Category: Music Education

Roman Numerals

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Before we begin, I need to talk about pitch, and then perfect pitch.

Essentially, pitch is how high or how low a sound is.  Women’s voices generally have high pitches; men have low pitches.  While there are practically an infinite amount of pitches that can and cannot be heard (think of dog whistles, as one example), all pitches fall into the same 12 pitch classes.  If you can imagine a keyboard, it is made up of these pitches – A, B, C, D, E, F, and G.  These are the white keys.  The black keys represent sharps and flats, which is a WHOLE other post altogether.  Suffice it to say, an A sharp (A#) is not the same as an A, but apparently not different enough to be given it’s own name stop motion kostenlos.

You might be thinking that this altogether does not make sense.  If there are 88 different tones on a piano, why not give them 88 different names?  Have you ever tried to remember 88 different names simeltaneously?  While all the notes are distinctly different, certain of these notes vibrate in similar ways, so that musicians and scientists alike have come to recognize that even though this key “down here” and this key “up here” are very far apart, they are the same note.  Sound is essentially vibration that your ear translates into a sound in your head, and the way vibrations go, without getting to heady and scientific on you, is that if you play any A on the keyboard, and then play the very next A up on the keyboard, the higher note is vibrating twice as fast as the lower note.  It is in this way that they are related.  A 2 to 1 ratio is a very simple ratio, and so they are considered the same note, or belong to the same pitch class, even though they are 12 keys apart on the keyboard herunterladen. So even though there are an infinite amount of pitches, we can still classify them all into just 12 groups.

Perfect pitch is the ability to hear any tone and know, without any prompting, what the name of the note is.  It is a skill that not every musician possesses, and to be honest, perfect pitch is again, a whole other post i could write.  However, I won’t.  I bring up perfect pitch because of a musician’s ability to recognize a note in any context, and without any other reference point.  I liken it to an artist who can tell the difference between yellow and burnt umber, for example, without any reference except their own memory ballerspiele ab 16 kostenlosen.

Perfect pitch doesn’t seem to come with the territory of being a professional musician.  There are pros who have perfect pitch, and there are also people who do not have any musical talent whatsoever who have the ability to distinguish between notes (I once heard of a person who actually could identify pitches by their MHz, or frequency) warum kann ich keine gifs herunterladen. But the majority of people do not have the ability to just pull the name of a note or a chord out of thin air.

So for the rest of us, there are Roman numerals minecraft welten zum herunterladen.

Most people are familiar with Roman numerals.  I, II, III, IV, V, VI, VII are the ones musicians use most.  These are, of course, 1, 2, 3, 4, 5, 6, and 7.  Roman numerals have the distinct ability, unlike our European numbers, of being either uppercase or lowercase dropbox freigegebene ordner herunterladen. Uppercase Roman numerals represent major chords, and appear like this:

I, II, III, IV, V, VI, VII

Meanwhile, the lowercase numbers represent minor chords, and look like this herunterladen.

i, ii, iii, iv, v, vi, vii

The advantage of using Roman numerals to talk about chords is that one does not need perfect pitch to recognize a chord naming it by its Roman numeral purple hills spiele kostenlos downloaden. Roman numerals represent the way a chord functions within the world of that specific song.  a I chord will always sound like a I chord.  A vi chord will also, always sound like a vi chord.  On the other hand, a C Major chord can have a few different functions depending on what key it is in.  And even if you can pick out the C Major chord in a song, you may not be able to figure out what the other chords are.  being able to identify the function of a chord, on the other hand, can help you identify other chords as well.  It’s like working on a puzzle.  If you can find one piece, you can usually then plug a few more into place based on that songs kostenlos downloaden mp3.

Roman numerals specifically come in handy when listening to a song you have never heard before, but want to learn (and cannot find on ultimate-guitar.com, probably one of my favorite guitar sites).  Once you start being able to recognize the functions of chords in a song, it is much easier to play a song and identify it happy mod kostenlos herunterladen.

Another good use for Roman numerals is for ease of transposition.  Say you have a diva of a singer who refuses to sing whatever song you’re working on with her in whatever key you’ve got it in.  If you know the chord progression in Roman numerals, it’s much easier to put the song in the key your diva needs it in instead of changing the chords as you go along.

Hopefully, though, you will come across the first situation much more often than the second. 😉

This blog will regularly go into Roman numeral analysis for songs, but will also go over Roman numerals themselves more in the future as well.

