You like to listen to a tough musical section to get the rhythm. Or hear varying tempos for a piece of music. Or want an audio memory of the song to aid in practice. In all these cases having a CD or musical clip of a piece of music can be a good way to get a feel for the organic whole of a piece of music that still feels disjointed and fragmented during sight-reading and early practice.
The internet is a great resource for finding relatively obscure pieces of music, and many music publishers will attach a music sample to help sell their scores. What follows are some of my tips for music hunting online.
(1) Google is your friend. Simply typing some keywords from the song title plus the arranger last name will usually locate the official sellers of the music selection, and sometimes an accompanying audio clip or even full mp3. Some publishers will require clicking an agreement not to copy, distribute, or otherwise publish the selection, of course, but usually there is no fee and no log in requirement.
(2) Youtube will sometimes provide a decent version of a popular music piece even if it is not the exact concert band version you are using. 'Parade of the Charioteers' has a nice youtube clip or two for instance, as do a lot of holiday selections.
(2) The publisher is usually listed on the upper left of a music piece, so a search for that publisher--e.g. 'Queenwood', or 'Hal Leonard'--will often be fruitful. For example, Queenwood published Thats a Plenty, Themes Like Old Times, and Fidgety Feet, and the first two of these are at http://www.queenwood.com/cbseries7.php
(3) Google will usually find you many 'Free Mp3' sites that provide a wide range of music , but these usually require some kind of sign-up or login, or payment (after which everything is 'free'). It is better just to skip these because of the frustration they can cause, unless you are willing to jump through the hoops involved (i.e. you think it's a good collection of music to have access to). Likewise, you may find torrent versions of songs/albums that are perfectly good downloads, but illegal. These are best avoided.
(4) Instead, go for serious names in music publishing business, since the larger outfits can afford websites with audio clips, and better, they actually may be the arranger/version that the community band is playing. Some of the big names are:
http://www.jwpepper.com
http://www.schirmer.com
http://www.alfred-music.com
http://www.barnhouse.com
Below are a few selections for the Fat Tuesday concert I found online with very little work. Has anyone located the ones I couldn't find? What are your tricks for finding musical selections online?
Mike R.
Clarinet Marmalade (Queenwood.com)
Cool Blues for Trombones (Alfred Music
Just a Closer Walk With Thee (JWPepper.com)
Can Can You Name These Tunes? (Barnhouse.com)
Thats a Plenty (Queenwood.com)
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