StarPlay (and other software with assessment of playing)

Starplay Repertoire

Hi Michelle,

I'm still waiting on the repertoire question. I did find some tenor sax pieces on sibeliusmusic.com, but SP didn't handle the transposition correctly (i.e. - it didn't transpose for the instrument at all). The support team got right back to me when I reported this and promised to fix it in an upcoming revision. They are responsive to bug reports, which is a good thing!

I do wish that, when SP handles transpositions and I can use files from sibeliusmusic, that I will be able to pick pieces for other instruments and use them for my instrument. For example, I would like to choose an "alto sax" piece, tell Starplay that I'm really playing a tenor sax, and Starplay would adjust the playback and assessment pitches so that the piece will work for me. That would open up a huge amount of material for a tenor player.

Then there's Sibelius ... that's a pretty expensive path, both in dollars and time to learn the software. Basically, any time spent on that will come out of my practice time and cost a bundle, so I'm a bit hesitant.

There are other "get music" links on the Starplay page, but when I follow them it is not clear at all how to get a file that will work for my instrument. I'd suggest a set of tutorials on the Starplay website. I'll be happy to test them out for you, too!

Anyway, I'm still excited about the project and hope you guys enjoy great success with it.

Susan

Starplay Repertoire

Hi, Starplay,

I noticed yesterday that there is more repertoire if I claim to be a trumpet player. Of course I have to play an octave up on my tenor sax so I run out of range. But there's some more material for me to chew on and that's good. If I could tell Starplay to assess my playing an octave lower, that would be way better because I could use the whole range of the instrument on these files. Or ... they could be adapted for the saxes, which would be ideal.

Suggestions for material. Wow. Method books, studies, and pieces, both classical and jazz come to mind. I would be ecstatic if I found things like the Rubank method (intermediate & advanced), Klose Exercises, Voxman Studies, Jerry Coker's Patterns for Jazz, and some kind of jazz conception etudes (e.g. the series by Lennie Niehaus). Also I suspect that you're on a great path already, just that it takes time to put material together.

I sent you a private message regarding the "More Music" options. Let me know if you didn't get that.

Susan

Tutorials

Hi Michelle,

The private message was sent here. The only tutorial I was wishing for related to getting sibelius files off of those "More Music" sites. I'm clearer on that now, and some of the kinks have been worked out of the software, too, since I posted that.

Maybe only issue with "More Music" at this point is this one: "sheetmusicdigital.com - I couldn't find a single free sample to download and test." The reason I'd like one is that I wonder if the assessment features of SP will work with my transposing instrument with files from this site.

Well, actually I have a wishlist, too, but I'll be inflicting that on your nice tech support people when the time is right

Anyways, I still say this software is "cool beans." It's a fun way to shore up some of the intonation and timing issues in my playing, since Starplay points out the problem spots relentlessly. Unless you're a total beginner, set the evaluation level to "Hard" all the time.

Susan

bradshawm said:

So what do you do, mic yourself into the computer and it compares what it hears to what the music indicates should be played, and then gives a read back of where you are off?

Click to expand...

Yes, that's a good description.

bradshawm said:

If so, how hard is it to watch that verses reading the music your playing at the same time?

Click to expand...

The fact that the feedback is realtime not too important, though I do take a cue when it tells me the intonation is off. I agree that it could be distracting.

What's really useful is that you see a summary after playing the exercise. You can see everything it dinged you for and zero in on those things. Also you can play it back and listen for those problems. Finally, the recording itself is there to listen to when you are done. You can get a great score but still not sound like great player since it only checks for certain things. But if you don't get a great score, then probably you need to fix some stuff.

One could argue that recording yourself and listening for problems is just as good, but it's nice to have the software remove some of the tedium from that.

Anyway, as Michelle said, it's free to try out with a couple of demo tunes.

You can also put your own exercises in with Sibelius. I don't have Sibelius and don't want to make that investment right now, but ... maybe that could be a SOTW project ... Jazz Patterns for Starplay. It doesn't have to be exactly the Coker patterns to be useful. I don't know if an accompaniment can be entered that way. Maybe Michelle could advise.