Welcome to the GPO Academy!

[Garritan]

We have an incredible array of knowledgeable and talented people here. Some are professors, authors, professional musicians, music educators, talented amateurs and hobbyists - and all of us are learners.

Realizing this, Fabio Vicentini proposed an idea of creating a place on the forum where people can study and learn more about music. In making this idea into a reality, we are pleased to present the "GPO Academy" subsection of the forum.

One of the main goals of this forum has been education and this community has evolved into a learning environment. Some operate under an mistaken assumption that it is a product, such as a sample library, that will make one become a master composer and orchestrator. Nothing can be further than the truth. It is the skill of the musician that has more to do with the sound of a library. It's just like a real instrument. You can take a Stradivarius violin and put it in the hands of a beginner and post an mp3 and people will post how awful it sounds. But is it the instrument that sounds awful and dreadful? Put it in the hands of a master and it will sound great. Same instrument - different hands. Same concept applies with a sample library. It is skill and knowledge that makes the difference. Our commitment does not end with the sale of a product, Education is more important than the product and we are committed to educating people to become better at their art.

The GPO Academy will be a place where people are encouraged and where they can learn about a wide range of topics dealing with music. There will be online lessons and discussions to share knowledge and foster collaborative relationships between teachers and learners

This is new for all of us and we will have some trial and error as we create our online learning center. Your input and participation is sought to help pave the way for collaborative learning.

Thanks to Fabio for his inspiration and to PapaChalk and DeSound for creating this new section.

Gary Garritan

[SeanHannifin]

Many thanks to Fabio for his wonderful idea, and Gary for his support! I hope to learn a lot! :)

[Jerry W.]

Many thanks to Fabio for his wonderful idea, and Gary for his support! I hope to learn a lot! :)
I second that!

I will share what I know - but will be in the student's chair more than anything!!

:)

Glad this is here

Jerry Wickham

[Looper]

Thank you to all who are working to make this a reality. I can hardly believe the generous attitude of so many people on this forum.

Cheers to the GPO Academy!

[DPDAN]

This is gonna be cool!

dp :D

[SteveHanlon]

sounds great! thanks for this!!

hope we can get a lesson or four on orchestration: the use of timbres and the voicing of chords between orch. sections.

[Karl Garrett]

This place is just wonderful, and to all of you who make it so, a big thanks and much love and respect.

Karl

[dermod]

Academies normally require an entry qualification. I suggest it should consist of two things. Possesion of GPO and possession of Paul Gilreath's Guide to Midi Orchestration (I am currently on page 260). With those two ticks in the box, the students can get down to some real business.

[StrangeCat]

hey I always like this place for classical music even though I write music in every style I often come here when I use GPO. alwasy more to learn or I should say different approaches to music and music production. Great Idea this Academy thing. I agree that GPO should be part of the Academy but i think there will be a lot of people that just want to learn music theory or something.

[Styxx]

Here's wishing all of you participating the best of luck and learnings! God knows you have all started a quest that has to be one of the most involved (that and the medical profession) and time consuming. May you all prosper, grow, and become the best musicians / composers you can be!
Good luck to all of you!;)

[BermudaFlyer]

<snip> Some operate under an mistaken assumption that it is a product, such as a sample library, that will make one become a master composer and orchestrator. Nothing can be further than the truth. <snip>

Whaaaaa?!?! :eek: Awww, dangit! ;) :cool:

[robgb]

Wow, leave for awhile and things happen... !

[Fabio]

Hi people, let's go on.

I'm ready to give back results for the kind support of Gary.

Actions and news coming soon! :)

[rikp]

This place is great! I am new to the forum (maybe 3 weeks) and I find myself ending my day reading and learning from you thoughtful people. I am a teacher (and a life long student) and I dream of the day when ALL of my students are as passionate and dedicated to learning about music as you folks are. Having said that, I am looking forward to listening and learning from everyone here.


