Nifty fifty....

Hello, solfa adventurers!

Guess what! Blogger (our host site) just told me that this is my fiftieth post! Now, the number really should be higher than that, if I were to have been consistent in my weekly posting since the blog's 2009 inception, but still....this is a milestone, and I think we should celebrate with some solfa and some beautiful music from La belle epoque....

Rising Level 2's

Day 1: Select 3 sight-singing examples (try Ottman, ch. 9) -- choose the 3 you'd like to try before you actually sing them. Begin with the first, and be sure to use your tuning fork to set your key. As you begin, take notice of what you do to prepare yourself for the task at hand, and after you're done with the first example, make some decisions about what to do differently for the next example, and build upon this experience for the third example. Once you've completed all three examples, make a note of which process was most successful for you, and write it out, step-by-step.

Day 2: Using your step-by-step list from yesterday, sing through 3 more sight-singing examples. Does the process still work for you? Edit as needed.

Day 3: Type up your process and save it as a PDF...email it to me and to your colleagues so we can compare notes!

Day 4: Look over other folks' processes and compare theirs to yours. Hunt down some new melodies and try out someone else's process. How does it work for you?

Day 5: Take a look at this beautiful piece by Reynaldo Hahn:

http://216.129.110.22/files/imglnks/usimg/3/3f/IMSLP90043-PMLP184585-laNuit.pdf

Sing through the melody....what do you suppose is happening with that E-natural?

Rising Level 3's

Follow the instructions above, but use Ottman chapters 13 and 14 for your sight-singing fodder...or the Haydn section of Classical Canons, if you prefer.

Also, on Day 5, look at this little gem, theme and variation 1:

http://imslp.info/files/imglnks/usimg/8/89/IMSLP25376-PMLP56952-Hahn_Mozart_Variations_Flute.pdf

How will you navigate through those chromatic passages? Will having an aural imprint of the theme (which is largely diatonic) help you along? I believe so....

Rising Level 4's

Follow the same instructions as the rising level 2's, but use the Mozart and Caldara portion of the Classical Canons book for your sight-singing fodder.

And, on day 5, look at this link, song #6:

http://216.129.110.22/files/imglnks/usimg/6/63/IMSLP92289-PMLP190143-Hahn_-_Rondels__voice_and_piano_.pdf

What do you suppose "Mode Hypodorien" means? Do a little digging around (search for the anglicized spelling: "Hypodorian") and see what you come up with. Why would Mr. Hahn be fussing around with modes, anyway?

Oh, and extra points to anyone who can tell me (no Google/Wikipedia cheating!) where Reynaldo Hahn was born and what famous singer he was friends with....

People, Get Ready!

Though it is unseasonably cool and cloudy in my beloved Denver today, I am nonetheless keenly aware that the sultry heat of July in Baltimore draws nigh. And, while I am likewise extremely grateful for the slower pace of life that I’ve been graced with since the end of the spring semester, I feel the pace quickening as “the other 49 weeks” draw to a close and the 3-week stint we all spend in the classroom together approaches.

So, as I pore over past lesson plans and materials, think through what worked and what didn’t, and begin the process of figuring out what to bring (I might get really clever this year and make a shiny, organized binder that is The Big Book of Musical Examples for Solfa....and perhaps discover a life without piles of random books and 3 bajillion pieces of loose paper EVERYWHERE), I’ve also begun to think about what I might do to get myself ready if I were a student in my own classroom:

1. I’d physically track down all my books and make sure that I have them all.

2. I’d find all my notes and handouts from last year (and the year before, if applicable)

3. I’d make myself a list of what supplies I knew I’d need (because trying to find a music store to buy a new tuning fork after class has already started is an annoying process).

4. I’d take a little time to think about what happened last year in my solfa/AKI experience and make a mental (or physical) note about what I’d like to change for this year.

Note that any of your reflections from item 4 would likely be very useful to me as well, and I’d be very grateful if you’d be willing to share them. Upon looking through last year’s lesson plans, I know there are a lot of things I’d like to change. Maybe the biggest thing is that I want to be certain that my students have a strong sense of the relevance of what we do in solfa class to the rest of their musical lives. I want my students to leave solfa class on the 29th of July feeling more empowered and more musical than ever before, and I want that to be something that they own independent of me. I have several ideas for how to help make that happen, but as usual, I will crave your kind assistance:

Rising Level 2’s

Go through my numbered list above.

Find the “Our Tuning Forks, Our Selves” handout (if you can’t find a physical copy, check out the right side of your screen) and give yourself a refresher course. Check your accuracy with finding keys at a recently-tuned piano (if you find that you’re having lots of trouble, check to make sure your tuning fork itself matches the piano).

Practice your tuning fork skills with these Ottman examples:
11.28, 11.30, 11.31, 12.7, 12.16, 12.34

Also, if you haven’t already done so, download a copy of “Modes Made Easy” (see the right side of your screen) and give it a read-through.

Rising Level 3’s

Go through my numbered list above, and also track down your tuning fork and spot-test your key-finding abilities. If modes are a struggling point for you, you might want to check out “Modes Made Easy” as well.

Look through your notes and find your notation of the chromatic exercise we used last year (d...d t,d r.....r di r m.....m ri m f.....f m f so...., etc.). Sing through both the ascending and descending versions.

Use your refreshed chromatic savvy to peruse Ottman chapter 14 and find a few challenging musical knots to unravel.

