Course Corrections or Information Marination

Greetings, solfa navigators!

Well, there's no denying it....the equinox has come and gone, and now it's autumn in earnest.  The sky has that impossibly blue Colorado summer look here still, but the leaves are starting to turn, slowly but surely.

In my own everyday academic life, I'm up to my eyeballs in studying -- my big doctoral written exams are exactly a month from tomorrow, and while I always swore I'd remain calm when the time came for me to take part in this particular academic ritual, like so many before me, I am eating those words a bit.  Gratefulness for the people who remind me of all the reasons why it'll all be ok continues to run high, but sleeping and maintaining focus has already becoming a challenge.  However, as difficult as this process is, there's a part of me that enjoys playing Jane Goodall while the rest of me is a bit more like a troop of riled-up chimpanzees, and she's made the following observations:

1.  Looking at information that is new or unfamiliar tends to cause the subject (me) to become anxious.  However....

2. Repeated viewings improve both the subject's emotional response and her intellectual understanding and retention.

3. Going over information that was formerly familiar to the subject is typically quite successful immediately.

None of this should be a surprise, most likely, but I have to admit -- I'm a little startled at how true it is.  Part of me naively insists that I should be able to force-feed myself as much information as I want (familiar or not), and everything should go into a nice little box inside my head and be readily accessible to me thenceforth just because I say so.  And it ain't so.  As it turns out, being in a hurry just makes it harder.  Patience with others is a virtue I've spent a good amount of time cultivating (to varying degrees of success at any given moment), and as I get older, it bothers me less and less to have to repeat myself to my students or my choristers.  However, I find myself unaccustomed to being patient with myself -- so it's time for a personal course correction.  It's time to make a change.  And I'm willing to bet I'm not the only Type A out there in need of this particular lesson.  So:

Rising Level 2's


Check out Ottmans 11.33 and 12.39.  By the end of the week, I bet you a dollar you can learn to do both of these as sing-and-plays.  No, seriously.  Breathe.  You can totally do this:

First, sing through one voice part at a time.  Do this until completely fluent -- give yourself a couple days.  Once you're fluent, aim for memory.

When you're nearly memorized on one voice part in each exercise, try tapping the melody of the opposite part from the one you're singing.  Go slow if that helps...it may help less than you think.  If you find yourself getting metrically lost, you may find it helpful to "conduct" with a foot or sway back and forth...it's a favorite trick of mine, and pretty easy to do in 2/4.

Slowly, add piano.  Figure out a hand position and fingering for the part you play that is consistently successful...take the time to be strategic rather than winging it.

Be sure to let me know if I owe you a dollar!

Rising Level 3's


Track down your Classical Canons book and look at #139-166 (all by Cherubini).  Before you freak out, I'm not suggesting you read through all of them (unless you want to, of course!).  Instead, choose 3: 1 that's easy for you, 1 that requires a little bit of concentration to get through, and 1 that kicks your behind a little bit.  If you like, phone a friend and coordinate one or more of your selections.  Work together.  Collaborate.  Teach one another.  Encourage one another.  Take the time you need for each example, respectively.  Observe your own process, and have patience as you let the music sink in.

Rising Level 4's


The day has come....it's time to look at #15 in the 15 2-part Exercises!

You have enough analytical savvy at this point to figure out your own key areas, however, I'll give you these hints:

I spend a lot of time in E minor and G Major -- the end (as you probably figured) is a Picardy.

I go to B minor a bit and C Major a bit, and maybe to A minor for a teensy minute.  You'll see the usual signs pointing to these changes...

Figure out the "head" right away and go hunting for it throughout the piece....it's quite tell-tale, I think.

Don't bite off more than you can chew.  If you start to feel like the piece is endless, break it up into smaller sections.

Enjoy, and don't frustrate yourself.  Marinate yourself.

Let It Go

Welcome, my dear solfeggists!


