Wednesday, December 8, 2010

Festive Musical Christmas Gift Ideas

Christmas is fast approaching - have you finished all your Christmas presents shopping yet?!

If you're struggling for some ideas, we've put together a selection of musical treats which would make fabulous presents for any music lover - or why not treat yourself! All gifts are available from Amazon.co.uk and many come with FREE delivery. Click on the links for more information!



This stylish cocktail glass is decorated with a piano and notes motif - ideal for toasting in the New Year with pizzaz!


For the special lady in your life - treat her to this pair of pewter treble clef earrings!


A gift for someone who has everything - I bet they don't have a piano keyboard salt and pepper set!


The quintessential Carols CD - from King's College Cambridge. There is no better Christmas carols CD.


Sony Music Studio 8 is an affordable recording studio. At less than £20 you can start to make music like a pro. Very highly rated.


The perfect photo frame for displaying pictures of you performing in your band or choir!


Indulge yourself this Christmas - a box-set of vintage musicals will transport you back to a magical time.


Not really a present - but lots of fun nonetheless! Festive Christmas crackers decorated with a tasteful musical design will bring cheer to your Yuletide repast! Each cracker contains a whistle tuned to a different note. Choose one diner to be the conductor and then play through the song-sheets! Mayhem for sure!

Practical but cool - a music bag with a funky design which suits all ages.


Wednesday, October 13, 2010

Website Offline

This morning our hosting provider is epxperiencing some technical problems and we are waiting for them to resolve them.

The server that is hosting our hosting account has a short technical problem. The system administrators are working to solve the issue.


Many apologies for the inconvenience and we hope to be back on line as soon as possible.

Victoria

Friday, June 4, 2010

When Less is More - another Grade 5 Theory Composition Case Study

It's that time of year when the British ABRSM theory exams are looming - there are about 3 weeks to go and students are knuckling down everywhere. One of the hardest questions to self-assess is, of course, the composition question. I spend a lot of time working with students specifically on composition guidance, and from time to time readers of the website send in their answers to the question in the practice test on mymusictheory.

You can read about another student's answer to the same question at http://musictheorydigest.blogspot.com/2010/02/grade-v-composition-example.html

This is the example I was sent today:

I would award 8 marks out of 15 for this. Here's a breakdown:

1. Length & Balance 1½/2
2. Neatness 1/1
3. Notation Accuracy 1½/2
4. Performance Directions 1/2
5. Suitability to Instrument 1/1
6. Sequencing 0/2
7. Cadence points 1/2
8. Overall impact 1/3

Total 8/15


1. The piece is the right length - 8 bars, and you've balanced up the incomplete first bar correctly in the last bar. However, there is a lack of balance within the piece. It's better to assume that 8 bars are divided into two halves of exactly the same length, and create two phrases (a question phrase and an answer phrase) of 4 bars each. This is really just one long phrase of 8 bars.

2. Exceptionally neat - nice work.

3. Two points, which are VERY common mistakes in students' work! 

Firstly, barlines are dictated by notes, not by the end of the staff. In the 2nd and 3rd lines, you've drawn the barlines at the far right hand side of the staff. In fact you need to draw them close after the last note you've written. It doesn't matter if there is a space after the barline (it's not very neat, but it's correct). If you really want to have your barlines at the end of the staff, then you have to carefully plan the notes you're writing so that the last note you write is at the end of the line. 

Secondly, notes need to have the correct amount of space left after them. After a quaver (8th note) you need a very small space, bigger for crotchets, bigger again for minims. Spacing is relative. Notice how in the printed 1st bar, the dotted crotchet has quite a lot of white space after it before the next quaver is written. Leaving the right amount of space is an important visual clue for the performer regarding the rhythm. In bar 6, for example, you leave hardly any space at all after the minim D, but then a big space after the quaver rest.