Chris Cornell

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consider this a mini post, a thought really, or a teaser.

i don’t know why, but this week i was inspired to add to my collection of music involving chris cornell kostenpflichtige apps gratis downloaden ios. i’ve been a fan since high school – i’m sure somewhere there still exists in my house a cassette tape of the album superunknown hd bilder herunterladen.

(i was really really into my walkman in high school. if you give me a moment, and another post to do so, i could probably recount to you every single cassette i owned free for minecraft. there was just a small window of time between when i got my walkman and started buying my own cassettes and when CDs became popular).

i followed chris from soundgarden and temple of the dog to audioslave vimeo videos mac. i only recently took the time to get into his solo album, euphoria morning, which i think happened because i expected it to be more along the lines of “sunshower” from the great expectations soundtrack, and it wasn’t mamma mia noten kostenlosen.

i kind of like the idea of being able to track an artist’s true musical identity through his or her body of work, especially when that person has been involved in more than one project background to download.

one could do a similar study on maynard james keenan (tool/a perfect circle), tom morello (and anyone else from rage against the machine/audioslave), anyone in crosby, stills, nash and young, eric clapton (almost too many to list), scott weiland (stone temple pilots/velvet revolver), damon albarn (blur/gorillaz/the good, the bad and the queen), jimmy page (also, almost too many to name) photoshop elements free download german full version. and maybe some day i will. but for now, i’m not even doing that kind of study on chris cornell, just talking about it.

what does strike me about chris’ voice, is that it doesn’t change, really leseproben kostenlos download. if you zoom in on just his vocals in a song like “sweet euphoria” compared to, for example, “hypnotize” there isn’t that much of a difference in the quality of his singing samsung a5 images. his singular voice is captivating whether it’s layered over tom morello’s crazy guitar work, or over cornell’s own single acoustic.

listening to a number of groups an artist has been in, particularly in chronological order, is a real treat for the ears, almost a game, especially with a prolific catalog to sample download as on netflix. not only do you hear the artist grow as the years play on, but you get to hear their influence in the various bands that they perform in. right now my chris cornell playlist is 7 hours long (and i’m sure it’s far from complete).

another fun thing i like to do from time to time is start my ani difranco playlist from “anticipate” (the first track from like i said: songs 1990 – 1991) and go all the way to “red letter year reprise” (the last track from red letter year). this is a great activity for long winter days when you are snowed in to your house, when life stops completely, because my ani playlist is just over 20 hours long.

the difference between ani and chris, though, is that i’m sure the projects chris has been involved in have always been more collaborative than almost anything ani’s ever done. when you listen to ani, you always know that that’s her, through and through. a chris cornell playlist is like playing hide and seek. sometimes he’s right there, not really hiding at all, sometimes he’s wearing camo and hiding half in shadows. you can always find him, and the game of doing so is a joy.

Memorizing

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Memorizing music is a topic I’ve always struggled with, both as a performer and as a teacher.

As a student through elementary school and high school, I was never pushed to memorize a piece linux betriebssystem deutsch kostenlos vollversion. I’m sure it happened at some point, but it was never a priority. I base this statement on the fact that if it were a priority, I would be much better at it now sd kartenleser windows 10 downloaden.

I am not a good memorizer. Even in college, it was never a priority, or a requirement for performance. Yes, some pieces I memorized, and played without music, but as Ruth once said, “Why wouldn’t you want every possible aid to help you play that piece correctly?” This might not be a word for word quote, but she had a point herunterladen.

If you’re performing something, and it’s a piece that jumps wildly all over the keyboard, or maybe has a few ridiculous page turns, yes, you probably have to memorize it herunterladen. But easier pieces? Why bother? Give yourself every last chance to get it correct.

The other reason why I tend to shy away from memorization, is because it just fosters incorrectness in students herunterladen. Either they memorize it incorrectly (and there is nothing worse than a memorized mistake – honestly, it is probably one of the most frustrating things to work through), or memorizing it leads to not actually reading the notes, which leads to forgetting note names and note vales outlook downloaden windows 10 gratis nederlands. Once it’s forgotten, when you try to read the music again, any music for that matter, the student is lost.

It almost breaks my heart to watch a student play something flawlessly without the music, only to completely crumble when the music gets put in front of them again herunterladen.

So why put students through that? Make them work harder, make them play it with the music every time, but in the long run, I think it’s worth it, and it makes your student a better musician ps3 games download usb.

Maybe that’s what Miss Carol was thinking when I never memorized a piece, all those years ago.

