SO sorry for my absenteeism! I've got myself a nasty sinus infection with a side of bronchitis...not at all the thing anyone wants the first week of school!
So, although week 4 is now partly over...
Rising Level 2's: Choose your favorite letter name. Now, build a do pentatone on it...and you have five letter names (so, for example, if I chose G, I would have built G, A, B, D, E). Now, convert those into keys by what you know about scale degrees and their corresponding key areas (in my parenthetical world, I would have G Major, a minor, b minor, D Major, and e minor). Find an Ottman from chapters 8, 9, or 10 to correspond with each key and sing it.
Rising Level 3's: Choose your favorite letter name. Now, build a do pentatone on it...and you have five letter names (see above). Now, your mission (if possible) is to find: an Ionian example built on your first note, a Dorian on your 2nd, a Phrygian on your 3rd, a Mixolydian on your 4th, and an Aeolian on your 5th (reverting to the G pentatone, I'd have to find G Ionian, A Dorian, B Phrygian, D Mixolydian, and E Aeolian). You can use any source you want....start with Ottman, but feel free to search further afield and sing what you find. If you can't find something, cut yourself a break and do what the rising level 2's were asked to do.
OOOoooo, and lucky for you all....I'm enrolled in this very interesting Analysis of Baroque Music course, and the professor (bless him) gave us a little lecture on Zarlino at the first class. Now before anyone starts singing "Batti, batti", let me remind you of who Zarlino is. He's the guy who, in his 1558 treatise, Le Istitutione Harmoniche, re-numbered the church modes with Ionian as #1. This was a big deal. You see, in 1547, Heinrich Glarean (aka Glareanus) had proposed in his treatise, Dodecachordon, that there were, in fact, twelve modes instead of the eight everyone had discussed up to then...the original eight were Dorian, Phrygian, Lydian, and Mixolydian and their corresponding hypo- modes (the hypos use the same final and arrangement of whole and half steps as the primary modes, but their ambitus goes above and below the final as opposed to just traversing the octave from final-final...so, for example, a piece that ended on D, but whose range was ABCDEFGA would be Hypodorian, not Dorian...I know, weird...don't worry about it). By adding Ionian/Hypoionian and Aeolian/Hypoaeolian, Glarean brought us up to 12 modes total. But, he still called Dorian #1 when he was tallying them all up, inferring that Dorian was still the most important of the modes (which, presumably, has a lot to do with ancient ideas of what modes did to people's emotions...Dorian was supposed to be calming, ennobling, etc...as you all know, it just makes me kind of think of pirates...). Well, then, Zarlino actually decided in 1558 that everyone was using Ionian for their compositions more than they were using Dorian, so he made Ionian the new king and called it #1....which ultimately paved the way for the tonal system, but created a lot of scrambling for people who were concerned about tuning, temperament, etc...all the way up to (and, really, beyond) J.S. Bach's Well-Tempered Clavier and its compositions in all 24 major and minor keys.
I know, I know....geekery reigns supreme on this blog. Embrace it, guys...remember, you can always use it to impress your friends at parties!
Saturday, August 29, 2009
Thursday, August 20, 2009
Back to school fever...and a scavenger hunt!
Rising Level 2's: Choose (from any chapter you like) an Ottman example a day to read, fulfilling the following requirements over the course of the week with your respective selections: an example that incorporates melodic minor, an example that has a leap of a minor 6th, an example with more than 5 accidentals in the key signature, an example in bass clef, an example that arpeggiates the ii chord (in major or minor), and an example in natural minor.
Rising Level 3's: Choose (from chapter 9 and above) an Ottman example a day to read, fulfilling the following requirements over the course of the week with your respective selections: an example containing a "ri", an example that begins on a chromatic syllable, an example that leaps into a chromatic syllable (other than "si"), an example that outlines V/V (in major or minor), a modal example (not Ionian or Aeolian), and an example in asymmetric meter (not "Old Joe has Gone Fishing).
If you find something you're excited about, feel free to share with the group!
Happy beginning of school, everyone...I just spent this week taking preliminary doctoral exams (can I tell you, confidentially, that 16th-century counterpoint makes me nauseous?) and driving hither and yon....and all the way, I'm missing you! Take care, and have fun!
Rising Level 3's: Choose (from chapter 9 and above) an Ottman example a day to read, fulfilling the following requirements over the course of the week with your respective selections: an example containing a "ri", an example that begins on a chromatic syllable, an example that leaps into a chromatic syllable (other than "si"), an example that outlines V/V (in major or minor), a modal example (not Ionian or Aeolian), and an example in asymmetric meter (not "Old Joe has Gone Fishing).
If you find something you're excited about, feel free to share with the group!
Happy beginning of school, everyone...I just spent this week taking preliminary doctoral exams (can I tell you, confidentially, that 16th-century counterpoint makes me nauseous?) and driving hither and yon....and all the way, I'm missing you! Take care, and have fun!
