Sylvia Woods Harp Center 
August 2016 Newsletter
SylviaA Personal Note from Sylvia
I'm going to make this intro short and sweet, because there is a LOT to cover in this newsletter.  In fact, it may be so long that the bottom will be cut off when you open it.  If you don't see the blue box with the Harp Center address at the bottom, you may have to click an arrow or some kind of "More" or "Show Full Message" wording to read the rest of the newsletter.

This month I'm featuring the results of the Music App contest, and an announcement about a new way to find pop music on my site.  Plus, of course there is always a SALE!

Sylvia Woods
arrangerHelpful Music Apps
I was a bit disappointed that only 6 people sent in valid suggestions for my Music App contest.  I'm going to assume that the reason more of you didn't respond is that you didn't know of any apps.  Well, after you read this article, you'll no longer be able to say that!

If you didn't enter the contest because you don't care about apps . . . I hope this article will change your mind.  You really SHOULD care. Whether you are just learning to read music, or you are an advanced musician, there are lots of apps that can help you. And if you are a teacher, particularly if your students are in the "younger generations," you really need to know your apps.

Even though I didn't get very many responses, some people sent in multiple entries.  Anne Roos sent in a list of 9 apps, and Susan Bettinger recommended 4! They have both won $20 Harp Center e-Gift Certificates.  Thank you

I also started digging into this subject on my own. If there's no name on the listings below, that means it is one of mine.  Right off the bat I found a great You-Tube channel called Piano iPad Apps that has video demos for lots of music apps. Although the channel is geared to piano study, many of the apps have settings where you don't need to know (or want to learn) the piano. For example, you can set the app so that when you see a note on the staff you have to press the correct key on the piano keyboard on the screen, or you can set it so that you just type the letter name of the note. You don't need to know the piano at all for any of the apps listed below.  One reason why I love this YouTube channel is that you can actually see the apps being used, so you get a great idea of how they work before you download them. You'll see the YouTube links to this site's videos in many of the app descriptions below.  

I've only listed apps that are available for iPhones or iPads.  I didn't include programs that have to run on a regular computer, or with a MIDI. I also included any Android links I could find. There are lots of apps with similar names, so be careful.  Also, be aware that apps come and go.  Some of the apps that were submitted for this contest are no longer available, and some were only available in certain countries.

Some apps have "lite" versions that you can download for free. Then if you like them, you can purchase the full app.
The prices shown here are from the Apple App Store. Some of the links will be to the "lite" version, and some to the full paid version.

Have fun!  In a few months I'll ask you to send in a list of apps you've started using, and which ones you like the best.

TUNING
Both Anne Roos and Susan Bettinger suggested the tuning app Cleartune. Anne said: "My recording engineer says it's more accurate than digital tuners. It's fantastic." And Susan said:
"It is the best and most accurate tuner I have ever used. Everyone who uses mine ends up getting the app.  :)  I have it for iPhone and iPad, and it works on Android as well. It comes with many different tuning settings (equal temperament, calibration, Moveable solfege, etc.) so it's great for other instruments or voice. It gives you pitch pipe audible notes if desired. It's good on ambient noise while you're tuning, and you can plug your pick-up cord into it and attach to your harp or other instruments for best results. It's easy to read, well-lit in the dark, and easy to use. It looks amazing on an iPad too!" - $3.99 
 
METRONOMES
 
Both Anne Roos and Susan Koskelin suggested the Tempo metronome by Frozen Ape. Anne said: "Tempo is a great metronome app. Set the time signature, not values, and even save frequently-used metronome settings so you don't have to reset every time you open the app."  Susan said: "My favorite app is Tempo.   It will keep a list of tempi without having to reset it each time.  Since I play with an ensemble called HarpEssence, and I'm the one who sets the tempo, I use it at
every program we play. I have my mini-iPad on the music stand, set Tempo to have no sound, and just watch the click to set the tempo. Another thing I love is how slow you can set it.  I am an avid metronome user, and I love that you can set it to 10 or even lower if need be.  You can also set it to click on the quarter notes, eighth notes, triplets, and more.  It also has a wide variety of sounds you can use, and has a voice component that counts aloud!   For complicated rhythms, to hear someone say "one" out loud is often very helpful." - Free or $2.99  - Also on Android.  
 