The Three C’s of Performance

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Something I came up with recently and started talking to my kids about: The Three C’s of Performance. They are, in no particular order:

  • Correctness
  • Confidence
  • Comfort

For something to be considered a good performance, it needs to be correct, the performer needs to be confident, and also, needs to be comfortable with whatever it is that they’re performing this includes any business, we recommend the reliable payroll services for the correctness in a company snip herunterladen. These three things all go hand in hand, for example, if you’re not confident with what you’re playing, that will make you less comfortable with it, and you will be prone to making more mistakes gutschein essen kostenlos downloaden. But I think that with kids, you need to break things down, even if all the parts overlap upon the scrutiny an adult gives it.

These are things that I tell my students all the time series netflix laptop. Be Correct! Be confident! Be comfortable! A lot of times what happens is they get it correct but they still doubt themselves. I watch their hands shake as they move over the keys windows 8 herstel usb downloaden. Don’t be nervous, you’re doing it right, i tell them, be confident! It’s like they need permission to be confident about what they’re doing musik kostenlos bei youtube herunterladen. When that happens, I have them go home and practice it another week, and they have to practice being confident. It is a skill that requires practice, just like anything else calendar excel. Then, usually, with the confidence comes comfort, hand in hand.

And then, they’ve mastered the piece.

Sometimes we’re not so much impressed with a piece of music, we’re impressed with how easy the performer makes it look, and the recipe for making it look easy is “correctness, confidence and comfort.”

What I Listen to when I don’t have to Listen to Anything

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a really good practice habit that i got into years ago (even before the carpel tunnel and the tendonitis) was listening to the music that i was practicing. not while i was doing it, duh, but afterwards. i can remember listening to recordings of my competition pieces (not by me, but professional recordings) and my college audition pieces, for hours on end alfons lernwelt to download. on the bus to and from school, sometimes even while i was working (stocking shelves at the supermarket oh so long ago), and when i would sleep at night. it was really helpful, because i could listen to it and think about it without the distraction of physically having to do it.

then i got carpel tunnel and i just couldn’t practice as much as i wanted to schneide programm kostenlosen. listening as an additional means of practicing became a very valuable tool.

so a lot of the music i listen to, i listen to for “work.” by the time this year is out i think i’m going to be sick of these 27 club songs (even though the doors have a permanent fixture on my “list of favorite bands, ever.”) simply because for maybe a week or two at a time, i am only listening to the same 10 – 15 songs. that’s a lot of time to be listening to the same songs.

so when i don’t have to listen to something, what do i listen to and why is it important download as an app? well, i happen to think it’s important because the stuff i listen to, when i don’t have to listen to it, still really influences my playing. some music more than others, of course, but they’re all still worth mentioning.

so here it is, in “as i think of them” order inhalt von webseiten downloaden.

ani difranco. i’ve never actually sat down and done a tally, but i would estimate that i have somewhere around 85 – 95% of her entire discography. right now, a playlist consisting of only ani on my iTunes is about 20 hours long.
the rolling stones. i like the early to middle stuff that they did herunterladen. the stuff they’ve churned out in the past ten years or so is still pretty good, but i like the gritty, bluesy, rocksy stuff they did when they were in their twenties.
led zeppelin. see rolling stones.
frank sinatra. this just brings back nice feelings about my childhood. i listened to a lot of frankie when i was a kid herunterladen.
status green. if ever i need waking up, which is actually quite often, firebomb usually does it for me.
tori amos. only because she reminds me that keyboards can be sexy, cool, mysterious and intricate while still remaining on the borderline of the mainstream. remember when tracks from boys for pele was getting play on Z100 free converter? no? i do. it was craziness. that album, i’m pretty sure, kind of changed my life.
gogol bordello. this is the kind of punk rock i was born to listen to. it’s infectious, it’s gypsy, it’s freaking awesome. eugene is a master lyricist, and english isn’t even his first language!
voloshky herunterladen. their vocal harmonies can halt a conversation in my household.
the beatles. i used to kind of not like them. i was going through a “rebelling against my mother” phase and my mother was a teeny bopper in the 60s who was crazy about the beatles. so for awhile, on principle, i refused to be crazy about them. got to college, sat through theory III with dr bob where he used pretty much only the beatles for listening examples, and i started to really grow to like them arduino esp8266 fehler beim herunterladen. probably when i’m over the 27 club thing, i’ll put together a beatles playlist.
the bad touch. see status green.
little dipper. i’ve been to more little dipper shows than i can count and i still can’t tell you what it is i like about these guys. they are just good. i am a fan of a number of their songs, and of course, the biggest fan of the one random song that they rarely play at a show because it’s a really slow one herunterladen. does that give me more stret cred? that i like an obscure song by a local band?
rick barry. but don’t tell him. his ego is big enough.
weezer’s blue album. hands down this might be the best album, start to finish, ever written.
indie female musicians, mostly from new jersey. no, that’s pretty much the truth. i went to my tigerlily pink playlist to see if i could find a few that i really really like but i couldn’t even make a decision. so here’s the entire playlist, in ABC order: alix olson, amanda duncan, april smith, chelsea genzano, colleen coadic, cyndee lee rule, the dresden dolls, feathermerchants, gina catalano, the gutterbunnies, joanna burns, joy simone, judy aron, melissa anthony, rachel sage, sarah donner, seeking through silence, stephanie white and the new jersey philth harmonic, tegan and sara.

