I love Ligeti

Poème Symphonique For 100 Metronomes
After seeing a performance of his music while in New York with Molly, I've been an ardent fan.

Free Sheet Music & Saint Louis Symphony Educational Videos

Free sheet music at the Mutopia Project:

The Mutopia Project offers sheet music editions of classical music for free download. These are based on editions in the public domain, and include works by Bach, Beethoven, Chopin, Handel, Mozart, and many others.

Music education videos:

The Saint Louis Symphony Orchestra (SLSO) is proud to introduce the SLSO E-Symphony Series. This program includes educational and inter-active video presentations featuring members of the SLSO. Each video is designed for specific grade levels and focuses on different musical topics, instrument families, and cross curricular elements.

Via Third Division

Never-ending Scales, Practice Sightreading

Shephard Scales--check out this audio illusion:

You may notice that the scale always seems to be going down, but not getting much lower. It’s an auditory equivalent of an old-fashioned barber pole. But how is it possible in a sound pattern?

Practice Sightreading

Rhythm is the most important part of sight reading. If you play wrong notes but the correct rhythm, you will be in the correct place. If you play the correct notes but the wrong rhythm you will quickly become lost. This site helps musicians improve sight reading by creating random measures of Rhythm. Just choose the time signature, number of measures and the level.

The Secret to Success: Persistence

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Scrollworks Piano Students Perform at Hill Elementary

Seven Scrollworks piano students participated in the Hill Elementary Christmas Program this morning. We are so pleased to be part of the Hill family and wish them a wonderful holiday break!

Resume, pls

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You can't rescue people

All three of my dogs are 'rescues'. Darwin came from a breed rescue group. Tesla came from a Walmart parking lot. Libby came from a Girl Scout camp. They have it pretty good at my house. But Libby keeps digging out of the yard to go adventuring. We live a 1/2 block from Highway 31, so this is a dangerous habit. The other day I found her more than a mile away, wet and hungry. Sunday we got a call that she was 3 miles south on Hwy 119. When I arrived at the Boy Scout tree lot to fetch her, she was in hog heaven. They had fed her pizza and cookies and given her tons of love and attention. She got in the car like a movie star entering a limo, not realizing in her doggy brain how very lucky she was to have people who cared about her at both ends of her journey.


I've come to realize that you can't rescue people. They have to do it themselves. All you can do is provide the opportunities. If they choose not to take advantage of those opportunities, no amount of persuasion or hand-wringing will change that. Scrollworks is an opportunity for so many on so many different levels: a chance to learn, a chance to play, a chance to teach, a chance to give. I celebrate those who take what we offer and give it back a thousand fold. I regret with all my heart not offering enough to those who turn away.

A partner in using music to change the world:The Middle East Peace Orchestra

The Middle East Peace Orchestra is a unique collaboration between various ethnic groups of musicians, all connected to the Middle East , playing concerts for peace.

Initiated in 2003 by Henrik Chaim Goldschmidt, the principal oboist of The Royal Danish Orchestra, the orchestra is build up with Arab and Jewish musicians playing the treasure of music from both the great traditions.

The musicians come from Israel, The Palestine Areas, Egypt, Iraq, Syria, Jordan, Lebanon, Scandinavia and USA and are all handpicked virtuosos representing the best of their tradition and furthermore they all have the courage to engage in this project. The musicians are Muslims, Jews and Christians.

The music performed has elements from Jewish "Klezmer", from Middle Eastern "Makam" and from the classical Arab music. The Orchestra has been received with the greatest enthusiasm from both audience and press, since the very first concert.

A Capella : A Gift Exchange

Yesterday when I hopped out of my car to check the MYO mailbox, a tall muscular man approached me, reaching out with a hand holding what looked like a postcard. I thought he might be asking for money--an unfortunate feature of this post office. I always feel bad because I have no money to give--every penny goes to MYO.
The man said, "Tell me about your free music lessons!" So I did. He began to tell me about how all the churches in the area are hungry for musicians. The congregation and choir are singing a capella because the church can't afford to pay $350 a service for accompaniment. He asked for details on Cave9 and I gave him a stack fliers from the Nutcracker performance. He asked how many people we could take at one time. I told him that we have the occasional vanload arrive. He was almost shaking with excitement, asking if he could make copies of the flier. He said he'd bring his 9 year old son down to Cave9 this weekend to check it out. He shook his head and said it was wonderful news. I told him that, yes, it was wonderful and that we'd welcome him, his son and anyone else who walks in the door.
The gifts passing between us were intangible, but as fulfilling and meaningful as any under the tree.

In the holiday spirit

I believe

Jimmy as hRom: Dance or Die

Jimmy Hrom, Director of Programs and Administration, Scrollworks 'enforcer' and guitar teacher extraordinaire, performs music of his own composition on the Nintendo game system.

Stand by Me

From Playing for Change via Idealist.org

'Stick a fork in me, I'm done!' -- a unique graduation announcement

(Click to see a larger image.)
Kim is the creator of Music Snob Trivia at Bottletree--which donates almost weekly to our programs.
Notice who she directs donations to at the end. Thanks, Kim!!

We're Trying!

From the Baltimore Sun via the AfriClassical blog:

Although the classical music arena enjoys a reputation for being a color-blind meritocracy, few blacks perform in the nation's orchestras. Just 1.9 percent of the nation's orchestra musicians were African American during the 2006-2007 season; the most recent report available from the League of American Orchestras; the figure was 1.3 percent in 1994-1995. The Baltimore Symphony Orchestra has one African-American full-time player among 92.

The lack of diversity is increasingly a sore point as barriers come down in other areas, from corporations to Hollywood to the White House. And as the Baltimore Symphony Orchestra and other music institutions push to attract broader audiences in a difficult economy, the need to improve diversity has become more critical.

Brian Eno Believes

Brian Eno speaks about singing, but I believe it applies to instrumental ensembles, too:

When you sing with a group of people, you learn how to subsume yourself into a group consciousness because a capella singing is all about the immersion of the self into the community. That’s one of the great feelings—to stop being me for a little while, and to become us. That way lies empathy, the great social virtue.

Scrollworks at Cave9

Some photos from yesterday's lessons at Cave9. Thanks so much to Craig Hultgren for teaching our strings! And Jason has proven invaluable on drums, guitar, and winds. I can't believe I've known this fine young man since he was in grade school!



The Sigler twins are also real assets to MYO and Scrollworks. Yesterday they looked so handsome in their concert clothes. We appreciate their help teaching sax and trumpet.

YouTube Symphony: You can audition

From the LA Times:

Want to apply? Go to YouTube's symphony channel and download the sheet music for your instrument for the Internet Symphony No. 1 "Eroica," a new work by Chinese composer Tan Dun. Then make a video of yourself playing your part -- and another playing a different composition -- and upload them to YouTube. If you need tutoring, there's a clip of the London Symphony Orchestra performing Tan's piece as well as video master classes from individual players.

Semifinalists will be chosen by judges from some of the world's major orchestras. The final picks will be selected by -- you guessed it -- YouTube viewers. A performance at Carnegie Hall, led by San Francisco Symphony conductor Michael Tilson Thomas, will take place in April.