Music Minus One

[BuyBuy]

Have you heard of Music Minus One (www.musicminusone.com) ?

They sell CDs of concerti, chamber music... with one full version, one version with the orchestra only, and another version with orchestra only at -25% speed, for practice.

I thought it would be pretty handy to play concerto repertoire that you couldn't perform otherwise (unless you have an orchestra at disposal, which many of us don't).

Has any of you tried it ? Is it worth it ($40 for the concerto CDs) ?

Thanks for your comments.

[shasta]

While the concept of Music Minus One is good, the biggest problem with it is that there is absolute silence in the orchestra during piano solo parts of your concerto.  Obviously.  The problem is that Music Minus One provides no beat, no guide for you during that silence --- the orchestra just comes backs in when it's their time, so unless you set your metronome to match the orchestra part just prior to you taking off with your solo, it's really tricky to get lined back up again when the orchestra comes back in.  Does this make sense?  Their silence on the tape doesn't allow much room for "freedom of expression" during your solo part. 

[Hmoll]

Isn't that the title of Alessandro Moreschi's autobiography? Oh, no, that one's titled "Music Minus Two."

[kempff]

I have couple of them:

Beethoven 3rd concerto, Grieg A minor, Mozart 20th and recently got Brahms 1,2. They are good, i personally don't find any problems in them. As for the timing, you gotta learn it yourself

[shasta]

I have couple of them:

Beethoven 3rd concerto, Grieg A minor, Mozart 20th and recently got Brahms 1,2. They are good, i personally don't find any problems in them. As for the timing, you gotta learn it yourself

"Learning the timing" isn't the issue. 

Let's use Gershwin's Rhapsody, for example. The orchestra is playing on the tape, and you are playing along with it. Then the orchestra part ends and you enter your solo of the Rhaspody, which may be a good 2'18" or something.  You're playing the solo, yada, yada, yada, and you're ready to meet up with the orchestra again --- but the tape still has 0.8 more seconds of silence before it brings the orchestra in to where you already are. 

There are no audible cues or anything on the tape to let you know where you are in space in relation to the silence of the tape.  It's just silent.  So, if you happen to play your entire solo 0.13 seconds slower than the silence alotted to you on the tape, the orchestra will have come in that much ahead of you.

Music Minus One is good for concertos where there's a steady stream of orchestral accompaniment.  For concertos with extended piano solos, it's just not beneficial.

[Sketchee]

What they really should have is Music Minus One software for your computer (or dvd). Then you could follow the conductor or some kind of visual cues.  Not everyone has a dvd player/tv/computer by their piano but a laptop would take care of that.

If I had the score and the MMO music, I would probably be able to create a Macromedia Flash highlighting the score and timing.  This could be burned as a VCD that could be played on compatible dvd players or as a flash document it would work fine on a laptop.  You could probably do this in as a Powerpoint document as well.

Just an idea.

[kempff]

Well, i agree with all of you guys. It is a bit of a problem. Actually i remember what happened to me when I was getting ready for a concert:

I was suppose to play Beethoven 3rd concerto with my school orchestra last year. Before starting rehearsals with the real orchestra, I practiced with the MMO. I used their timing, and gosh.....when I had to do the real rehearsals it was a pain in the @$$. MMO was too slow and the conductor of my school used a faster tempo.....

anyways, i put it off and it was a great performance.