It’s the silence between the notes that makes the music

The “quote” which is the title to this blog post (and variations of it) can be attributed to a few people – from Mozart to Debussy to Miles Davis.  I could probably write a whole ‘nuther blog post just on this quote alone (and Davis’ variation: “Don’t play what’s there, play what’s not there.” Ah, that inspires me to jump up and run to my piano right now!), but that blog post is not for today teamviewer download kostenlos herunterladen.  No, actually, this blog post is in reference to an article I read on, of all places, Entrepreneur.com.  You can find it here: The Best Way to Use Breaks to be More Productive.

To summarize, breaks are important.  The article goes on to discuss the balance between how long you work and how much break time to take, and how best to spend a 5, 10, 15 or even 30 minute break at the office herunterladen.  It’s a really interesting article that you might want to read because you are an adult in my life, but what really strikes me is how this relates to being a musician, and also, how it relates to being a growing musician, like all of the kids I see each week.

Practicing is something that I spend a lot of time talking to my students about.  It’s not just my job to teach your children music, but to teach them the skills to sustain a lifelong love of music – and that includes being able to practice it regularly without the adults in their lives nagging at them about it windows 10 update nicht automatisch herunterladen.  Really – if I teach your child, go on and check out their manuscript book (I’ll wait).  In the last month or two, I’ve probably written not just praise on their improvements, but often general and sometimes incredibly specific strategies for how to practice a piece of music.

What I don’t really touch on in writing (though I guess it’s there if you read between the lines) is the importance of breaks.  For most of my students, we discuss the importance of a regular practice habit, how many times a week, how many minutes each time film at youtube.  The general rule for most of my students is somewhere from 4-5 days a week (why not 7? because I’m a realist and know that your child also has homework, projects, and a social life, not to mention the possibility of activities like sports and dance.  It’s not my job to set unrealistic and unattainable goals for your kids.  I want them to succeed, after all, and not feel like they are constantly playing catch up russische musiken kostenlos.  Anyway). But for any of my older students who can sit for more than 20 minutes at a time, breaks can be incredibly important.  Or maybe, giving students a break can help to inspire them to sit for longer than those 20 minutes.  Twenty multiplied by 2 is 40, and if my kids could practice for 40 minutes 4 times a week instead of 20, well, I don’t need to tell you how great that would be herunterladen.

At entrepreneur.com, the five minute breaks include preparing a snack, reading an article, giving yourself a hand or neck massage, and trying to solve a Rubrik’s cube.  You can read about the benefits of each in the infographic at the page (plus all the other kinds of breaks you can take), but I think these are the ones that work best for practicing musicians (of all ages), and take the least amount of adapting for younger players web.de free download app.

Prepare a snack. This one is specifically for you parents.  You’re the grocery buyers in the house, and you know what your kids like.  Berries, leafy greens and nuts can boost brain function (Apples and cheese are great, too!).  Sounds like a PB&J break might be just the thing to break up a practice session, or break it down with fresh berries and raw shelled nuts herunterladen.  I happen to love cashews and pecans, and I’ve almost always got raspberries on hand, so I know what I’ll be reaching for when I go to practice later on.

Reading an article. Your kids might not be avid online readers with their own feedly.com account, but if they do love to read (and I do, too!) let them pick up their latest favorite book to read a few pages or a whole chapter photo for free on Wednesday morning.

Hand or neck massage.  At this point, our kiddos are not really at the place in their musical development where stretching before, during or after practice is really necessary (though if they’re ever playing for 30 minutes or more non-stop it’ll be something we’ll talk about, especially if they stay serious about music in college), but something as simple as getting up for a bathroom break, getting a drink of water, playing a few games at Betwiz, or just stepping away from the piano for a few minutes is a good hand, body and brain break.

The Rubiks cube.  I know a kid who can solve this in under two minutes, or something really ridiculous like that.  You can also find videos of Rubiks cube genuises on youtube instrumental kostenlos.  Your child doesn’t need to be the next Rubiks prodigy, but a simple brain teaser or puzzle is a good way to stay focused and yet take a break all at the same time.

When I was in college, I definitely spent a lot of time in the practice room.  I also spent a lot of time wandering around outside the practice room, too, and I think both of these activities were equally important.  When I took my breaks from practicing, it was to do a lot of things that I mention here – bathroom/water breaks, snack breaks. Sometimes, yes, socializing breaks.  It’s impressive to say you spent two hours practicing a day, but if you spent an hour of that time spacing out or constantly repeating passages without making progress, you haven’t really accomplished much.  The time away from the instrument, when handled correctly, can become just as important as the time you spend looking at and playing music.

