not learning grammar and then using a grammar software program to put your novel into readable form.

Music theory, not necessarily classical theory, but something more targeted toward rock and jazz, including writing and reading music, is an invaluable knowledge base that expands musical possibilities beyond those basics.

A lot of the top rock musicians are now graduates of places like the Berklee College of Music. And if you ever want to play jazz, reading music is pretty much a necessity even though it's all about improvisation. And just like learning a language, it's a lot easier to learn at twelve than it is at thirty.

If you had a Roland guitar synth pickup, you might be able to do it with guitarpro. Otherwise, nope.

If the kid doesn't want to learn music, then a good idea for saving these songs might be a small digital recording . . . thingy. Boss makes some. I think they have one that has like rhythm samples and stuff, and you can record tracks over it and whatnot, and there are also the straight multi track recorders.

Better to just learn music though. Actually, I can read and write music, albeit very slowly, and I haven't transcribed any of my songs. I just remember it all. I think a lot of unschooled guitarists rely on memory.

There are guitar-to-MIDI converters, but they're only 'perfect' for 'perfect players. You might want to read my post here, as well as the rest of the thread:
http://www.absolutewrite.com/forums/showpost.php?p=1348425&postcount=13

There's plenty of computer programs and things for helping to learn music and musical instruments in general, though they don't neccesarily do exactly what you describe. I recall seeing some "learn guitar" software at the local Fry's Electronics, I would think that would be useful, and hopefully he hasn't "gone beyond" the level where it would help him learn something. Use Google to see what's available, and I hope you don't become bewildered by all the choices.

If you want to splurge, I'd suggest also getting him some "learn keyboard" software and an inexpensive MIDI musical keyboard. It's always good to at least be familiar with another instrument (be sure to say you just want to expand his horizons, you're not trying to steer him away from guitar), AND learning piano/keyboard will strongly increase the chance he will learn to read sheet music.

Also, he would surely enjoy some multitrack audio recording software (I'd just tell him to download Audacity and see how he likes it - maybe you could DL it yourself and give him a CD-R of it.:)) would be fun, he could record tracks and 'play along' with himself, making layered music that he couldn't do without the computer (or a multitrack or "four-track cassette" recorder which is virtually obsolete thesedays). The only drawback is that a recording is then "in a tangible form" that he can always refer to and listen back, and he may be less inclined to learn to do sheet music.

Hello??? Everybody??? He's 12 and yeah, learning to read music will help a lot. But in the now...

It's so obvious...

The kid's gotta learn how to read and write TABS! Those handy-dandy little charts that kinda look like sheet music but with numbers instead of half-notes, quarter-notes, whole-notes, etc. Don't play dumb with me. You know what they are.

Here's what I'm gonna do. Gonna give ya some links. Nothing out of this world, nothing pricey. In fact everything I'm sharing is 100% free. Site number one(and this is key, because this specific page names all the strings from thinnest to thickest which is exactly how we read and write TABS) http://justinguitar.com/html/general_html/StringNames.html Very important. Let him use that site and it's resources. It will get him on the right track in the now(while still searching for a good private teacher or software). It also has lessons on music technique, and transcription. It's pretty darned cool, and not just saying that because it's my main site for lessons ;). BTW I'm still a beginner, but this stuff well, it's out there, just gotta look for it ya know?

Now for the second link. http://power-tab.net Here's a screenshot of this freeware application http://www.power-tab.net/images/ptev17_800x600.gif See there? If he can write TABS for his songs, then he can use the app to translate the TAB to well, for lack of a better word, musical notation(though TAB's a form of that and I'll get teased for this bit). You know, the music notes we're all used to seeing. Every Good Boy Does Fine Eventually -- those notes. Yeah?

So now he's got everything to help him immediately. Doesn't have to learn everything all at once, just a couple of simple things yeah? Then he uses the music notes software linked to on Justin's site to practice sight reading music :D. He'll get the hang in his own time, no worries :).

For what it's worth, there used to be a program called Finale that used to do exactly what you're looking for (I think), but you would need a MIDI interface for the guitar (as was mentioned before). Of course, that was many years ago, so I'm not sure if it still exists. I think it was also a Mac-only program, but I don't remember that either.
 
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rugcat

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Supload is a simple audio hosting site that requires no registration. Click on the site, and then click browse (much like photobucket for pictures) to locate the file you want to upload from your computer. Upload, and the song is assigned a specific url address. (bookmark to find again) You can than post the url as a link to anywhere, like to AW.

Sound is excellent --here's an example.
 

WarrenP

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Since this thread seems to be music resources, in general, including JRH's previous good posting, I'll add one I've been working with that is in a different direction.

My writing is in screenplays, and I am building the foundations of a Production Company. I'm also working on a documentary about home theaters, and needed some good backgroud music. I didn't want to buy a canned royalty-free song, I wanted a bit more creative options.

What I found is a Sony product called Cinescore. It gives you starting themes, styles, tempos, etc... and then you can modify those starting points to suit your needs. Overall I'm very pleased with this product.

As a music resource, it allows you to score a film/video without sounding like looped music. I think it is a great product, and one I'm using lots.

Link to the Cinescore page: Cinescore
 

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If the resource is not perfect the output will also be effected .therefore it must be best.
 

third person

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http://www.mikseri.net/ | Finnish website for amateur musicians. I use it quite a lot to make custom soundtracks in games like Fallout, etc. Them Fins know how to make music! You'll have to translate from Suomi using a translator however.

*Edit: me's a dumdum, I thought this thread was for websites that offer libraries of music to listen to (legally). But nothing's stopping you from using it as a hosting site as well!
 

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http://www.wikiloops.com/

Basically, Wikiloops.com is THE GOLDMINE of online music creation.
What i mean by this is, it's a 100% free-to-use online jam session page.

there's thousands of musicians world wide, positing tons and tons of copyright-free material on a daily basic.
sound quality ranges from anywhere between professional sound engineer quality, to pretty much recorded on a toaster from 1950.

i highly suggest you to go there, and read what they have to offer. you will not regret it!