Just an update for a new piece of kantele sheet music. This sheet music can be found in the Kantele Sheet Music Page tab located at the top, or in the link provided. This sheet music, as mentioned in my prior post, is the full version of Melody #1, with the overtone ending. I have just posted them separately since the overtone ending can be difficult to do quickly, but again, the music can be interpreted as fast or as slow as you want. Just as a reference, the octave overtone notes in the sheet music are
marked with the string number followed by an "o", which is the format I
will stick with for now for the tabs in the sheet music. So the octave
overtone for string 1 (the longest string on the kantele) is marked as
"1o" on the sheet music under the staff notation. I will try to post some videos at some point, both fast and slow versions of the song for reference and tutorial material. The music is in PDF form and is available for download. Check back for more sheet music to come, and enjoy!
Melody #1 - Overtone Ending
Showing posts with label resources. Show all posts
Showing posts with label resources. Show all posts
Sunday, March 15, 2015
Wednesday, March 11, 2015
New Page Added! Kantele Sheet Music!
As promised in my last post, I have uploaded a dedicated resource page for kantele sheet music that I post, the Kantele Sheet Music page. This will make it easier to find and browse the sheet music that I add, in one convenient location. Right now the page only includes Melody #1, however, I have many more to add, and will continue to add them as I finalize pieces. As also mentioned in my previous post, my next post for this coming Sunday will include the original and full version of Melody #1, which has a short overtone section in the end. I decided to provide the sheet music separately because the overtone section can be a bit tricky if you want to play it faster. I do however plan on starting to upload videos and sound files as well, for not only the sheet music I post, but improvisations too. So check back for more updates in upcoming posts!
Saturday, March 7, 2015
New Kantele Sheet Music! Melody #1
I have finally gotten around to preparing and uploading sheet music for the kantele that I have written, and is the first of many sheet music pieces I will be uploading for the kantele. I have never been good at naming things, and since it was the first piece I composed, named it as Melody #1. The piece is available in a link as a pdf at the bottom of this post.
This particular piece is a simple repetitive melody I wrote last year after completing my first kantele. At the time I was just starting to play around with the kantele, and this little melody arose, like most melodies, from improvising on the kantele. The song stuck, and serves as a simple practice piece. These kind of numbered melody pieces, as you will find, will generally share the same structure of a repeated first section intro, followed by a repeated second section, and third section ending which is a repeat of the first section. The sheet music is good reference, but the song can be proportionally played faster or slower depending on playing style. For myself, I tend to play rather rapidly, so the repeated sections go by fast for me when I play.
The melody is written for the 5 string kantele in D major, though any kantele can play it in the correct tuning. Since I use slightly thicker strings, I originally composed my songs in the key of C, since I tuned my kantele a whole step lower, but because just about all 5 string kantele are tuned to either a standard of D major or minor, I decided to transpose the final released piece in D for ease for the majority of kantele players. However, under each note is also a kind of "tab" notation for the kantele, so it can be played in any major scale regardless of tuning. The numbers go from 1-5, and correspond to the strings, with 1 being the longest and lowest string and 5 being the shortest and highest pitch string. The original melody was written with a short overtone section at the end that repeats the first and third parts, but for simplicity I left it out of this version. I will however release the full version in the next coming posts in about a week.
I wrote the song using MuseScore, which is an excellent and very powerful free music composition and notation program. When I write pieces for the kantele I choose the harp instrument setting and just delete the bass staff. MuseScore allows you to not only compose a multitude of instruments, but has many useful features such as playback which is very handy. I will probably post a basic tutorial for MuseScore at some point in the future.
In addition, I will also be adding a Kantele Sheet Music page dedicated to listing all of the sheet music I post, as further reference and resources to make it easier to find these pieces. From my posting schedule, which I have decided to keep at a post every four days, I will be posting this page with Melody #1 listed, this coming Wednesday for my next post. I definitely encourage you to check back for more material, and have fun playing! Many more songs and information to come, so happy plucking!
Melody #1
This particular piece is a simple repetitive melody I wrote last year after completing my first kantele. At the time I was just starting to play around with the kantele, and this little melody arose, like most melodies, from improvising on the kantele. The song stuck, and serves as a simple practice piece. These kind of numbered melody pieces, as you will find, will generally share the same structure of a repeated first section intro, followed by a repeated second section, and third section ending which is a repeat of the first section. The sheet music is good reference, but the song can be proportionally played faster or slower depending on playing style. For myself, I tend to play rather rapidly, so the repeated sections go by fast for me when I play.
The melody is written for the 5 string kantele in D major, though any kantele can play it in the correct tuning. Since I use slightly thicker strings, I originally composed my songs in the key of C, since I tuned my kantele a whole step lower, but because just about all 5 string kantele are tuned to either a standard of D major or minor, I decided to transpose the final released piece in D for ease for the majority of kantele players. However, under each note is also a kind of "tab" notation for the kantele, so it can be played in any major scale regardless of tuning. The numbers go from 1-5, and correspond to the strings, with 1 being the longest and lowest string and 5 being the shortest and highest pitch string. The original melody was written with a short overtone section at the end that repeats the first and third parts, but for simplicity I left it out of this version. I will however release the full version in the next coming posts in about a week.
I wrote the song using MuseScore, which is an excellent and very powerful free music composition and notation program. When I write pieces for the kantele I choose the harp instrument setting and just delete the bass staff. MuseScore allows you to not only compose a multitude of instruments, but has many useful features such as playback which is very handy. I will probably post a basic tutorial for MuseScore at some point in the future.
In addition, I will also be adding a Kantele Sheet Music page dedicated to listing all of the sheet music I post, as further reference and resources to make it easier to find these pieces. From my posting schedule, which I have decided to keep at a post every four days, I will be posting this page with Melody #1 listed, this coming Wednesday for my next post. I definitely encourage you to check back for more material, and have fun playing! Many more songs and information to come, so happy plucking!
Melody #1
Tuesday, March 3, 2015
New Page Update - Terms and Conditions
Just a heads up to a new page that I have recently added involving the terms and conditions of the material provided here on this blog. I have, and will post, much of my own work, whether pictures, sheet music, or sound clips. Having spent a great deal of time arranging these original sources of information to share freely, I feel that it is at least appropriate and modest to request that users of such materials please provide credit/citation to where it is due - in the cases of pictures, sheet music, and sound clips, to myself as the original author. Anything else that I have re-posted or shared from other sources I have cited and linked to the original source and author to the best of my abilities, and would hope you do the same as well. I have posted and shared these materials with hopes of contributing to the community of this instrument and related topics, and as such is free to use for personal use and references, but again if you do, or share with others (which I strongly encourage), to please credit the author of this blog and material. I am always willing to help and make suggestions, so any questions just comment or send me a message and I'd be more than happy to help!
Friday, February 6, 2015
New Page Added! Kantele Resources!
I have just recently added a new page dedicated to kantele related resources. This page, either accessed at the top with the other pages or in the link below, includes links to many sites and sources, from groups, to general information, to kantele makers, to playing guides, sheet music and other kantele related blogs and research. There is definitely a lot of information available, and having it all in one place makes it easier (since it can be a bit difficult to find information on the kantele sometimes.) I encourage you to explore these additional sources, whether new or old, as much can be learned by many kantele enthusiasts, players, and makers out there. I will add more as I find more sources, but it should provide for a very good start for anyone interested in finding out more about many aspects of this instrument. And if anyone has suggestions for other sources that I may have missed then please send me a message or comment and I will add the suggested site!
Kantele Resources
Kantele Resources
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