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.
Showing posts with label Solfeggists in the Mist. Show all posts
Showing posts with label Solfeggists in the Mist. Show all posts
Sunday, September 25, 2011
Monday, August 8, 2011
A new year carol
Hello, my long-lost solfeggists!
So, we are now one week into the 49-week cycle. You will have noticed, perhaps, that I missed week 1 -- sort of intentional on my part, but mostly due to my quick jaunt to Portland, OR for the wedding of the first of my siblings, my older brother. A good time was had by all, I think....in fact, dancing with my younger brother was sort of a cultural education in itself, but I digress...
On the last day of classes, my dear Loyola students were kind enough to collaborate with me in gathering some "solfa aphorisms" -- it brought me back to my days in girls' chorus when we (being the littlest bit dorky) carried around what we called "autograph books" (a la Laura Ingalls Wilder) to collect little sayings from our friends. Don't judge....we were homeschoolers, so we didn't have yearbooks. Anyway, here are some of the sayings that we came up with just a bit over a week ago, many of which transcend solfa and the musical realm:
"Let us take our children seriously! Everything else follows from this...only the best is good enough for a child." (ZK, paraphrased)
Live a little. Music doesn't belong in a china closet.
Modes are messy.
Solfa class is just like therapy....a place to share your troubles. When you talk about your problems, they become easier to solve.
You cannot be a great teacher without giving a little of your heart to every student and in every lesson you teach.
Chromaticism is just a splash of color.
Sometimes anger is just a part of caring.
Solfa is like a workout for your brain.
Listen. It's better than making noise.
We teach people. We teach music. Remember to love both.
Teach your students as if you were teaching your own children.
You choose what you take with you.
You never know for sure what seeds you plant will wind up taking root and flourishing.
Being a good teacher to yourself is a necessary step to becoming a good teacher of others.
The British Invasion would've really taken off if they had used solfa syllables.
Your teacher knows better than you at this moment.
Drinks are better than drama.
Sometimes sitting with failure is more valuable than a thousand successes.
C, D, E.....as easy as ut-re-mi!
You have both your strengths and your weaknesses for a reason. Embrace them. Know them.
Obviously, some of these are more serious than others, some are mostly inside jokes, and some are firmly in my favorite touchy-feely realm. However, I have to say that I think it's valuable to reflect on our recent experiences in the solfa classroom in ways that are both comical and serious, both concrete and hopelessly abstract, and both practical and merely ideal. After all, solfa is a musicianship course, and we all know that our personal experiences and reflections and senses of humor are inextricable from our artistic behavior.
As we ease into this new year, and in the spirit of all of the above, I invite you:
All Levels:
Take a moment sometime this week to write down what you enjoyed about this year's solfa experience, and record the ways in which you know you've grown. Brag. Revel....just a little.
Then, take another moment and write down the things you wish we would have spent more time with in class, the gaps in your own experience that you'd like to have spackled up, and the goals you have for yourself before embarking upon the next phase of your musical training.
If you feel comfortable, please share either or both of the above lists with me. I cannot overstate how important it is to me that each of you feels that this course is supposed to be for YOU, to help YOU grow and succeed. Believe me when I say: if it lies within my power to help you, I want to do that. Also, knowing what you want to work on during the year will really help me guide my posts here on the blog -- at the moment, I sort of follow my nose and try to give you all a nice variety, but if there's something you'd like me to focus on, I'd be glad to do that.
And, just so I don't feel totally soft-core about this week's post:
All Levels:
Each day, select 2 Ottman examples to sight-sing (one in major, one in minor), using the principles we discussed this summer....most importantly, DON'T STOP! If you're wondering what chapter(s) to use, try:
Rising 2's - ch. 6, 8, or 9
Rising 3's - ch. 11, 12, or (if you're feeling frisky) 13
Rising 4's - ch. 13, 7 (if you'd like to practice alto clef), or 20
Enjoy, my friends, and please do consider sending me some feedback -- just like at Burger King, I'd like you to have it YOUR way.
Monday, May 9, 2011
Fluency and Immersion, part 2
Greetings, solfa-speakers!
Well, my friends, I've been thinking about last week's post (see below), and while part of me is a bit nervous that I've made my final descent into dogma, there were two things that happened this week that both helped me feel more confident about what I said and suggested to me that I ought to follow up. Both incidents involved educators I respect deeply, and their perspective on this (as in many parts of my life!) has helped refine my own.
First, one dear friend of mine asked me soon after I posted: are you saying it has to be solfa? And the answer is no, I don't think it has to be. Kodály-based solfege pedagogy isn't a form of monotheism. It is certainly not the only path to good musicianship. It just happens to be the path I know, so it's the path I teach. And, while a healthy sense of the whole scope of options is good for one's sense of open-mindedness, I do also think there's a danger in being resistant to following one path because one is afraid of being cut off from other options. The other options will always be there -- and once good musicianship is in place, it can be endlessly re-informed and made over. It is true that whatever one does first may always feel like a kind of mother tongue (witness that, under pressure, most everyone counts and does arithmetic in whatever language they first learned). However, I don't think that's a bad thing. It is ok to embrace one perspective for a period of time and open one's self up to other perspectives later. It may not be ok to embrace one perspective to the permanent exclusion of all others....and it may also not be ok to refuse to embrace any perspective in the name of open-mindedness and then wind up not knowing things one wants and needs to know.
