Welcome to our 3rd monthly edition of Gracenotes - the Sibelius USA newsletter to Sibelius enthusiasts in the North, Central and South Americas. We experienced email server problems in September, so that issue was skipped. We appear to be back on track now, and apologize to anyone who was inconvenienced. The intention of Gracenotes is to keep our readers informed of upcoming events, software updates and other news items concerning Sibelius, our products and the people using them. If you'd like to read past issues, they are now archived at www.sibelius.com/gracenotes/. Please use the same URL if you'd like to change your email preferences or send it to any friends or colleagues who'd also like to get on our monthly list.

In our last issue we touched on the amazing work of the teachers and students at the Vermont MIDI Project. The response was overwhelming, and so this month we're taking a look at another group of pedagogical trailblazers at the Colorado Suzuki Institute. They have found that children can grasp and champion music theory concepts and principles much earlier than many of us thought - much earlier.

As a member of the Sibelius community, you are in a league of musical giants. And every month we try to find a few who don't mind a bit of scrutiny. This month we're checking in with Sibelius users Phil Woods (yes, that Phil Woods) and film composer Bruce Broughton. We're enormously proud to be associated with the efforts of these two amazing artists and hope you'll take a moment to learn more about their latest contributions.

The Hints & Tips column has become a favorite of Gracenotes readers. We've archived a number of short but super-helpful PDF's for users to save and/or print out for their convenience. This month we've added: Creating Worksheets, Handouts & Tests, and Formatting & Layout for Sibelius users, and for the G7 users out there, we've added Getting Started, and Basic Shortcuts.

Please let us know of topics you'd like to see more or less of. We can be emailed at gracenotes@sibelius.com. The hundreds of emails we've received to date are fantastically positive and supportive of our efforts - and I'd like to thank you all for taking the time to write.

- Mark Ruch, Gracenotes Editor

Can You Imagine ...

5 and 6 year-olds learning music theory?

Rebekah, a 6 year old violin student from Grand Forks, North Dakota practices music theory with the Musition software program.

 

The Colorado Suzuki Institute, which meets yearly in June in Snowmass, decided to try something unusual this year - they set up a computer lab with a site license for the Musition and Auralia software programs from the Sibelius Educational Suite. They then integrated the use of the self-guided software training modules with the traditional group classroom practices to help the students not only learn music notation, but fairly advanced music theory as well.

We at Sibelius were pretty astonished to witness these classes – having always felt that the theory and ear training courses available in Musition and Auralia were most suitable for Junior High and High School level students. And the enthusiastic responses from parents at the conclusion of the program bordered on ecstatic. Even parents who were initially skeptical about the presence of computers responded favorably when asked to evaluate the program at its conclusion.

WOW! I went into this class not happy with the idea of my son “playing with a computer” instead of doing violin. Boy, was I wrong. He learned so much about music reading and theory and he loved every minute of it! There was a great balance between “circle time” and “computer time”, and the class time seemed too short because the children were so engaged and learned so much! … a great job in untested waters with a group of 5 and 6 year-olds.

-- Parent of a Suzuki student who attended the Colorado Suzuki Institute this past June.

To learn more about this exciting project and download the case study, please go to: sibeliususa.com/imagine/suzuki

 

Can you imagine new and better ways to help educate the next generation of music students? We want to know your thoughts on this matter and urge you to share them with us. Please go to: www.sibelius.com/imagine

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Featured Sibelius Users

Phil Woods

 

The legendary Phil Woods has just released a new CD entitled "This is how I feel about Quincy", through Jazzed Media. As you might infer, the CD is an homage to legendary composer/arranger Quincy Jones - the title itself being a riff on the Jones l956 LP called This Is How I Feel About Jazz. Joining Phil on this new release is Phil's Little Big Band that includes Brian Lynch on trumpet and Bill Charlap on piano. Visit the Jazzed Media site to listen to sample tracks and learn more: www.jazzedmedia.com/cds.cfm?p=158&page=product&product_id=144

Phil is one of the giants of bebop, and those of you who follow Jazz will know the "voice" of Phil's Alto Sax as one of the most distinct and influential in modern music. It wouldn't do justice to provide a synopsis of Phil's bio, but you can learn some of the details here: www.philwoods.com/philbio.htm. Suffice it to say that Phil's played with most of the biggest names in Jazz and even if you're not a fan of the genre, I can almost guarantee that you're still familiar with Phil's playing. He has not only been on every Jazz great's A-list of Alto players. He's also been featured on some Pop classics such as Billy Joel's Just the Way You Are, Steely Dan's Dr. Wu, and the joyous romp of a sax solo at the closing of Paul Simon's Have a Good Time.

