Certain times of the year hold appeal for students and it is always nice to find music that is fun and motivational for them to play but also has educational value. SmartMusic has thousands of pieces of repertoire. One collection that you and your students might find appealing, especially this time of year, is called Spooky Solos. The solos, with accompaniment, are for band and string instruments.

To find Spooky Solos in SmartMusic:

• Go to Find music, type the word “spooky” and click Search.
• Select the instrument, select a title and click Open.

The collection will be downloaded to your computer. After that, you can then find the collection in My Library>Solos.

Spooky Solos contains 14 solos that are both fun to play and musically satisfying. The collection contains some well known repertoire as well as a few original compositions by some of our own MakeMusicians.

Here is a sampling of the included titles along with some of the musical highlights:

• The Sorcerer’s Apprentice  (3/8, accidentals)
• In the Hall of the Mountain King  (4/4, staccato, accents, accidentals)
• Funeral March of a Marionette  (6/8, grace notes, accidentals, staccato, crescendo, decrescendo)
• I’m So Happy I’m a Ghost  (4/4, 16^th note rhythms, syncopation, Tango style)
• Frankenstein’s Monster Goes Jogging  (4/4, chromatic scale)

The Spooky Solo collection is an exclusive SmartMusic virtual book and is not published in a hard copy format. Wouldn’t it be great if you could print out the solos? With Finale you can! These solos are included as notation files in Finale 2012 and Finale 2014.

To find the solos in Finale 2012 or Finale 2014:

• Under the File menu select Open Worksheets & Repertoire.
• Then choose Repertoire>Holiday Patriotic>Instrumental.

You will find instrument specific notation files plus the accompaniment file used in SmartMusic! In Finale, you can have some fun by changing the accompaniment instrument from piano to another instrument like harpsichord, which can provide even more of a spooky flavor. You can then export that file back into SmartMusic!

Spooky Solos are not only fun and motivational to play but can serve educational purposes as well. Maybe you could have an in class student recital featuring these solos. Wouldn’t that be a “treat”!