Wednesday, August 12, 2009
Week 2: Delving in...in 2 parts!
Rising Level 2's
Choose 2 duets from the Ottman, 6.58-6.64, and do the following:
Day 1: sing the top and bottom voices of your first selection
Day 2: perfect your singing of the top and bottom voices of your first selection
Day 3: sing 1 part, play the other (on piano, guitar, or other string instrument)
Day 4: sing the other part and play the first one
Day 5: sing and perfect your singing of the top and bottom parts of your second selection
Day 6: see Day 3
Day 7: see Day 4
Rising Level 3's
Sing our little chromatic exercise daily (d d t d r r di r m...etc...call me if you don't remember it), ascending and descending.
And: Choose 1 duet from the Ottman, 8.49-8.53 (include 8.54 if you're feeling ambitious, or if you're Lizzie) and follow the Day 1-4 procedure outlined for the Level 2's.
Singing and playing at the same time is quite the brain-twist at first. I speak from experience, however, when I tell you that it's one of the best things you can do to quickly improve your skills. Doing sing-and-plays basically forces you to make one part of what you're doing automatic, and it also tests your intonation (doubly so if you're doing sing-and-plays with an unfretted string instrument). I'm astonished at how many folks go through a long sequence of movable-do solfa training and never take much care to ground themselves in absolute key relationships....and, since we will eventually delve into the world of chromaticism and clef reading, that's a serious handicap. It takes time to teach yourself to think in a key and in function simultaneously (i.e., locating letter names with your hand and articulating syllables with your mouth), which is why I'm bringing it up now and not during the 3 weeks we have in class. It'll probably seem hard at first, and if it seems completely overwhelming, go back a chapter or two in the Ottman and find an easier duet -- if it's a piece of cake, pick a harder one...you have my permission to pace yourself!
Choose 2 duets from the Ottman, 6.58-6.64, and do the following:
Day 1: sing the top and bottom voices of your first selection
Day 2: perfect your singing of the top and bottom voices of your first selection
Day 3: sing 1 part, play the other (on piano, guitar, or other string instrument)
Day 4: sing the other part and play the first one
Day 5: sing and perfect your singing of the top and bottom parts of your second selection
Day 6: see Day 3
Day 7: see Day 4
Rising Level 3's
Sing our little chromatic exercise daily (d d t d r r di r m...etc...call me if you don't remember it), ascending and descending.
And: Choose 1 duet from the Ottman, 8.49-8.53 (include 8.54 if you're feeling ambitious, or if you're Lizzie) and follow the Day 1-4 procedure outlined for the Level 2's.
Singing and playing at the same time is quite the brain-twist at first. I speak from experience, however, when I tell you that it's one of the best things you can do to quickly improve your skills. Doing sing-and-plays basically forces you to make one part of what you're doing automatic, and it also tests your intonation (doubly so if you're doing sing-and-plays with an unfretted string instrument). I'm astonished at how many folks go through a long sequence of movable-do solfa training and never take much care to ground themselves in absolute key relationships....and, since we will eventually delve into the world of chromaticism and clef reading, that's a serious handicap. It takes time to teach yourself to think in a key and in function simultaneously (i.e., locating letter names with your hand and articulating syllables with your mouth), which is why I'm bringing it up now and not during the 3 weeks we have in class. It'll probably seem hard at first, and if it seems completely overwhelming, go back a chapter or two in the Ottman and find an easier duet -- if it's a piece of cake, pick a harder one...you have my permission to pace yourself!
Wednesday, August 5, 2009
Introduction: Organic Growth
Hello there, solfa students!
Week 1 assignments
Rising Level 2's: Select 2 examples from Ottman, ch. 9 to read each day
Rising Level 3's: Select 2 examples from Ottman, 13.26-13.51 to read each day
Everyone: read my pearls of wisdom below....
You may be thinking to yourselves, "Solfa is SOOOO the last thing on my mind right now. I don't even know where my tuning fork is, and my Ottman is still in the trunk of my car." I get it, believe you me. But, if you're anything like your solfa teacher, it won't just be this week or month that slips by before you think about it all again...all of a sudden it'll be June! I've learned this about myself, so I try to make a concerted effort right away to keep solfa on my front burner. Kodály himself had a lot to say about this sort of thing...he likened musical growth to a garden's growth, and pointed out the laughability of a gardener abandoning her/his plot for an extended period of time, expecting to find everything in the same condition months later. What would our theoretical gardener find? Weeds, overgrowth, insects, and general disrepair, I believe. Kodály's point was that there is no such thing as a standstill in musicianship...you're either moving forward or you're regressing.
