Blitz News - May 2009
By Samantha Coates
Coming Soon... How to Blitz! Sight Reading (Book 2)
Don’t miss out on this exciting new resource covering sight reading for up to Grade 4.
Written in the same appealing format, it’s sure to be a hit!
BlitzBooks: The Only Way to BLITZ Your Music Exams!
Blitz News
Greetings music teachers !
Mid year is fast approaching and if the first half was anything to go by, the second half of 2009 should be jam packed with exciting things. I’ve had a fantastic response to
the recent summer workshops and am excited to announce a new sight reading book, coming soon!
Samantha talks on Music Craft
During March I held a number of workshops (both on behalf of the AMEB and independently) passing on information on how to teach the
Music Craft syllabus and issues I’ve encountered with each grade. In an attempt to exhaust every possibility, in 2007 I studied and sat
for all the available Music Craft exams so I could provide feedback from both a teacher and student perspective. With this in mind, the
aim was to provide teachers with the best possible preparation to teach their students.
Picking the most suitable course for each student is essential, so teachers were provided with a syllabus comparison of the Music Craft,
Musicianship and Theory courses to help them in this decision. Further valuable information included hints and tools to keep teachers those few
steps ahead such as questions students may have and elements like figured bass, modes, aural work and cadence names which are
different to the Theory and Musicianship courses. Also supplied was a list of external resources, from theory books to texts and even iTunes!
Additionally, I thought it was crucial for the teachers to put themselves in their students’ shoes, so they were asked to participate in aural dictation
samples from exams!
The music craft syllabus is still on its training wheels so regular feedback to the AMEB is very important.
Updates from my ongoing research and field testing of Music Craft will be posted on www.blitzbooks.com.au.
Summer Workshops: Everything But The Pieces!
The place to be over the summer was at one of our unmissable workshops.
Teachers all over Australia enjoyed listening to Samantha and Abe talk on four rarely-covered exam topics: Scales, Aural Tests, Sight Reading and
General Knowledge! The feedback from these workshops was tremendous and we’ll certainly be doing them again soon.
Book Reviews
Sight reading and general knowledge are two crucial elements of any practical exam. But, undoubtedly, they are also two areas that students
tend to find a chore to practice, causing unnecessary 11th hour stress and anxiety when exam day comes around. Not anymore! How to
Blitz! General Knowledge and How to Blitz! Sight Reading are two valuable resources for teachers and students alike in exam preparation.
How to Blitz! General Knowledge - Samantha Coates and Abe Cytrynowski
A bible of music material, this book is choc-a-bloc with important information to help students “Blitz!” the general knowledge component
of practical exams, making our lives as teachers that little bit easier. It’s divided into 6 parts: terms and signs, periods and styles of music,
keys and modulations, information on composers, form, an A-Z of titles and their meanings and a comprehensive glossary of 240 foreign language
terms (150 Italian, 50 French and 40 German) to ensure students are best equipped for tackling general knowledge. Additionally, the student
can get a hold of extra information thanks to a list of recommended print and internet resources, many of which are available at www.blitzbooks.com.au.
In keeping with the BlitzBooks format, the book is engaging and appealing for all students. Relevant to everyone due to its instrument neutrality,
this book is applicable for all practical exams making it a sure thing to have on your bookshelf.
How to Blitz! Sight Reading (Book 1)
Sight reading books are usually left in the bottom of the music bag. Despite all good intentions they never see the light of day and students are
forever berated for not practising their sight reading enough. But now, How to Blitz! Sight Reading has revolutionised the sight reading market!
Approaching sight reading in a novel and engaging way, the book presents 10 different levels all with clear goals and coloured key shaped rewards.
Each section comprises of rhythm and clapping, random note reading, recognising melodic patterns, chord reading and combining rhythm and
melodic patterns, increasing in difficulty with each level unlocked. Book 1 covers Preliminary to approximately Grade 3 level. The book
breaks down the various components of sight reading into achievable exercises that will have your students coming back for more!
Errata...oops!
The first edition of How to Blitz! General Knowledge contains the following errata:
• Although ‘Study’ appears in the index of the book, the definition was omitted from chapter 2: “Study: a piece of music written to improve technique”
• The index entries for ‘Study’ are also incorrect and should be listed as pages 8, 9, 17 (Etude) and 75
• There is a misspelling of the term for extra movements in a Baroque dance suite: it should be ‘Galanterien’ not ‘Gallantrien’.
• Chopin was not French, he was Polish! Page 75 lists Chopin as a Romantic composer from France. Although he lived much of his life there, Chopin was born in Poland.