Hello! As I mentioned last week, I'm making some changes to how subscriptions work in the Outside Shore Music community. Those of you who have accounts on the site but no active subscriptions should already have received a message from me regarding this. Those of you with active subscriptions are not affected. For those of you who don't have accounts on the site already, I'd still love to have you join us, and I'll send out some more info later. This week in the Musicianship Workshop space,...
7 days ago • 2 min read
Hello! As September gives way to October and the leaves start changing here in the Northern hemisphere (and start appearing in the Southern), there are a few changes here in the world of Outside Shore Music also that I'd like to let you know about. First, as I have indicated recently, I have now enabled a new "gamification" feature for the Outside Shore Music community site. The idea is to incentivize engagement - and yes, I know how buzzwordy that sounds, but it's an accurate description....
14 days ago • 3 min read
Benny Golson Hello! This week we continue our work on melody in the Musicianship Workshop space. Next month I plan to continue looking at melody but also broaden the scope to look at other related topics. If you'd like to join us, please become a Gold-level member of the Outside Shore Music community, then pop over to the workshop to see what we're up to and get started! This week also marks the passing of one of the most respected jazz musicians of our time, saxophonist Benny Golson....
21 days ago • 2 min read
Hello! MuseScore 4.4.2 is now available, fixing most of the issues reported recently. As usual, automatic updates will follow in a couple of days or so, but you can update now via Muse Hub or via musescore.org. For more on what has changed, see the announcement on musescore.org. One thing to note is that this update does not fix the issue some people with multiple monitors are experiencing with popups appearing on the wrong display. There will be a 4.4.3 coming later to deal with...
28 days ago • 2 min read
Hello! This week we continue our focus on melody in the Musicianship Workshop space. If you'd like to join us for this month-long exploration of melody, please become a Gold-level member of the Outside Shore Music community, then pop over to the workshop to see what we're up to and get started! Mastering MuseScore If you are interested in getting the most out of the world's most popular music notation software, join our community with a Mastering MuseScore membership for the most...
about 1 month ago • 2 min read
Hello! This month I am introducing a new theme for us to focus on: melody. This is an area of study that often gets short-changed in educational settings. I assume that's because it's hard to talk objectively about what makes a good melody. There are fewer "rules" to follow than for chord progressions, and there is also correspondingly more incentive to make your melody unique. So in many cases, people are left to fend for themselves in terms of composing melodies. The one area of my...
about 1 month ago • 2 min read
Hello! This week we will wrap up our summer focus on orchestration and listen to more of the final projects members have submitted. Starting in September, we will be changing gears to look at another topic - to be announced - that I think many of you will find at least as interesting and useful!In other news: the music notation software Finale - for many years the leading program of its kind (and what I used for many years before MuseScore) - is being discontinued. The company that produces...
about 2 months ago • 2 min read
Hello! It's been a long and busy summer so I'm taking a bit of a break this week with this abbreviated newsletter. Also, FYI, Office Hours this today will likely be abbreviated due to other commitments. But I'll do my best to help folks out during the time I do have available! Mastering MuseScore If you are interested in getting the most out of the world's most popular music notation software, join our community with a Mastering MuseScore membership for the most comprehensive training &...
about 2 months ago • 1 min read
Hello! We are continuing our focus on orchestration, with participants working on larger-scale projects for the remainder of the month. This week we'll talk a bit about using the harp. Mastering MuseScore If you are interested in getting the most out of the world's most popular music notation software, join our community with a Mastering MuseScore membership for the most comprehensive training & expert support available! MuseScore Café This week in the MuseScore Café with Marc Sabatella, we...
2 months ago • 1 min read