Category: Q&A

Tunes you didn't realise you knew – No2: Morning Mood

Hi There

Welcome to the 2nd instalment of our look at famous classical pieces that are (almost) better known for their use in Tv or Films.

It is “Morning Mood” by Norwegian composer Edvard Grieg (1843 – 1907).

Q: What do I need to know about this piece?
A: Morning Mood is taken from Edvard Grieg’s “Peer Gynt Suite I, Opus 46”. Peer Gynt is a play by Norwegian author Henrik Ibsen, with music composed by Edvard Grieg. The music contained in the play was so powerful, it soon took on a life of its own and Grieg selected eight pieces of the incidental score to form two separate Suites: Peer Gynt Suite No. 1 (Opus 46), and Peer Gynt Suite No. 2 (Opus 55).

Q: Are other pieces from the Peer Gynt Suite well known?
A: Yes, in fact almost all of them are known individually, the 2nd most well-known piece is probably In The Hall Of The Mountain King, which has also been used in many movies and commercials.

Q: Ok, is there anything else that Grieg wrote that I may know (or should know)?
A: Mainly his Piano Concerto in A minor.

Q: Ok, so which ads has this been used in?
A: Too many to mention. The music depicts the rising of the sun so well, it is used pretty much everywhere. Here is the orchestral version of the piece:

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Official Great Scores Blog Launch

Welcome to our official blog launch.

We want this blog to be about you, the customer. We invite your feedback and active participation, be that in suggesting new ideas for tutorials, guides, sheet music, videos, or in answering your (sheet) music specific questions.

We already have a few plans in mind with regards following on from our videos on our youtube page.

Our Jerry Lee Lewis Boogie with it’s tutorial and videos has proved extremely popular:

Click here for the sheet music.

Following on from that we added a Rock’n’Roll licks collection with 4 video tutorials and accompanying sheet music download, here is the first of those four videos:

Click here for the sheet music.

We are planning on doing more of these instructional videos that include accompanying pieces/guides as downloads.

We have already had the suggestion to create a piece from the Rock’n’Roll licks collection (thank you Hendrik).

Further ideas include a guide to how music works – but not your usual boring theory guide, but a more practical view on harmony, and how you can use this knowledge to fully understand music (it’s easier than you think). This series of guides would enable you to work pieces out from your ipod yourself.

Other plans include guides on improvisation, walking bass lines, time signatures, etc, but of course we will try to make these fun.

We’ll also try to answer any questions, and have regular Q&A sessions. To get things started, here is a little teaser question. You often come across bars of music that seem to have many more beats in them, than the time signature suggests. How is this possible?

Here is an “easier” example to solve; there seem to be eight beats of music in the right hand, when there should be four:

 

For the more seasoned pros, here is a more difficult one. There appear to be two beats missing in the left hand, and extra quavers (8th notes) in the right hand, but 6 of them, plus a minim (half notes) and some strange note that seems to be a minim (half note) and a quaver (8th note) at the same time on beat 3:

Now it’s over to you, suggestions on upcoming guides, videos, sheet music and answers to our little teaser question are very welcome.

Take care

Lincoln

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