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Free Classical Sheet Music from the International Music Score Library Project (IMSLP)

| Hannah Sterry

I’ve just found out about the International Music Score Library Project (IMSLP). They provide a brilliant website for finding free classical music scores and seem to just generally have a really good collaborative/community attitude. Here’s what they have to say on their website:

“We at the IMSLP believe that music should be something that is easily accessible for everyone. For this purpose we have created a music library to provide music scores free of charge to anyone with internet access, with several other projects in planning. IMSLP is also entirely collaborative, and all contributions are greatly welcome.”
 
I just thought it was a great project that you might like to know about. If you’re really keen you can even follow them on twitter (@imslp). Hope you find it helpful!
 
Featured image by Horia Varlan (CC BY 2.0)

Happy New Year!

| Hannah Sterry

It’s been a fun but hectic few days.

New year was brilliant. Catching up with old friends, dressing as a victorian just for fun, playing games with ridiculous additional rules…

I’ve just got back from playing jazz flute at The Cottage Hotel. Tonight it went really well, everyone seemed to be enjoying themselves and (despite my lack of sleep over the past 24 hours) I was full of energy and it was really good fun. I usually play flute as part of “The Sterry Family” and we seem to play at The Cottage reasonably often. Here are a few tracks we’ve recorded together:

Just out of interest – Have any of you done anything wild or different to celebrate New Year? Any strange/bizarre New Year’s resolutions?

My resolution is to do at least 1 hour of exercise every day, whether that’s going for a walk or playing games on the Wii against my little sister. I’m also aiming to increase my repertoire of harp music, learn to drive and take my Grade 8 flute exam this year – we’ll see what happens.

Hope you’ve all had a brilliant Christmas and New Year! And let this year be a good one!

Live Music at The Cottage Hotel

| Hannah Sterry

On the 1st January I’ll be in Hope Cove at The Cottage Hotel playing jazz flute with John (keyboard) and Joe (sax) as part of “The Sterry Family”.

If you’ve not been to The Cottage before, it’s a hotel with a stunning sea view, really good food and the people running it are lovely (they’re even nice to musicians!!!). I chose to go there for my birthday meal because the atmosphere and food is so good (the puddings are delicious too).

Picture from http://www.hopecove.com

Another day, another instrument…

Yesterday I played harp at The Cottage and it went down really well! I got to speak to some wonderful people afterwards about  and brought my dad and sister along to listen.

People tend to ask quite a few questions about the harp, because it’s a fairly modern design. This particular model is a Smartwood Harp and is much lighter than some of the more traditional designs, which makes it much more convenient for travelling with. Most importantly, I enjoy playing it and it sounds good (the low notes in particular have a wonderful warm rich sound). I’m tempted to add levers soon, as I am finding the standard modes a bit restrictive, but overall I’m very happy with it.

Dusk: New tune uploaded on bandcamp!

| Hannah Sterry

I’ve had this tune sitting on my hard drive for a while now, but haven’t known what to do with it, so I thought I might as well post it and then anyone can have a listen if they feel like it.

I’m a bit of a cynical flautist, so I really really enjoyed improvising on this big dark tune. All of it is my work, it’s just that the flute part was the most fun to play. The photo above is mine too and is called “Hope at Sunset”.

Ollie – New Kitten

| Hannah Sterry

Here’s Ollie – the newest member of the Sterry household!

A few funny things have happened since he came to live with us and he’s shown himself to have quite a bit of character!

5 Things he really seems to like:

  • Rubbing his face on everything and purring madly. Sometimes he does this to wake me up.
  • Hiding in the bath. He loves trying to attack water, but seemed a bit shocked once when he jumped in the bath, only to find that it was full of water. Here he is hiding in the sink:

    Ollie hiding in the sink.
    Sink Cat
  • Playfully biting toes. He’s fairly gentle and doesn’t use claws, but it tickles!
  • Annoying the other cats until they get mad and hiss and growl at him or take a swipe. He nibbles their tails if he’s in a really irritating mood.
  • Weird Sleeping Positions…
Ollie's Crazy Sleeping Pose

He’s a bit mad, but I love him to pieces.

Malborough Cycle Path

A morning view of the cycle track between Malborough and Salcombe in Devon.
| Hannah Sterry

Another of my photos has been published in the Kingsbridge and Salcombe Gazette. This week it was my shot of Malborough Cycle Path.

A morning view of the cycle track between Malborough and Salcombe in Devon.
The path provides a great car-free way to travel between Salcombe and Malborough and apparently there are plans for it to eventually reach Plymouth too [source], although I’m not convinced that’ll be happening for quite a while.

Morning Walks in November

| Hannah Sterry

Last Friday one of my photographs (Start Point Lighthouse) was published in the Kingsbridge, Salcombe and South Hams Gazette (link). I was happily surprised to see it there and hope that someone out there likes it.

This week I’ve been practicing a set for my harp gig at The Cottage Hotel on 27th December. There’ll be mulled wine and a chance to chat over a selection of carols and well known tunes.

To end, here’s a picture from my morning walk the other day. I’m struggling to believe how warm and sunny it is, when this time last year everything was covered in a thick layer of ice. Hope the weather stays this way!

Malborough-Salcombe Cycle Path

Jazz Sketch

| Hannah Sterry

This is just a little idea for a jazz tune. I’ll embed a better video once I’ve recorded it properly, but for now, here’s some real, rough-around-the-edges music:

Let me know if you like the sketch. I still don’t know whether uploading at this stage is a good idea. Most music isn’t seen at this sketchy, made-up-on-the-spot stage.

On another note, does anyone else look like a crazy fool when they’re playing piano? I seem to rock, grin madly and occasionally headbang (all unintentionally).

Advertising and Promoting Music on a Budget (Free)

| Hannah Sterry

Here are a few useful sites I’ve found whilst researching how to start advertising and and selling my music without having to pay anything. Hope it helps!

  • Bandcamp is probably the best website regarding ease and freedom of music sale. You just upload the tracks and album art and name your price. They take 15% commission, and PayPal take a little too, but if you read through their FAQs there’s plenty of information and advice to help you manage your music independently. UPDATE: Bandcamp now have a facebook app, so it’s possible to sell music via facebook pages. Here’s the info: http://bandcamp.com/facebook_app.
  • RouteNote are advertising that they can get your tunes on itunes, and you don’t have to pay anything up front as they take a percentage of the money from sales. If salesincrease you can pay a flat rate each month and keep all of the money from your sales.
  • RootMusic have quite a neat module for playing music on facebook pages. If you want to customise it, you have to pay,but the free version looks quite tidy and does the job. You can also use a facebook app by ReverbNation, but in my opinion it didn’t look so tidy.
  • Get British Businesses Online will give you 2 years worth of free domain name. The only catch that I can see (other than the fact that you have to be based in Britain) is that you have to use google sites to build a website.

If you’ve found any other useful sites like this, please don’t hesitate to comment!