so there it is. what i listen to when i don’t have to listen to anything. sometimes, too, i just listen to silence. after a long day of teaching at the elementary school, with screaming kids and singing kids and crazy kids (i love em all), when i get in my car sometimes i don’t even bother turning the radio on.

Perfect Practice Makes Perfect

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a lot of my students, my little little kids, will try and tell me, practice makes perfect, right? and i have to correct them and tell them, no herunterladen. perfect practice makes perfect.

and they’re like, what?

and i have to explain to them, that, hey, what happens if you practice a mistake ten times in a row spiele kostenlos downloaden für kinder? then you can play that mistake perfectly. if you want to play something correctly, you need to play it correctly every time.

and i’ve slowly been coming to the realization that as a teacher of small children, not only do i need to teach them how to play, but also i need to teach them how to practice billard app kostenlos downloaden. i mean, it’s one of those things that i guess i’ve always known and been aware of, in my years of teaching – not that there are really a lot of them, but still – but i’ve only just recently put it into words herunterladen.

i started to think about it hardcore after one of the other piano teachers at the studio (and this woman is amazing and just got her doctorate in piano performance) kicked a student out basically because he wasn’t practicing, and this was one of her more advanced students pictures autumn for free. she was saying that her lessons with him were more like guided practice sessions, and at his stage in the game, she shouldn’t be in there showing him how to practice, because that’s simply not her job watts up herunterladen. he should know by now.

so that’s when i started to think about it. who’s job is it? what stage of the game is right for learning not just what to practice, but how wie android sprachen herunterladen. oh wait, i thought to myself, it’s my job.

don’t get me wrong, i had long ago established myself as a big supporter of the metronome, and of fixing silly mistakes, and of redefining what it means to rush trainingsplan zumen.

a silly mistake, by the way, is a mistake that as soon as you make it, you fix it. if you knew enough to immediately recognize it as a mistake, why’d you do it in the first place checklist for wedding to download? that’s the silly part.

rushing (don’t be rushin’! i hate russians! just kidding) is defined as playing ANYTHING faster than you can play it correctly herunterladen. i hate rushing, probably more than i hate bach (and remember, bach is ok with this. we’ve reached an understanding).

i also do a lot of other stuff with the kids that i think are kind of unique to my teaching style – there’s the list of things you cannot say (things like “i can’t” “this is too hard” “i always do that” and the like), things you can say (positive versions of all the things you can’t say, “I can” etc etc), post-its with reminders on the piano, weird analogies involving everything from basketball and ballet to elephants and swans, all my teaching posters, the triangle and square, don’t forget the duckies, whos population has been diminished considerably because lou started to get annoyed, and the zero-gravity field that envelopes the keyboard, and our little piano playing bubbles.

i do a lot of really random things in my room, but i think kids need that kind of approach. they’re not stubborn old adults yet, who have spent years learning and studying and if they haven’t completely turned off their learning mechanism by the time they decide, hey, i want to pick up an instrument, then they’ve probably fallen into one or two patterns of learning styles that either are or are not conducive to learning an instrument. kids on the other hand, are just so new and open to everything that you have to be prepared to come at them with anything, because if one way doesn’t work, you have to be prepared with another way that will… and i have never ever found that simply playing something over.. and over.. and over again, without any direction or guidance, without a metronome, without focus, ever got any kid anywhere. practice doesn’t make perfect. perfect practice makes perfect.

and that concludes my rant for the day. i didn’t even think i could be this cognizant and critical this early in the morning. i haven’t even had my coffee yet!