SmartMusic®
Note. View the Create a SmartMusic accompaniment QuickStart Video for an overview.
SmartMusic is an interactive, computer-based practice tool for musicians. Challenging exercises, instant feedback tools, and more than 30,000 accompaniments make SmartMusic an essential part of your practice sessions.
A SmartMusic subscription provides free access to the world's largest accompaniment library. Hundreds of new ensemble titles are being added every year, each with pre-authored assignments for every part. You can also create custom assignments from skill-building exercises, method books, jazz improvisation studies, musicals, or from a vast library of solo accompaniments.
For more information about SmartMusic, or to acquire a SmartMusic subscription, visit www.smartmusic.com.
Creating SmartMusic Accompaniments
Finale allows you to create your own assessment files to be graded for accuracy with SmartMusic’s Assessment feature. Finale also allows you to create solos with accompaniment, exercises, and warm-ups. You can save any Finale Notation File or MIDI file as a SmartMusic Public Accompaniment (.SMP file) and even include the solo notation file to be displayed in the SmartMusic interface during the performance.
Finale is capable of creating several different
types of SmartMusic files. It is important to decide
which type of SmartMusic file you would like to create. Your options are:
- Solo
assessment file without accompaniment: Solo notation files can
be saved for use with SmartMusic’s assessment feature. This is the most
straightforward type of assessment file, and does not include accompaniment.
In order to grade the solo performance, all assessment files include the
solo notation file for display in SmartMusic. See To create a solo assessment file without accompaniment.
- Solo
assessment file with accompaniment: This is the same as a solo
assessment file (described above) with the addition of an accompaniment
file. Although SmartMusic will play the accompaniment during the assessment,
Intelligent Accompaniment is not available for any assessment file. See
To create a solo
assessment file with accompaniment.
- Ensemble:
The purpose of the ensemble file is to give the instrumentalist a canvas
of parts that can be turned on or off individually. For example, a trombone
player might mute the piano and drums in a big band chart in order to
better hear how his part fits with the other horns. Intelligent Accompaniment
is not available for use with ensemble files, and notation cannot be included.
To create a SmartMusic ensemble file, see To
create a new SmartMusic ensemble file.
- Solo
with accompaniment: This is the format
of the classic SmartMusic accompaniment file. It includes a solo line
and any number of accompaniment staves. Intelligent accompaniment follows
the soloist during the SmartMusic performance and the solo notation can
be included for display in the SmartMusic interface. To create a Solo
with Accompaniment, see To create a new SmartMusic Solo with
Accompaniment.
- Solo
assessment file generated from a Finale exercise: This is the same
as a solo assessment file (described above), but generated from Finale’s
Exercise Wizard. See To
create a solo assessment file from a Finale exercise.
