Sheet Music Ideas for Piano Players

Are you looking for some new sheet music to play? Here's a few ideas from SheetMusicPlus that you might enjoy!

River Flows in You

A beautiful piano song by Yiruma. Every pianist should learn this one!

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River Flows In You By Yiruma. For piano. New Age; Pop. Piano. 4 pages. Published by Hal Leonard - Digital Sheet Music (HX.182166).

Say Something

This is one of my favorite songs and I love playing it on the piano! Here's the sheet music for it.

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Say Something By A Great Big World. For easy piano. Pop. Easy Piano. 8 pages. Published by Hal Leonard - Digital Sheet Music (HX.281520).

Frozen

This book has ten songs from the popular movie Frozen. People will love listening to you play these tunes!

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Frozen (Piano Solo) (Music from the Motion Picture Soundtrack). By Various. By Kristen Anderson-Lopez and Robert Lopez. For Piano/Keyboard. Piano Solo Songbook. Intermediate to Advanced. Softcover. 40 pages. Published by Hal Leonard (HL.128220).

I plan to post sheet music ideas every couple of weeks. So if you like the three I picked for this post please follow my blog or come back soon for more!

A Complete and Inexpensive Composer's Set-Up

Do you want to compose music? Getting the right equipment for composing does not have to be super expensive. Here are two basic items you can get to be a productive composer.

1. Notation Software

Assuming you already have a computer, you should consider getting a notation software for writing music. Finale Songwriter is the one I would suggest for starters. It's not expensive but it will get the job done. If you have a bigger budget you might want to check out the full Finale software.

2. Keyboard

Using a MIDI keyboard will allow you to be more productive and get more music written. When you use a MIDI keyboard with Finale, you can play the notes on the keyboard and they will be notated in Finale as you play them. It's quicker than trying to notate every single note on the computer. The good news is that you don't need a super expensive keyboard for this. Just a basic keyboard that can connect to your computer will work. Look for MIDI Keyboards on Amazon.

You might also need to purchase a MIDI cable to connect the keyboard to the computer. Here's one that will get the job done.

VicTsing USB IN-OUT MIDI Cable

Selling Royalty Free Music- Productiontrax

Selling royalty free music can be a great way for composers to make some extra cash with their music. There are quite a few websites available that allow you to sell your music on their site. In this article I’m going to go over the website Productiontrax.com.

Productiontrax was one of the first websites I uploaded my music to. My first few royalty free music sales were made on Productiontrax and I would recommend it to any composer. Productiontrax allows anyone to make an account and upload music. There is no review process for your music so you can upload it and make it available for selling in minutes. Some may view this as a disadvantage because there is more potential for less quality in the music with no review process like other websites, but most of the music I have listened to on Productiontrax has been quality music.

The site itself is pretty nice. In fact recently they have made a lot of changes to make it even nicer. It is easy to get around the site and the contributor control panel is easy to work with. There is a graph that shows how many track views you have been getting each day. The only downside here is that you don’t know which tracks are getting viewed. As far as track exposure goes, I have around 60 tracks on the site and usually get anywhere from 3-20 views a day. However it is not unusual for that to spike up to around 30-40 some days. So it seems like there is good exposure for your music compared to some other sites.

When you make a sale with Productiontrax, you get 65% of the money. This is a better deal than most royalty free music sites where you get 50%. You can also set the prices for your music, which is a feature that some websites don't offer. There are two different options for someone who is buying your music. They can download a commercial or private license. You can set the price for both, and get a lot more money from selling a commercial license. In fact, most of my sales have been commercial licenses.

My sales have not always been consistent with Productiontrax, and I am not sure how well other composers are doing because you can't see how many sales other people are getting, but I think it is definitely worth putting music on there.

Overall I would say that Productiontrax is a good website that gives composers control over their music. Check it out by clicking here.

Get Your Music On iTunes and Spotify For Free!

Spotify and iTunes are two of the most popular places online for music, and many new musicians wonder how they can get there music on these sites. There are distributors that you can pay to put your music up there, but then if you don't end up getting many sales, you could lose money. So many new artists need a different solution.

Thankfully, there is a great way to get your music on Spotify, iTunes, Amazon, and many other stores with no upfront charges! So if you're a new musician looking to make you're music available online, keep reading!

Amadea Music is a digital distribution service that will put your music online for free. Once they approve you as an artist, you can upload your music and they will distribute it to online stores all over the world. You have complete control to pick the stores you want your music sent to. Their website is very easy to use and you can get your music uploaded in a short amount of time. Usually your music will be available in stores about a month after you submit it. When you have sales, you get 90% of the money and Amadea Music keeps 10%, which is a good deal. Also, your agreement with them will be non-exclusive, which means you can still sell your music through any other sites while using there service!

This is a great way to get your music online without taking any risks. Check out Amadea Music today and send your music all around the world for free!