Aside from a technique and facility with his instrument that is absolutely staggering, it's Phil's insistence on re-living "the joy of the first couple of notes you ever played" that has propelled one sublime performance after another for well over 50 years now. Whether exploring this five-time Grammy Award winner's work as a soloist, bandleader, composer, or arranger, we encourage you to visit the Phil Woods website: www.philwoods.com

Phil is also making excellent use of Sibelius Scorch technology - making lead sheets, big band and little big band charts available for sample and purchase on his website. www.philwoods.com/leadsheets.html

Bruce Broughton Wins Ninth Emmy

We'd like to congratulate Sibelius user Bruce Broughton, who has won the Emmy Award for Eloise at Christmastime in the category of Outstanding Composition for a Miniseries, Movie or Special. Bruce has been nominated 21 times and this is his ninth Emmy.

One of the most versatile working composers, Bruce Broughton writes in every medium, from theatrical motion pictures, television and computer games to the concert stage, in styles ranging from large symphonic settings to contemporary electronic scores. His first major film score, a broad orchestral canvas for Lawrence Kasdan’s western Silverado, brought him an Oscar nomination. His very next assignment, a classically styled score for Barry Levinson’s Young Sherlock Holmes, resulted in a Grammy nomination for the soundtrack album.

Mr. Broughton's website hosts dozens of audio clips, and if you have a moment, it's absolutely worth taking a listen to some of these. Please go to: www.brucebroughton.com/listen/listen.html. And if you have an additional moment, you might also indulge in a sampling of his concert pieces as well: www.brucebroughton.com/concertwork/concertwork.html.

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Upcoming Shows and Events

If we're in your neck of the woods, please drop by and see us. Here are the events we'll be attending in October and November, 2004:

 

Sibelius User Survey - Tech Support

Have you used the Sibelius Tech Support services in the past year or two? Would you mind sharing your experience and observations with us? We realize that our software is only useful if our users can install it and run it successfully. Tech Support plays a large and demanding role in that equation, and your feedback will help us meet that demand.To take the Sibelius Tech Support Survey, please click here

P.S. This is a repeat of the August survey - which we thought we'd extend for an additional month. If you've already taken the survey, thank you, there's no reason to take it again.

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Hints & Tips for Sibelius Users

Each month Robin Hodson (Eastern Region Manager for Sibelius) presents some quick hints on getting your engraving and notating work done with the minimum of fuss.

Here are some PDF documents that you can download, print and use to help get you started and moving quickly on Sibelius 3. You may require Adobe Reader to view these documents.

NEW this month!
Creating Worksheets, Handouts & Tests - twenty steps you can follow to create worksheets and handouts in Sibelius, and Formatting & Layout - twenty steps for easily formatting your score in Sibelius.

Download the printable PDF versions of Robin's useful guides, click here

Hints & Tips for G7 Users

We are proud to introduce Hints & Tips for G7, created by Bruce Munson (Western Region Manager for Sibelius). You’ll find quick hints on getting to know G7 and starting a score. There are also keyboard shortcuts that make it even faster and easier to get your musical inspirations into G7.

NEW this month!
Getting Started - Quick tips for new users to help you find your way around G7 Kontakt Edition and Basic Shortcuts - Speed up the creative process. Get your ideas into G7 more quickly by using these (computer) keyboard shortcuts.

Download the printable PDF versions of Bruce's useful guides, click here

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Upcoming Training Sessions

Are you interested in learning more about Sibelius 3? We will be offering full-day training sessions in many locations around the U.S. over the next several months. We offer two types of sessions: Sibelius – Beginning, and Sibelius - Intermediate/Advanced.

Training Schedule

Date	Time	Location	Training session
11/20/04	9am–4pm	MTSU Murfeesburo, TN	Sibelius – Beginning
12/4/04	10am - 5pm	Brooklyn College Brooklyn, NY	Sibelius – Intermediate/Advanced
12/11/04	9am – 4pm	Villanova University Villanova, PA	Sibelius – Intermediate/Advanced

For more information, or to reserve your space, please visit: www.sibelius.com/training

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