My name is Marc Sabatella, and I am the founder of Outside Shore Music - a pioneer of online music education since the dawn of the web. As the creator of Mastering MuseScore, A Jazz Improvisation Primer, and other resources, I have dedicated most of my life to helping as many musicians as I can. Subscribe to my free newsletter for MuseScore tips, theory insights, and more information on how to create your best music!
Bird or Bach?
Hello! I don't know about you, but to me it feels like even more crazy and stressful times than usual in the world lately. Music can help us stay sane and at peace!
BTW, for you all-access members - don't forget today is Tuesday and that's when I have my office hours, 12:30 - 1:30 PM Eastern. So feel to pop in any time during that window if you have a question or want to talk!
MuseScore Café
This week in the MuseScore Café with Marc Sabatella, it's time for our first-Wednesday "Ask Me Anything" session. These are typically pretty fast-paced and cover lots of different topics. Just ask your question in the chat and I'll do my best to answer. If you think I'll need to see your score in order to help, you can attach it to a comment on the post I created in the Community.
The free MuseScore Café is live on Wednesday at 12:30 PM Eastern (16:30 GMT, or 17:30 during the winter months), and you can access past episodes in the archive.
Tip of the Week
MuseScore allows you to place a fermata on a barline, but it won't affect playback, even if you turn up the time stretch in the Inspector. That's because a barline takes zero time, so no matter how much you stretch, it's still zero. But you can get the effect of a pause between measures by adding a caesura from the Breaths and Pauses palette, and you can press "V" to make it invisible. I use this technique a lot in creating educational matertials.
Music Master Class
This week I started a reharmonization challenge and will look at pieces submitted for that.
To lerarn more about harmony and chord progressions, see my online course of the same name!
The free Music Master Class is live on Thursday at 12:30 PM Eastern (16:30 GMT, or 17:30 during the winter months), and you can access past episodes in the archive.
In Theory
Sunday was the birthday of jazz great Charlie Parker (a.k.a. "Bird"). As I've been working on my counterpoint course and looking at lots of Bach, I'm often struck by similar their melodic sense is many ways. So, with that in mind, a fun little quiz, feel free to drop your answer in the community - which of these is Bird, and which is Bach?
Outside Shore Music / Mastering MuseScore
by Marc Sabatella
My name is Marc Sabatella, and I am the founder of Outside Shore Music - a pioneer of online music education since the dawn of the web. As the creator of Mastering MuseScore, A Jazz Improvisation Primer, and other resources, I have dedicated most of my life to helping as many musicians as I can. Subscribe to my free newsletter for MuseScore tips, theory insights, and more information on how to create your best music!
Hello! Thanks for bearing with me over the past week as I was setting up my new studio. While I still have work to do, we should be back to business as usual with respect to my live events.Meanwhile, this week in Practical Counterpoint, we're wrapping up our initial exploration of writing for three or more voices, and in Music Master Class we'll be looking at your projects on this topic. Mastering MuseScore If you are interested in getting the most out of the world's most popular music...
Hello! I wanted to give you a heads up that I am in the process of setting up a new studio, so bear with me if there are any glitches in my live events this week.Meanwhile, this week in the Practical Counterpoint course, we're continuing to expand to three parts and beyond. I'll be posting some new things for us to work on shortly. Mastering MuseScore If you are interested in getting the most out of the world's most popular music notation software, join our community with a Mastering...
Hello! In the Practical Counterpoint course, we're moving on to working with three or more parts, which has implications both for the types of textures and harmonies you can create. One of the most interesting things that should come from this is a realization of just how much of what there is to know about harmony can be learned - and indeed, was originally developed - through the study of counterpoint. Those of you in the course will be experiencing this first-hand, but as always, everyone...