ABRSM Free Resources Project [In Progress]
Dear all
I am busy with a large project to make as many of the pieces of the Associated Board of the Royal Schools of Music (ABRSM) syllabus available for free. The ABRSM is one of the oldest and most respected examination bodies in the world, with examinations taking place all over. Here in South Africa, an ABRSM qualification is regarded highly.
I have started with the piano syllabus, from the list of prescribed pieces available from their website. Of course, the pieces which are under copyright will not be part of this project, but the public domain pieces are relatively easy to come by. I would say that I am about 10% of the way through the piano syllabus as of this posting.
Once the piano syllabus is complete, I will release it for free on my website. (http://opusloft.co.za - although it is just an empty website at the moment.) The idea is that a complete set of resources for all instruments, including example sight-reading and aural tests, will eventually be available, but for now, the piano syllabus will have to do.
I hope that these resources will be useful to many people. If anyone is interested in getting hold of these resources when I am finished, please let me know. I will also post updates in the comments.
E
Comments
As a worker with another exam board can I sound a word of caution. The pieces you transcribe are out of copyright but if the books you are using are in-copyright you must be very careful as the edition will be copyright to that board. Our in-house publishers issue new editions edited from various public domain sources to avoid this problem. May I suggest you look at transcribing the pieces from old editions, piano particularly from 19th and 20th century editions. Also check ABRSM will accept different editions, not all boards will.
In reply to As a worker with another exam by stewart81
Thanks for the reply.
I am indeed aware of the problems of copyright, thanks for pointing that out! You are completely right - and it's something we all need to be aware of to avoid lawsuits.
At the moment, I am working from public domain and Creative Commons sources, such as mutopiaproject.org and imslp.org and others, so as to avoid using editions that are protected by copyright.
What exam board are you affiliated to? Perhaps I could work on some of those pieces next.
E
Good idea. Non-copyright pieces only, of course. So many good pieces probably rarely get played as students try to buy just the minimum number of books containing the most listed pieces.
Advice to anyone planning to sit the exams is to try the pieces, select the ones they like and then check with their teacher (or direct with the exam board). They may find a piece on the Internet but have to buy a piece for the exam if it's copyright (ABRSM won't let you take in photocopies except as an aid to page-turns and only then when you also have the original).
I work for Victoria College of Music, London. For College purposes we use S******s but I have used Musescore for several pieces I have arranged and advise all candidates who wish to do compositions to use Musescore.
We have the same issue and have to be so careful when we republish old editions, especially piano music. The Petrucci library is also one of our sources! The project is a superb idea though and I fully support it. This is all personal of course but you are doing many people a great service getting this music out to them.
In reply to I work for Victoria College by stewart81
Thank you for the kind words! It is a really tough project since I have to do it in my spare time, and, on top of it, I struggle to find some of the less-known pieces. I will work on the project a whole lot more next week!
In reply to Thank you for the kind words! by etienne
I'm writing a sight-reading plug-in for MuseScore which will colour notes in as you play them on a MIDI keyboard. Does anyone here know of a non-copyrighted source of sight reading pieces that correspond to the different ABRSM grades?
In reply to Sight Reading Pieces by DonH
Dear DonH
The ABRSM syllabus description suggests the level of difficulty for a piece to be a sight-reading for a specific grade. For obvious reasons, they do not publish the contents of their sight-reading collections, and they only publish a selection of equivalents for teachers to give to their students on occassion.
I suggest browsing through the ABRSM syllabus descriptions, available from their website, and seeing what level each grade's sight-reading pieces need to be, and then choosing appropriate songs. Perhaps you could start up your own forum topic (under the relevant forum) asking for suggestions for each grade?
Hope that helps!
Cheers,
E
Thus far, I have collected enough original scores for an "adequate" syllabus. Let me explain what I mean by this:
I am not able to provide every single piece for one simple reason: many pieces are modern and under copyright. Thus, what I strive to provide is a syllabus which has at least two pieces, in each of the three groups, per grade. This will not always be possible, because many list C pieces are modern, and thus under copyright. Thus, for the C list of some grades, I will only be able to provide one piece, or even none.