4. Well, there are certainly a lot of them! But, (and this is an important point), it really does feel like you put your hand in a bucket of dynamics and then threw a handful at the music ;o) Dynamics MUST make musical sense. In bar 3, you write a P. Bar 4 contains no markings, so we must assume it's the same - P. The first beat of bar 5, suddenly, is F. There doesn't seem to be any logical reason for this - there's no crescendo, and it's not a new phrase. If you change the dynamic SO drastically, a new phrase would seem logical, but then again it's not a good place for a new phrase.... In bar 6 you've written a decrescendo which apparently should be played through a rest (can you make a rest even quieter?!) and the mP marking should be aligned with the actual note to give it a solid meaning. You've written Allegro as a tempo, so one crotchet is going to whizz by very fast - there is not enough time to have a diminuendo on just one crotchet. Bar 8 has a similar problem.

Phrase marks need to clearly end on one note, and a new phrase mark starts on the next note. You've written your phrase marks so that the end and then start on the same note.

5. Fine. It would suit a very flamboyant type of violinist!

6. This is the real weakness of the piece. You've tried to show off your (very good) knowledge of things like triplets, ornaments and syncopation. But in doing so, you've written a piece which has no connecting factors. The title of this post is "Less is More" and that really is the case in grade five theory composition. Don't feel that you need to include everything you know about! 

When you begin a composition, you need to look carefully at the given opening, and decide what are the characteristic features of it. This means looking at what type of intervals the music is built on (does it move by step or in leaps, what kind of leaps?), what kind of rhythms it uses (dotted, or syncopated, or whatever), and does it have any other striking features (in the dynamics, phrasing or articulation, for example). Then, you need to make sure that you keep those characteristic features in the music for the whole composition, so that there is a feeling of continuity. Obviously you can't just repeat what's there note for note - you need to make small changes so that the music is new, but connected. This can be something as simple as writing the same melody as the first bar, but with every note shifted up a step in the scale, for example.

In your melody, I couldn't find any examples of sequencing - of re-using bits of melody or rhythm in this way - every bar seems to be an invention of something new. It's really a fundemental part of the composition question and something worth working on.

7. The final cadence is clearly a perfect cadence. I'm not sure where the "middle" of your piece is supposed to be, so I can't find a cadence there either!

8. You might think I'm a bit harsh only giving 1 point here. I can see that you've worked really, really hard and have tried to gain a lot of marks in this question, so I think you might be a bit disappointed with what I've given you. You are obviously a talented musician, hard-working and I would put money on you being a pretty good violin player yourself, am I right? I think you are throwing your energy in the wrong direction in this question - keep in your mind that this is a theory exam - not a practical. Your composition needs to demonstrate that you understand the principals of balance, sequencing, and underlying structure. If you were going shopping for a violin and played what you wrote in order to test the instrument, I think it would be perfectly appropriate - some bits of scales, arpeggios, big dynamic range and so on. But as a self-contained piece of music, it lacks the glue to hold it together. It leaves the listener feeling rather unsatisfied and wondering if that was really the "piece" or just the "warm-up" before the real piece begins.

Don't be discouraged, You show a LOT of potential. Read up on how to structure a composition and keep working at it!

Saturday, April 17, 2010

Music Theory Classes

Music Theory Classes
What's your experience?

Over at www.mymusictheory.com we had our largest number of guests ever last month, with over 14,000 unique visitors viewing the site - thank you all for stopping by! This got me wondering a little about who you are all are. We've got a small number of fans on Facebook now - you can become a fan by clicking the link in the Facebook box to the right of this article, and it's really nice to see some faces of people who use the site - and wonderful that the fans so far come from every corner of the globe! We've got a handful of fans from the UK, Malaysia and the USA, and fans from 14 other countries - not bad from only 31 fans!

It would be really interesting to know what brings you to the site. Are you taking music theory classes at school, or may be privately? Are you studying at university? Are you a teacher? Add a comment below and tell me why you use the site!

 I get a lot of lovely emails from guests to the site, and occasionally people ask me about my own background - how I got  into music theory studies and why I do the site for free, for example.

I never attended music theory classes as a kid (although I certainly did while studying music at university). I taught myself how to read music (treble clef) using a recorder book when I was about 7 or 8, I think, and then transferred what I'd learnt to playing the piano. The only problem was that I was still using recorder books, and was playing recorder duets as though they were written for piano! My left hand was expert in the treble clef, but I had no idea about the bass. I started piano lessons at about 10, and remember struggling at the start because I was so used to expecting the left hand to have a treble clef line! I soon added in clarinet lessons as well as French horn at school, and before long my piano teacher decided to get me started on music theory.  We spent a few minutes of each half hour lesson going through past papers, starting at grade 1, when I was around grade 2 on piano.

