Gracenotes
Sibelius USA, Inc. Newsletter January 2005
Happy New Year everyone, and welcome to the year's first issue of Gracenotes - our email newsletter to Sibelius enthusiasts in North, Central and South America.
We've just wrapped up a very busy month here at Sibelius, including a big week at the NAMM (International Music Products Association) show, IAJE (International Association of Jazz Educators) and a slew of MEA (Music Educators Association) state and regional conferences. As you peruse the stories below, you'll see that we've also joined forces with the John Lennon Educational Touring Bus, helped Pat Metheny share the score of his latest album release with thousands of fans, and won the 2005 Electronic Musician Editor's Choice Award for Best Notation Software Product. Unlike the Oscars, the EM editors did not require us to make any speeches. If we had been asked, however, we would have simply thanked all of the members of the Sibelius community. We have the most enthusiastic and loyal users imaginable - attributes we can't thank you enough for.
As always we are grateful for your input and encourage you to e-mail us at gracenotes@sibelius.com if you would like to share your thoughts about past, present or future editions of Gracenotes.
Mark Ruch, Sibelius Gracenotes Editor
Sibelius in the Classroom
Sibelius Supports John Lennon Educational Tour Bus
Sibelius is now touring with the John Lennon Educational Tour Bus and is joining the Bus’ current tour of high schools throughout the U.S. The company joins principal sponsors Maxell Corporation, Apple Computer, NAMM, Brian Moore Guitars iGuitar, Edirol, Roland, Audio-Technica and Elixir Strings. Sibelius 3, G7 Kontakt Edition, Auralia, Instruments and Compass will support the on-board music production tools that encourage students to write songs and play music.
The John Lennon Educational Tour Bus is currently on a national High School Battle of the Bands tour, to be followed by dates on the John Legend/Alicia Keys tour, with stops at selected Apple Stores and music retail stores across the country. At each stop, the on-board engineers provide tours and free workshops using the latest and best technology, equipment and instruments. For a complete tour schedule, please visit http://media.jlsc.com/schedule/.
Featured Sibelius Users
Pat Metheny Group Publishes The Way Up Score Using Sibelius Scorch
photo: Jimmy Katz (www.patmethenygroup.com) |
As mentioned in last month's edition of Gracenotes, the Pat Metheny Group has just released its latest album, The Way Up, on the Nonesuch label. Word is getting around in the industry that this continuous 68-minute composition may in fact be Metheny’s best and most ambitious effort to date. It's worth mentioning that the "effort to date" would include some 15 or so Grammy® awards. Clearly, Pat is at the very top of his game.
In order to perform this immensely challenging piece during the upcoming world tour, Pat, co-composer Lyle Mays and bassist Steve Rodby scored The Way Up using Sibelius 3. Pat realized that the Sibelius Scorch player could be used to share the new score with aspiring young players and fans through his website - and decided to publish an excerpt of a Scorch file along with the official album release. The file is currently live and available for download. This means you can not only read and print out the live arrangement, but also listen via MIDI playback as you follow along. We encourage you to visit the Pat Metheny Group website the first chance you get. This is a very impressive piece of work.
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Access and play The Way Up Scorch File
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The Way Up World Tour
The Pat Metheny World Tour is listed on the Travels page of patmethenygroup.com. They will announce additional European dates in the coming weeks.
Orchestrator Kliesch uses Sibelius to merge technology with traditional scoring
Recent Scores Include Garfield and Little Black Book
Kevin Kliesch (R) and composer Christophe Beck (L) take a break during the scoring sessions for Little Black Book, a Brittany Murphy comedy, at Paramount's Scoring Stage M. |
With his seamless marriage of technology and traditional orchestral scoring, Kevin Kliesch has pushed back the boundaries in the genre of motion picture music. Kliesch uses Sibelius as his notation software to orchestrate scores for, most recently, this summer's hit Garfield: The Movie and the Little Black Book, among others.
Kliesch, who names the piano as his main instrument, also taught himself to play the trumpet, flute, oboe, clarinet, bassoon, French horn, trombone and saxophone. “Teaching myself how to play as many instruments as I could helped me immensely when orchestrating, since I learned the idiosyncrasies of each instrument,” says Kliesch. “Also, it's great when I write my own scores, since I don't have to hire any players!”
To continue reading, please go to http://www.sibelius.com/news/press42.html.
Sibelius Winter NAMM 2005 – It’s a Wrap!
Booth 6824 at the Anaheim Convention Center was abuzz during January 20-23 when Sibelius USA held product demonstrations for Sibelius 3.0 (now available in Spanish and French) and G7 Kontakt Edition guitar tablature (which can access a sample library with real sounds including drum and percussion and even burn songs created to CD).
As previously mentioned (see full story above), a press conference was held on Thursday evening announcing Sibelius USA as a co-sponsor of the John Lennon Educational Tour Bus along with Brian Moore Guitars, Edirol, Roland, Audio-Technica and Elixir Strings. The company joins principal sponsors Maxell Corporation, Apple Computer and NAMM. Sibelius 3 notation software, G7 Kontakt, Auralia, Instruments and Compass will support the on-board music production tools for the Bus’ current tour of high schools throughout the U.S. that encourage our nation’s youth to write songs and play music. The press conference was followed by a performance outside the Bus by folk artist Kenny Rankin in front of an amazing crowd!
