Rippling water. New repertoire. What’s the connection?

The answer lies in the newly released Elements (Petite Symphony) from FJH Music Company—one of 46 titles released in SmartMusic this month.

The often-requested Elements is a short, 4-movement work in which each movement depicts a specific element: air, water, earth, and fire. The second movement, Water, is “impressionistic in nature,” according to the composition notes in SmartMusic. (Composer is Brian Balmages.)

Expanding Repertoire: Closing in on 3,000
Our repertoire development team just added 46 more ensemble titles, all of which are listed below. Our new ensemble total is 2,987… we should hit 3,000 soon!

Concert Band:

Jazz Ensemble:

String Orchestra:

As always, you can search for these pieces by title, composer/arranger, publisher, skill level, and more, both online as well as from within SmartMusic. You can also request future titles and view other recent blog posts highlighting repertoire additions.

Did this batch include a title you've been waiting for? Let us know by clicking on "Comments" below.

Ten years ago I inherited a wonderful band program from a talented teacher. Included were a large, clean room with well-kept equipment, a great library, and a giant metal bookshelf full of oversized purple binders. The latter struck me as odd. I opened a binder to find hundreds of pages of snippets for sight reading, coded by number and letter. The theory was that you’d have students grab a binder, then, after randomly calling out a letter and number, they’d sight read the associated piece.

It was a great pedagogical tool, but not particularly reproducible because of the difficulties presented by copyright. And those books were huge as they had to offer a range of examples to last each year. They also challenged the structural integrity of music stands, and after a binder fell off and squashed an oboe, I became a little less enthusiastic about the idea. Certainly there was a better way.

Today SmartMusic has introduced ten levels of sight-reading exercises, graded by level. To locate them click on Find Music on the left side of the Home screen to see “Sight-Reading Exercises” as circled above.

These exercises are through-composed by musicians and arranged in increasing levels of difficulty for your students’ benefit. Each exercise opens with a “curtain” down so you can’t see the notation until you click Start Take. Then the curtain is lifted and you have 15 seconds (or longer if you wish) to study the exercise before playing.

Check it out and let me know what you think by clicking on “Comments” below.

We are pleased to announce that New Directions for Strings (Book 1), a popular method book from The FJH Music Company, is now available in SmartMusic.

A team of pedagogues—with more than 100 years of combined teaching experience and representing each of the four stringed instruments—authored New Directions for Strings with particular focus on:

• Equal integration of all the instruments
• A tetrachord-based approach to support proper development of the left hand
• Ensemble opportunities throughout the books

In other repertoire news, we invite you to explore the 55 new ensemble titles released this week. Highlights include:

• 19 titles featured in concerts or clinics at The Midwest Clinic
• 13 concert band titles, 4 jazz ensemble titles, 8 string orchestra titles, and 1 full orchestra title
• Frequently requested titles, such as:
  • An Original Suite, Serengeti Dreams, and Colliding Visions (concert band)
  • Southern Charm, Two for Oliver (jazz ensemble)
  • Symphony No. 15 in G Major, Fire Dance, Terra Nova (string orchestra)
  • The Prince of Denmark’s March (full orchestra)

You can also request future titles and view other recent blog posts highlighting repertoire additions.

Looks like it’s time to click “Find Music” again—with plenty of new repertoire to download, you’ll be glad you did.

Our repertoire development team just added 26 new concert titles to SmartMusic, which I've listed below.

Concert Band:

Full Orchestra:

String Orchestra:

Of course, you can search for these pieces by title, composer/arranger, publisher, skill level, and more, both online as well as from within SmartMusic. You can also request future titles and view other recent blog posts highlighting repertoire additions.

Did this batch include a title you've been waiting for? Let us know by clicking on "Comments" below.

Our repertoire development team just added 21 new concert titles to SmartMusic, which I've listed below.

Concert Band:

String Orchestra:

Of course, you can search for these pieces by title, composer/arranger, publisher, skill level, and more, both online as well as from within SmartMusic. You can also request future titles and view other recent blog posts highlighting repertoire additions.

Did this batch include a title you've been waiting for? Let us know by clicking on "Comments" below.

“Top Praise and Worship Instrumental Solos” is new to the SmartMusic library. It is a collection featuring popular worship music performed around the world, specially arranged for the Level 2-3 player.

The following titles are included in the collection:

Of course, you can search these pieces by title, composer/arranger, publisher, skill level, and more, both online as well as from within SmartMusic. You can also request future titles and view other recent blog posts highlighting repertoire additions.

Please let us know how your students are enjoying this collection by clicking on "Comments" below.

The hardworking elves on the SmartMusic Repertoire Development Team recently released a new collection, titled Spooky Solos, just in time for, well, fall. Everything in the collection—the arrangements, the audio accompaniments, and even the impressive jack-o-lantern on the cover—was created by MakeMusic employees. They've compiled (and composed) some really fun pieces—for 19 instruments—that students will enjoy year-round.

Included are the following 14 (wouldn't 13 have been spookier?) songs:

Of course, you can search these pieces by title, composer/arranger, publisher, skill level, and more, both online as well as from within SmartMusic. You can also request future titles and view other recent blog posts highlighting repertoire additions.

Please let us know how your students are enjoying this collection by clicking on "Comments" below.

Our repertoire development team just added 22 new band and orchestra titles to SmartMusic!

Concert Band:

String Orchestra:

Of course, you can search these pieces by title, composer/arranger, publisher, skill level, and more, both online as well as from within SmartMusic. You can also request future titles and view other recent blog posts highlighting repertoire additions.

In the last few weeks we’ve added three more method books to the SmartMusic library:

• Tradition of Excellence by Bruce Pearson and Ryan Nowlin
• Measures of Success by Deborah A. Sheldon, Brian Balmages, Timothy Loest, Robert Sheldon with percussion written and edited by David Collier
• Sound Innovations for Concert Band (Book 2) By Robert Sheldon, Peter Boonshaft, Dave Black, and Bob Phillips

Please feel free to request future titles, view other recent blog posts highlighting repertoire additions, or share your comments by clicking on "Comments" below.

This week our repertoire development team added 35 new titles to SmartMusic!

Concert Band:

String Orchestra:

Of course, you can search these pieces by title, composer/arranger, publisher, skill level, and more, both online as well as from within SmartMusic. You can also request future titles and view other recent blog posts highlighting repertoire additions.