Meanwhile at school, music theory classes were so easy! I don't think we learnt anything about how to read music. I do remember watching "Mary Poppins" and other musicals, and messing about with percussion instruments. Even when I got to GCSE level, music theory wasn't taught in class - by that stage we were expected to know it already. I wonder if it's the only GCSE music where you are expected to learn the material outside of school? (Although I've heard that you don't even need to be able to read music to do a GCSE in it these days. I took mine in 1989, the second year after they were introduced. We did O level papers as practice exams, and they were so much harder!)

My piano teacher got me through all the past papers up to grade 5, and I remember being really nervous before the exam, even though I knew everything inside out! I got 96 out of 99 (it used to be marked out of 99 for some reason!) and still wonder what I lost those three marks on.

Ever since the first days of attempting the grade 1 past papers, I've just loved music theory. I like the fact that it combines the logical/mathematical with the artistic/creative in a way that very few other subjects do. I've been a teacher for the last 12 years, and apart from teaching music I'm also a qualified and experienced English teacher. I  run www.mymusictheory.com because I love teaching and nothing gives me more pleasure than being able to encourage others in their learning. I know that many music students don't get the tuition they need in their music theory classes at school, and often their instrument teachers don't have the time (and sometimes the knowledge) to train their students adequately, and that's a shame.

I've never met anyone who regrets studying music theory, classes at school or wherever. It increases your enjoyment of music, makes you a better performer, and is even really good for your brain - research has shown that doing activities which employ both halves of your brain (i.e. the logical and the creative) can actually increase your overall brain power - because such activities cause new neural links to grow between the two hemispheres.

So what about you - what do you (or don't you) get from your music theory classes, and what motivates you to learn music theory?

Tuesday, April 13, 2010

Video Lessons from Mymusictheory

I have had a lot of requests from people for some basic lessons in how to read music.
A lot of these requests are from adult choir members who are struggling with using a score in choir practice, and who would like to be able to understand the blobs and lines in front of them!

So, I've decided to produce a series of simple video tutorials which teach people how to read music. Each lesson will take just 5 minutes and will introduce a handful of ideas and then practise them. I've kept the commentary to a minimum on purpose - the best to learn is to watch, think, and then do.

A lot of the music lesson videos I've watched fail because they try to introduce too much new material too quickly - which is overwhelming for most people. Learning to read music takes practice and time. You need to do a little every day, and you will soon see results.

You'll also get to see my face and meet my cats!

The first lesson teaches the staff (or stave, if you prefer), the treble clef, and three notes: G, A and B.

Monday, April 5, 2010

Pentatonic Magic

Pentatonic
scales have only 5 notes in them.

Pentatonic scales are the basis of many folk songs across the world, and have been used for many hundreds of years. These days, pentatonic scales still feature heavily in pop music, and are a great springboard to improvise from.

The most common type of pentatonic scale is the one produced if you play only the black keys on a piano keyboard - C#, D#, F#, G# and A#. You can tranpose these notes and produce a pentatonic scale that starts on any note at all. If you start on C, you should play C, D, E, G, A.

Taking out the F and B of the usual C major scale, you're left with a handful of notes which sound good blended together in many different ways. F and B, making the interval of an augmented 4th or a diminished 5th, are harshly dissonant. When you eliminate these notes from the scale, the notes you're left with are really easy to improvise with (both melody and harmony), because you won't accidentally play these harsh discords. 

Last year, Bobby McFerrin (of "Don't worry, Be Happy" fame) demonstrated the magic of the pentatonic scale at the World Science Festival. Watch the video closely - how does the audience know which note to sing next?

Wednesday, March 24, 2010

Symphony in J flat - (from The Boston Globe)

If you're getting your head around keys and scales at the moment, you might be alarmed to read the following article, which appeared in the news recently...