Peace

Rik

[UNIX_GURU]

I know that a lot of the lessons will be custom built for an individual students needs though I think it would be helpful if some of this knowledge could be posted for all to see.

[jesshmusic]

I am thinking one of the intents of the Academy is to post lectures in this forum. I was thinking of starting a basic composition "boot camp" where I would start a thread with an assignment for anyone to complete. They would then post there score and demo for me and others to analyze and critique. It would be kind of a composition work out.

I think Fabio is going to post lectures starting this weekend.

I would guess with the number of people that volunteered to teach, we should be able to cover everything from one on one lessons (the method I prefer to teach composition) to full lectures and debates.

It was awfully nice of Gary and the guys to give us our own section here.

[UNIX_GURU]

post lectures in this forum

Ahh, good. Very good. :)

[southportJim]

I am thinking one of the intents of the Academy is to post lectures in this forum.

Good idea...that way, over time, we could build up an archive so that newcomers could start at any point they require.

I have Adobe Acrobat and am willing to convert docs to PDF if it would help.

[jesshmusic]

Good idea...that way, over time, we could build up an archive so that newcomers could start at any point they require.

I have Adobe Acrobat and am willing to convert docs to PDF if it would help.


Thanks. And all of us Apple users can save as PDF through the print function, too. :)

[southportJim]

Thanks. And all of us Apple users can save as PDF through the print function, too. :)

Native to OsX, no doubt.

Just another reason I need to "get back to Mac"...

[icelandicgirl]

I am new to this forum - having made the group buy a little while back. I've been squaring away a few other projects so that eventually I can focus on learning GPO. My equipment isn't the newest, but I am excited to get creative and to learn a bunch from you all!

[Fabio]

I am new to this forum - having made the group buy a little while back. I've been squaring away a few other projects so that eventually I can focus on learning GPO. My equipment isn't the newest, but I am excited to get creative and to learn a bunch from you all!

WELLCOME! :)

[southportJim]

My equipment isn't the newest, but I am excited to get creative and to learn a bunch from you all!

Welcome to the forum! This is a great place to learn and the folks around here are really helpful. And when you're ready, we'll be eager to hear some of your work!

;-)

[rwayland]

I am new to this forum - having made the group buy a little while back. I've been squaring away a few other projects so that eventually I can focus on learning GPO. My equipment isn't the newest, but I am excited to get creative and to learn a bunch from you all!

Well, now, welcome to GPO Land. Now there are at least two from Iceland on this forum. You can learn much here, but eventually, we can also learn from you. And, your music will get a hearing.

Richard

[falcon1]

Nice! Fellow countrygirl :D

IcelandicGirl, would be interesting to know who you are. :) Please feel free to send me PM. :)

[hywyn]

I've been around here a couple of days, slowly realising that I have much to learn and then I land here!!!
This is one cool and nurturing community.

BTW I'm a Welsh bloke, so,....any offers?
Thought not :)

[snorlax]

I've been around here a couple of days, slowly realising that I have much to learn and then I land here!!!
This is one cool and nurturing community.

BTW I'm a Welsh bloke, so,....any offers?
Thought not :)

Croeso!

Jim

[!Mark!]

Hi all,
i've posted a thread in the forum while forgetting to introduce myself properly.

My name is Mark, (quite clearly!) I'm fourteen years old and I've been playing electric guitar for 2 and a half years, classical guitar for about 8 months and I've been into all this composing lark for about a month.

I'm mainly interested in Baroque music, I've just started the first movement of a concerto for flute, strings and harpsichord, I'll possibly post once I've got a bit further. I lovefugues, but I've only ever written one which has got past the exposition! It can be found here (http://www.youngcomposers.com/forum/attachments/3757d1161610598-fugue-mitchells-motive.mus) I'm aware the third episode is rather crap but i was rushing a bit and i didn't take all the care and attention i could have.

Thanks very much, Mark

[!Mark!]