Another great article at entreprenuer.com covers how to spend a lunch break.  With a little creativity, you can adapt these ideas into habits for yourself and your kids, too!

What are some of your non-musical practice tips?  What is your favorite way to take a break from the music?  Leave a comment below!

The Adventure Ducky Strikes Again

I have a student. Well, I have many students. But this one in particular, he is the inspiration for this post today.

He is, what I would call, a stereotypical little boy.  First of all, he, and his two brothers, are just adorable (I happen to teach all three).  They like video games and comic books (and if they don’t, they probably will), and jedi and pirates, etc.  Sometimes they are at each others’ necks, sometimes they are the cutest little trio.  They are the kind of little boys you might expect to come in with a skinned knee, or perhaps a frog in their pocket (their mom will probably read this, she will have to let me know if there’s ever been a frog situation) winrar german free 64 bit.

This one brother, however, is the kind of guy who makes a mountain out of a mole hill.  He has been this way for a long time, and it’s something his mom has told me about, and something he and I have been working on.  He has gotten much better at letting the little mistakes stay little.  We haven’t really had a crisis in the middle of a lesson for awhile windows 7 kostenlos downloaden.

Yesterday, though, I could see it coming.

It was just the way he scrunched up his face, for just a second.  And then there was a sniffle.  We were on the brink.  One more mistake and we might have had a situation.  So I stopped him immediately, and launched into it.  I wish I could have recorded myself saying it, because I worded it perfectly for him.  And they were important enough words that I wanted to share them with all of my students, and with the world in general.  Here we go kika to.

The Adventure Ducky, at some point I think I named him Jean Claude, or Pierre, I don't know why I give my pirate ducks French namesDude, dude, dude!  Take a breath, dude!  This is not a big deal.  Let me tell you something.  Everybody, every student, every musician, who has ever lived, has been to the place where you are right now.  You are on the edge of the map.  Sometimes this happens a day after you have your first lesson, or a week, or a month, or a year, or ten years.  Everything comes so super easy for you, and then all of a sudden, it doesn’t anymore.  All of a sudden, it’s not fun anymore.  It’s work.  This isn’t a problem, this is just the edge of your comfort zone sour.

NOW is when you begin your journey as a musician.  Now is when the adventure starts, and the fun begins.  Sometimes the challenges and problems that come up are exactly what make music interesting!  Where would the pirates be if they hadn’t committed mutiny, left Captain Jack on the island, stolen the cursed treasure and became zombies??  THERE WOULD HAVE BEEN NO MOVIE!  Look at how exciting it was.  Sometimes adventures are tough but they can be crazy exciting, too animes kostenlos downloaden.

Right now you are just at the edge of the map.  Your adventure is just beginning.  Don’t be afraid of it.  Don’t be afraid of mistakes.  Mistakes just make the day more interesting.  Let’s get the pirate ducky out to remind us of the adventure that we’re on spiegel app kostenlos herunterladen.

And Adventure Ducky sat on top of the piano for the rest of one of the best lessons I taught this week.  I think everyone needs a little visit from the Adventure Ducky every now and again pr0gramm app herunterladen.

Discipline for Beginners

Dear Friends,

So I am right now in upstate New York at Ukrainian dance camp.  I bring this up because the teachers here, among other things, stress the important of discipline in the students’ practice google earth kostenlos download windows 10.

I am also right now reading a book called Zen Guitar (which applies the ideals and philosophy behind the Japanese dojo to the study of guitar) (and actually is a really great book that all musicians should read) and one of the principles outlined in the book is also discipline ubuntu linux german free.

I like this congruity.  I like being able to study the same thing in different places.  It helps me to be better at it in general.  And discipline is an important skill to be built for any student of anything, whether it is piano, guitar, or, say, engineering.  Or business youtube videos herunterladen und versenden.

So what is discipline?  To paraphrase Philip Toshio Sudo (the auther of Zen Guitar), discipline is completing a task to the best of your ability every time you have to do it.  Which is actually a lot harder to do than it sounds, especially once a student has gained some skill in any given subject herunterladen.

When one of my beginners sits down at the piano, all they can do is be disciplined.  Everything they try is so new that it requires all the focus she or he can muster together.  If a student is practicing on a regular basis without mommy or daddy reminding them, then that student is actually on the path towards becoming a disciplined student of music google analytics.

