Other

Any other handy links?

I have finished the Benicia Session Book 2nd Edition which is now (April 15, 2020) available for download. I cleaned up all the glaring errors. Any minor errors left behind, well, pretend they're like Easter Eggs. If you find one, the yolks on me. I have not yet taken this version to the printers. I will do so in a day or two, assuming they're open during the quarantine. I have played every tune in the new book twice so far, and working on a third. With the boring tunes from the old book gone, and the new tunes you people have brought in and vetted, I have to say we've now got a great collection. Thanks, everyone, just for being so cool!

As per our session today ("today" is now over a year ago), here is the PDF of the OLD Benicia Session Tune Book (did I mention this is the old version).

You can download and print out any and all of the pages. Alternatively, you can visit "Solano Print Plus" at 919 Tennessee St in Vallejo and have them print and bind it for you. It should run you $15-17 or so.

 

The songs and tunes at this site were transcribed, note by note, by David Kail and myself using MuseScore version 2. This is a free music software developed by hundreds of people from all over the world. It is, in my opinion, as robust as commercially available software programs. It allows you to compose and edit music, print out what you've worked on, export to PDF and MP3 files (and formats), as well as import from PDF and others. If you are interested in trying it out, download a copy from Musescore.org. The current version is 2.0.3. There is an active and helpful forum, a highly detailed handbook, and tutorials for getting started. Just beware that they use the terms like "crochet" and "quaver" instead of quarter note and eightth note, and so on. If there is enough interest in the group, I'll piece together a local tutorial we can use. (The current version is now 3.4.2 and you can still get it at Musescore.org.) NOTE: Version 4.0 was just released, but it's still full of bugs. You can still get the earlier versions. Version 2 is still my workhorse for making the books. Version 3, with more bells and whistles, is where I do most of my composition.

 

What we call the "big book" is actually The King Street Sessions Tunebook. It's a large (huge) PDF file of over 1000 tunes. "More tunes than are good for you."

An astounding place to find tunes is thesession.org. You will find tunes, alternative titles, alternative versions, and discussions.

Finally, this web site is the sole responsibility of one Rich Adams, who is neither a web designer nor a web master. Complaints can be filed in person at the Benicia Session mentioned elsewhere. He'll pay closer attention if you pour him a beer. He's squirreled away some stuff here.