Hearing a simple scale does not usually evoke unusual sensations. Even nonmusicians can wander over to a piano and play adjacent keys - creating sounds that seem utterly routine because they are the basic building blocks of Western music. This traditional system is based on an interval, the octave, in which the high note is double the frequency of the low note. To get the rest of the notes, the octave is divided into 12 equal steps, creating the basic framework for everything from a sonata to a ringtone.

Advocat, a skilled clarinetist with an ambition for creating new sounds, is part of a movement focused on exploring the musical wilderness beyond that system. The unusual scale she played ended on a high note that was triple, not double, the frequency of the low note, and the interval was divided into 13 equal steps.

Read the whole article at
Symphony in J flat - The Boston Globe

Just when you thought you had music theory sussed, they go and change the rules! Don't worry, we don't think the ABRSM will be testing you on the scale of J flat any time soon :o)

Friday, March 5, 2010

ABRSM Theory Exams Chat

Did you take a music theory exam yesterday? Thousands of people in the UK did, as March 4th was the first Theory exams session of 2010. There are 3 sessions per year.

Are you dying to know if you put the right anwers, what other people thought of the paper or want to ask a question about it? May be you don't know anyone else who was doing the same grade as you?

Why not join the mymusictheory.com forum! Chat with others and compare your answers - find out if you got your terms and symbols right or wrong, or just hang out and meet our other members!

Our forum is new - it's only two weeks old, so register now and become part of our growing community. Everyone is welcome.

Sunday, February 28, 2010

Grade One Scales and Key Signatures

We've got a new worksheet to download on the site today - Grade 1 Scales and Key Signatures.

The worksheet has got fifty questions covering the grade one ABRSM scale requirements - C, D, G and F major.

There are several kinds of question included: writing ascending and descending scales in both the treble and bass clefs, and writing out key signatures, again in both clefs.

There are also some more general questions about key signatures and degrees of the scale, as well as some find the mistake type questions.

The worksheets are great to use if you're studying for grade one music theory (ABRSM syllabus), or if you are a teacher and are looking for some useful exercises for reinforcement or homework.

At only 75p for the instant download of fifty grade one scales exercises, what are you waiting for!

Download now from www.mymusictheory.com

Any questions? Use the comment feature below!

Tuesday, February 16, 2010

Video about Composing

A friend of mine shared this video with me today - and I'm passing it on to you. It's about composition - in the real world rather than in exams! Robert John Godfrey explains in simple terms how to ask a question in music, and how music mirrors they way we speak. It's entrancing.

.
Robert John Godfrey is a British composer. Read his Wikiepedia page here

Sunday, February 14, 2010

My Music Theory Forum

We have a new forum!

http://www.mymusictheory.com/forum/

What's on the Forum?

Questions

Launched today, 14th Feb 2010, the forum is the new home for any questions directed at mymusictheory.com. I get a lot of questions emailed to me, and don't usually get time to write everything up in html to add to the web page (although I do reply by email!). Having the questions on a forum turns them into a searchable database, which is good for everyone, and it's much more convenient. Askers can respond to my answers and read back on the posts in a more logical way.

Also, other users will be able to add to the discussion - either with their own answers or further questions. All posts are moderated, so no idiotic answers will be allowed up, you'll be pleased to know. No registration is currently required to post in the Questions forum.

General Theory

The general section is for any registered user to start any thread connected with music theory. Serious or light-hearted, join in and make your voice heard!

Chat

Make friends or contacts with others who are studying the same level as you. Chat about anything you like, but please remember the forum is for all ages, children included. Please don't give out personal details, and kids, tell your parents what you're doing. (Any posts which violate the rules will be deleted without warning.)

Music Theory Diaries

Nowhere else on the web will you find a space dedicated to your study of music theory! Start your own thread which is your "diary" of music theory learning. Keep track of what you're studying, bookmark useful links, ask questions, ask for opinions, share stories -it's up to you. You own your thread and can use it as you like. It's an excellent way of recording what you're doing, getting input from others in the same situation or from teachers, and you can review whenever you like - it's a wonderful revision tool.

Come and register now at www.mymusictheory.com/forum/ - it's free and simple to join. Don't forget, we only launched this afternoon so we don't have many members yet - please don't let that put you off!