But as a student gains more experience on their instrument, they require more and more discipline to stick with it.  Working on a song for a few weeks at a time does not require much discipline, but reviewing Hanon, Czerny or Schmitt exercises, or running through scales, or other finger exercises as part of your daily practice for weeks, months or even years (like at the stage of the game I am at right now) requires a level of discipline that few students ever develop wie kann man fortnite auf laptop herunterladen.

But here is something that is, like, way important.  And this is something that I actually remind my students of on a regular basis.  And it’s what I’d like to leave you all with today apple mobile device usb-treiber herunterladen.

Discipline does not mean doing it perfectly every time.  EVER.  Discipline means doing your best every time.  I know, sometimes our “best” is nowhere near our idea of what “best” sounds like.  But if you are trying your best every time you sit down to play one note or an entire sonata, then eventually – and probably sooner than we realize – our “best” becomes what we expect it to be paint shop gratis downloaden.

Believe in Something

I’m preparing to give a presentation on my recent trip to Ukraine at my church next week. I can’t believe I’ve been home for a month and a half adobe fonts schriften herunterladen! While I’ve been sitting here, trying to figure out a way to organize my experience and my thoughts into something cohesive and coherent, I’ve also been thinking about what meaning can be taken out of all of this, what lessons can be passed on harry potter font for free.

And I think the biggest thing I can tell anyone in relation to my trip here, isn’t about the kids I met, or the consequences of the accident at Chernobyl, or anything at all even related to nuclear power cs go download.

It’s the importance of finding something to believe in, and believing in that thing 110%, no matter what, and without fail. Leaving my family and friends, and job and all my students for two weeks was not easy herunterladen. There were a few times during the trip where I was definitely very, very homesick. There were some sad moments when I wished, as much of a grown up as I was, I could just get a hug from my mother herunterladen. But in the end, I was witness to some amazing work and yes, if CCPI asked me to document another trip for them, I would say yes.

I’m not saying that everyone should go halfway around the world to volunteer for various charitable organizations skype for business download windows 10 kostenlos. But I am saying that you should not be afraid to believe in something – whether it is a personal goal or a philanthropic pursuit – and believe in it wherever it takes you 32 or 64 bit. My belief in my cause took me to Ukraine. Your beliefs may not take you to a third world country (maybe you’ll luck out and go somewhere glamorous ls11 mods kostenlosen! hah!), they may not even take you out of the country you currently reside in.

But the feeling you get when your dreams become reality is one of the most amazing feelings in the world invitations available for free word.

The Built-in Metronome

built in metronome – (noun) a rhythm that is repeated throughout a piece that a student can use to help him or her keep the beat steady.

A metronome is an invaluable tool when learning a piece mysql german free windows. But sometimes a student has a hard time working with a metronome (especially if they are a new player). In that case, I look at the particular piece of music to see if there is any kind of repeated pattern in either hand that can also function as a “built in metronome,” something that is repeated at a steady interval herunterladen.

If a child can identify visually that something is a repeated pattern, then they will more easily be able to identify aurally that something is a repeated pattern, and they can work from there rail&fly ticket herunterladen. The easiest of these patterns to identify is a pattern of all quarter notes, which often happens in the left hand of a piece. Then the left hand becomes a metronome herunterladen. Since most students are taught note values based on the quarter note equalling one beat, it is very easy for a student to hear that a half note would equal two quarter notes, or a whole note would equal four Christmas stories to download.

In an example like this, I would work on the student’s left hand first, making sure that they listen carefully as they play. Sometimes I may even make them play the notes as evenly as they can first, then unevenly, playing them in pairs of long and short notes (playing the wrong way sometimes helps a student identify the right way) herunterladen.

Sometimes, I even make them play a repeated pattern of quarter notes while we have a conversation, forcing them to concentrate on keeping the beat steady, and also on something completely different powerpoint übungen kostenlos download. This is actually a good exercise because it is playing the piano, but still so uniquely different that when/if they make a mistake, it is actually cause for a giggle instead of a frustration microsoft office download for free windows 7. And every so often, which I find very interesting, a student will speed up/slow down to match the rhythm of their speech.

Once they can see, hear (and also feel) that the left hand pattern should remain as steady as possible, we start adding the right hand back in mit realplayer videos herunterladen. As they start playing it hands together, I will stop them whenever the left hand starts to be influenced by whatever the right hand is doing, which may still happen in spite of all the work we have just done netflix kan niet downloaden op laptop. I tell the student that it is normal – sometimes a change is not immediately apparent – and that they should continue to practice like that at home.

