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part plunkingDate: August 9, 2012 by Matthew Petrozelli  Views: 2673
Does anybody know of a place where you give them the pieces that you are doing and have them plunk the parts out for you? I would like to give my choir part CD's but I do not have the technology at my school. Does anybody know of a place? Any help would be great. Thanks
Replies (12): Threaded | Chronological
Marie Grass Amenta on August 9, 2012 10:12am
YouTube has the Choirparts channel. If you go to YouTube, type in Choirparts--I think there is also a website--choriparts.com--you'll get their YouTube channel. Type in your piece and see if it's been downloaded (uploaded--I don't know?!?!), new works are added all the time.
Let's say you want "For Unto Us a Child is Born" from "Messiah"--type it in and you will get the SATB version and each voice parts separately as well. The single voice parts are highlighted -- it does sound mechanical but it works! If you are doing major works or popular things, it should be on choirparts.
I conduct a chamber choir, specializing in motets and partsongs, so many things I need aren't neccessarily on it :( but I do find something I need occassionally!
Marie Grass Amenta, founder and music director
the Midwest Motet Society
on August 9, 2012 10:58am
You could try bcp.org, a multi-service music company.
Best,
Frank La Rocca
on August 10, 2012 3:36am
I'd happily do this for a reasonable fee, probably about $5 per minute of music if it's fairly simple four-part stuff. Drop me an email if you'd like to discuss: chris (a) hutchingsmusic.co.uk . I'm based in the UK but can send files by email if you're able to write them onto CD where you are (I can send mp3 files, and it should be possible to make a CD of those) or I could post CDs to you.
on August 10, 2012 4:58am
The delightful John Hooper of Cambridgeshire UK has put up lots of MIDI part files, from motets to Whitacre, at;
Scroll down and click on #8 "other rehearsal aids" to see recommendations for other part sites. He's expressed a willingness in past to do some part plunking "by commission", you might email him if you have an interesting piece.
The Cyber Woodshed link is down and Googling it doesn't seem to work, try this;
Cyberbass is great too
it doesn't have quite the range of John's site and you may find a very occasional wrong note in a part (almost always a missing accidental so easy to fix in rehearsal) but it's got all the parts for the major "biggies".
agree with Ms. Amenta -- the Choirparts channel on Youtube is a fantastic resource;
I'm not clear if it's related to Choirparts.com, which seems to be a Gospel choir based site with very few classical works. But they do advertise a part plunking service as well;
Do you have an iPhone or DVR handy? Could you just whap out the parts on a keyboard, or have a few star students sightread them for you, record in real time, and message or email the mp3s right to your choir list? Even a really rough, low-quality mp3 is immensely helpful.
Would love to know what you're programming. Is it High School chorus? Good luck and happy learning!
MR
on August 10, 2012 7:58am
I am going to stray slightly away from answering this question by emphatically challenging the need for "plunking" of any sort. In fact even the word "plunking" sounds ugly. Quality choirs don't have directors that allow much plunking at the piano in rehearsal. They also rarely create part CDs for their singers. These CDs are all really unwise crutches to create for your choir. Better still, with patience on your part and theirs, sightsing chorales every day for at least five minutes, teach them reading skills, knowlege of scales and modes, solfege, basic harmony, etc. The less you develop their musicianship skills the more they will think they have to have the plunking parts CD and rehearsal plunking. We need to challenge (and teach) our choirs, not use technology to enable them to be lazy, poor musicians.
Correct me if I am wrong, but I don't think bands and orchestras create part practice CDs for their members. No wonder that we still fight the sterotype that singers are not real musicians, since we still do way too little to teach them theory skills. With that said, I think that in our best high schools and universities we have wonderful values going on, so I am not wagging my finger at everyone, of course.
Anecdote: I have my gifted HS choir at the summertime N Carolina Governor's School sightread, count-sing, and solfege (including weird solfege, such as modal/chromatic elements) every day. Our best rehearsals are when the piano is lounging in a corner untouched.They all hate these approaches at first since in their home high schools they never had to do it. Yet before long they love the challenge and grow enormously, and they especially see the multiple benefits of countsinging. One kid in particular from two years ago even got a full ride scholarship for her amazing voice but also her sightsinging at her audtiion entered into that scholarship deal. The people auditioning her couldn't believe her sightsinging skills and were happy to grab her for their program.
Applauded by an audience of 7
on August 11, 2012 7:00pm
While I do understand, and even applaud, yiour view, Paul, I also understand and support Matthew's need in this instance.
I hate "plunking"---I prefer to call it "pounding out notes"--and sometimes, "pounding notes into the heads" with any tool available. It hate it and hate to do it---except when I have to. Most of my singers are excellent sightsingers and the ones who are not, can fall in line soon in rehearsals.
Sometimes, our singers need to be exposed to the rep when not in our vicinity. My old aural skills teacher called it "living with it"--which meant thinking about the intervals, harmonic progressions, chords etc. all the time, not just in rehearsal. I use technology to my advantage by burning CDs& MP3s (of other groups singing our rep)for my singers so they can sing along in their cars or listen while they are taking their morning runs--and I like to think Dr. 'D' would have approved because they are "living with it" in their daily lives, outside of rehearsal. During their independant practice--and I know this for sure since we talked at our retreat this morning about this very subject--they DO NOT use my repertoire CDs to sing along but do appreciate HEARING the pieces as a whole. Often, I find YouTube videos of it and will send it on and they like that too. Choirparts on YouTube can also enrich what we do in rehearsal. But, there comes a time when sightsinging is out of the picture, when it is a question of tuning the learned notes and more artistry than anything else--if I can get there quicker by whatever means, I do.
