Klarinet Archive - Posting 000010.txt from 2012/01

From: Oliver Seely <oseely@-----.com>
Subj: Re: [kl] Music Minus One
Date: Thu, 05 Jan 2012 10:14:16 -0500


There was a time that Music Minus One might have made it, even though it was meant to be played along with only one instrument and the tempo couldn't be changed without changing the pitch.

Today with MIDI files, all that is behind us. Any MIDI file with multiple instrumentation is Music - X. One or more tracks can be muted and the tempo can be changed with the key remaining constant. My favorite playback program is Master Tracks Pro 6.3, but Cakewalk and many other allow one to mute tracks and to change the tempo. Moreover, Finale, Sibelius and other music notation programs allow the musician to generate MIDI files from the final score. Add to that the availability on the Internet of thousands of free MIDI files and going the old way (Music - 1) just doesn't cut it. Thinking about a group of musicians getting together (for pay, presumably) to record an accompaniment for ONE instrument boggles my mind.

Learning a piece with the richness of accompanying instruments in a MIDI file is the only way to go, in my opinion. I don't practice any other way, but then, I am very much an amateur. I do find that when I'm playing along with a MIDI file, I'm the worst player in the group. My buddies who live in the little box are on call day and night, they never complain, they play exactly as I have programmed them (with technical excellence) and their price is right. So I keep chugging along, loving every minute as I improve. Then when I get together with live players, I'm invariably the best player in the group. I love to play runs and arpeggios pretty close to having no flaws and then to listen to my live string-playing friends continue to saw away frantically trying to get the notes (Dammit, Oliver, this piece was composed for Paganini. Slow it down! And don't mute my track so I can hear how it is supposed to go!).

Oliver

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