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Worksheets on Melody Writing |
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Blitz 'n' Pieces
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By Samantha Coates on
Monday, September 24, 2007
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I noticed that one of the most popular worksheets in the Free Downloads section is the one on melody writing. Since there is obviously a need for this, I decided to post two new worksheets which are slightly easier and deal with some of the basics of melody writing.
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My experience of the Music Craft exams 2007 |
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Blitz 'n' Pieces
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By Samantha Coates on
Monday, September 03, 2007
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In general, I found the written exams a lot easier than the workbooks. They were well presented and used appropriate sized manuscript for the grades i.e. 10mm for Grades Prelim, 1 and 2 and 8.5mm for Grades 3 and 4.
The problem is, I’m pretty sure I found them easy because I am a theory teacher, rather than being taught well by the workbooks.
There were quite a few errors in the exams themselves, which was a great shame. It only takes a couple of good proof-reads and these can be eradicated, thus eliminating the stress it causes the students when something doesn’t work out right.
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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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