I forgot to mention, the fugue was written on a set motive, hence the slightly less than ideal subject, it's also just a MUS file as at the moment i only have finale notepad so i can't make midis :(

Thanks, Mark

[Giafin]

Hi Gary & all fellow members.

Many thanks indeed for this beatiful & very informative site. Well done!!

I take also this opportunity to wish a very merry Xmas & a most rewarding New Year to all.

Giacinto

[KE Peace]

OK Since Northern Sounds says "Why not start with your first post today and become an active part of northernsounds.com now!" on every page I look at, I will! ;)

Hi Everyone, I am new to this forum and really glad I finally got through the hoops of setting up my msn account so I could register here. I can tell already I'm going to enjoy this community. I am interested especially in sharing ideas and compositions with other composers of any skill level (ie, I can happily be peer, student or teacher as the situation warrants, although the last will be rare!). Sometimes, just having someone listen to your works attentively, kindly, and intelligently can make all the difference. I am a member of a couple (very small) groups in Colorado that do that for and with each other. If anyone is interested in sharing this way with me over the internet, I'd love it! I write primarily modern classical stuff. You can check out my stuff on my blog kepeace.blogspot.com. Send me a msg if you'd like to share ideas and compositions!

Cheers, everyone!

Karen

[trentpmcd]

.....
Hi Everyone ..........

Hi Karen – Welcome to the forum!

I don’t know if you have discovered the rest of this forum – click were it says “Garritan Libraries” and you will find a lot of choices. You may want to repost your introduction as a new thread in the “General Discussion” area. As you will see by the number of posts, this is the most popular part of the forum.

As far as posting and listening to music, try the “Listening Room”. There is a huge amount of music posted there covering many different genres. People are usually more than happy to make comments on pieces posted there. That’s not to say you won’t get offers to exchange and discuss music “off line”.

Anyway, welcome again. I’m sure you’ll soon find, if you haven’t discovered it already, that this is one of the nicest little corners on the Internet.

[KE Peace]

Trent,

thanks so much for the warm welcome! :)

Yes, I will re-post as you suggest -- I'm pretty new to forums and how to find my way around and did think afterwards that my "hello" probably got buried in all the responses to the first thread.

Anyway, pleasure to make your acquaintance!

Warm regards,
Karen

[dkivlin]

I hope I'm in the right place.

I learnt violin for a few years at school and with it learnt how to read music and another few things that I have probably forgotten.
After a whole bunch of years away from music all together I found myself playing keyboard badly and writing some music, mostly pop tunes and some instrumental stuff.
I decided that my orchestration was rubbish and so I am working my way through that set of lessons here and I had from I don't know where, Arnold Schoenberg's Theory of Harmony.
I'm reading it on the train each day as I go in to work but I'm thinking that I am a bit short on some of the very basics of music theory.
Does anyone have a recommended reading list that might cover what I'm looking for.
I think it's a refresher on scales and keys that I'm needing, but there is every chance that there are other things that I need reminded of that I can't think of at the moment.
Any help would be much appreciated.

ta

[reberclark]

Kiv,
Well everybody is gonna have their favorites, but for basic music theory (scales, keys, terminology) you could get Robert W. Ottman's Elementary Harmony: Theory and Practice and Advanced Harmony: Theory and Practice on AMAZON, used, and very inexpensively. A nice and handy resource for fingerings, ranges and transpositions as well as string positions and drum rudiments is Clarence V. Hendrickson's Fingering Charts for Instrumentalists. Elizabeth A. H. Green's book on bowings may be too much right now but keep it in mind, as well as Persichetti's Twentieth Century Harmony.

The very best of luck!

[GTBannah]

Hello, all!

As my profile says, I've been lurking and lusting here since 2004. Now I finally got GPO and JABB, so now I'm ready to join the club.

I hope I will, in some small way, be able to give back to what I know will be a limitless storehouse of knowledge.

Generousity such as this has got to be rewarded. )(~

GOD IS WATCHING!!