When using a YouTube video as a practice resource it is useful to know how to adjust the speed of the video. You might want to start slower and and then increase the speed as you become more familiar with the notes and the words.
Here is a short tutorial that may come in handy if you don't yet know how to adjust the speed.
1. Start the YouTube video and pause it (you can change the speed while it plays but to begin with you might want to pause it first).
2. Click on Settings, that is the wee cog in the right-hand bottom corner of the video player. If you hover over the cog you'll see the word "Settings" appear.
3. Once you have clicked on Settings, select Playback speed
4. From the speed options choose the speed you would like to try. Three-quarter speed = 0.75x the normal speed. If you go too low the sound gets distorted. Play around with the options until you find what works for you.
5. If you don't like any of those options, click the Custom link and use the slider to select your optimal practice speed.
There are two Noteworthy Composer versions of this on the NWC Scriptorum. http://nwc-scriptorium.org/bachj.html. One without words by John Hooper, the other with, by Carl Mill. What little I have listened to from both sound fine. Of course having the words attached to each note is a great help as you dont need to keep changing from the playing notes on your screen to your score.
If you have iTunes and an iTunes account or are able to set one up, you can buy the Zimbe! CD tracks from iTunes for only $18.99, or you can buy selected tracks for much less. Great for practicing - and the notes will match your score!
By the time the iPad is available in New Zealand the forScore app might already be available.
How cool would that be? Great for practicing, and it even has a visual metronome feature, "allowing you to see, not hear, the timing. It's the metronome Beethoven never had".
Not that the visual metronome would be the hot selling point for me, but the whole concept of carrying the score along in this handy and useful format is mind-blowing. I wondered if our genre of music would be covered, but no excuses, they claim: "With forScore, you can add your own files - digitize your own sheet music, or find thousands of pieces available for free online at sites like bandmusicpdf.org or imslp.org."
IMSLP and other sources of that ilk would do it for us.
Here's their official announcement:
Portland, OR, April 2, 2010 — MGS Development today officially announced the upcoming release and pricing of forScore, exclusively for iPad.
ForScore, the musical score reader for iPad, will be available in early April for $2.99 through iTunes and the iPad App Store. ForScore allows users to take over 1300 pages of beautifully rendered score with them on the go, featuring 18 world-renowned composers and almost 300 different titles. With innovative and remarkable features like the visual metronome, forScore is more than just a library of score - it’s a musician’s perfect companion.
