This month we continue to add to the SmartMusic repertoire library with large ensemble titles for concert band, string orchestra, and choir. See all the new repertoire. We’ve also swapped new titles into SmartMusic’s free library, and made a handful of titles available to anyone (even folks who have yet to sign up for SmartMusic).
The most unusual news, however, is that we’ve added some videos to SmartMusic.
Video added to Gordon Goodwin’s “Attack of the Killer Tomatoes”
“Attack of the Killer Tomatoes” is an inspiring and challenging piece from “The Phat Pack” CD by Gordon Goodwin’s “Big Phat Band.” To help your students perform the piece, Gordon and several members of the Big Phat Band have recorded short videos with tips. Links to these videos appear in the chart within SmartMusic. Here’s Gordon explaining the idea:
Now, even if you don’t own SmartMusic, you can check out this chart, and the videos, within SmartMusic for free. To do so, simply specify your instrument below.
Instrument
Expanding the Free Library
New SmartMusic includes an “Essential Content” library that is available to everyone, even students using SmartMusic for free. Included are exercises, sight-reading tools, select state scales, and Sound Innovations, book 1 for both band and orchestra. Also included are a handful of large ensemble and solo titles. To keep things fresh, we update them four times a year.
For the first quarter of 2019, we’ve focused on titles that are often found on state contest lists. Included are six titles each for band, orchestra, choir, and jazz ensemble, plus two collections of instrumental solos and one of vocal solos. See the Winter 2019 additions to the free library.
Experience SmartMusic as a Student with One Click
We’re also making a subset of these Winter 2019 free titles available to everyone; even to people who haven’t signed up for SmartMusic for free. Now, simply by clicking on a link, anyone can experience what new SmartMusic is like from the perspective of a student. To see what this means, click on one of the titles below, specify your instrument, and click on the resulting link. You’ll find yourself within the new SmartMusic, where you can play that selected title and explore how new SmartMusic works. (Here are some tips for playing and practicing with SmartMusic.)
Why You Might Care
This is great news if you don’t have a new SmartMusic subscription. But if you do, why should you care?
Now you can send anyone a link that will open up directly in SmartMusic, making it easy to share the entire concept. You might send a link to a parent, student, administrator, or fellow educator; anyone who might be interested in what SmartMusic offers, but for whom signing up for a free trial might have felt like an obstacle in the past.