Score Browsing Guide to the Rescue!

While the Music & Media Center can offer you more than 33,ooo CDs to listen to (along with over 13,000 DVDs to watch!), just a floor below are hundreds of music scores (a.k.a. sheet music) that you can check out of the library. If you know what piece you're looking for to read along with as you listen to a CD you just checked out of the Music & Media Center, then you can look up the call number by searching for the composer and title in the Catalog (don't forget to limit your search to music scores!).

Sometimes though you just need a score but you're not quite sure which piece you want to work on. Whether you're looking for an audition piece to get ready in 24 hours, orchestral excerpts to practice, or a piece to study and maybe prepare for your junior or senior recital, we have it! Finding it, however, can seem challenging. Not to worry though, your Music & Media Resource of the week, the Score Browsing Guide, will come to the rescue!

Each instrument has its own tab in the Score Browsing Guide where you'll find call number ranges specific to your instrument for different musical genres. For example, the guide for violinists will tell you that you can find solo pieces in the call number ranges M40-M44, concerti in the call number range M1013, and etudes at MT265. Pretty handy.

You can link to it via the Music Research Guide or access the Score Browsing Guide directly at http://libguides.tulane.edu/scorebrowsing.

New Orleans Independent Music CDs!

The Music & Media Center is home to thousands of CDs (34,205 as of June 22, to be exact!). New Orleans being the nexus of jazz, zydeco, and blues that it is, it goes without saying that our CD collection includes hundreds of recordings by local jazz musicians. You'll find Louis Armstrong, Sidney Bechet, Professor Longhair, Jacques Delany, Ellis Marsalis, Kermit Ruffins, The Preservation Hall Jazz Band... the list goes on.

New Orleans, though, is more than just jazz. It's punk, it's rock, it's classical, it's so wholly independent it's unclassifiable. The city is home to a wide variety of artists and even wider forms of musical expression, all created from the cultural, social, and political faces of the city and all contributing back to these faces. Recognizing the importance of these voices and musics to represent the New Orleans way, the Music & Media Center has been actively collecting the CDs of these behind the scenes groups.

Conduct a search for sound recordings on the phrase "New Orleans Independent Music" to find the 300+ CDs by indy New Orleans musicians waiting for you in the collection. My favorites of the moment include the Morning 40 Federation, The New Orleans Oneironauts, Silent Cinema, and Jim O. - what are your favorites?

Welcome!

Welcome to the Music & Media Resource of the Month blog! Each month your music & media librarian will review a music & media resource that you can learn from, have fun with, and use in your research. This blog isn't just yours truly posting; your comments, thoughts, ideas, stories, anecdotes, and experiences are bound to be far more interesting than just my reviews. Please share with us by posting a comment!

That's all for now but stayed tuned! There's more to come soon!