TheoryRoom with Dr. J.

Our big test is postponed until Sept. 8th due to band trips.

The link for the review sheet is :
http://jinright2.edublogs.org/2008/08/28/review-for-1st-test/

Below are vocab words for the test following Monday’s…I’m looking at Friday Sept. 12th. Expect timed tests on Wednesday and Friday.

Vocab-
Anacrusis
Alla breve
Common meter
Metrical footprint (example Amazing Grace 8.6.8.6.)
Grave (the musical one)
Largo
Larghetto
Adagio
Andantino
Andante
Moderato
Allegretto
Allegro
Vivace
Presto
Prestissimo
Intervals – harmonic or melodic?
Perfect intervals
Imperfect intervals
Inversion of intervals

Workbook pages for this Friday’s homework are here:
workbookp7
workbookp8

I browsed the Youtube offerings hoping that someone had posted incredibly wonderful Theory stuff… Apparently the professor from L.A. Harbor College took the time to make these succinct but effective tutorials.

Read the rest of this entry »

This is what happens to composers who don’t attend their music theory classes:

Here are the links to the theory sites we looked at in class today:

Ricci Adam’s site:

http://musictheory.net/

Jose Alvira’s Bilingual Theory site:

http://teoria.com/

William Wieland’s Theory things:

http://www.northern.edu/wieland/theory/tt.htm

Amy Baeur’s practice quizzes, etc…

http://courses.wcupa.edu/abauer/mtm.html

Robert Frank’s Hypertext Theory book:

http://www.smu.edu/totw/toc.htm

Dave Megill’s excellent quiz site:

http://www.coastonline.org/megill/skilltests/skilltests.html

Brian Blood’s extensive and helpful site:

http://www.dolmetsch.com/theoryintro.htm

Rob Whelan’s free training aids:  (Check out the Music Speed Reader!)

http://www.emusictheory.com/

Catherine Schmidt-Jone’s excellent text:

http://cnx.org/content/col10363/1.3

Music Notes: (theory and more)

http://library.thinkquest.org/15413/index.shtml

Freshman Theory at Alcorn State University:

http://www.alcorn.edu/musictheory/Version2/index.htm

Texas School Music Project’s Quickfacts sheet:

http://www.tsmp.org/theory/lias/pdf/quickfacts.pdf

Tim Cutler’s Tonal Theory Examples collection:

http://musictheoryexamples.com/

The Tonal Center:

http://www.tonalcentre.org/

Tom Pankhurst’s Tonality Guide

http://www.tonalityguide.com/startcentre.php

PracticeSpot (printable practice tests)

http://www.practicespot.com/theorycenter.phtml

Nuottila – (java exercises)

http://www.nuottila.info/2007/index.php?option=com_frontpage&Itemid=1

Jazz Improvisation advisor:

http://www.cs.hmc.edu/~keller/jazz/improvisor/

Here are some study questions to help you review for our first exam:

1.  Can you write the fundamental and first 4 overtones of the harmonic series starting on C2?

2.  Can you tell me the difference between simple and compound division of the beat?

3.  Can you write C4  using the G clef, C clef and F clef?

4.  What is a hemidemisemiquaver?

5.  What note is enharmonically equivalent to G double-sharp?

6.  WHat is an Orff time signature?

7.  What does the dot do to the value of the note it’s attached to?

8.  Can you list the silly theory scale degree names? (tonic, supertonic, etc..)

9. Can you list the Greek Modes in the order that they relate to the C major scale?

10.  What is the difference between parallel major and relative major?

11.  Which form of the minor scale do we use in my class and how does it differ from the natural minor scale?

12.  What do scales do?

Remember to keep learning key signatures and to spell the diatonic scales built from the C scale!!

Today I spent the first half hour on campus in a hallway due to a tornado warning.  Lots of folks called to ask if we were having class and I told them “get here if you can do it safely, but use your own discretion.”  On Wednesday, most of the class will be absent due to the trip to MTSU, and returning home Friday morning at 4:30 AM, it’s not likely that many will make it in for Friday’s class.

The inspirational Dr. Perry Castelli once told me:  “Teaching is like playing baseball.  Some games you win,  some games you lose.  Some get rained out”.  There’s a whole lot of truth to that statement.

Today we talked about the need to memorize our diatonic scale spellings and I uttered a few brief statements about those dreaded units of musical measure:  intervals!  Then we watched Lenny Bernstein’s section of the Norton Lectures where he links the awareness of the harmonic series to elements of music history.  My point = technology is the missing link.  The development of standard tunings and equal temperment helped solidify tonality as our “universal” musical principle. 

Bernstein speaks of the discovery of the “fifth” leading to the circle of fifths.  Switch your point of view and see that fifth as a dominant chord resolving up a perfect 4th or down a perfect 5th to tonic.   That gives us our circle of fourths, (not fifths) and leads to the modulation example he used prior to playing the Wagnerian “Fair Harvard” at the end of our segment. 

Wednesday  will be “Fun” and Friday will be optional for those needing drill and practice.

The workbook for our Benward text is being printed this week and we should see them delivered to our bookstore by the end of next week.   Save some money and get yours ASAP!

Song for today = “Your Love Is” by Paul and Storm

Today we took a timed notation quiz where you were required to identify 40 notes (bass/treble clef) by letter name in about 90 seconds or less.   If your score on this quiz was below 70, you should consider one or both clefs candidates for remediation.  Why?  Because being professional requires immediate recognition and reaction to the stimulus (i.e. note).  If you’re standing there thinking “All Cows Eat Grass” while I’m already processing the next measure of music, guess who’s behind?  Those “tricks” (mnemnonics) we were all taught don’t cut the mustard (to coin an old phrase, “Tricks are for Kids”) and here’s how to get over this.

Make Flashcards.  Flashcards are much cooler than javascript sites on the internet because you’re in control of the learning process, not some Skinnerian-style teaching machine. Draw the offending clef on one side of an index card and write the note 2 ledger lines below it.   On the back side, write the letter name of the note.  Continue making cards until you’ve reached the note 2 lines above the clef.  Now, looking at the clef sides of the cards, shuffle and draw from the pile and say the name of the note immediately.  If you can’t,  put that card in the stack “to be learned”.   When you reach the end of the pile, you’ll have a stack of cards you know, and a stack you don’t.  Select a few that you don’t know and study them for a few moments, then add them to the stack you’ve learned.  Reshuffle and draw from the pile, removing any that you don’t know for further study.  Keep doing this until you can immediately name every note.

This requires time, self-discipline, and flashcards.  If you need help in any of these areas, see me.

Also today we learned the silly theory terms:

simple division of the beat

Compound division of the beat

hemiola

syncopation

Assymetrical time signatures

Dotted note values

simple, duple and quadruple beat groupings

Tonic

supertonic

mediant

subdominant

Dominant

submediant

subtonic

leading tone

Transposition = A Bb clarinet sees a “C” and sounds a “Bb”. 

Of all these terms, you MUST memorize the silly theory names of the scale degrees.  Make flash cards if you must.

If you haven’t read the intro, chapters 1 and 2 in Benward yet, you’re marching on thin ice. 

 Put down that Latte’ and make your parents proud.

Make it a good weekend-

-J

Today we reviewed, took a timed test, compared Orff time signatures to our common ones and watched Lenny B. talk about musical univerals. Again, I blamed the French for the downfall of Occidental music, but that’s not really the point, is it?

Please have the introduction, Chapter 1 and Chapter 2 read. If you think I’m gonna test on the Church Modes, you’re wrong, BUT I want you to see the relationship because it critical to understanding the tonal system. Pretend that the starting pitch is the 2nd overtone and realize that it resolves according to the “Law of Harmonic Resolution.”

Under topics in chapter 2, you should become familiar with those terms. Know the scale degree names for the test (tonic, supertonic, mediant, etc…).

Question for extra credit: Why would your teacher disagree with the way the Circle of 5ths is presented in the text?

Oh! And we listened to Metal Shop by DaVinci’s Notebook. These guys were so incredible and I used to take students to hear them anytime they sang within state lines. A few years ago the group broke up (after MANY years of singing together) and 2 of these talented folks became Paul and Storm.

Here’s a collegiate(?) barbershop group paying homage to the DaVinci’s Notebook Legacy.

I just replied to an email about where to get manuscript paper for class.  Some of you may have discovered that our old campus bookstore carries high quality but OUTRAGEOUSLY PRICED manuscript.  Here’s my suggestion:

Do you have a printer?  They’re cheap at Wally-mart, Best Buy, Circuit City, or Amazon…and you’re gonna need one for other classes, anyway.  Get a printer, some paper, some extra cartridges and go here:

http://www.musictheory.net/utilities/html/id96_en.html

http://www.dolmetsch.com/manuscriptpaper.htm

http://www.musicsheaf.com/paper/index-thumbnail.html

If you’re not scared of installing shareware:

http://www.rocketdownload.com/program/sheet-music-designer-11751.html

Also you could install Finale Notepad (free) and see if you can hide the
rests in the empty measures.  The full version of Finale lets you do this, but I can’t remember if Notepad will let you do it.

Hope this helps,

j