Downloading Scores

First, let me say that I love this book and that it was published for open source. The quality of the content and the publishing are both great. Thank you very much for all the time, expense, and effort, that you have given freely to the community.

The question I have is how or where can I download all of the scores? I downloaded the book in PDF for reference if I am offline but to get the scores for practice, it appears I’d have to go through the entire book and download them individually. Is there a download like a zip file or otherwise for the scores and, if possible, even the midi files? If not, could there be?

Thanks,

Dale

We’re so pleased that you’ve been using the book and been happy with it so far! If you haven’t yet, I’d encourage you to fill out our Adoption Form so we can learn more about how you’re using the text.

The team is currently working to have a combined PDF of all the scores, as well as a shared folder of MIDI files. These will be linked to from the book’s appendix as soon as they are ready. Your request is a good reminder for us to work quickly as these files can be very handy for adopters! We’ll keep you posted, and see if any arrangements can be made in the interim.

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Really interested in following this project as an example for other projects.

Basically, I’m dreaming up a way to integrate musical content in some kind of Open Textbook. MIDI files can be great… with proper handling. What if you could have them integrated in a Pressbooks-made EPUB with some kind of player which allows you to change key and tempo? And display some transcription?

Noticed some examples using a MuseScore embed, which could work. I’d be interested in something more flexible… and more open. (Muse Group recently generated quite a bit of drama in MusicTech after their actions surrounding Audacity revealed their collective tonedeafness with regards to Free/Libre Open Source Software).
The ideal solution might come in the form of some H5P content type.

Sooooo… While I’m less interested in the specifics of SRfG, I’m really interested in observing how the team will package things up. The collection of MIDI files will require some instructions and those might be inspiring.

(The main Open Textbook I have in mind, these days, revolves around a particular approach to “Music Theory” which would likely generate no negative reaction from either Adam Neely or his politically-motivated detractors.)

Those are some great ideas! @steel – would these types of features ideas be welcome at Pressbooks?

Definitely something the @cgreen and team will think about and report on once they’ve made these additions to the book.

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Yes, we’re always interested in new feature ideas that would help people meet their publishing needs! Best place for feature ideas is GitHub - pressbooks/ideas: Ideas for Pressbooks.

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Ok, ok… I’ll comply with the tracker way of life. My IT colleagues will feel vindicated. :wink:

Nice! I’ve also started checking the HCommons work around OPEN MUSIC THEORY – Simple Book Publishing (pressbooks.pub)
Plus: Music Theory for the 21st-Century Classroom (pugetsound.edu)

Thanks for these examples. The cover for Open Music Theory is so vibrant and gorgeous! I’m excited to check out the content more. I’ve only seen Maths or Science textbooks being built on PreTeXt so far, so this music examples is very interesting - thanks again.

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Done.
Embeddable Music Player for Offline Use · Issue #386 · pressbooks/ideas (github.com)

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tl;dr version:

@dale1 What would you think of guitar tab embedded in the text?

Longer version…

Only 19 days later? :wink:
Feels like it’s been longer.
Because I ended up in quite the rabbithole. About scores, alternative notations, etc.

To backtrack a second and get to Dale’s question about downloading the score or MIDI files…

The easiest solution would probably be a ZIP file and, as @apurva said, that team has been working on such a download. If it’s a significant effort for that team, then maybe something can be done so that other Open Educational Resources in music could easily share useful resources with learners.

Sounds to me like the best solution would be to, somehow, embed the files in a way which makes them available in all the offline versions. For PDF, that might be extra challenging except for images.
For EPUB3, though, since it’s HTML5, there are some neat possibilities.

For instance, as I posted in the PB issue tracker, last night, this sounds promising:
cifkao/html-midi-player: :musical_keyboard: Play and display MIDI files on the web (github.com)

It’s JavaScript, so it shouldn’t be too hard implementing in PB, including in EPUB3.

Here’s an example:
HTML MIDI Player Basic Example (codepen.io)

It supports both staff notation and something much simpler which could probably help a lot: a “pianoroll”.

Then again, for this specific book on sight-reading for guitar, the best solution would probably be guitar tab representation, no?

And that’s technically much easier to pull off than standard notation.
My guess is that it’s also easier to make accessible.

Speaking of which, during a BCcampus about accessibility and Universal Design for Learning, I asked about anyone working on music and someone linked back to here:

Alt text for music notation? - Help & Questions / OER Creation - Rebus Community

So, branching out from this discussion of downloading scores, I’m obsessed with these ideas of making musical learning as inclusive as possible. Including in terms of cognitive abilities and social identities…

Sooooo…

I hope the team for this specific book can find a proper solution to make things as easy as possible for them. And I’ll continue on my quest for “generalized solutions”.

The HTML MIDI Player seems really nice — I’m not sure what implementation would look like for us (on the Rebus Press) but maybe this is something worth submitting to the Pressbooks ideas thread for them to consider incorporating across the board. It would certainly make it easier for us to leverage a built and tested feature.

@cgreen, @dale1, or @n.aboulmagd may have a better sense of the needs for the sight-reading for guitar versus piano context.

Hear hear! I see you’re also joining in the conversation for a book on Global Music, so its nice to see these issues being raised in many different ways and across musical theory and appreciation texts.

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Yes, that’s where I posted it. Was trying to connect the dots.

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