I think I've blogged about this general topic before, but I tend to have troubles with hanging onto stuff that doesn't help me.  Sometimes it's tangible stuff (why are there paystubs from a job I had in 2006 living in the trunk of my car?  Because.), maybe more often it's emotional stuff.  Sometimes I blame it on having a weirdly accurate memory about some things, but the truth is that my mind enjoys (???) reliving situations that it can't reconcile to its own satisfaction.  It grabs on like gangbustas, refuses all distractions, and really concentrates on being upset.  Yeah, I know...healthy, right?  I bet I'm not alone...


This afternoon, I had a conversation with a professor who affirmed something related I've begun to suspect about listening to post-tonal music in general.  In order to enjoy it, I personally have to consciously choose to let go, be less judgy, and let myself not know exactly what's going on or what's coming next.  I have to give up, and in order to do so, I have to on-purpose go find the white flag and run it up the pole.  This is tricky -- unraveling a well-established, intentionally-honed skill set and replacing it with calm awareness is definitely not a simple task.  I'm starting to see that hyper-analysis musically is very much related to my habit of hyper-analysis of situations, people, etc., and that both have a way of getting in the way of me enjoying my life.  


The long-run antidote?  I'm not sure.  I bet it has to do with both effort towards changing a mental pattern and relaxation towards (if one can relax directionally...maybe that contradicts the whole idea of relaxation) the fact that I have the pattern.  After all, I know a lot of neurotic people -- there must be some kind of genetic advantage to being that way, or there wouldn't be so many of us swimming around in the gene pool, right?  


In the short term, however, try this exercise for the week:


All Levels:


Select a piece or two from the list below (or a piece by another composer whose work you find a little difficult or intimidating):


Paul Hindemith - When Lilacs Last in the Dooryard Bloom'd
Bela Bartók - Cantata Profana
Arnold Schoenberg - Gurre-Lieder
Gyorgy Ligeti - Lux Aeterna
Karlheinz Stockhausen - Stimmung 


(roughly in order of accessibility)


Track down a recording (you can buy them on iTunes for cheap, or your local university library or a good public library will have them) and set aside some time to listen.  Sit someplace comfortable, turn off your ringer, close your laptop.  Listen.  Exercise your non-judgy muscles.  Pay more attention to what happens to the sounds than you do to what the sounds themselves are (a tip stolen fair and square from my aforementioned professor).  If your ear needs a break, take one.  Try listening to the whole thing more than one time if you can.  Observe how your experience changes.  


It all sounds a little abstract, I know, but I think we can handle it.  Enjoy!

The Body Remembers

Greetings, Solfa-practitioners!

Today in Colorado, it is the rare, beautiful kind of September day that I've seen almost nowhere else in the country (though occasionally in Portland, OR). Just warm enough, but with a hint of delightful coolness that telegraphs colder weather to come. Please remind me of how I went on and on about how gorgeous Colorado weather is next April when I'm whining about the blizzards.

And, I've had yet another run-in with alternative medicine that ties into our solfa labors. Yesterday I went to an alternative clinic and had a treatment that's based on the idea that our bodies (the gut in particular, as it turns out...go figure) are pretty smart. Their smartness, in fact, is smart enough to circumvent our minds at times, meaning that sometimes, our bodies are holding onto things that have happened to us that our conscious minds may not even remember or recognize as significant. This being the premise, getting the body to release the stress/fear/injury that our minds may not be aware of is the key to unraveling lots of inexplicable problems. Speaking as a person who has had a lifelong struggle with various health problems that don't behave as the typical M.D. expects them to, I find this idea to be a tremendous relief. Speaking as a voice teacher, I'm inclined to say (respectfully, of course): DUH! How much time do we singers spend unraveling the coping mechanisms our muscles/jaws/necks/shoulders/you name it have come up with in order to compensate for other underlying issues? And how difficult is it to re-program those mechanisms, and how often have we said to ourselves, "Ugh! My shoulder/neck/jaw just has a mind of its own!"? I have a feeling most of us can relate to this.

