Music files from Chris Johnson's Lost Web Pages

Welcome to Chris Johnson's Lost Pages.

NoteEdit files:

A Major scale

A Minor scale

B Flat Major scale

B Major scale

C Major scale

D Major scale

D Minor scale

E Flat Major scale

F Major scale

Sonatine MIDI

Crystal Moon MIDI

Santa Plays the Viola MIDI

(Debut Strings students, please visit this page for your Spring 2010 music.)

My daughter Sabrina started playing the viola when she entered third grade. Her first instruction was through the local Strings in Schools program, which used the Essential Elements 2000 package published by Hal Leonard. It included SmartMusic for Windows, an excellent program that lets the student watch the score while the music plays. If the student plays along and the computer has a microphone SmartMusic will even make a rough measurement of the student's intonation accuracy. It is very reliable, easy-to-use software.

But SmartMusic does have a few drawbacks (for me, at least):

It only works with music delivered with the Essential Elements package, unless you buy additional software.
It requires an annual subscription if you use it long-term.
It requires MS Windows; no Linux version is available, and it does not seem to work with a Windows emulator.

I had pretty well broken the Microsoft habit a year or so before Sabrina started viola, and I'm cheap anyway. Then she started private lessons with Margaret Whitson and the new music wasn't in Essential Elements. I started looking for a Linux package similar to SmartMusic that would allow me to input the music Sabrina wanted to play. After a few false starts I settled on NoteEdit, an open-source music notation program. It unfortunately does not have all the playback features of SmartMusic, but it has the ones that count, it is free, and I could input the sheet music Ms. Whitson wanted Sabrina to practice.

Of course, I still had to input the music. But the material Sabrina was learning was not too complex and NoteEdit is fairly easy to use. So now when Sabrina gets new music I usually crank it in right away.

Here is where I might save someone some labor. On the left are links to NoteEdit music source files, arranged by title. You can right-click the title and then "Save link as..." to save the file to your computer. The saved file will have a .not extension. Open the file in NoteEdit and enjoy.

NoteEdit can also generate MIDI files. I have only made a few, for the convenience of other students that need to hear the music but don't have NoteEdit. If I post any I'll list them with the .not file.

Update, 12/17/09: I just learned that the authors of NoteEdit have released a new program called NtEd, a successor to NoteEdit. It looks like it may be an improvement. It does not read NoteEdit files directly, but can import Music XML files. NoteEdit can export Music XML, so there is compatibility. I may post future music in NtEd format. We'll see how it works out.

Regarding copyright issues, I have tried to limit the available files to material that I think is in the public domain, but I'm not really sure if such a thing is even possible with sheet music. If I am notified that a file is infringing I will promptly remove it. Contact me via email with these and any other questions you may have:

NoteEdit files: