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.