Sometimes a pattern is not so obvious, or not so useful. The left hand may have all whole notes, but whole notes have four beats each and so they are not the best when trying to compare other notes to it. When I can, I try and find some sort of pattern as a point of reference for a student, to help them make sense of a piece of music.

Zero Gravity

Zero-Gravity Zone (noun) the area immediately surrounding the piano keyboard.

When a kid is young and their fingers are small, many of them will throw their entire hand into playing the piano.  Wrists bounce, sometimes arms flap, and if this is not caught and fixed early, they will struggle to build the finger strength they need to glide over the keys like a master counter strike go download kostenlos.

To help children visualize the proper technique, I explain to them that the proper way to hold their hands at the keyboard is to hold them like they are floating in a zero-gravity field.  There is absolutely no reason to lean into the keys when they play, that they will not fall off the face of the earth.  The amount of energy they really need in pressing down a key is similar to the amount of energy expended flipping on a light switch passpartout herunterladen.

This visualization should also be recalled when a student is working on playing loudly or softly.

I feel that students are incorrectly taught that a loud sound requires a hard touch, and a soft sound requires a light touch.  This gives the impression that a different amount of pressure needs to be applied.  Playing loud or soft does not involve hard jabs or light brushes on the keys.  What is really needed is a quick pressing down of a key, or a slow pressing down of a key herunterladen.

If you don’t believe me, witness the student who speeds up through loud passages or slows down through soft passages.  Also check out trying to depress a key without sounding the hammer against the string.  Depending on the sensitivity of the mechanism this process can take actually a few seconds, whereas pressing the key to get a sound is an instantaneous action herunterladen.

How do I get my students around this?  First with a little bit of my own demonstration.  I set the metronome very low – around 50 – 60 bpm, depending on my mood.  I will play a bunch of notes loudly, and then play a bunch of notes softly.  I instruct the student not to just listen, but to specifically watch my hand.  Moving at such a slow tempo, there is enough time to see that when I play loudly, my finger is quickly hitting the key in an instant.  While I am playing softly, my finger is taking almost the whole beat to move, which is a very obvious gesture musik kostenlos downloaden auf handy samsung.

The next step includes having my student hold out the palm of their hand, where i repeat the gesture. first “loud” tapping, then “soft” tapping.  The point of this part of the exercise is to really have the child realize that when my finger hits the palm of their hand, it feels exactly the same no matter how loud or soft I am playing.  Then, they get to give it a go herunterladen.

I really stress the importance of a zero-gravity zone, whether or not I even use that exact terminology.  It is very important to work on the proper technique here, as extra pressure leaning your hands or even your whole arm into the keys can lead to not just bad technique, but health problems as well vlc media player windows 10 download kostenlos.

Many people are aware that carpel tunnel syndrome arises when the nerve in the wrist is pinched over a period of time.  It can happen because of the way you are bending at the wrist or at the elbow, which is basically a pinching of the nerve due to your actual movement.  It’s a very obvious thing.  The nerve can be pinched by the muscles as well, which can sometimes be not so obvious.  If you are using your wrists to play, or are leaning your body into the keys, the muscles in your arms need to flex, which will include the muscles in your forearm and wrist.  Too much pressure over time may cause carpel tunnel syndrom to develop blumenbilder herunterladen.

Maybe I am being a little paranoid here because of my own run ins with carpel tunnel.  When I play for myself, I play hard.  I enjoy passionate and loud music (especially if I am playing some of those Ukrainian folk tunes I and my friends enjoy hearing, or straight up pop music by Tori Amos or Fiona Apple).  I know for a fact I lean into the keys more than I should.  I have been to specialists and at the time I was told that my CTS was coming more from my muscles pinching the nerve than from the bones pinching it, but also, that my pain was so faint (yet persistent) that it could have also been a form of tendonitis (which is an inflammation of the tendons, which, again, may have been pressing on that nerve).  It was so hard to pinpoint my pain, and yet, my pain was so manageable, and more importantly, not life-changing, that tests to get to the bottom of the matter may have just ended up being too painful, too expensive, and still, possibly inconclusive brickshooter egypt vollversion kostenlosen.

Since then, I have altered the way I play, and taken a much different approach to my practice regimen.  I am hardly on painkillers. I am very thankful that my symptoms are manageable when they do flare up, and that also, I can recognize a flare up very early, and react accordingly (take pain meds, restrict my movements) gif herunterladen ios.

I do not wish this on any of my students.  I know that I am lucky, but not everyone is.