Friday, February 5, 2010

Posh Spice Wins Prestigious Music Theory Award

OK, it's a joke, but it made me giggle so I'm sharing on the blog...

The Neutrogena Award For Outstanding Contributions To Music Theory: This one goes to Victoria Beckham for her comment to a contestant [on American Idol] that “You have beautiful skin.” If skin care proved that critical to a musical career, the world would have never heard Bryan Adams’ “Summer of 69.”


Read the rest of the article at http://www.tv.com/american-idol-the-most-notable-audition-achievements-/story/21200.html

Tuesday, February 2, 2010

Grade V Composition - An Example

Grade 5 Music Theory Composition Question (ABRSM)

www.mymusictheory.com has a free grade five theory exam which you can do online as revision for the big day. Of course, the most difficult part to mark on your own at home is the composition. How can you know how well you've done?

One of our readers, Ming, recently sent me in his composition from the free test and asked me to take a look. Ming's answer is quite typical of a lot of music students - lots of good points but also a few things which he could work on to get a few more points in the exam.

Here's the opening of the composition which he had to complete in 8 bars:







And here's Ming's answer (sorry it's so small!)








I would award 8.5 marks out of 15 for this. Here's a breakdown:

1. Length & Balance ½/2
2. Neatness 1/1
3. Notation Accuracy 2/2
4. Performance Directions 1½ /2
5. Suitability to Instrument 1/1
6. Sequencing ½/2
7. Cadence points 1/2
8. Overall impact 1/3

Total 8½ /15


1. You need to write eight complete bars. There is an upbeat of one crotchet, so in fact your composition is 8¼ bars long, instead of 8. You should write two phrases that are exactly the same length, (including the upbeat). The first phrase will end on the third beat of bar 4, and the second phrase should start on the fourth beat of bar 4. The last bar should only have 3 crotchet beats in it, to make up for the one crotchet bar at the start.

2. Very neat and easy to read – well done!

3. No mistakes – well done!

4. You included markings for tempo and dynamics which work ok, and you also included breathing marks – that’s all good. For full marks you also need to include articulation markings (for all wind and brass instruments) – you need to show the player whether each note should be struck clearly with the tongue (tongued) or played smoothly without any tongue movement (legato). You could also show more advanced articulation symbols such as staccato or tenuto, but these are optional. You must show the general (tongued/legato) articulation markings, though.

5. Fine.

6. I can see you’ve tried to re-use the rhythm from the first 4 bars, but in fact you’ve copied the rhythm exactly, instead of adapting it a little. You need to create bars 3 & 4 by basing them on bars 1 and 2 (similar but not the same), then create bars 5-8 by basing them on bars 1-4.
The melody doesn’t seem to be sequenced at all, except for in bar 5 (sequence of bar 1). Both the rhythm and the melody need to be sequenced – for the rhythm, make small changes and for the melody, move the phrase up or down on the stave but keep the intervals between the notes more or less the same. A lot of what you’ve written doesn’t seem to be connected to anything else – for example, the semibreve in the middle of the piece (this feels like the piece has stopped!). Semibreves are ok at the end, but avoid them in the middle!

7. Cadence points should exist at the end of the first and second phrases. Your first phrase ends on an imperfect cadence – that’s good. The second phrase is not clear though. At the end of bar 7 you wrote F sharp then G – which chord would you play with those two notes? (A leap of a 7th is never a good idea anyway – stick to smaller intervals).

8. The composition doesn’t make a really good impact because of the lack of sequencing and the weak final cadence. It doesn’t sound like it’s glued together with anything, it’s all a bit meandering. On the plus side, your notation is really good and the piece does have a feel of being almost balanced, despite being the wrong length! It’s not a bad effort at all.

Thursday, January 28, 2010

2009 Exam Papers Available now!

The 2009 music theory exam papers have now been released by the ABRSM for purchase.

Each grade, 1-8, has a separate Exam booklet and Model Answers booklet. These materials are really worth getting if you are planning on taking a theory exam in 2010 as they give you invaluable practice. Each Exam booklet contains four complete exams - one from each of the three sessions held in 2009 plus one extra exam paper.

Available from the ABRSM website or from Amazon.co.uk - link below:

2009 ABRSM Music Theory Past Papers