With this explanation in mind, I thus have just about enough pieces to create a "complete" syllabus, made up of public domain pieces, which will still provide the student with some choice in pieces.
What I also did was to create a .CSV file manually, which I can then manipulate as a spreadsheet. This file will then be my reference as to what pieces I have, what progress I am making, and what pieces are copyright. That alone took me quite a few evenings.
Next up: transcribe those I have not yet done in MuseScore. This is, of course, the tough part.
There are many instruments and syllabuses. You could use help from people here with experience with certain instruments. I volunteer to do some if you find any trumpet parts (also suitable for Bb cornet and Flugelhorn).
Some quick scales and arpegiios for Trumpet, Bb Cornet, Eb Soprano Cornet and Flugelhorn, if it's of any use. These are for practice only - an aide mémoir to scales, as it were - and students should look to their teacher with regards to how they might be expected to perform scales and arpeggios in an actual ABRSM exam.
Any teachers or experienced musicians out there, feel free to edit.
Thank you all for your kind words. I also appreciate the offers to help with other instruments. At the moment, I am simply working towards a piano syllabus, after which, if it is popular, I will then be more than willing to start a community around creating sheet music for education.
At the moment, I am working hard on collecting, sorting, and checking pieces. In between I still try to get some "real" work done and typeset some scores. It's a time-consuming process to typeset them since I most often have to do it by hand, rather than import a MIDI or MusicXML file, because I need to keep this strictly Public Domain.
Here is a piece from Grade 3 as a preview of the quality that I am trying to achieve. I have not yet double-checked the notation, nor have I yet tweaked the layout and notation for optimum readability. This is simply a taste of what I am doing. The final layout will, of course, be slightly different.
Cheers for now!
E
In reply to Update #2 by etienne
I'm not a lawyer but, for what is worth, the notes are public domain if the composer is public domain. You can load a MusicXML file if you just keep the notes from it and nothing else (some annotation, if present in the manuscript should be ok). You can also load a MusicXML file if the file itself is public domain or CC0 like the some of the Beethoven's sonatas here : http://musescore.com/groups/the-beethoven-piano-sonatas
In reply to For what is worth, the notes by [DELETED] 5
Thank you! I have indeed been trolling the MuseScore.com pieces to see what I could find. Those pieces are, of course, the easiest because I can open them natively. Unfortunately, not too many pieces are available. I have a few, but not many.
The new 2013-2014 Piano syllabus was released by the ABRSM today. Although I knew that it was on its way, I was hoping that many pieces in the 2011-2012 syllabus would still be included in the new one, and that I wouldn't have to get too many new pieces when it arrived. If I had all the necessary pieces for the old syllabus, I said to myself, then I would only need to arrange some new ones when the new syllabus arrived.
Unfortunately, I was mistaken.
The ABRSM has taken the liberty, as is their right, to overhaul their syllabus with brand-new pieces. I have yet to find a single piece that can be found in the previous syllabus.
This means that I basically have to start over. Please be patient, then, as I can only work on this project in my spare time.
(Incidentally, my wife and I have been married for 6 months today.)
E
In reply to Update #3 - New Syllabus, New Ballgame by etienne
Due to this very large setback, I could do with some help in collecting the public domain pieces. So, if anyone has some free time and a good internet connection (unlike me), why not do some searching and see if you can find some of the public domain pieces for me?
I can work with pieces in the following formats: Images, Pdf's, Midi's, or any format MuseScore can import. You can email attachments or download links to me at: etienne [at] opusloft [dot] co [dot] za (please first compress attachments to .7z or .tar.gz)
I have attached a spreadsheet containing the entire syllabus, or you can download the PDF from ABRSM's website by clicking THIS LINK HERE.
Please, make sure that the file you send me is Public Domain! There are many copyright pieces in the syllabus, so make sure that you haven't downloaded one illegally by mistake. Good P.D. sources are http://www.imslp.org and http://www.mutopiaproject.org for a start, but I'm sure Google will help too.
I would really appreciate any help, however small.
