Sheet music for multiple voice parts and instruments..

[Isabella]

My dd's play guitar, piano and clarinet and also love to sing. My dh & I play piano and also love to sing around the house. Please know this is very much for our own amusement and nothing professional about any of us! At present everyone plays their own thing or perhaps a couple of my girls will sing together while playing guitar. I would love, though, to be able to have a few songs (any genre) that we could all play/sing together for some family fun! Not so much just playing singing the same part, but different parts. I'm sure I needn't have even said that we are very much amateurs - my music vocabulary speaks for itself! I'm sure there is a word for the kind of sheet music I'm looking for, but hopefully you can understand from my clumsy explanation.

Thanks in advance.

[Suzanne in ABQ]

My dd's play guitar, piano and clarinet and also love to sing. My dh & I play piano and also love to sing around the house. Please know this is very much for our own amusement and nothing professional about any of us! At present everyone plays their own thing or perhaps a couple of my girls will sing together while playing guitar. I would love, though, to be able to have a few songs (any genre) that we could all play/sing together for some family fun! Not so much just playing singing the same part, but different parts. I'm sure I needn't have even said that we are very much amateurs - my music vocabulary speaks for itself! I'm sure there is a word for the kind of sheet music I'm looking for, but hopefully you can understand from my clumsy explanation.

Thanks in advance.

 

 

My friend, Judy, comes from a very musical family. A couple play piano, one plays violin, one plays flute, one plays trumpet, one plays guitar. Several sing.

 

Well, they play hymns! The instrumentalists play whichever part best fits their instrument, one plays piano, and the others all sing. They entertain themselves for hours sometimes! It's so much fun being at their house on holidays, when all the aunts, uncles, and cousins get together.

 

If you're not a hymn type family, I would think you could do this with any choral music. Or, look for songbooks that have the guitar chords written above the melody line, and complete piano accompaniment below. There are songs with included flute line (Stairway to Heaven, for instance) but you may need to ask the professional at the music store for more suggestions.

[CLHCO]

My dd's play guitar, piano and clarinet and also love to sing. My dh & I play piano and also love to sing around the house. Please know this is very much for our own amusement and nothing professional about any of us! At present everyone plays their own thing or perhaps a couple of my girls will sing together while playing guitar. I would love, though, to be able to have a few songs (any genre) that we could all play/sing together for some family fun! Not so much just playing singing the same part, but different parts. I'm sure I needn't have even said that we are very much amateurs - my music vocabulary speaks for itself! I'm sure there is a word for the kind of sheet music I'm looking for, but hopefully you can understand from my clumsy explanation.

Thanks in advance.

 

You may have to just make up your own, in a way, if you wish to include everyone. I would recommend going to a music store and looking for some collections of songs that have the piano part, vocal part, and include guitar chords. Really, anything that appeals to your girls so they are more likely to actually do this. Try to find some with the vocals in a range you know your girls will best sing in, songs traditionally done by females or on or just below the treble clef.

 

The clarinet, being a B-flat instrument, poses some trouble, since she would have to transpose, or you will have to try to find a book for the clarinet with similar songs, because I cannot think of any compilations that include a B-flat transposition as well, but perhaps someone at the store may know more. However, if the tune is simple she can certainly just play it by ear, having the piano player pick out the melody and having the clarinet player play with it a bit until she figures it out. If she gets good at it, your problems are solved for this and she can just make up anything to go along with whatever you are playing.

 

Harmonies to sing can often be found through the piano line. Youtube is a great place to hear various arrangements of an amazing number of songs as well, in order to "borrow" the harmonies if the music does not include them, and get ideas for a solo instrument to copy.

[cougarmom4]

You could check out www.music-scores.com to see if it has anything you are looking for. It is mostly classical music though, but I found quite a few Christmas song arrangements for various instruments & different playing abilities. There are some pieces that you can print for free, others you can either pay a per song fee or a yearly fee of around $30.

[Isabella]

Thanks for the suggestions - I was hoping to have something written that we didn't have to make our own. We love music, but do better with something already written than to make it up.

We already do hymns, usually with just the clarinet, piano and voices. That's fun, and we can do that with other families, too. My dd learnt the Bflat clarinet herself, and tuned it to the piano - in other words, so she didn't have to transpose. So she can play along with any piano music, which is nice!

We do occasionally pick out a different part to sing from the melody, but was hoping for something that was a little more 'professional' for want of a better word!

Anyway, will check out that website, and ask the music store for suggestions, too.

Thanks.

[KarenB]

http://imslp.org/wiki/List_of_Orchestra_Pieces_with_Parts_Available/Concertante

 

Karen