Finding the perfect literature for your group can be a significant challenge. Few can afford to purchase music only to find out later it’s not going to work. Let’s look at a few the ways that SmartMusic, Gradebook, and the SmartMusic website can help.
SmartMusic
Within SmartMusic itself, you have several resources that can aid your search for new repertoire. You can:
- Use the Quick Search function to find a specific piece of music, using as many filters as needed,
- Listen to any selection in its entirety,
- View any part to help evaluate the technical demands of the piece. This can help you develop your teaching strategy or help you decide if the piece is appropriate for your group.
To view the latest releases in SmartMusic look in the upper left hand corner for SmartMusic Catalog and click on New Releases, or look for New Releases on the right side of the screen:
Gradebook
After logging into Gradebook, select Assignments>SmartMusic Assessment and Recording>Band and Orchestra Titles Library.
From here you can search for literature choosing various filters (including ensemble type and level of difficulty) and listen to full recordings by clicking the speaker icon that appears to the right of each title:
Print Search Results
You can also search from the SmartMusic website. Besides being available from any computer with an Internet connection, this option also allows you to print the results of your search.
To try this out, go to the SmartMusic homepage and click on Find Music from the top of the page. Specify your search parameters and hit the Find button to see the results. Want to print them out? There’s a “print results” button at the bottom left of your search.
In addition to printing them out, you might also save them in a digital format such as PDF. Mac users have this capability built-in, and I’ve found that the free-of-charge PDFCreator works for me on Windows.
Hopefully this helps your search for that perfect piece a little easier. Happy Hunting!