E
Someone has already taken the trouble to go through many of the pieces for the 2011-12 and 2013-14 piano syllabus, played them, posted them to YouTube and posted the sheet music (as images in the videos) of the non-copyright ones.
One of the links;
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=6tbl80AHlck
Easiest way to grab them seems to be using DownloadHelper in Firefox. Save as a .FLV file at 480 resolution then you can play back, pause, resize and copy into MuseScore. ABRSM_Piano_2011_2A1 Daquin.mscz
In reply to ABRSM resource by underquark
Thanks very much! I will definitely take a look. At the moment, I am simply searching online databases such as IMSLP.org for pieces to transcribe. I will hopefully also be visiting university libraries and similar places which would have old Public Domain sources...
A whole lot has taken place since my last update!
The ABRSM has contacted me with concerns pertaining to the copyright contents of their syllabus. We were able to amicably resolve the matter, yet I must stress that the numbering system and contents of the syllabus available from their website is copyright under law, so anyone who contributes to this project, or who decides to make use of the pieces, must please again be careful.
I have also been working hard on layout and style settings so as to make the music as "user-friendly" as possible. The easier the music is to read, the easier the pieces will be to learn for new students. Although MuseScore does a great job of sticking to most music engraving standards, I will be tweaking the layouts a bit.
Another point that I will be working hard on is fingering numbers. This is especially important at the lower grades, and I endeavour to include accurate fingering suggestions.
Thanks to all who have already shown an interest! Your support, however, small, is most appreciated.
In reply to Update #4 - The pace is picking up! by etienne
Thank you for your contribution.
In reply to Thank you for your by xavierjazz
I have made some really good progress recently. I spent a whole lot of time on a great-looking and easy-to-read layout, and I have also worked on fingering hints... It is just such a time-consuming process...
I have no "release date" as of yet, but I am working hard on quality rather than speediness.
If you take a look at the attached file, you can see how I am tweaking the layout and readability of a Grade 1 piece.
In reply to Small update! by etienne
Looks very good. Great work.
In reply to Looks very good. Great work. by xavierjazz
I am working on methods to import finished MuseScore pieces into Scribus in order to create professional print-ready PDF output. It's far from perfect at the moment, but it seems that it might just work. See the screenshot...
In reply to Scribus Import? by etienne
What's wrong with the PDF output of MuseScore? Why it wouldn't be "professional print-ready"? I got PDF from MuseScore printed by several printer firms and they never made any comments about the PDF output... It's your time after all, but I guess it would be better spend in entering notes and make beautiful sheet music than fiddling with the details of the PDF spec.
In reply to What's wrong with the PDF by [DELETED] 5
I'm just exploring my options at this stage. If I can import into Scribus, then I can combine nice cover pages, tables of contents, indexes and other text with the sheets.
In reply to I'm just exploring my options by etienne
Why do you need to worry about PRINTING nice cover pages etc. when your stated intent is to create a web page of free resources?
In reply to Why do you need to worry by underquark
Thank you all for the challenging questions. There may be some confusion regarding my wishes to import scores into DTP software.
I will of course be making all the scores freely available from my website, but I also wish them to be as high quality as possible for those people that wish to print them out. I am also looking into options of making resources easily available in print form at low cost, hence the references to cover pages and so on. I am simply looking at options at this stage.
I hope this clears up the confusion. I am still working hard on the pieces, and I hope to release them soon.
In reply to Thank you all for the by etienne
Great! I hope you teamed up with underquark who already posted quite some pieces.
Regarding printing options, you could check "Amazon Create Space" and "Lulu.com"
In reply to Great! I hope you teamed up by [DELETED] 5
Thanks for the suggestions for printing. I have already been looking at options.
I haven't thought of contacting Underquark yet, since I work on this project in my spare time, and I've only been working on pieces that I transcribed myself. But that's a good idea!
In reply to Thanks for the suggestions by etienne
Good. If you could share the options you envisionned and the pro and cons, here or on your own blog, I guess it would be valuable for other users. Regarding underquark, he created more than 40 scores of the syllabus, would be a pity to not team up :)
In reply to Good. If you could share the by [DELETED] 5
Thank you for the good comments. I have definitely thought about writing something about printing music and page layout. Perhaps something along the lines of standard notation practice, something I have been reading up on a lot these days. I contacted Underquark, waiting for a reply.