In our own practice of musicianship, how can we best work with/around obstacles like this? In the 2011 summer class, I think this came up a number of times as we talked about how to prepare class assignments most effectively. In general, my advice is to try something one way no more than three times, and if it still isn't working on the third attempt, stop and change your strategy (and/or ask yourself if you've possibly misunderstood the assignment or looked at the wrong example). Why? Because struggling over and over with the same task attempted in the same way is essentially teaching your body that the task is a struggle, and that it will always be difficult and never easy. And even if you eventually get through it, when you get into class the next day and attempt the task there, your body will likely remember the panic and frustration of the process and undermine your attempt. Am I saying that it's always a bad thing to struggle? Not at all. But, if you struggle in only one way and refuse to step back from a problem and come at it from a slightly different perspective, chances are you won't understand it completely. Struggle is worthwhile when it is strategic, when you have gone through a process to determine that your effort is indeed being spent in the best and most efficient fashion, and when you know for a fact that what you're working to learn is actually truly what you want to know.

I sort of liked last week's method for dividing up tasks, so I'm going to follow a similar pattern this week.

Harmonic Analysis Intensive

Look at your Music for Analysis book, examples #186 (p. 126), #193 (p. 132), and #200 (p. 137).

Now, the first two examples have a similar problem, and it can be easily solved if you follow my rule about playing through any example you analyze before attempting the analysis. The question you need to ask yourself as you listen is: "What key is this example really in?" Make sure you really believe in your answer before you start going hog-wild with Roman numerals -- in each case, the key signature is misleading. Once you've made a decision, make sure that your progression makes sense by the numbers -- if something sounds normal, but looks weird, chances are that something is wrong. So, if you find yourself in that situation, immediately stop and re-assess rather than pushing through and finding yourself in a frustrating mess.

The third example is a good candidate for solfa chord analysis, in my opinion. Once that's done, you can easily add Roman numerals where it's appropriate -- meaning in the places where the numbers actually work. If you get into a situation where the numbers move in a strange way, but the harmonies actually sound ok, don't worry about the stupid numbers. This is pre-Mozart stuff, and while Handel's stuff is pretty functional, he still takes a jaunt to the wonderful world of modality every now and again....it's no cause for alarm.

Rhythmic Intensive

In your Ottman, look at chapter 15, section 3 (pp. 252-54). Two part exercises with syncopation...don't panic! I'd recommend doing about 2-3 of these in a sitting, fewer if you find them difficult, more if you find them easy.

First, have a little talk with yourself about how to best take on some of these. I highly recommend learning one part at a time while conducting. I also recommend taking out ties for the sake of practice if necessary and tapping on two different surfaces so you can keep track of both parts. Or, you may choose to speak one part and tap the other...that can also be helpful. I started my musical life by taking piano lessons, so it feels natural to me to treat the two staves as right hand and left hand of a piano piece.

Second, if you do run into problems, be creative. Figure out what it is that's causing a train wreck -- don't just blindly start over from the beginning more than 3 times. Use your noodle. Isolate difficult elements. Work backwards. Use syllables if you need them.

Melodic Intensive

Grab your Ottman and flip toward the back of the book. There are several exercises back there that are much more visually forbidding than they are difficult, once one has made some savvy tonal choices.

19.7 (My initial instinct was not to change solfa at all in this example, but if jumping to a "fi" gives you fits, feel free to do a brief switcheroo. I'm still trying to figure out what this piece is doing in the "remote modulation" chapter since it's a canon, but I'm sure there must be a good reason)

21.16 (You'll notice right away, I'm sure, that the piece begins and ends in E-flat major, and I'd recommend practicing those bits first. Then, starting in the second line, make some decisions about where to shift to new keys...I used a total of three key centers for the whole example...remember to look for enharmonic relationships and let the tritone be your guide).

21.64 (this little devil is entirely E-centric...sometimes major, sometimes minor, with a few dashes of modal inflection here and there. Try playing the lower voice while singing the upper voice...that should actually make it easier)

In the spirit of not creating struggle, I've tried to give a little bit less work this week. Hopefully that means you'll feel like you have time to walk away from something that's frustrating and come back to it later when you feel more energized.