Besides health implications, playing in a zero-gravity zone has other, fun benefits.  For example, a student will start to make more mistakes.

What?

Playing with poor technique is like playing with shackles on your fingers.  You are limited in movement, and your movement can be clumsy.  Once you remove your restrictions (your restrictions being the weight of your arms), it is like as huge expansivive field has opened up before you.  And what else could you want to do besides run through it?  so.  Your fingers speed up, you start making mistakes and you don’t even know why.  It’s important to have a metronome out at this point so that while you are focusing on your new technique, you can use the metronome to keep you grounded… which is an interesting choice of words, I suppose, when talking about floating over the keyboard!

Silly Mistakes

Silly mistake  (noun) – a mistake that is immediately identified as a mistake, which the student self-corrects.

I’m not sure where I first came up with the term ‘silly mistake.’ It’s possible that this is something I picked up from my mother, a third grade teacher but active with music and performance at her school herunterladen.

We are taught to learn from our mistakes, but mistakes are a little bit different in music.  You make a mistake because of a miscommunication between your fingers, brain and ears.  Most times, a mistake is a clue that you need to slooooow down futura kostenlos herunterladen. Especially a silly mistake.

Silly mistakes happen at that point where you almost know a piece, and your confidence level may be just exceeding your knowledge and comfort level netflix films download iphone. When you become overconfident, you relax, mentally, and speed up, physically,  and every so often, there is a disjoint between what you think you are doing and what you are actually doing.  And that’s where it happens – a silly mistake once upon a time in hollywood herunterladen.

As SOON as you make a silly mistake, you come to the immediate realization of, “Hey!  That’s not right!”  And you self-correct.  The silly part comes when you realize it’s a mistake.  If you knew it was a mistake, why was it made in the first place robot karol download kostenlos mac?

How do you fix a silly mistake?  That immediate self-correction is NOT a fixed silly mistake.  It is the end of the silly mistake.  To fix such a mistake, you need to go over first the small section of the passage where the mistake was made, raelly zero in on it.  Once you can confidently and securely get through the silly mistake, then you zoom out a little and work on the section from a few measures before to a few measures after the silly mistake, because you have to practice getting in and out of the section herunterladen.

Once you can do this smoothly, then you can go back to running through the whole piece.  The whole process of fixing a silly mistake is a short one, if the student is focused.  It may take anywhere from 5 minutes to maybe even a whole hour or, well, who really knows, depending on the mistake and on the student.  BUTTTTTTTTT.  The alternative, simply continuing on and playing the entire piece from start to finish until all mistakes are fixed, is quite a longer process, and could take days, if it is successful at all mit welchem programm kann man youtube videos downloaden.

Doing the Chicken Dance

chicken dance 1. (noun) the wrong way to play scales.

When students start working on scales, this usually marks the transition from playing straight out of piano methods books to playing “real” music by “real” composers who have been dead a “real” long time.  And an important physical change can be addressed when starting scales alternative zu word kostenlosen.

In the piano methods books, all five fingers are stationary.  They sit over five keys and never move for the entire song.  If they move, they move as a group.  Or, occiasionally, the pinky or thumb needs to move down or up a key, at various places through the song.  Students’ hands generally reach into the keyboard straight on from the body… kind of like a zombie (and in fact, for comic relief at this point I sometimes pull out my zombie impression) video aus youtube herunterladen.

This kind of hand position really obviously is the beginning of very interesing (and bad) technique when children start working on scales.  When their fingers are going straight into the keys, it presents an awkward hand position for when they need to cross a finger over their thumb, or pass their thumb under a finger.  Elbows start to flap in the breeze as they try to rotate their hands enough to allow their fingers to move.  What ends up happening is the kids look like they are starting to do the chicken dance logo erstellen kostenlos download chip.

chicken dance 2. (verb) a form of stress relief.

Sometimes, kids get frustrated.  Sometimes, they even get angry and upset.  Sometimes, we need to take a break.  I did this once in an extreme situation where a student had played the same passage at least five times in a row and had grown increasing frustrated each time she made the same mistake herunterladen. “I GOT IT AT HOME! WHY CAN’T I GET IT NOW?” Her eyes were shiny with tears waiting to erupt from them.

I silenced her and told her to take a breath.  Deeply in, and slowly out.  And another one.  And another one.  And then, the most absurd thing that came to mind icloud pictures folder. “DO THE CHICKEN DANCE!”  I sang the song.  I did the dance.  And my student started to laugh.  Crisis averted.