In reply to Thank you for the good by etienne
You may use the scores I created for your project. Please credit MuseScore as being used in their creation. Some will benefit from your tidying them up to make them easier to read/play.
Although I had started to transcribe some Grade 8 pieces I am devoting my time to other projects at present and am, in any case, finding it more difficult to do some of these pieces as I can't even play them (and nor can some posters on YouTube, it seems).
Still looking for trumpet/cornet/flugelhorn pieces it you come across any. Old scores in any readable format - PNG, PDF etc.
In reply to You may use the scores I by underquark
Dear Underquark, could you perhaps contact me by using the personal contact form on my profile? I would like to continue this discussion with you personally so that the product can be even better.
I am sorry that I cannot get round to cornet/trumpet pieces yet. The piano syllabus is taking up all the time I can lend at the moment.
Don't worry about the Grade 8 pieces - I have already started with them, so there's no need to duplicate efforts!
First of all, I wish to thank people like Underquark and Lasconic (amongst others) for their interest and good comments. Such feedback is very good and helps me refine the product. The more input, the better!
If I were to guess how far I am with the project, I would like to say that I am about 60% done. Although I have managed to get hold of most of the pieces already, I am still sifting through the List C's at the moment to find more Public Domain pieces, I am still working on tweaking the layout for readibility, and on top of it, I am also adding fingering hints and a small piece of information on each piece. These last 2 things unfortunately take a lot of time.
Regarding licensing, I will be releasing all the scores under a Creative Commons Share-Alike license so that they stay freely accessible forever. (How many people have found sites where e.g. Tchaikovsky music is available for download for $$$ ?) I will be releasing the scores as PDF's, both individually and in "book" compilations, with the MuseScore files also available in zipped collections, but with some tweaks (e.g. custom fonts) removed for compatibility.
Please continue to comment and share your thoughts.
E
In reply to Update #5 - Lots of progress! by etienne
Do you plan to release all of them at once? Or for example Grade 1 ASAP ?
In reply to Do you plan to release all of by [DELETED] 5
In order to ensure that they all the pieces are uniform and any layout tweaks or fonts applied to one are applied to all (as needed) I will be releasing them all at once. Unless I change my mind, of course.
In reply to In order to ensure that they by etienne
To help changing your mind: http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Release_early,_release_often
In reply to To help changing your mind: by [DELETED] 5
Thanks for the comment. I definitely understand the concept. My view of music engraving, though, is much closer to art than to software development. I wish to get it just perfect before I release it. I also want the release to coincide with my new website.
Dear all
I have indeed made a lot of progress so far, but at the same time, it is now at a much, much slower pace. Sorry to say it, but my real job is keeping me quite busy, and an hour an evening, 4 evenings a week, is just not enough to keep the pace up.
If you would like to see two preview pieces, to get an idea of what the pieces will look like, here are their links. One piece is from Grade 8, and the other from Grade 1: http://is.gd/5VHYJ0 & http://is.gd/pWu79p
If you want to keep updated and get more information, why not follow this Twitter account: http://twitter.com/Octavepress
I will definitely see what I can do about picking up the pace a whole lot.
E
In reply to Update #6 - Progress has slowed down unfortunately by etienne
Hi! Wild like to know esp if u r working on 2015-2016 midi files?
I would like to buy if possible from you?
Nancy
any violin abrsm syllabus also?
Please forgive a newbie, I've just discovered this and just signed up.
Why would someone not just download what they want from imslp.org? If it's in the public domain it's probably there, or if not there then at mutopia.
What fundamental piece of information am I missing about this software and your project?
cheers.
In reply to confused by dannwebb
maybe to be able to hear it (even if musescore isn't done for that) or practice with the accompagniement (melodic instrument with sheet with solo+piano) ...?
In reply to confused by dannwebb
Here are a couple good reasons to have scores in MuseScore format instead of PDF, or even Lilypond (mutopia)
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=7zHey9x8Xuc