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Easy Music Theory Newsletter Free, from Spring Day Music
March 2002
To SUBSCRIBE to receive this newsletter in your email, go to www.EasyMusicTheory.com/newsletter.html
March 2002 A Publication of Spring Day Music www.EasyMusicTheory.com (c)2002 Spring Day Music
Welcome!
Here's another issue of the Easy Music Theory Newsletter, filled with meaty articles that will help make you a better musician. You may want to print it out so that you can read it at your leisure. You received this newsletter either because you have purchased Easy Music Theory on CD-ROM, or because you signed up via our subscription page. If you'd rather not receive it, send a blank email to unsubscribe@easymusictheory.com.
Our subscription list is growing by leaps and bounds - in just two months it's grown by over three hundred percent!
If you're looking for our other newsletter editions, go to http://www.EasyMusicTheory.com/newsletter.html. That's the signup page, where you can find a link to our previous editions.
=========================== NEWS FROM SPRING DAY MUSIC
About the contest. We've got another one this month. Thanks to those of you who entered last month's. If you don't know what I'm talking about, go to http://www.EasyMusicTheory.com/contest.html. You'll see a link to last month's contest, as well as info on this month's contest.
And the winners are...
Here are the winners of our February contest:
1. Colin Annable 2. Brad Wetmore 3. Gordon Morin
Congratulations to the winners. We have a great CD of music going to each recipient right away.
Oh yes, the answers! Right. Well, the three pieces that were playing at the same time were: 1. The Halleluia Chorus by Handel, from Messiah; 2. Beethoven's fifth symphony, first movement, and the 1812 Overture by Tchaikovsky.
Our contests are about MUSIC!
The Easy Music Mix contest is not simply a game of chance. You've gotta have an "ear" in order to play. Over 40% of the respondents in the last contest were wrong... but 100% had fun!
Got what it takes? You decide. Go to http://www.EasyMusicTheory.com/contest.html and test your ear. Last month was classical; this month's contest uses movie music. Listen to the music on the contest page. We play 3 snippets - I mean, SHORT snippets. Then tell us what you hear. Full details on the contest page at http://www.EasyMusicTheory.com/contest.html
PRACTICE SHEET
This month you can download a free practice sheet that will help you keep track of how much you're practicing your instrument. Get it at http://www.EasyMusicTheory.com/practice.pdf
PANTOMIMEMUSIC.COM
Gary has launched a new web site of his own compositions and arrangements. It's http://www.PantomimeMusic.com. Check it out, especially if you belong to a choir or orchestra that's looking for top quality, professional arrangements. -David
=========================== IN THIS ISSUE
1. How to Study Music Theory - by David Ewer 2. What is an "Enharmonic Equivalent"? 3. Ever Heard of the Mozart Effect? 4. When Music Theory Doesn't Seem to... Work 5. Compound Versus Simple Time Signatures 6. Question of the month: Should I use a Practice Record? 7. Skill-Testing Question
=========================== 1. How to Study Easy Music Theory - by David Ewer
Gary Ewer's Easy Music Theory on CD-ROM is divided up into 25 lessons to make it easy for you to study music theory in bite-sized pieces. It also makes it easy for you to plan your music studies. (I know many of you are already studying the CD-ROM course, but if you don't know about the CD-ROM course, go to http://www.EasyMusicTheory.com )
You know what they say - a failure to plan is a plan to fail! So decide your pace right now. And don't set yourself up for failure. You know you'd like to do the entire course in three months, but if you're working 40-plus hours a week, and have three young children, then that just may not be wise.
If you have lots of time on your hands, you should be able to make your way through the course doing one lesson per week. That way, you'll complete it in just six months. Think of it! Going from "Notes are oval", all the way to university acceptance level in half a year! If you have less time, you can do a lesson every two weeks.
Even if you do just a lesson per month, you're through the whole thing, start to finish, in two years.