Sometimes, we get so focused we are too focused.  All we can see is what we are working on, and more dangerously, our immediate short coming.  We are only focused on the mistake that we can’t fix.  We get upset, we tense our bodies – very quickly – and we just continue to twist up, both mentally and physically.  To zoom out just as quickly, I often do the chicken dance (don’t tell the copywrite holders, Im sure by now I owe them thousands, although they should let me off the hook because it’s a private performance, and not-for-profit) magix soundpool download for free. It works because it’s so absurd, so shocking, so unexpected, and SO FUN, that it snaps the student backwards to a point where they can allow themselves to relax, get their bearings and start over herunterladen.

Sometimes I like to think this is just good advice for life.  When times get tough, take a deep breath and do the chicken dance.

The Sound Remains the Same

Not one music lover needs to have the tension in a dominant chord pointed out to them, nor do they need to have the difference between a major key and a minor key explained to them.  These are some of the many aspects of music that even the untrained ear can identify, even if the listener does not posses the vocabulary to label them.  But what is it about these pitches, intervals and sequences that make them constant?  Why is a fifth always a fifth, an octave still an octave?  Why are tritones, for the most part, avoided?  What is it about the relationship between notes that gives them the strength to withstand the test of time?  For all of modern day’s advanced technology and extensive research and experimentation in every field of expression, why do so many of the tenets of music remain unfaltering?  While these questions remain hard to answer – and maybe it is in that unanswerability that music gains some of its magic – I would like to attempt to draw similarities and parallels between a number of different tuning systems and theories, dating from BCE times to today.

First let us visit the ancient Greeks.  Much of their work in music has inspired musicians and theorists throughout the time, up to and including composers of the present day.  While the documentation we currently have of Greek music is not as extensive as their discussions on philosophy, politics, mathematics and sciences, a great deal of their work in music can be cross-referenced in these other arts whatsapp audios herunterladen.

Take, for example, pitch.  A Greek invention credited to Pythagoras is the instrument known as the monochord.  The name itself gives a clue that this instrument has only a single string.  This string was placed over two fixed bridges with a moveable bridge then placed under the string, dividing it into two sections. Monochords were used well into the 19th century for teaching, experimentation and tuning.

Pitches on a monochord were found through proportions, and string length.  A musician didn’t have to know what a fifth or a major second sounded like to know that he was playing the correct interval as long as he knew the correct proportions for the pitches and how to apply them to his specific instrument.  Pythagoras’ system of tuning included what we know as the octave (2/1) , the fifth (3/2), the fourth (4/3) and the major second (9/8).   Aristotle and Euclid agreed on these intervals as well, and interest in ancient music grew in the Middle Ages, Theon of Smyrna, Ptolemy, Bacchius and others wrote of this system as well Christmas video free download. [Adkins]

Simple math and our own collective ears have been saying that these intervals are aesthetically pleasing to listen to for millenia, however, it is only until recent years with the advent of modern technology that we can actually measure the ratios of string vibration that Pythagoras discovered all those years ago.  It is true that, when two strings are vibrating and one is tuned to exactly an octave above the other, the first string is vibrating twice as fast as the second.  As with the fifth, the higher note is vibrating three times every time the lower note vibrates twice, and so on for the other intervals.

It is my own speculation that a system that involves perfect intervals such as Pythagoras’ octave, fifth, fourth and second would inherently be a microtonal system, as specific pitches would be chosen in relation to the notes that surround them.  A tone that fits into one group of pitches may need to be adjusted by just a few cents to fit into the next charles herunterladen.

However, it is this slight adjustment that has fallen by the wayside with the advent of equally tempered systems of tuning, developed in the mid to late 1500s and still in wide use today. [Lindley]  Still, it is these original intervals, especially the fourth and the fifth, whose special relationship to the root has maintained their importance through the years herunterladen.

Even before the Greeks, the ancient Babylonians, it has been discovered, had a system of tuning based on perfect fourths and fifths that, it is believed, dates back to the 18th century BC. [West, 162] The tuning was applied to a lyre-like instrument that may have had up to 9 strings.  Strings 8 and 9 on this instrument, it is believed, were tuned to an octave above strings 1 and 2, respectively.  This instrument had a number of different tunings, each approached by fifths and fourths skipping up and down the instrument until all the strings have been tuned.  Each of the tunings starts on a different string and follows what we would consider in modern musical notation the following pattern: B – E – A – D – G – C – F.  The difference between these tunings however, is how the pattern is applied to the strings.  In one tuning, the kitmum tuning, B is on string 6, E is on string 3, A is on string 7, D is on string 4, G is on string 1, C is on string 5 and F is on string 2 (remember that string 8 doubles 1 and string 9 doubles 2).  This, then, gives us a tuning that starts on F and ascends to G1 percy jackson kostenlos downloaden. [West, 168]

Since these intervals are based on the sound and not a fixed pitch arrived at with the help of an electronic tuner as is the way instruments can be tuned presently, the pitches, presumably then, are slightly different in each tuning.  Tuning an E a perfect fourth up from B and then tuning A a perfect fourth up from E in one tuning will arrive at an A that is not related by an octave to an A arrived by tuning up a fourth from B and then down a fifth to A.  It can be gathered, then, that each tuning had a distinct sound to it, even more distinct than the 24 different major and minor keys we have today.  While our 24 keys each have their own personalities and intricacies that many of our greatest composers have explored in detail – Chopin’s Preludes for the piano, for example, or Bach’s Preludes and Fugues for the Well Tempered Clavier –  they are probably much more generic in their overall sound when compared to the temperaments of old.

The tunings of keyboard instruments in particular, went through an interesting time in the 1300s – 1600s, as notes which today we consider enharmonic spellings of one another, were considered separate pitches.  Many keyboard instruments were tuned to a regular mean tone temperament and many of the late church modes during the Renaissance used this system.  Most notably, G sharp and A flat, more often than other current enharmonics, were considered two completely different notes.  In mean tone systems, however, not all of the pitches accessed are “pure” intervals and pitches, and while the intervals found in our modern day 12 tone equal temperament system are also not always “pure,” mean tone temperament’s popularity diminished while 12 tone equal temperament has become the standard kann man bei youtube keine videos mehren.

Interestingly, today’s method of temperament, while much more accessible, is much more complex for the ear to comprehend and for the modern musician to accomplish than the ancient Greek, Babylonian, or even the Greek influenced Renaissance and Baroque theories of tuning and musicality. Other influences of the Greek sense of music can be felt elsewhere, if only subtly.

Madrigal writers of the Renaissance period composed their music in such a way that the melody mimicked the text they were setting to music.  Greek composers also believed in this kind of musical setting of music, though in a slightly different manner.  Instead of accenting the thoughts put forth by the words (accenting text about heaven with high pitches and text about mountains and rocks with uneven melodies and rhythms, for example), Greek compositions seem to have accented the words themselves.  A syllable with an acute accent, for example, would have a higher note than the following syllable.  In this way, the pitch accented the grammatical form of the text and not the ideological meanings the text represented youtube videos with vlc player. [Williams, 131]

Modern day composer Harry Partch takes this one step further.  Partch’s theories on text setting shift the focus from the actual words being said to how those words are being said.  Partch’s treatment of pitch more closely follows the way a human being would speak naturally and while his work is a step away from the vocal pieces of later classical composers, it is also a simultaneous step closer towards the work of the ancient Greeks.

Partch also took the Greeks’ ideas on tuning and developed his own scale.  Over the years, this scale had a different number of tones involved within the confines of one octave, ranging from 29 to 55, before he finally settled on a 43 tone octave.  The names of all these notes are, in fact, ratios, exactly like the ancient Greeks’ work geld verdienen door apps te downloaden.

Partch’s use of inventive time signatures also seems to mimic the Greek’s penchant for uneven meters (the most favored seeming to be 5), which is a practice overlooked by most composers of Western music [Williams, 130].  In fact, the only widespread use of five beats in any grouping in a creative endeavor is not in music at all – but in poetry’s iambic pentameter.

Further delving into the topic of ancient music theories’ influence on music of the modern era would probably reveal even further subtleties that carry through to today’s world open office calc kostenlos herunterladen. Music has always reflected its creators and the world around them.  The Babylonians, Greeks, and Western composers all knew what they liked to hear and set their texts accordingly, and so too, will composers of the future rely on the simple logic of the perfect intervals, cultivated millenia ago, on a planet they may no longer even inhabit.

please note: this article was originally a research paper I wrote in college.  while the article itself is intact, my works cited list seems to have disappeared whatsapp gif herunterladen. I left the references in for you to do your own google searches if you are interested, but also, in the event that someday soon, I do, in fact, find the works cited page.

The Standardization of a Genre by Johann Sebastian Bach

The origin of dance music for keyboard instruments is a foggy one.  The only thing that historians can seem to agree upon for sure is that yes, in fact, some kinds of music can be organized into suites, and styled after dances, and the agreement ends there whatsapp herunterladen android.

The time of the suite lasted from the 14th century to the mid 18th century.  Since the suite’s heyday was so early on in the history of music, it is probably safe to say that if a writing on the topic of where and when the dance suite left the ballroom and came to the keyboard ever existed, it has been lost to antiquity now wieso kann ich kein netflix herunterladen.

The suite existed for keyboard instruments like the harpsichord and clavichord for years.  The term suite first appeared in the mid 16th century, however, the style of the suite and the order of pieces included was not standardized for at least another 100 years.  Many different styles of dance were featured throughout Europe in suites and were actually danced to.  By the time of the standardization of the suite, however, the dances had been limited to four standards with a few others that could be added for variety, and no longer were these dances actually danced to, but were played as stylized dances – that is, in the style of a particular dance, but meant to be listened to as the primary source of entertainment, not as the accompaniment downloaden via app ing.

It is mostly Johann Sebastian Bach’s doing that the dance suite became standardized in Germany, and for most of Europe.  He has written two sets of suites, the French Suites and the English Suites.  There are 12 suites in all, six in each set how to download music from soundcloud.

Interestingly, Bach never actually titled his suites.  While fragments of music appear in a notebook he gave to Anna Magdalena as a gift in 1722, and he then turned these fragments into full-fledged suites by 1725, it is unclear whether his suites were ever meant for public performance.  It is also unknown who first called the French Suites “French.”  Some argue that the English Suites actually have more of a French style than the French Suites do.  There is some evidence, however, that the French Suites were called that by the Bach family, and that the suites were actually written for Bach’s piano students who had completed his Two and Three Part Inventions but were not ready yet to play the Well Tempered Clavier how can I download youtube videos for free.

Bach’s suites follow the pattern of Allemande, Courante, Sarabande, X and Gigue, where X is usually two or sometimes three or four different dances, sometimes Menuetts, Gavottes, or even Bourrees.  All the dances are played in binary form, that is, there is an A section that gets repeated and a B section that gets repeated pdf creator kostenlos herunterladen.

The Allemande is one of the more popular of the dance styles, and in Bach’s suites, serves as a prelude to each suite (other composers actually included a prelude before their suites officially began).  It is quick and in a duple meter, and, in the majority of the French suites, has an improvisatory air dwg viewer kostenlos herunterladen.

The Courante is another quick movement, this one, however, is in triple meter.  The Courantes of the French Suites seem to feature more ornamentation that suggests an attempt to imitate one of the instruments that also plays dance music – the lute trash basket.

The Sarabande is in triple meter, and while the Courante and Allemande have French origins, the Sarabande originally comes from Spain.  Sarabandes can be played fast or slow, but Bach seems to appreciate the slower approach.  If the first two dances of each suite are a call to the dance floor, each Sarabande is Bach’s way of saying, “hey, why don’t we slow things down a bit and catch our breath.”  The beat moves, but at a stately, reserved pace gimp for mac free.

The Gigue is a quick movement, usually in duple time.  It is the piece that wraps up the suite, and makes the final statement.

Over the course of his six suites, Bach also features Menuetts, Gavottes, Loures, Bourrees, a Polonaise, Airs and an Anglaise.  With the exception of the Bourree in G Major and in E Major, most of these pieces maintain a slower, steady tempo avast antivirus.

The French Suites were written and used mostly as pieces for Bach’s students, and it is clear to see why.  The pieces are shorter than what one might have come to expect from a suite, or from any of Bach’s music.  The average dance is no longer than 2 minutes, with many coming in under the 1-minute mark.  The technical level required to learn any of the individual dances also is not that high and while they do present a challenge, it is not a hurdle that the intermediate pianist can’t get over eventually.

Also, the harmonic structure of the pieces is easier not just for the student, but also for the listener.  Each of the pieces, even those written in minor (the stereotypical sad mode) is light and airy.  True to the suite form, each set of dances stays within one key, with very little modulation to any other key, major or minor.  Each suite plays around in it’s own key (d minor, c minor, b minor, E-flat Major, G Major and E Major) and doesn’t stray too far from the path by venturing to a neighboring key or relative minor or major, allowing the ear to recognize each key and become comfortable with it.  The thematic structure and rhythmic patterns stays relatively simple and uncluttered as well.

While many factors have gone into the development of the dance suite as a musical art form over the ages, and we may never know the exact details of who did what when and why, it is clear to see that Johann Sebastian Bach’s influence was an important one in the shaping of the suite style that we have today.