   
READING MUSIC - FLASH CARDS AND GAMES

Dennis Saidat
said "
Music Tutor is like flash cards for notes. It scores you against a chosen amount of time. It's also fun and educational." The app store says: "Choose to practice between treble clef, bass clef or both for a duration of 1, 5 or 10 minutes. After each test, you can review your mistakes and see your progress."  - Free or 99 cents



Anne Roos
recommended Music Reading Essentials, four "decks" of flash cards for your iPhone on note reading, rhythms, intervals, and music symbols. Here's the Piano iPad Apps YouTube video for this app. $2.99




Music Flash Class is a versatile flash card app for naming notes and keys. You can answer using a piano keyboard (shown here), note names, scale degrees, or even various solfege versions (i.e. Do Re Mi). You can choose which clefs and notes to work on. Teachers can customize it for individual students. It also includes games for group classes, including hot potato:
"Students gently pass around the iPod or iPhone as they attempt to choose the correct note before the Hot Potato buzzer sounds. But don't toss it, or you'll get buzzed!" Here's the Piano iPad Apps YouTube video for this app. $3.99  
 

Flashnote Derby
is a flash-card game for learning notes. You are in a horse race. Whenever you name the note correctly, your horse goes faster. If you are incorrect, the other horse goes ahead. If you get enough answers right you win the race! Here's the Piano iPad YouTube video for this app.
  $2.99 - also available bundled with Rhythm Swing (listed below) for $4.99. Also for Android.      

  
Noteworks is another flash-card game for learning notes. When you answer correctly the character eats the notes. If you guess wrong, the furnace burns the note and comes closer to you. You can set it so that you answer by typing the name of the note, or by playing the note on the piano (as shown here). Here's the Piano iPad YouTube video for this app. Free or $4.99. Also available for Android
 
 
This is a fun app where you name the notes to spell words in your choice of Treble, Bass, Tenor or Alto Clefs. You pull the yellow note name letters up to complete the word. Over 300 Words are included with topics covering sports, names, foods, places, films, etc. Here's the Piano iPad YouTube video for this app. - 99 cents


TIMING & RHYTHM 

I've chosen Anne Roos' Rhythm Calculator entry as the winning app. The reason I particularly like this app is that it is great for beginners, as well as professionals.  Anne said: "My very favorite app is Rhythm Calculator. If I see a measure with a rhythm I can't figure out, I enter it into this app, and it plays it back to me."  Watch the official YouTube video for this app and you'll see how awesome it is! - $2.99  


Anne Roos also recommended the Rhythm Sight Reading Trainer.  Improve your sight reading with immediate feedback of timing accuracy. Carefully graduated levels from simple to professional allow you to start at your best level and improve at your own pace. - $2.99


Rhythm Cat Pro has you tap out rhythms to various melodies. With four progressive levels, there is plenty
of room to improve your rhythm skills. The notes turn green when you tap the rhythm correctly. One of the cool things about this app is that in the higher levels, you tap rhythms with both hands. Here's the Piano iPad YouTube video for this app. - Free or $4.99. The same company, Melody Cats, also has note reading apps called Treble Cat and Bass Cat which are not reviewed here.  You can buy all 3 apps in a bundle for $9.99. 
 
 
Rhythm Swing is a fun app where you tap out various rhythms. If you miss 3, your cute little monkey gets eaten by the lurking alligator. Luckily, this mayhem happens off-screen,
but you do hear chomping.   Here's the Piano iPad YouTube video$3.99 - also available bundled with the Flashnote Derby app listed above for $4.99.

