PML (Prescribed Music List) Playlists

A friend of mine created playlists on iTunes a few years ago (or more) of all the pieces on the PML (for band). I wanted him to share them with me (and he was willing), but I wasn't patient enough to figure out how to share his library. So, I uploaded just about all the band CD's I have (including the free CD's from music publishers). I went to the UIL PML website (http://www.utexas.edu/uil/pml/browse), searched for all the band pieces by grade level (I started with Grade 1), and exported the list onto a spreadsheet. You can download the Grade 1 spreadsheet here; the Grade 2 spreadsheet here; Grade 3 here; Grade 4 here; Grade 5 here; and marches here.

I then created playlists on iTunes. 

I just dragged the pieces I had (from uploading those band CDs) into the playlist and rearranged the pieces to be in the same alphabetical order as the PML. As I added pieces to iTunes, I highlighted the rows in the exported PML spreadsheet so I could keep track of which pieces I had already added to iTunes (see picture above). As you can see, I do not have a recording for English Dances by Arnold.

Now for the pieces I didn't have on CD's. I found a program called Jaksta Music Miner online that grabs recordings from the internet. You know how there are recordings of almost all of the pieces on the Pender's Music &/or JW Pepper websites? You can listen to full recordings of most pieces, but there isn't a way to get those pieces into your iTunes. Well, there is with Jaksta Music Miner. It allows you 10 free song downloads and then you have to buy the program. I bought the program (only around $20). With Jaksta Music Miner turned on, it recognized the recordings on websites and grabbed them. I then could just hit an icon with eighth notes to send the recording to iTunes. It didn't recognize piece names, etc. usually so I had to type that information in. But then I could drag the piece into my playlist. 

Here's the link for Jaksta Music Miner: http://www.jaksta.com/Products/Mac/Jaksta%20Music%20Miner. I used the one for Mac since I have a MacBook Air, but they also have it for Windows. You can see the icon in the picture below (bottom row):

 It took some time, but I have playlists of the Grade 1 and Grade 2 pieces on the PML completed. There are only a few pieces that I could not find recordings for anywhere. I will tell Eugene Corporon and Dennis Fisher which pieces so they can put them on the next Teaching Music Through Performance in Band volume. I still need to complete the Grade 3 playlist. I started it, but only have a few pieces so far. 

I also am going to create playlists by grade level and category for the rest of the pieces I have in my school's music library. My school is very old and has thousands of titles, so it will take a while. It has taken me over six years to get the band music library organized (it was a huge unorganized mess). I am almost done entering all the pieces into a spreadsheet and into Charms. I have organized the pieces into the following categories: Marches, Christmas, Popular, Program, & Pep Band (in addition to all the method books). Each category is further organized by grade level (in alphabetical order). The Program pieces that are on the PML are identified by colored dots (red dots are UIL Grade 1, yellow are UIL Grade 2, green are UIL Grade 3, and blue are UIL Grade 4). 

This picture is from a couple years ago so you can see all the music in the paper envelopes that I've since replaced with the cardboard boxes. But do you see the red and yellow dots? For the pieces that qualify for multiple grade levels (if you do a certain number of movements), I filed them in the highest grade level, but put colored dots for all the applicable grade levels on the PML. I cannot wait until I've completely organized the music library! I can then program so much more easily! One of the projects I want to complete this year is creating sight-reading folders with 25 pieces. That will be much easier to do once I know what exactly is in the library. 

Well, enough for today...more to come in future posts.