Go Pro! Find Literature for your Essay Using These Simple Tips

Essay?  Giving you a Headache?!

If you’re looking for material for an essay, the first place you’ll think of is the library catalogue. Some topics just seem tricky to search for!  Read the question carefully and rephrase it for yourself. Turn it round and examine what you're actually being asked for.  Then ask yourself how you're going to answer the question!

Here are some professional searching tips to give you a better chance:-

GO PRO!

1. Search everything! Don’t forget that the Catalogue Plus option searches all our electronic resources as well as all the books that we have in the library. Before you start searching, check the Catalogue Plus button.  
2. Use the tricks of the trade. You need to be a bit canny to find the best stuff. For example, a Catalogue Plus search like this is a good start:  "Collaborative improvisation" AND jazz - using "quotation marks" keeps the words together in your search, and using the AND in block capitals tells the search that this phrase AND the word jazz must be in any results that it retrieves.  These techniques help with any kind of essay, jazz or classical, teaching or traditional music.
3. Go Advanced. You can refine your search even more after that, by using the Advanced Search function. It lets you eliminate resources that you don’t want to search, and makes your results more useful. (For example, results found in RILM are often only summaries, not entire articles or books. So you can choose not to search in RILM.)
4. If you find Catalogue Plus a bit mind-boggling, go to the catalogue home page and click on the link on the right-hand side for E-Resources.  Our e-resources include Oxford Music Online and JSTOR, and they'll both have lots of info to help you.
5. Do come and see us in the library if you need help. Once you’ve tried a few times, you’ll soon get the hang of it.  The catalogue link again?  https://rcs.koha-ptfs.co.uk/cgi-bin/koha/opac-main.pl
   

In Oxford: Seminar Series: Instruments of the 18th Century

Instruments of the Eighteenth Century
Seminars run 1-2pm at the Bate Collection of
Musical Instruments, Faculty of Music, St Aldates

Should you find yourself in or near Oxford on a Wednesday lunchtime, these might be very interesting indeed! See the events programme here.

And a Conference for Teachers of Traditional Music

As part of the Celtic Connections festival here in Glasgow, there's a three-day conference being held here at the Royal Conservatoire of Scotland, about traditional music pedagogy, taking an international perspective. Click on the link below to find out more about it.

Pedagogies, Practices and the Future of Folk Music in Higher Education

Thursday 18 – Saturday 20 January 2018

• You can see the programme here.

Of Interest to All Singers: How To Breathe (and Other 18th century Stuff)

Thursday 18th January, 5.15 pm, University of Glasgow

Here's an interesting event which may appeal to people concerned with historical performance and authenticity.  It's run by EAERN, the Eighteenth-Century Arts Education Research Network based at the University of Glasgow.

"In the fourth EAERN workshop we welcome Mhairi Lawson who will be presenting 'How to breathe and other stuff from the late 18th century'. Joining Mhairi will be two singers: David Lee and Sarah Short. The workshop will take place on Thursday, 18 January at 5:15pm in Rm 2, 14 University Gardens.

"Wine and refreshments will be available. Please do consider coming along.

"We also have posted a blog reflecting on the first year of the project and we encourage you to head to our website and read what we have been up to: https://eaern.wordpress.com/2017/12/24/2017-round-up/https://eaern.wordpress.com/2017/12/24/2017-round-up/ "

Kick-Start Your Research in 2018!

Research fairs in Edinburgh and Glasgow

Dream on! Couldn't find a picture of a research fair ...

A reminder that National Library of Scotland is convening research fairs on Wednesday 7 February 13.00- 16.00 in George IV Bridge, Edinburgh and Monday 12 February 13.00- 16.00 at the Kelvin Hall, Glasgow.

NLS has broadened the target audience out this year to include private researchers, inventors, academics and postgraduates.

The layout of both venues will be the same as last year with internet access on the tables/ booths for each “stall”.  You'll be able to explore stalls highlighting different services:- 

• Access, Enquiries & Reading Rooms; 
• IP and Digital; Archives & Manuscripts; 
• General Collections; 
• Moving Image Archive; 
• Rare Books and Music, 
• Maps. 

We're told that, as last year, the relevant managers will decide how to staff their stalls, and Veronica will be running tours of behind the scenes in Edinburgh.  NLS will be using social media (of course!), so watch out for more news!

Impact of the Reformation on Scottish Church Music

We are sharing details of a short talk in the Mitchell Library's Stirling Room, which may be of special interest to church musicians.  Tea/ coffee and biscuits provided by The Open University in Scotland from 1pm – starting talks at 1.30pm.
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St Mungo Festival public seminar - 18th January, 1pm

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Dr Elaine Moohan, Senior Lecturer in Music at the Open University in Scotland, has been invited to give a short talk on the immediate impact of the Reformation on church music. It’s only 20 mins - perfect to fit into a lunchtime break!

Details for registering on the Archives Facebook page - https://en-gb.facebook.com/events/165142124248417/

There’s also a small exhibition in the Archives on floor 5 that includes the 1635 psalm book.