Orchestral players listen to Bruckner Symphonies or Beethoven or Mahler and it may or may not form their own interpetations before their begin rehearsals--why shouldn't choral musicians do the same thing? Technology is a wonderful thing and we should learn to use it, while encouraging good musicianship.
My singers are adults, most with degrees in music--and we often have a time crunch for learning music. ANYTHING I can do--whether burning rep CDs or the like--to speed the process along is what I do.
Marie--there IS a musical life in the south suburbs of Chicago
Applauded by an audience of 1
on August 14, 2012 5:11am
I agree with both Paul and Marie. But while I do expect literacy from my singers (we count-sing and use solfege regularly), unlike reading for instrumentalists, singers have to imagine the next note to be able to sing it, and they need to imagine the next chord before they can tune it (I realize instrumentalists do this as well). My choirs are amateur adults with busy lives. Anything I can do to speed up the process of securing their imagination means the rehearsal experience is more rewarding for all of us.
Karen
kssingers.com
on August 10, 2012 7:46pm
Matthew,
Why not just contact one of the colleges in your area and hire a piano student to record the parts for you? If you can borrow a small portable digital recorder, great, but I've also had good luck with SmartMusic on my laptop using the built-in microphone. Even an undergraduate piano major should be able to play high school choral parts accurately, and a grad student could probably do it in one take. Then it shoudn't be difficult to find services that could make multiple copies of the CDs for your students from a flash drive loaded with the recorded tracks.
And as a professional accompanist and choral part-plunker myself, I have to ask...don't you have an accompanist for your school choirs? Why not ask your professional collaborator, who will be playing those pieces in rehearsals and performances anyway? Even if you don't have the luxury of a daily accompanist in your classroom, surely there are pianists in your community that have worked with your school in the past and coulod do the recordings for you.
best of luck,
Nancy
on August 11, 2012 5:42am
Scan the music in with Photoscore, separate out the parts with Sibelius (listen through for errors first) and export audio. Five minutes work.
Applauded by an audience of 1
on August 13, 2012 4:34am
I have had the same challenge. "Getting the technology" wouldn't necessarily cost you that much, though, and you would likely find it useful for many applications. Finale Printe Music, for instance, costs less than $80. A handheld digital recorder is less than $200, and there's always Garage Band. Talk to your administrator(s) about "sluch funds" they might have, solicit your parent organization, contact businesses in the area, or do a Kickstarter campaign.
All that said, yeah, there's a bunch of websites now that can be useful. Another idea: increasingly, publishers (especially Fischer and their affiliate BriLee) provide parts online when you purchse the music. --Eric Betthauser
Charlottesville, VA
on August 14, 2012 7:31am
I have found the following technique helpful:
Download a recording of the piece that is close to your vision of it, or use a cd if you already have a recording you like [assuming one exists - and you're ok - this is for educational fair use - insist that your singers return it after concert] .
While that is playing mp in the background, sing the part over it, and record the combination. That way what they practice at home is the "whole musical picture" with their part prominent. Have an advanced singer, or a local voice major, sing/record any parts out of your tessitura. (Please remember that though you may be able to "hit" certain notes, you may not want them imitating your timbre at those pitches, which they will subconsciously do. This is why, as a lyric-coloratura, I do not sing tenor or bass on the recordings ;)
Another use of these is that you can split the group for simultaneous sectionals.
I feel, understand and affirm the points on both sides of the "support them for efficiency/train them to sight-sing for life" outlooks.
Personally, I dislike recordings with the notes only. Even if the [less-trained] singer manages to follow it, they may teach themsleves mistakes in syllable-matching, language pronunciation, timing of dipthongs, artculation, dynamics, etc., which are time/energy consuming to correct. Also sometimes our brains go on "out"-omatic, wondering, "Is this the first time or the repeat?"
If you produce the recording (I recommend Audacity or a similar program - not too wild about Garage Band), then you can create a "take-home individual rehearsal" - [never a substitute for the group session] you can even include your verbal introduction of the piece (for those absent that week - mentally or physically! ;), caution them about/rehearse certian tricky passges, etc.
I also emphasize that they should sit down, copy in hand, while listening...at least the first 3 times...(later they can listen in car/on ipod, etc.).. This is because most of us - even musicians - learn by aural and visual messages. If they are sleepy/distracted at their home-practice time, they can move to it, including the kinesthetic element of learning and getting their exercise :) ! But don't put down that copy! :) As Paul Carey and those of who affirm his view, might agree - the sight of the music while hearing it is, at least partially, a step toward competent reading. (As a professional singer/director) I have been complimented and hired based on my reading ability [thank you, piano and sight-singing teachers!] but I often use recordings to facilitate memorizing/almost memorizing. When I perform, even in situations where we all use music, I do not want to be page-dependent. I want to look up and freshly communicate, emote, etc. Watch the faces of choirs that are page-dependent. They don't follow so well - there is a mini-second delay. And who wants to look at only foreheads and eyeglasses for 2 hours? ;)
Best to all,
-Lucy
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