World Famous Guitarist Adrian Legg
A special guest appearance on Thursday and Friday of the four-day show featured guitarist and G7 supporter, Adrian Legg. Crowds were entertained by the East London-born guitarist. Having established his reputation as a unique and highly technical fingerstyle guitarist with shades of classical, jazz, folk, country and rock coloring his work, Legg has thrived as a live performer, whether appearing solo or with a spectrum of artists that has ranged from Nanci Griffith to Joe Satriani. Responsible for a number of instructional videos and books, he has had a regular presence on National Public Radio's All Things Considered. Guitar Bones, his first album for Steve Vai's Favored Nations acoustic label, was released in early 2003 followed by 2004’s Inheritance. |
Last, but certainly not least, one of the most exciting moments at NAMM was accepting the Electronic Musician Magazine Editors’ Choice Award for Sibelius 3.0. We are quite honored by this award, as it validates the acceptance of Sibelius by our customers, be they educators, professionals, aspiring musicians or students.
Sibelius was among 25 products recognized by the top industry trade publication. Each January, the Editors Choice honors the finest products field-tested by the magazine during the past year. |
Left to right: Peter Maund, Mark Ruch, Steve Oppenheimer, Andres Etchenique, Jeremy Silver, Robin Hodson and Bruce Munson |
Past Issues of Gracenotes - Sign-up and Archive
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Technical Tips for Sibelius Users
Plug-ins in Sibelius 3
Plug-ins are little programs (macros) within programs that add functionality to software. Sibelius 3 comes with around seventy plug-ins, and did you know that many other plug-ins are available as free downloads from www.sibelius.com?
- Boomwacker Note Colors
This plug-in colors noteheads in the color scheme of Boomwackers – great for elementary and general music teachers. This plug-in can be found in the Notes and Rests section of the Plug-ins menu. - Scales and Arpeggios
The Scales and Arpeggios plug-in found in the Other section of the Plug-ins menu is very useful for music teachers. It automatically creates scales or arpeggios sheets based on the teacher’s preferences. The scales or arpeggios can be created in an existing score or worksheet, or they can be created in a new file. - Add Drum Pattern
This is one of our newer plug-ins found in the Composing Tools section of the Plug-ins menu. This plug-in will auto-create a drum part in your score based on your preferences: you can choose from twenty different standard drum grooves including rock, rap, Latin, country and jazz.
More on the website
There are many more plug-ins to download here. Remember, these plug-ins are free. Newly developed or improved existing plug-ins (many created by Sibelius users) are often added to the list, so be sure to visit this page on a regular basis.
The Apply KidSib Font plug-in (found in the Notes & Rests folder) puts note names inside noteheads! To run this plug-in, you do need to purchase the KidSib font ($39.95). There are clear links and instructions to easily purchase and download the font from the Extra Plug-ins page.
A new extra plug-in is the Play Loop plug-in. Found in the Playback folder, this amazing plug-in allows you to set up a playback loop in your score so that you can practice over and over again to the same passage.
Be sure to explore all of the plug-ins that Sibelius 3 has to offer. And… if you are so motivated, check out the Edit Plug-ins section of the Plug-ins menu in Sibelius 3 where you can actually create your own plug-ins! The plug-in language is called Manuscript Language and the PDF tutorial for using the language can be found in the Extras folder within the Sibelius folder (for Windows: My Computer/C Drive/Program Files/Sibelius Software/Sibelius 3/Extras, for Mac: HD/Applications/Sibelius Software/Sibelius 3/Extras).
To access the Plug-ins page in the Sibelius Help Center, please click here.
Hints & Tips for Sibelius Users
Check out our on-line archive for a variety of Sibelius Hints & Tips documents created by Robin Hodson, Eastern Regional Manager for Sibelius. To download these free resources that are available to you, please click here.
Hints & Tips for G7 Users
Check out our on-line archive for a variety of valuable G7 Hints & Tips documents created by Bruce Munson, Western Regional Manager for Sibelius. These references also give quick tips for getting started with G7. To download these resources, please click here.
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 |
3/11-3/12/05 |
Fri: 6-9pm Sat: 8:30-3:30pm |
The Mike Klinger Music Technology Retreat | Sibelius for the beginner For more info, please visit: |
3/12/05 | 9am–4pm | Villanova University Villanova, PA |
Sibelius – Beginning |
3/26/05 | 10am - 5pm | Brooklyn College Brooklyn, NY |
Sibelius – Beginning |
For more information, or to reserve your space, please click here.
Upcoming shows and events
Start | End | Event & Website | City, State | Booth |
2/3 | 2/5 | Ohio Music Educators www.omea-ohio.org |
Cincinnati, OH | Brook Mays |
2/3 | 2/5 | Utah Music Educators umea.byu.edu |
St. George, UT | JW Pepper |
2/10 | 2/12 | Texas Music Educators www.tmea.org |
San Antonio, TX | Sibelius #5097 |
2/17 | 2/19 | Minnesota Music Educators www.mmea.org |
Minneapolis, MN | JW Pepper |
2/18 | 2/20 | MENC - Northwest Division www.menc.org |
Bellevue, WA | JW Pepper |
2/24 | 2/26 | Kansas Music Educators www.ksmea.org |
Wichita, KS | Sibelius |
3/3 | 3/6 | MENC - Eastern Division www.menc.org |
Baltimore, MD | Sibelius |
3/17 | 3/19 | California Music Educators www.calmusiced.com |
Pasadena, CA | JW Pepper |
For a list of more events, please click here.
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Sibelius Sales
1407 Oakland Blvd
Suite 103
Walnut Creek, CA 94596
Fax: 925-280-0008
Email: infoUSA@sibelius.com