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How's your German? |
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Blitz 'n' Pieces
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By Samantha Coates on
Wednesday, August 22, 2007
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For some unknown reason, we have to learn French and German terms as well as Italian in Grade 4 Music Craft. These are pretty rare in common repertoire, but even so ‘Massig’ is usually seen with the double ‘s’, not the strange German letter which we are not taught how to write properly.
Anyway, I need some clarification on the less-than-helpful German tutorial we get in lesson 6: ‘Lebhaft’ = lively or brisk,
‘Sehr lebhaft’ = very lively
‘Schnell’ = fast or quick
Ok... but on the next page, we’re tested on ‘very fast’ and ‘lively and fast’. Well, we’ve been taught ‘very’ and ‘lively’ and ‘fast’ , but we have not been taught ‘and’. (which I happened to remember is ‘und’ from my Year 8 German elective). I asked my sister-in-law, who speaks German, if ‘Lebhaft und Schnell’ would be the correct translation for this... she said that would be incorrect. Can anyone help?
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Set Works Grade 3 Music Craft |
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Blitz 'n' Pieces
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By Samantha Coates on
Tuesday, August 21, 2007
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The questions devoted to identifying the set works are very easy. It’s quite good that different instruments are used.
In terms of the actual works set for study, I find the ‘Pange Lingua’ an unbelievably obscure choice for demonstrating the Phrygian mode. It would have been much better to use the little Burgmuller study ‘Progress’, which contains the Phrygian mode in the right hand of the first bar and the left hand of the second bar, played in scale form and much more easily recognisable.
I also feel sorry for poor old Christian Pezold, who has suddenly been attributed with the famous Minuet and has missed out on approximately 350 years of royalties.
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Workbook 3A |
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Blitz 'n' Pieces
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By Samantha Coates on
Sunday, August 19, 2007
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Well, Grade 3 Music Craft gets mighty difficult compared to Grade 2, and especially compared to the Theory and Musicianship syllabuses.
The workbooks do not explain much, and what little they do explain is done solely through text, with no examples. I suffered many minor brain explosions trying to make sense of some these explanations. (Particularly in lesson 18 – a whole page of complicated text.)
It’s easiest to present my comments for this workbook in categories, and i've done so in the Forums section. The aural component is a separate blog/thread.
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Identifying the metre |
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Blitz 'n' Pieces
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By Samantha Coates on
Friday, August 17, 2007
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In the Music Craft Workbook Grade 2, part of the aural component is to be able to identify the metre of a rhythm. However, it is impossible to give an accurate answer, since the beat value is not given.
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Music Craft aural - Preliminary to Grade 1 |
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Blitz 'n' Pieces
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By Samantha Coates on
Tuesday, August 14, 2007
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By the end of Preliminary Grade aural, students will be very good at hearing whether a note is higher or lower than another note.
The thing is, I feel that most childen, and most adults, whether studying music or not, can hear this. A lot of time and energy is spent – possibly wasted - on this most simple of skills. A futher problem is that there is suddenly a huge jump in Grade 1, when we are required to hear the difference between a major third and a minor third.
Since the written tasks in the workbooks concentrate on spotting the difference between steps, skips and leaps, why not incorporate this skill into the aural component? Then we would be developing skills not only to do with gauging whether a note is higher or lower, but also how much higher or lower – much more useful.
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Music Craft Workbook 2B |
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Blitz 'n' Pieces
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By Samantha Coates on
Monday, August 13, 2007
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Here is an instalment from my studies on Music Craft. There are a few good things, but on the whole there are quite a few gaps and a few things I found completely unacceptable. There is a huge jump in the expectations for aural and many things are not explained at all in the workbook. Go to the Forums section for a full run-down.
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Finished Prelim and First Grade Music Craft |
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Blitz 'n' Pieces
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By Samantha Coates on
Wednesday, May 30, 2007
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I have (finally) begun to study for the music craft exams in August. Refer to the Forums section for a full description! But in the meanwhile...Lesson 33 in Preliminary Workbook B asks students to put Italian terms in order from slowest to fastest. I have absolutely no idea which is faster out of Moderato and Andante. Could somebody please enlighten me on this?
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Teaching Compound Time |
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Blitz 'n' Pieces
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By Samantha Coates on
Friday, November 24, 2006
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On the weekend I had a discussion with Andrew (my IT whizz of a husband). I told him that I had just come up with a terrific idea for teaching the definition of compound time. Kids are taught at school that a compound word is made up of two words; well, beats in compound time are made up of two things: a note and a dot. Andrew took issue with this! He said that wasn't really the meaning of compound time, that it really meant that beats can be subdivided into three (which is very important to teach, and a good point). However, the only beats that can be subdivided into three are DOTTED beats, hence compound time means dotted beats. Andrew said 'what about 10/8 then?'. I said that time signatures such as 10/8 and 7/8 are examples of irregular meter and are neither simple nor compound time. He conceded defeat, a rare occasion in our family!
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