British Horns and Scottish CDs

We've been having a bit of a blitz on the CD cataloguing today!  A couple of themes have emerged, partly through serendipity!

For a start, we were recently given some *actual CDs* from British Horn Society festivals. Check out our catalogue - you probably won't find these in electronic format! https://rcs.koha-ptfs.co.uk/cgi-bin/koha/opac-search.pl?q=British+horn+society …

After that, came a flurry of CDs with Scottish content or connections:-

• A Scottish CD with alumni involved! Just catalogued, here's Barluath, At Dawn of Day (Ainsley Hamill, Alistair Iain Paterson, Eilidh Firth, Luc McNally, Colin Greeves, Eddie Seaman & guests Stewart Wilson and Signy Jakobsdottir) https://rcs.koha-ptfs.co.uk/cgi-bin/koha/opac-detail.pl?biblionumber=99422 …
• RCS alumna Anne Chaurand, guitar ... https://rcs.koha-ptfs.co.uk/cgi-bin/koha/opac-detail.pl?biblionumber=100148&query_desc=kw%2Cwrdl%3A%20anne%20chaurand …
• Have you heard Erik Chisholm's violin concerto? https://rcs.koha-ptfs.co.uk/cgi-bin/koha/opac-detail.pl?biblionumber=99549 … 
•  Really pleased to have just added alumnus Richard Craig's new CD to library stock! https://rcs.koha-ptfs.co.uk/cgi-bin/koha/opac-detail.pl?biblionumber=100149 …
•  Another CD with RCS alumni represented: The Macmath Collective (Aaron Jones, Alison Burns, Claire Mann, Emily Smith, Jamie McClennan, Robyn Stapleton, Wendy Stewart) perform Macmath: the silent page https://rcs.koha-ptfs.co.uk/cgi-bin/koha/opac-detail.pl?biblionumber=99436 …
•  A CD by our very own Les Sirenes! There is no rose - copy now in the library, https://rcs.koha-ptfs.co.uk/cgi-bin/koha/opac-detail.pl?biblionumber=100147 … 
•  Staffa. Nice to focus on new Scottish material! https://rcs.koha-ptfs.co.uk/cgi-bin/koha/opac-detail.pl?biblionumber=99563  
•   Alumna Robyn Stapleton's new CD - https://rcs.koha-ptfs.co.uk/cgi-bin/koha/opac-detail.pl?biblionumber=99435 …
•  We've got a new CD, Bare Knuckle, by two of our alumni, Eilidh Steel and Mark Neal. https://rcs.koha-ptfs.co.uk/cgi-bin/koha/opac-detail.pl?biblionumber=100006&query_desc=kw%2Cwrdl%3A%20bare%20knuckle

It goes without saying that we're happy to tweet about alumni's recordings. Do tell us about them! 

Alternative Music Notation: "Why make it complicated, if it could be simple?"

Author Albert Brennick has gifted the Whittaker Library a copy of his book, The Alternative Music Notation.  

"Dispenses with clefs and accidentals"

Born in Amsterdam in 1924, raised in Germany, and spending half his adult life in Canada before returning to Germany, Brennick was an architect by profession.  He claims that his alternative notation "dispenses with clefs and accidentals and has proven itself in 40 years of practice".  It "represents the chromatic scale across all octaves using the traditional note symbols", and "shows all intervals in unambiguous proportions".

Are you intrigued? Disbelieving?  Have you talked about conventional notation in class, and debated whether there could be a better way?  This book might make you think.

• Araumus - Association for Research of an Alternative and Universal Music Notation

Bibliographic Software - Karen explains Mendeley

We've blogged about bibliographic software before, but Karen has just put together a five-minute video to introduce Mendeley, which is the one she uses herself.  View it here.

And to back this up, you might like to look at our earlier blogpost:-

• Imagine Your References Sorted 

 

Young Artists Award - are you aged 21-27?

Making Music - Young Artists Award

We often receive brochures about festivals, courses and competitions.  Today we received the leaflet for Making Music's Young Artists Award, sponsored by Philip and Dorothy Green.
Applicants must be aged 21-27, and you must apply by 12 February 2018.

www.makingmusic.org.uk/pdgya

Thomas Hampson gives series of master classes at Heidelberg Lied Academy, now on Medici.tv

The Heidelberg Lied Academy takes place every spring as part of the 5-week-long Musikfestival Heidelberger Frühling. Under the artistic direction of celebrated American baritone Thomas Hampson, the academy offers a series of master classes aimed to give young singers the tools for well-informed, text-based song interpretation, and to enable them to tell rich stories through their musical performances. In the first of three April 2017 Academy master classes, Hampson worked with the singers soprano Marie Seidler, baritone Justin Michael Austin, and mezzo-soprano Susan Zarrabi on songs by Ravel, Berlioz, and Satie. 

Staff and students at the Royal Conservatoire of Scotland can watch these masterclasses through the library's Medici.tv subscription.  Watch now!