Finally, draw yourself a musical timeline:
Take a piece of paper and draw a horizontal line.
Along the line, write: Medieval, Renaissance, Baroque, Classical, Romantic, and 20th/21st Century.
Under each designation, write all the musical innovations, composers, forms, and instruments/voice types you associate with each time period. Don't worry if you have a lot more to say about some things than others -- just go off the top of your head.

Once that’s done, mark the items you’re personally curious or confused about, and share those items with me.

Rising Level 4’s

As you prepare for the less-musical portion of your graduate studies, I’d be thrilled to help you in any way I can. Give me a shout if you need anything...

And, just for old time’s sake:

Check out Music for Analysis, pp. 302-04
Sing through the violin II line on p. 302 -- you may wish to skate over to a new key at the beginning of the second system, but you’ll probably want to come back.
Sing through the oboe II line on p. 303...relish the chromatics!
Switch to the violin I line at pickups to the last measure (28) on p. 303, and continue until m. 36. What do you make of that A-flat?
At pickups to m. 37, switch to the flute line until the end of the minuet (if you’re overwhelmed with curiosity, take a look at the trio that follows...mind the key signature!)

Have fun with these preparations! If you have your tuning fork (and a mobile device with some nifty keyboard app to check yourself, if needed), you can even do this by the pool (umbrella drinks optional)! Bonus!

Knowing your role....

Hello, my beloved solfeggists!

First, a note to my dear Baltimore students.....I sent you an email this morning/afternoon. If you didn't receive it, please let me know! It contains important stuff!

This is a strange time of year for many of us -- we find ourselves in the position of needing to change up our daily routine, either because we're winding up the school year, the weather is changing, we're getting ready to move to a new place, we're trying to cope with having more time to think....or any combination of the above. It can be stressful...this is definitely the time of year I tend not to sleep well, and it's the part of the year I tend to torture myself the most over whatever I am or am not doing to finish this, start that, etc. I hypothesize that the change in role has much to do with my feelings of anxiety, and I strongly suspect I'm not the only one.

So, as we move into the part of the year where teachers take a break from teaching (and some turn into students!), some students become teachers, performers become listeners, and all of us hopefully slow down a little, here is your assignment:

All Levels

Take a walk.

Write in a journal. Don't judge what you write. If you want, burn the pages afterward.

Pet a dog.

Spend a morning in your PJ's.

Have a cup of tea.

Listen to some music that refreshes you, or moves you, or reminds you of who you are.

Look at pictures from a trip that you loved taking.

Call your best friend.

...and...

Each day, read through one of these:

http://www3.cpdl.org/wiki/images/0/0f/Schubert_Duette.pdf

Look at both parts, transpose at will. If at all possible, meet up with a solfa colleague and practice singing together, switching up who takes the melody.

Enjoy!

Intuition

Hello, my artistic colleagues!

So, today I've got a little theory I'd like to test-drive on all of you...your feedback, as always, is invited and appreciated.

Probably most of you have had the experience of performing with a conducted ensemble in a hall that is either large enough or reverberant enough (or both) to have elicited this instruction from the conductor to the ensemble:

"Trust your eyes, not your ears."

Now, the reasons why vision is more trustworthy than hearing in this kind of situation are rather cold and scientific, as it turns out (sound waves travel more slowly and are "bendier" than light waves, meaning that light gives you time-related information more reliably in an objective sense). However, the reasons why we tend to have a hard time making our eyes the boss of our ears when we're behaving artistically are probably more complex. At the surface level, music IS sound, so it makes sense to use sound to govern the production of sound. I would argue, however, that we westernly-enculturated people are accustomed to using our eyes for most of the information-gathering we do any given day. And, while we use our ears for some pretty bland stuff as well, we still function relationally largely through our ears, and most likely, the feeling-ful aspects of music are what drew us to it first. So, when we make music, we are in the habit of listening and reacting, because our ears are a more direct connection both to our hearts and our intuition, if one accepts intuition as a kind of highly-ingrained and partially unconscious memory for how things have been before and are likely to be again.

That's my theory, anyway: there is a hierarchy of heart/intuition connectedness within our senses, which is probably a little different for everyone, but for many of us, our ears are probably more intuitive than our eyes. And, in turn, this intuition comes from habit and experience, but it's so close to us that we experience it as almost a "sixth sense". The good news is that if intuition is derived from conscious experience, we have the chance to educate it, and it'll become more finely tuned over time, if we invest our energies in awareness.

Rising Level 2's

Look at Ottman, 8.49 and 8.50

Read through the treble voice first in each example. What aspects of the melody behave as you expected (for example, the V-I feel between the first anacrusis and downbeat in each)? Did any turns surprise you? Are you able to suss out what you expected that didn't happen?

Now, for each example, read through the lower voice for each. Choose a voice to memorize in each example, and take a stab at singing the memorized part as you play the other on the piano. Go by feel. Trust your instincts, now that you've taken a little time to intentionally inform them.

Rising Level 3's

Look at Ottman, examples 8.51 and 8.52. Follow the same instructions as the rising 2's.

Rising Level 4's

Look at Ottman, examples 8.53 and 8.54 (mind the clef in 8.54). Follow the same instructions as the rising 2's.

And, in honor of intuition:

http://www.npr.org/programs/atc/features/2002/may/humphries/