EAR TRAINING
   
Ear Worthy was also recommended by Anne Roos. It will train you on an extensive variety of musical listening and identification skills from notes and intervals to scales and chords. The App has four main features, which play musical elements, and the user is given the opportunity to identify what is being played: #1. To identify notes, random notes are played individually. #2. To identify intervals, 2 notes are played sequentially. #3. To identify scales, a set of notes are played sequentially, ascending and descending. #4. To identify chords, 3 to 5 notes are played simultaneously. Also available for Android. - Free or 99 cents 
 
Tonal Recall  Remember the memory card game you used to play as a kid where you laid out all of the cards face down on a table, and then turned over 2 and tried to find a match? That's what this game is . . . but for hearing musical pitches. You have to find two pitches that are the same. When you click on a card, you'll hear a note played, and you have to find the 2nd card that matches it. To make it easier, you can set it so that the card shows the name of the note (instead of a question mark). And you can make it harder by setting it for 2 octaves of pitches instead of just 1.
Here's the Piano iPad YouTube video for this app. - 99 cents


COMPREHENSIVE APPS

Music Theory Pro starts as a basic note reading app (like the flash cards), but you can progress to naming chords, keys and scales.  You can make it is easy or hard as you want.  For example, in the chords section, you can just use major and minor chords, or add a huge variety of augmented, diminished, various 7ths, 9ths, 11ths, flatted 5ths etc. In addition, their official website states: "The ear training section provides several challenges for the more advanced student. It takes a sharp ear to identify seventh chords and modal scales quickly. If that's not challenging enough, there is an optional add-on that includes more than 30 jazz chords (extended chords, altered dominants) and jazz scales.  There is even a tempo quiz to identify beats per minute by assigning a number to a click track."  Here's the Piano iPad YouTube video. - $3.99


Dolores Guzman recommended Tenuto,
a collection of 15 customizable exercises designed to enhance your musicality. From recognizing chords on a keyboard to identifying intervals by ear, it has an exercise for you. Dolores says "It is great!  I have learned to be proficient in reading music.  I can time how long I want to practice.  Any student will find this App VERY helpful."  - $2.99 
 

MISCELLANEOUS
   
Musictionary is a handy, easy-to-use music dictionary filled with over 500 musical terms.  Here's the Piano iPad YouTube video for this app. - 99 cents

Anne Roos
wrote: I'm just trying out the Musicians Hypnosis App. It is a program to help with stage fright, practicing, confidence, auditions, and other interesting performance-related issues. The podcast that comes with the app explains how it works and that it's not really weird or woo woo stuff. With a pleasant British male voice, and a touch of humor, it's very pleasant. His podcast is The Musician's Guru." - $6.99 

Susan Bettinger wrote: "I have a favorite music app that has saved my hide on numerous occasions. It is Google Drive on my iPhone and also iPad. It also works on Android. I scan all my music originals and it goes into the "cloud" for safekeeping.
That way, if anything were to happen to the originals (misplaced, theft, fire, water damage, tornado, etc.) there's always a back-up of the piece just in case. It has been a Godsend when I have forgotten a piece of music usually left on a music stand, or get a request at a venue of a piece I did not bring. I can then just read a piece of music off of my iPad. It really helps you to travel lighter with your music if you want to. I use it to back-up all other important documents as well.  Now I have peace of mind that my precious music is safe!"

AND . . . FINALLY . . .
 
