March Community Recording Project

This project is completed! Here is the song we recorded:





Here is the project page we used:


Hello! This month, Community Band is learning & recording "Small Town Story", a famous Chinese pop song composed by Weng Ching-Hsi with lyrics by Zhuang Nu & first recorded by Teresa Teng in 1978.


You are invited to participate in this recording project!

Musicians of all skill levels are encouraged to learn the song on any instrument & submit a recording to be mixed into the community recording!





There will be 2 (nonmandatory) Zoom meetings for this project this month:

March 3: an introduction to the month’s song & a quick rehearsal (6-6:45pm)

March 17: listening session and reflection (6-6:30pm)


RSVP to get the Zoom links here: https://linktr.ee/artintheparkla





Here is the
play-along track:

Play-along track:



Download the mp3 file



Play-along track with conductor:



Download the mp3 file



Also, here's a slowed down play-along track slowed down (good for practicing):



Download the mp3 file




the sheet music

The melody part is recommended for beginner, intermediate, and advanced players of all instruments, including beginner pianists:

Melody part for C instruments (violin, flute, beginner piano, etc)
Melody part for Bb instruments (trumpet, tenor sax, soprano sax, etc)
Melody part for Eb instruments (alto sax, bari sax)
Melody part for alto clef (viola)
Melody part for bass clef (cello, trombone, tuba)



The countermelody part is recommended for advanced players:

Countermelody part for C instruments (violin, flute, piano, etc)
Countermelody part for Bb instruments (trumpet, tenor sax, soprano sax, etc)
Countermelody part for Eb instruments (alto sax, bari sax)
Countermelody part for alto clef (viola)
Countermelody part for bass clef (cello, trombone, tuba)




The leadsheet part is recommended for rhythm section players:

Leadsheet (guitar, bass, pianists comfortable with reading chords, drums)




This piano part is recommended for intermediate pianists:

Intermediate piano part





Audio submissions are due on
March 14, 2021

(by the end of the day)






Instructions for recording:



2 devices will be needed: one for listening *with headphones on* and one for recording

Record yourself playing along to the playalong track with your voice memo recorder or any available recording device.

Don't worry about the sound quality, this is just for fun and to remotely jam together as a community band!

1. Press record on your recorder.
2. Press play on the play-along track, and play along. *Make sure to wear headphones*
3. Email your recording to loganhone@gmail.com by March 14











Here is the original Teresa Teng recording:



Learn a bit about the song on sinethetamagazine.tumblr.com



Here are the lyrics in Chinese: (I think!)

小城故事多
充滿喜和樂
若是你到小城來
收穫特別多

看似一幅畫
聽像一首歌
人生境界真善美
這裏已包括

談的談 說的說
小城故事真不錯
請你的朋友一起來
小城來做..客

[Bridge]

談的談 說的說
小城故事真不錯
請你的朋友一起來
小城來做客



Here is an english translation from chinesetolearn.com

Small town (has) many stories
full of joy and happiness

If you come to the little town
(you will) especially harvest a lot
(the town) looks like a picture
(if you heart it, it) sounds like a song

The scape of life truth, kindess, and beauty, here already includes of
Talking (people) talks, chatting (people) chats

The small town story is really not bad
Ask your friends come together (with you)
(to) the little town to be quests.








Tips on how to learn a piece of music:

1. Download sheet music for your instrument

2. Download the song if possible, add it to a playlist, favorite it on Youtube, however you access and listen to music, try to put it there. Listening is THE KEY to learning music. Music is all about learning what things sound like and then learning how to produce those sounds. Listening is everything!

3. Look through the piece and make sure you know what all the notes are. If there are some you aren't sure about, use a sheet music reference to determine what they are.

4. Listen to the play-along track/video 3 times while reading along with the music. Do not play your instrument yet.

5. Try to play the song with your instrument by yourself. Play it with your metronome at a slow tempo (60bpm is usually a good place to start to see if you can then speed up or need to slow down further)

6. When you make a mistake, always take a slower look at that spot. Always slow down to understand and learn music.

7. We have to fully understand what we are reading. Sometimes that means we need to stop the metronome and look closely at something to figure out what it is. It's often a good idea to make markings & make notes on the sheet music to help remind yourself of what something on the page is.

8. Gradually start trying to play-along with the recording. Can you play through the whole thing with relatively few mistakes? Remember that perfection isn't everything!! It's okay to make a few mistakes. Except always make sure to take notice of what your mistakes are -- often times, you will find yourself making the same mistake in the same spot each time you play a piece. With those spots, you need to take a close look at them: 1. make sure you understand what all the notes, rhythms are. 2. Slow it down and make sure you can play it at a slow tempo. 3. If you can play it at a slow tempo, gradually increase the tempo until you can play it at the normal speed. 4. Remember to put the passage in context, beginning a measure beforehand for example.