So take a look at your own situation, and make a plan that can succeed. If you work a full time job, maybe you can set aside part of one evening, and an hour on Saturday morning. If you've got more time on your hands, maybe two full mornings each week. But don't forget, the important thing is to PLAN a path that give you the best chance of success.
Now, exactly how to study Easy Music Theory has already been covered at http://student.easymusictheory.com. Check out that page - you'll find lots of useful information about how to study Easy Music Theory.
And be wary of the student's worst enemy - procrastination. Here's a simple tip on how to fight procrastination: JUST START. Yes, just start. Don't look at that binder and say, "Man, I'm never going to finish that." That does no good. Instead, say, "Today, I'm going to fire up CD #1, and watch Lesson 1." That's so much easier to accomplish, and though that task is small, once you've done it, you will feel a sense of accomplishment: "I said I would watch the lesson, and that is exactly what I did."
When we put Easy Music Theory together, especially the videos, we made sure that every lesson had something about it that would catch your interest and reward you for digging in, so dig in, and have fun!
-David
=========================== 2. What is an ENHARMONIC EQUIVALENT?
I usually get this question from Easy Music Theory students at least once a week, and it is important to understand. Here is a brief definition: Two notes that sound the same but have different letter names are enharmonically equivalent, for example, G# and Ab. Where people often go astray is when figuring out notes in a scale or in an interval. Recently someone wrote me concerning intervals. They were trying to figure out how to name an interval that had B as its lowest note and Eb as the upper note. They were stuck on the part of the process where you determine if there is an Eb in a B-major scale. Most of you reading this will know that the answer is "no". This student said that there was, and that it appeared in the form "D#", which is the same as Eb. The problem here is that while Eb and D# sound the same (i.e., enharmonically equivalent), they are different notes. And so the interval should be named diminished 4th. The important thing to remember here is that two notes may be enharmonically equivalent, but they should not be considered to be interchangeable. As far as music theory is concerned, they are different!
===========================
"There's nothing I like better than the sound of a banjo, unless of course it's the sound of a chicken caught in a vacuum cleaner." -unknown
=========================== 3. Ever Heard of the MOZART EFFECT?
The study of music theory can help you more fully understand virtually any type of music - Classical, Rock & Roll, Jazz, Heavy Metal. But did you know that researchers have studied and made a relationship between intelligence and listening to music by W. A. Mozart?
Though the interpretation of the results of the studies are a bit in dispute, it seems that listening to Mozart has been shown to temporarily but significantly enhance intelligence, resulting in higher test scores by experiment participants. In 1995 researchers tested 79 college students divided into three groups. One group listened to the music of Philip Glass (a modern-day minimalist composer), another group listened to nothing, and a third group listened to Mozart's Concerto for Two Pianos, K.448. All students then took a test that measured their spatial I.Q. Only the group that listened to Mozart measured an increase in I.Q. The other students showed no enhancement of their scores. So if your exam finals are approaching, turn on the Mozart, and good luck on the exams!
=========================== 4. When Theory Doesn't Seem to... Work
Music theory is intended to help explain the music that you are hearing. But some people have written me about theory and composition, and they know that I often say that theory is not intended to allow or not allow anything when it comes to composition. Theory is just a way of trying to explain the way music works.
But sometimes a piece can seem so complicated that it doesn't appear to conform to any rules of composition. Take, for example, much of the music of the avant garde. The avant garde is a style of composition which people often call "experimental" or "modern", and the way the composer puts notes together do not often follow traditional rules of theory. There are often no recognizable chords or scale patterns. John Cage (1912 - 1992) is perhaps one of the most famous (some would say "notorious") of the avant garde. One of his more infamous works is 4' 33", a piece in which the performer (a pianist, usually) "plays" a 3-movement work consisting of absolutely no notes at all! The pianist uses a stop-watch to properly time each movement, the lengths of which are all specified in the score. In the premiere performance in 1952 the audience were rather irritated with Cage's new piece, and many walked out in disgust. There was nothing in their understanding of music theory that could have prepared them for that piece!