Handy Harp
I just found this app yesterday, so I haven't had time to check out its accuracy.  It is new, so I couldn't find any reviews.  But on first glance, it looks awesome. If you buy and download it, I recommend you click the link on the app's home page and read the extensive "Manual" before you start. If anyone wants to play around with this app and review it for me, I'll print your reviews in an upcoming newsletter and send you a prize!
This is the app explanation is from their official website.  "Handy Harp explains the complex mechanisms behind a concert harp through sounds and pictures, in an easy-to-use application where the design of harp pedals has been carefully recreated. You can manipulate these pedals easily, hear the changes of interval, and also watch the rotating discs prompting these changes. This app also allows you to quickly display 45 chord types, 28 modes, and the associated pedal settings. It supports MIDI Wi-Fi, allowing you to transfer play data from your iPhone or iPad to a Digital Audio Workstation as well as pedal diagrams to software such as Sibelius and Finale. Handy Harp can be used in many different contexts: for those who want to understand the mechanisms of the harp, for harpists who want to write a pedal diagram on their sheet music, for composers and arrangers who want to try out different kinds of glissandi, and many other situations." - $6.99
 ListAlphabetical Pop Music List
Every week I reply to emails from customers asking if harp arrangements are available for particular pieces of music. Often I have to give them the bad news that, as far as I'm aware, the piece they want hasn't been arranged for harp yet.  I then put their suggestions on my very long "to-do list" of customer requests. Sometimes I don't sell the piece they want, so I refer them to another harp company that carries the music.  And, happily, I often do sell the piece they're looking for, so I send them the link to that product on my website.

I know that it isn't always easy to find some pieces on my website.  The main search hint is to use the most unusual word of the song or book title. If you're looking for "Don't Cry for Me, Argentina," you'll get the best results if you only type in the word Argentina.  However, songs with no unusual words can be pretty impossible to find.  It doesn't matter what word(s) of "I Love How You Love Me" you type in the search box, you'll get way too many results to be practical. (By the way, that song is in my Groovy Songs of the 60s book.)

So I've come up with a new way to help you.  I've created a complete alphabetical list of EVERY pop song that I sell with links to where to find them on my site, whether they are individual sheets, in books, and/or PDFs. The list includes my arrangements, as well as versions by other harp arrangers that I sell.

So, next time you're looking for a pop song, check out my new Alphabetical Pop Song list.
When you're on harpcenter.com, you can find links to this list in three places. 
#1. at the top of every page, right below the Search box.   
#2. in the Books and PDFs by Type: Pop Books and PDFs category description
#3. in the Pop Books and PDFs by Sylvia Woods category.

Let me know if you find this list helpful.  If it is "popular" (pun intended), I'll add more alphabetical lists for categories such as Christmas, Hymns, and Classical music.

Also, please let me know if you find any broken or incorrect links on this alphabetical list (or anywhere else on my site).  I always love hearing about my mistakes because I want my site to be PERFECT!  Thanks for your help.  - Sylvia 
thisMonthsSaleThis Month's Sale
In honor of my new Alphabetical Pop Songs List, this month's sale includes 6 of my pop books and PDFs. To get the 15% discount on the books and PDFs shown below, enter the code word pops in the Promo Code box on your shopping cart page and click "Enter Code" by August 31, 2016. For more information, see the 15% Off section at the bottom of this newsletter.   
15% off with pops code
    
22 Romantic Songs
15% off with pops code
 
John Denver
15% off with pops code

Lennon & McCartney
15% off with pops code

Andrew Lloyd Webber book
15% off with pops code
 
15% off with pops code
  
promocodes15% off select sale items when you use the code word: pops

Our newsletter promo codes are only redeemable on-line, and can only be used for the proudcts featured in the sale section of this newsletter. They are not valid for phone or e-mail orders. This month's code word is pops and it is good for 15% off the items featured above.
 
Here's how to get your newsletter discount at harpcenter.com: 
#1. Put the items you want to purchase in your cart. 
#2. On the page where you view the items in your cart, type this month's code word pops in the "Promo Code" box, and click on "Enter Code."
The actual price of the featured sale products on this page will then automatically change to reflect the discount. You'll also see a note below the Promo Code box saying the name of the promo code you entered, and the percentage amount of the discount.  
 
REMEMBER:  you must enter the this month's code word pops in the Promo Code box
and click "Enter Code" on your shopping cart page by August 31
to get the discount!
If you forget, or if you have trouble adding it to your order,
email us immediately .   

offer expires at the end of the day on 8/31/2016.
Sylvia Woods Harp Center
  (800) 272-4277 or (818) 956-1363
[email protected]
http://www.harpcenter.com

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