Good luck, and good health!

Like cures like

Hello, my dear solfa singers!

It's a three-day-weekend! Hooray!!!

I have lately had occasion to have a bit of exposure to homeopathic medicine. You know, I've taken echinacea and goldenseal before, maybe even used a tincture or two, and my mom had this friend when I was growing up who grew her own kombucha (long before this video came out), so I'm not a total neophyte, but this time around (prompted by yet another round of extremely unpleasant abdominal pain...and can I just take this moment to say that when one's body wants attention, it frequently chooses not to fight fair), I encountered this principle:

Like cures like.

Ok, so in my case, I have these really nasty pains that come on without warning and feel like there are iron bands digging into the sides of my stomach while an army of angry chihuahuas also chew on it from the inside. I couldn't find anything specifically for the chihuahua problem, but thanks to a dear friend, I've been taking something that can actually cause a pain like iron bands if taken by a healthy person, but when taken (in extremely diluted and small quantities) by someone who already has those pains, it's supposed to cause the body to right itself. Essentially, it's the same principle as vaccines (or the hair of the dog) -- give yourself a little poison, your body rushes in to deal with the intruder, and in doing so, it fixes the problem you had to start with. And, while I retain a little healthy skepticism about the whole thing, it did work for me. Maybe it's placebo...but I feel better, so I'm ok with that.

And, just in case anyone is worried, I do promise to get myself fully checked out by a gastroenterologist soon.

So, naturally, I thought of this concept in terms of musicianship, and as it turns out, the principle appears to hold true. If you have trouble with rhythms, you have to give yourself rhythmic exercises to work on. If speedy solfa is your Achilles' heel, you have to sing more fast passages in order to improve. And so on. So, this week's battery of exercises will be organized a little differently with this principle in mind, and feel free to select from multiple categories as you feel the need.

Rhythm Intensive

Take a look at Ottman, chapter 15....and let's have some fun with syncopations!

Speak through while conducting: 15.3, 15,5, 15.6, 15.10, 15.11, 15.16, 15.19, 15.20 (plus more, if desired)

On p. 257, look at the text on the bottom of the page, and select 2 melodies from each category to prepare and sing. If you are a rising level 2 and the chromaticism has you worried, you may choose from only the first two categories.

Melodic Leap Intensive

If you get stymied by leaps, either because applying the solfa quickly is hard or because you're afraid you won't sing the correct interval, this section is for you!

First, there are several interval exercises you can do to help yourself -- I like this one because it's all pentatonic, but actually pretty challenging:

Sing (the solfa, and then the interval name on the same notes -- I'd start in A or B-flat):

d r major second; r m major second; s l major second;

m s minor third; l d' minor third;

d m major third;

r s perfect fourth; m l perfect fourth; s d' perfect fourth; l r' perfect fourth;

d s perfect fifth; r l perfect fifth; s r' perfect fifth; l m' perfect fifth;

m d' minor sixth;

d l major sixth; s m' major sixth;

r d' minor seventh; m r' minor seventh; l s' minor seventh

Sing that exercise until you can do so fluently -- if you have trouble decoding it from the text above, call me, and I'll sing it for you.

Additionally, sing through these Ottmans:

9.3, 9.6, 9.8 (note that it goes on to the following page), 9.26, 9.37, 11.25, 11.26

Quick-draw Solfa Intensive

If you feel like spitting the syllables out accurately in scalar passages is your particular cross to bear, look no further.

First, practice pentachords in sequence:

drmfsfmrd rmfslsfmr mfsltlsfm fsltd'tlsf sltd'r'd'tls ltd'r'm'r'd'tl td'r'm'f'm'r'd't d'

Start out at a moderate tempo, and gradually increase your speed. For added challenge, leave out the last note in each grouping and go immediately on to the next grouping.

And, sing through these Ottman examples:

12.4, 12.7, 12.24, 12.27, 12.52, 12.58 (pretend you're in F major in treble clef)

Enjoy!