Three Compact MIDI Keyboards That Won't Break Your Bank

Whether you are an amateur musician, hobbyist, or experienced producer, a MIDI keyboard is an important part of your studio. There are many different keyboards to choose from, but here are three that have a good reputation and a low price.

1. Nektar Impact LX25

This is the MIDI controller I currently use, and I love it. It’s easy to set up and it has pre-mapped integration with many popular DAWs like Cubase, Studio One, Logic, and others. It has 25 full sized keys and 8 pads, all velocity sensitive. There are plenty of controls to work with on the keyboard and it really helps make the production process run smoothly. You can also get this keyboard with 49 or 61 keys if you’re looking for something bigger. Check out the Nektar Impact LX25 on Amazon.

2. Akai Professional MPK MINI

This keyboard controller also has 25 keys (mini keys) and 8 pads. An interesting feature on this one is the 4-way thumb stick for dynamic, pitch, and modulation control. Like the Impact, it also has 8 knobs that can be used for different controls. This little keyboard is the #1 Best Seller on Amazon for Computer Recording MIDI Controllers. So, while I have not personally used it yet, it looks like a great option for a MIDI keyboard. Check it out on Amazon.

3. Novation Launchkey Mini

This keyboard has all sorts of awesome features. It has 25 mini keys and 16 velocity sensitive pads that allow you to do all sorts of cool things. It comes with Ableton Live Lite and a Loopmasters sample pack. There are also free iPad apps that you can use with this keyboard. This isn’t even everything that the Launchkey has to offer, but as you can already see, it’s pretty versatile. Learn more about the Launchkey’s features here.

Garritan Instant Orchestra Review

A few months ago I purchased Garritan Instant Orchestra, a software program that allows composers to make realistic sounding orchestrations right from their computer. I have been using this program a lot lately and wanted to write a post about it for any composers who are looking at virtual orchestra programs.

To start with, Garritan Instant Orchestra is a good choice for composers on a budget. You can get it for under $200, which is not that expensive compared to other virtual orchestra programs.

Garritan IO gives you many options to make different moods and styles of music. You can make anything from a small string group to a full orchestra with big brass and drums. One of the coolest things about this program is that there are built-in moods and combinations of instruments that can immediately give you the sound you want. Instead of having to build a section using violins, violas, cellos, etc., you can click on one of the preset groups and immediately have a full sounding string section. There are many other presets as well to make brass, woodwind, or string sections and even full orchestras. This really helps the whole process of creating a song go a lot faster.

Most of the instruments and ensembles in Garritan Instant Orchestra sound pretty similar to real instruments. Some of the samples don't sound quite as good as some other, more expensive virtual orchestras. Personally I think the brass instruments could be better. But there are definitely enough great sounds in Garritan Instant Orchestra to make some good music. There are also ways you can edit the instruments and combinations to get different sounds and styles.

I would definitely suggest taking a look at this program if you are getting into composing and would like to hear the music you are making. It is especially helpful for composers who want to get songs done quickly, because there are so many preset combinations to work with. You can build a full sounding orchestra in a short amount of time. The quality of the Garritan IO is definitely worth the price! Listen to the sample below that is created with Garritan Instant Orchestra. You can check out Garritan on Amazon by clicking here.

     

Make Money with Your Music- Royalty Free Music

Selling royalty free music can be a good way to make a some extra cash as a producer. If you’re not familiar with the term “royalty free music”, I’ll give a quick explanation. Basically, when someone buys music that is “royalty free”, they are essentially buying a license to use the song in their production (commercials, YouTube videos, films, etc.). Rather than paying royalties every time it is used, they pay a one-time fee for permission to use the song in their projects. There are many royalty free music sites (also known as stock music sites) where you can upload your music to sell. When your music gets downloaded from the site, you make money! Most sites will give you 50% of the money for each sale. Sometimes you can get a higher percentage depending on the site.

There’s a brief overview of what royalty free music is. Below is a list of some of the websites that I suggest taking a look at if you want to sell your music.

Pond5- Anyone can upload music to this site. They review it though before it can be put up for sale. The review process is pretty quick, so you can upload music and have it up for sale within a few days. The payout is 50/50 which is generally the average for these sites. Overall it’s a good site and probably one of the first ones I would recommend for someone looking to start selling royalty free music.

Productiontrax- This website also allows anyone to make an account and upload music. Unlike most sites, they do not have a review process, so you just upload your song and it’s available for sale. Productiontrax gives you 65% of the money from each sale which is higher than most stock music sites.

AudioJungle- One of the biggest royalty free markets out there. This one has a strict review process, but if your music is good, AudioJungle is a great place to sell it. Almost every song I’ve uploaded on this site has gotten at least one sale so it’s been pretty successful for me so far. The system for the payout percentage is a little more complicated so I’ll just let you read about it on their site. You can get 50% or 35% depending on the type of account you have. It’s all explained on their website here.

There are other websites out there that you may want to look into, but these are my top three picks. If you start selling royalty free music, please let me know how it goes! If you already sell royalty free music, comment below to let me know what sites you like!