=========================== 5. Compound Versus Simple Time Signatures
I find that many people (some of them are theory teachers!) do not clearly understand the difference between simple time and compound time signatures. The essential difference is that the beat unit in simple time signatures can be subdivided into 2 components while the beat unit in compound time is subdivided into 3. In simple time, the upper number tells us the number of beats in a bar. The most common error musicians make is assuming that in compound time the upper number tells us the same thing. It does not! The upper number in compound time tells us the number of subdivision (or "breakdown" notes) in each bar. For example, 12/8 is a compound time signature. You'll know this if you've studied Lesson 13 in Easy Music Theory, because the upper number (12) is evenly divisible by 3. Some people will say that there are 12 beats in a 12/8 bar, but this is incorrect. To determine the correct number of beats in a compound time signature, divide that top number by 3. So in 12/8 time, there are 4 beats in every measure.
Why do bagpipers walk when they play? To get away from the sound! :-)
6. Should I use Practice Records?
If you teach an instrumental music program, you may have tried asking your students to keep a practice record. A practice record typically records the number of hours or minutes the student practices their instrument at home. Used correctly, a practice record can inspire students to increase their time spent playing their instrument.
More often than not, however, practice records are a source of frustration to kids, a visual and obvious display of their dissatisfaction with their instrument or teacher. Sadly, many parents or teachers hold the record up to the student as proof that the student is not working hard enough, and this only serves to enhance the negative feelings that lead to the poor showing in the first place. The reality is that there is a large responsibility on the part of the teacher to run the instrumental music program in such a way that it encourages a child to play. So if your students aren't practicing, don't just look at the students - look at your program, and how you run it. There may be something you can do to make playing more fun.
There are several things you must take note of before resorting to a practice record as a way of getting kids to practice. First, it is very normal for a student's initial excitement for an instrument to wane considerably after approximately three months. The wise teacher will be prepared for this, and have ideas for inspiring their students to continue to play. In April's Newsletter I will have some ideas for you to try. Second, the most successful method of getting kids to practice is to inspire them, not to threaten them. Many students will view a practice record as the teacher saying, "Prove to me that you're practicing". This is a pushy and ultimately unproductive way of increasing practice time.
If you want to use a practice record, use it for the right reasons. A practice record should be a way of showing the student how much they are practicing (not how little!) and should have a built-in way of congratulating them for their efforts. The keeping of a record is a fine idea, but only if it serves as a positive reinforcement of good practice habits. I have designed a practice record that I think you may find useful. You can download the PDF file by going to http://www.EasyMusicTheory.com/practice.pdf. (You need Adobe Acrobat 5 to view and print it.)
Remember, your students are like you in the sense that they need to be inspired, not threatened. Use a practice record, but use it for the right reasons.
=========================== 7. Skill-Testing Question
Can you name the modal scale that uses a key signature of four flats, and goes from F to F? Once you think you know the answer, go to Lesson 23 - the answer is there!
=============== That's it for this month's Easy Music theory Newsletter. Questions or comments? We're all ears at emtinfo@easymusictheory.com.
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Gary Ewer's Easy Music Theory represents the finest in music theory instruction. If you play an instrument or sing in a choir, you can expand your musical horizons by learning music theory.
Get all the information at http://www.EasyMusicTheory.com
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This newsletter is copyright (c) 2002 Spring Day Music, a division of Corporate Impact Inc. Contact us at 902-481-2677, or emtinfo@easymusictheory.com
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Newsletter editor: David Ewer
Music education content: Gary Ewer
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©2001 Spring Day Music. All rights reserved Gary Ewer's Easy Music Theory is a trade mark of Spring Day Music, a div. of Corporate Impact Inc. Contact us at emtinfo@EasyMusicTheory.com