The other incident wasn't directly related to the blog or even to solfa, but it is a story about immersion. After a choir concert, the conductor and I were sitting at the post-concert dinner gathering and one of the choristers, a young guy who has sung in several choirs, asked if the choir could sing something in the restaurant. The conductor told him that was fine, but that he (the chorister) had to lead it. The chorister agreed, and led the chorus in a rendition of "Bonse aba" with himself as the caller. At the end of the piece, when a little bit of conducting is required, this brave singer (who has no formal musical training beyond that of a typical community choir singer) simply threw out his arms and gestured his way to the end of the piece, and his fellow singers followed him perfectly. His conducting was very reminiscent of my friend, the conductor of the group, and my friend definitely noticed. We talked about it later, and my friend said how unexpectedly touched he was by the experience, and how surprised he was that our singer, on the power of pure instinct, did what he'd been shown by the conductor and it worked. I said that I think we maybe shouldn't be so surprised when this happens. As conductors and teachers, we form mini-cultures in the form of classrooms and choruses, and we probably shouldn't be surprised when our singers' cultural vocabulary goes from passive to active -- because that just means we've done our job. The immersion has worked. The message has been sent.
So, in the spirit of immersion:
Rising Level 2's
Your Ottman examples are: 11.2, 11.5, 11.6, 11.7, 11.8, 11.10
For each example, scan (checking for tempo/character markings and noting the origin of each melody), set your key/meter, and sing it through. Then, do a bit of reflecting: did the melody do what you expected? Where did you have trouble? Did the trouble spots coincide with the places where your expectations were not fulfilled? Can you use this information to refine your musical instincts?
Rising Level 3's
Your Ottman examples are: 14.1, 14.2, 14.4, 14.5, 14.6, 14.7
Follow the same instructions as the rising level 2's, but add to your list of reflective questions: in each example, there is an opportunity to modulate (to a key a fifth away...watch out for the Handel!). Did you choose to? What was the key relationship involved? Did it work? What happens if you make a different choice? What seem to be the deciding factors?
Rising Level 4's
Your Ottman examples are: 14.8, 14.9, 14.10, 14.11, 14.12, 14.13
Follow the same instructions as the rising level 2's, with the same added questions as the 3's.
Jump right in, and enjoy!
Sunday, April 3, 2011
Fatal Flaws
Salutations, my dear solfeggists!
I'm writing from my comfy couch, looking out on an April snowstorm....not an uncommon occurrence in Colorado, but always a shock to the system when it follows an 80-degree day -- although that, too, is not uncommon.
This week's blog post subject material is courtesy of a conversation from yesterday with one of AKI's own...with a little help from church this morning.
In yesterday's conversation, we were discussing our respective "fatal flaws" -- the thing we just can't stop doing, even though we'd like to change it. Everyone has one (or several...), and chances are that you know about them in both yourself and other people. In fact, to some extent, we are even known by our flaws, and they actually become a part of our identity....it happens in choirs and classrooms all the time. You know the part in X piece where that one person always makes a mistake, and you can take a good guess at which kid turned in a paper without a name on it by looking at which answers are incorrect.
In a sense, when we Kodály types talk about going from the known to the unknown, we're dealing with an outward manifestation of an inward process: as we know ourselves and our strengths more thoroughly, we are better able to ascertain when we understand a concept, and we're able to demonstrate what we know in varying ways. Group dynamics and blind luck can disguise what is understood and what is not, and in the classroom, this happens all the time -- in fact, it is infrequent to be observed from the outside in a way that is identical to what's going on inside. If this is true, then all education is really self-education, because only the individual truly knows what he or she understands. And, similarly, when I teach you, I'm bound to start by teaching you as if you were me with all the flaws and strengths I recognize in myself. Hopefully, over time and by watching others, a teacher cultivates a more extensive bag of tricks than only what is effective for him/herself, but we all probably default to using ourselves as a point of departure. We are always our own first student.
So, all of that being said, I invite you to plot your own course for this week's assignment. Do what you know you need to do to be successful with this material. Make a note of what works for you and what doesn't. Be creative. Increasing your own self-knowledge is the name of the game.
Rising Level 2's
Take a look at this bicinia by Orlando di Lasso:
....and this lovely Brahms piece (you may know it in another form, with German text, as the second movement of his motet "Warum ist das Licht gegeben")
What is easy about each piece? What is difficult? Do they behave how you expect them to behave? If not, how will you cope? Creativity in practice is encouraged.
Rising Level 3's
Take a look at these pieces:
Sometimes you'll want to be in the key notated, sometimes a fifth away...I'll leave it in your capable hands to decide.
Rising Level 4's
Take a look at the chromaticism in these pieces:
What can you do to make the chromaticism seem less forbidding?
Now get out there, and show your flaws who's boss!
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