Similarly, in his book "Outliers", Malcolm Gladwell discusses the ingredients of success in a wide variety of fields and situations. One non-success story has to do with the traditional 3-month school summer vacation and its disastrous effects for children from underprivileged backgrounds. Gladwell goes so far as to blame most of the scholastic achievement gap between wealthy and impoverished families on this extended break, claiming that children in privileged families generally gain ground during the summer and return to school in the fall knowing more than when they left. Children of less privilege, Gladwell claims, tend to spend their summers in free recreation without necessarily using any of the skills they gained in the previous grade, and therefore they forget a lot of what they learned and have to re-learn it in the fall.
And, just to ride my Gladwell train to the end of its tracks, in the first part of his book, Mr. Gladwell describes the lives of successful computer giants (i.e. Bill Gates), lawyers, musicians, etc., and discovers they have only a few things in common:
Being born at the right time in a situation that allowed them to pursue mastery
and
10,000 hours of practice in order to achieve mastery
The 10,000 hour thing is what I'm after...there aren't 10,000 hours to spend in a 3-week summer course...even if you literally spent all 3 summers doing nothing but solfa and never sleeping, you'd get a measley 1512 hours. So, I think it's fair to say that, in order to achieve mastery, y'all need to log some hours on your own. I would be thrilled if each of you would spend 15, or even 10 minutes a day doing solfa throughout the year, and I am certain that you would be shocked at what a huge difference that would make for you. Now, when I say, "doing solfa," I don't mean just anything. I mean using your vocabulary of solfa in a focused way at the highest level you're comfortable using it. That's the way to maintain your skills and perhaps even gain ground between now and next July. Will it always be what you want to do? Probably not. But, could you do your whole day's worth during the commercial breaks of a 1-hour network TV show? Yes....that's what the "mute" button is for!
So, I challenge you....take your educational investment seriously, and take the time you need to make yourself a conversational solfeggist extraordinaire! You'll never regret it.
Week 1 assignments
Rising Level 2's: Select 2 examples from Ottman, ch. 9 to read each day
Rising Level 3's: Select 2 examples from Ottman, 13.26-13.51 to read each day
Everyone: read my pearls of wisdom below....
You may be thinking to yourselves, "Solfa is SOOOO the last thing on my mind right now. I don't even know where my tuning fork is, and my Ottman is still in the trunk of my car." I get it, believe you me. But, if you're anything like your solfa teacher, it won't just be this week or month that slips by before you think about it all again...all of a sudden it'll be June! I've learned this about myself, so I try to make a concerted effort right away to keep solfa on my front burner. Kodály himself had a lot to say about this sort of thing...he likened musical growth to a garden's growth, and pointed out the laughability of a gardener abandoning her/his plot for an extended period of time, expecting to find everything in the same condition months later. What would our theoretical gardener find? Weeds, overgrowth, insects, and general disrepair, I believe. Kodály's point was that there is no such thing as a standstill in musicianship...you're either moving forward or you're regressing.
Similarly, in his book "Outliers", Malcolm Gladwell discusses the ingredients of success in a wide variety of fields and situations. One non-success story has to do with the traditional 3-month school summer vacation and its disastrous effects for children from underprivileged backgrounds. Gladwell goes so far as to blame most of the scholastic achievement gap between wealthy and impoverished families on this extended break, claiming that children in privileged families generally gain ground during the summer and return to school in the fall knowing more than when they left. Children of less privilege, Gladwell claims, tend to spend their summers in free recreation without necessarily using any of the skills they gained in the previous grade, and therefore they forget a lot of what they learned and have to re-learn it in the fall.
And, just to ride my Gladwell train to the end of its tracks, in the first part of his book, Mr. Gladwell describes the lives of successful computer giants (i.e. Bill Gates), lawyers, musicians, etc., and discovers they have only a few things in common:
Being born at the right time in a situation that allowed them to pursue mastery
and
10,000 hours of practice in order to achieve mastery
The 10,000 hour thing is what I'm after...there aren't 10,000 hours to spend in a 3-week summer course...even if you literally spent all 3 summers doing nothing but solfa and never sleeping, you'd get a measley 1512 hours. So, I think it's fair to say that, in order to achieve mastery, y'all need to log some hours on your own. I would be thrilled if each of you would spend 15, or even 10 minutes a day doing solfa throughout the year, and I am certain that you would be shocked at what a huge difference that would make for you. Now, when I say, "doing solfa," I don't mean just anything. I mean using your vocabulary of solfa in a focused way at the highest level you're comfortable using it. That's the way to maintain your skills and perhaps even gain ground between now and next July. Will it always be what you want to do? Probably not. But, could you do your whole day's worth during the commercial breaks of a 1-hour network TV show? Yes....that's what the "mute" button is for!
So, I challenge you....take your educational investment seriously, and take the time you need to make yourself a conversational solfeggist extraordinaire! You'll never regret it.
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