Classical Crossover Q&A with Simply Three

Musicnotes Signature Artist News | Simply Three have just released their latest album, ‘Undefined‘ which features a rich collection of original arrangements. Having achieved tremendous success with their classical pop crossover covers, the guys: Glen McDaniel, Zack Clark, and Nick Villalobos, were kind enough to answer our questions on all things musical while prepping for their fall tour. You guys are classically trained with pop influences. We’d love to know what made you want to start Simply Three? Nick: As we studied music in college each of us felt that we were being groomed to eventually win an orchestra job. For most classical musicians that is the main goal. There came a time
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Q & A with Musicnotes Signature Artist Patrick Laird from Brooklyn Duo

Fresh from his “MTV Unplugged” performance with Shawn Mendes, Patrick from Brooklyn Duo gives us a fascinating insight into the life of a professional musician, from arranging to performing, and everything in between. Musicnotes: Congratulations on your MTV unplugged performance! How did Shawn’s Team find you? Patrick: Thank you! Shawn and his team actually discovered Brooklyn Duo through our YouTube videos and reached out to us a few months ago. They were most interested in working with us to put together creative string arrangements for some of their songs. Musicnotes: What’s your creative process for arranging cello parts? Patrick: It’s different depending on the project. We have a lot more flexibility when we’re arranging just
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7 Ways NOT to Choose Your Vocal Audition Piece

Picking a song for a vocal audition can be harder than the actual audition itself. After all, most auditions last about five minutes or less. Sometimes you get to sing a whole song, and sometimes you are asked to prepare a measly 16-bar cut. So how do you choose a song that will represent you accurately as a performer in just a few short minutes? It’s not easy, and there are few things you definitely shouldn’t do. 1. Don’t Choose a Really Famous Song We all know those people who march into auditions with pages of “Defying Gravity” from Wicked flying everywhere. While you might think this piece would be a
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Music Theory Quiz Challenge: Think Can You Get All 20 Correct?

Calling all musical brainiacs! We’ve consulted with our fellow music theory geeks to bring you one of the most difficult music theory quizzes around. From notation’s most trying nuances to ultra-tricky time and key signatures, only the most deft music theory students will get an A+ on this quiz. So buckle in and prepare to test your music theory expertise!   Be sure to share your score and challenge your fellow musical friends on Facebook/Twitter. Want to put some of your knowledge into practice? Find particularly challenging sheet music in these former Musicnotes Blog  posts Three Piano Songs that are Nearly Impossible to Play Test Your Technique with Challenging Guitar Tab Selections The
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7 Things to Avoid at Your Vocal Audition

There are a lot of opinions out there when it comes to how you should perform during a vocal audition. Depending on what works for you, there may be more than one right way to go about it. We’ve already explored tips of how to ace your next choral/vocal audition. However, there are a few obvious no-no’s you should be aware of before you step into that room as well. To help you out, we put a list together of “7 Things to Avoid in a Vocal Audition.” Wearing A Flashy Outfit If you’ve ever been to a vocal audition, you’ve probably seen the man in the polka-dotted suit, or the
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25 Awkward Musical Stock Photos To LOL At

Everybody who has scanned stock image sites looking for just the right photo has come across pictures that make you stop and scratch your head. Below is a series of awkward, puzzling or straight-out ridiculous stock photos we’ve come across while embarking on our musical image searches. Reader beware: this blog post contains instrument abuses, clowns, and plenty of bad jokes. 1. You play? Nah, just horsing around. 2. When practice goes downhill, fast. 3. I suggested he start with soprano sax. 4. Maybe no one will notice. 5. Will someone get the window? 6. How I feel auditioning. 7. You’re definitely not doing it right. 8. OK, this one’s totally relatable.   9. Again, not doing it right. 10. Oh deer. 11. The
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2017’s Most Popular Sheet Music Searches By State (Printable/Sharable PDF!)

From sea to shining sea, we’re looking at what our fellow musicians are currently playing (or are hoping to play) across America via the most popular search terms used at Musicnotes.com, the world’s leading source of professionally licensed digital sheet music and guitar tab. To compile our list, we looked at Google Analytics results for what sheet music terms Americans were searching, broken down by state from January 1 to June 1, 2017. Each result is the #1 searched term among Musicnotes.com’s more than 3 million US customers (the company serves nearly 3 million customers outside the US as well). Although some results were not surprising (Leonard Cohen’s “Hallelujah” is
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The Most Expensive Musical Instruments of All Time

Start saving your pennies now, we’re counting down the most expensive musical instruments ever sold! While many would consider these ultra-rare instruments and the stories behind them priceless, they have been sold to collectors looking to preserve important moments in musical history. Do you think you know what the most expensive musical instrument of all time is? Read below to find out! 10. Gasparo Bertolotti da Salò Viola One of the earliest violin makers, only about 80 instruments made by Gasparo are still in existence today. The son and nephew of accomplished Italian musicians, Gasparo developed the art of string making during the 16th century, and took on pupils to
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Funeral sheet music

130+ Songs for Funeral Services and Memorial Celebrations

Music has the unique ability to speak to us when words fail, and that quality can comfort us at life’s most difficult moments. Music plays an essential role in funeral services, memorial gatherings and celebrations of life. We’ve created a comprehensive list of Christian funeral hymns, military funeral music, contemporary Christian/gospel music appropriate for funerals/memorials and secular memorial songs to comfort and commemorate. Simply click the title to preview/listen to a downloadable sheet music arrangement for each piece. We’ve linked to the most traditional versions & popular scorings of each of the titles below. However Musicnotes has many arrangements, covering every scoring, instrumentation/choral type and version for many titles (for example, modern
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Are You Ready for Another FREE Jonny May Piano Tutorial?

For those who joined us in the last FREE piano tutorial from Musicnotes Signature Artist Jonny May, how’s that Beginner Blues Shuffle coming along? Get ready for more Piano with Jonny goodness with another totally FREE lesson, complete with free sheet music from Musicnotes.com. One of the coolest things about Jonny’s piano lessons & tutorials, both with Musicnotes and on his Piano with Jonny YouTube page, is that you can slow down, study and repeat passages as many times as you want. In Jonny May’s latest Musicnotes piano tutorial, we build on our Beginner Blues Shuffle lesson, where we learned the basic blues chord progression, and add more chord changes while continuing to develop
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