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Friday, 16 June 2017

Term 3, Last Lesson - Friday 16th June

Over the Summer, I would recommend that you learn the Grade 4 Italian (and French) terms.

The full list (Grades 1-5) can be found here.
(if you want to filter or reorganise the words, make a copy in your GoogleDrive or just download it as an .xls file which can be read in Microsoft Excel. If you don't have that, get OpenOffice which work just as well and is free.).


Here are the Grade 4 words:


a to, atFrench
affettuoso tenderlyItalian
affrettando hurryingItalian
amabile amiable, pleasantItalian
animé animated, livelyFrench
appassionato with passionItalian
assez enough, sufficientlyFrench
avec withFrench
calandogetting softer, dying away (and usually slowing down)Italian
cantando singingItalian
cédez yield, relax the speedFrench
come as, similar to (eg. come prima, as before; come sopra, as above)Italian
doucesweetFrench
en dehors prominent (a direction to make a melody stand out)French
et andFrench
facileeasyItalian
fuoco fireItalian
giustoproper, exact (tempo giusto: in strict time)Italian
l'istessothe same (eg. l'istesso tempo: at the same speed)Italian
légèrementlightFrench
lent slowFrench
mais butFrench
modéréat a moderate speedFrench
moins lessFrench
morendo dying awayItalian
niente nothingItalian
nobilmente noblyItalian
non notFrench
perdendosi dying awayItalian
peulittleFrench
plus moreFrench
possibile possible (eg. presto possibile: as fast as possible)Italian
presserhurry (en pressant: hurrying on)French
quasias if, resemblingItalian
ralentirslow downFrench
retenuheld back (en retenant: holding back, slowing a little)French
sans withoutFrench
sonororesonant, with rich toneItalian
sopra aboveItalian
sotto below (sotto voce: in an undertone)Italian
très veryFrench
un, uneoneFrench
veloceswiftItalian
viflivelyFrench
vite quickFrench
vocevoiceItalian





Some ideas and resources:

This link is a good one if you want to go through everything again.
(it approaches things in a different way and a different order to how we have done things in lessons so you may find it useful if you have missed lessons or if there are areas you have not understood).
Or you could through bits of it. It is full of exercises together with answers. There is a full practice Grade 5 theory paper on the site as well.

Italian Terms, Scale Degrees, dynamic markings, articulation markings, clefs: these are all things that are just a matter of learning... You could get together with a class mate to test one another or  make cue cards for yourself...

Scales: all the information you need is on the blog. I think the best way of revising this is just to practise writing them all out. With and without key signatures. You may wish to fill in a blank circle of fifths like we did in the lesson. You can find one here. You might want to practise writing out chromatic scales as well.

Chords: again, writing them out would be useful. Make sure you have read and understood the information on inversions.

Intervals: I would recommend that you work out a method that is going to work for you! This could be working it out from major scales or counting semitones.


You can buy past papers from various places if you want to practise and gain more familiarity with the format.

Term 3, Lesson 12 and 13 - Friday 9th and Monday 12th June

During these lessons we worked on a past Grade 5 paper.

We came across three things that have either not been covered or not in a great deal of detail.


1) Tuplets

We have already come across the triplet which means 3 in the time of 2. There are other similar things, which are nicknamed "tuplets"

2. Duplets: 2 in the time of 3
3. Triplets: 3 in the time of 2
4. Quadruplets: 4:3
5. Quintuplets: 5:4
6. Sextuplets: 6:4
7. Septuplets: 7:4
8. Octuplets: 8:6
9. Nontuplets. 9:8



2) Compound Intervals

These are intervals bigger than an octave. 

Hopefully the image below is self-explanatory. "Major 9th" and "compound major 2nd" are equally correct so you could use either in an exam unless they state otherwise.

Remember: because a 9th is a compound 2nd, it should be described similarly as major, minor, augmented or diminished.





3) Pedal Markings

This link has some excellent stuff on piano pedals and how they are notated (alongside lots of other excellent stuff on notation generally)

Friday, 2 June 2017

Term 3, Lessons 10 and 11 - Friday 2nd and Monday 5th June

Composition

At Grade 5 you have to write an 8-bar melody. You have a choice between writing for voice (where you are just given some words and you set them to music) or writing for a specific instrument (where you are given a phrase and asked to continue it. I would recommend the latter, as I think you should find it easier but it is, of course, up to you.


Here is an excellent "formula" for melodic composition in Grade 5 theory.

Here is a very thorough tutorial.

And here are some practice exercises

Friday, 19 May 2017

Term 3 - Lessons 8 and 9 - Friday 19th and Monday 22nd May

NB: no lesson on Friday (or Monday which is the bank holiday!) Thereafter, lessons will continue as normal.


Ornaments


Here are all the ornaments you need to know for Grade 5 theory.
(ignore all the stuff about Italian/French words - we're dealing with that separately - see below)



This illustration of a trill is more accurate than the one on the link above. It also demonstrates different ways in which the trill could be interpreted. (Please bear in mind, the trill can start on either upper note or the note itself - i.e. the example above could start on an E).




In the exam, you will be expected to bits of a written out melody with the ornaments sign (which, if you think about it, should be much easier than doing the opposite - that comes up in Grade 6...)





Grade 3 Words


Here are the Grade 3 words. Learn them for Friday 2nd June when you will be tested!



ad libitum, ad libat choice, ie a passage may be played freely
adagiettorather slow, but faster than Adagio
agitato agitated
alla brevewith a minim beat
amorelove
amorosoloving
anima soul, spirit (eg. con anima - can mean with feeling or spirited)
animandobecoming more lively
animato animated, lively
ben well
briovigour (eg. con brio - with vigour, lively)
comodocomfortable/convenient (tempo comodo - at a comfortable speed)
decisowith determiniation
delicatodelicate
energico energetic
forza force
largamentebroadly
leggierolight, nimble
marcato, marc.emphatic, accented
marzialein a military style
mesto sad
pesante heavy
prima, primofirst
risolutobold, strong
ritmicorhythmically
rubato, tempo rubato with some freedom of time
scherzando, scherzosoplayful, joking
seconda, secondosecond
semplice simple, plain
semprealways/throughout
stringendogradually getting faster
subito (sub.)suddenly
tanto so much
tranquillocalm
triste, tristamentesad, sorrowful
voltatime/instance (eg. prima volta - first time; seconda volta - second time)

Sunday, 14 May 2017

Term 3 - Lesson 7 - Monday 15th May

Good Morning.

Please continue with the transposition worksheet we started on Friday and submit it at the end of the lesson (either by handing it to Farz or leaving it in a pile at the front of the classroom).

Also, Group B (and Group C if I'm not back by then) should be submitting their "General Exercises" worksheet. (Group A: you have until Friday).


On the transposition worksheet:

For the exercises where you are transposing by an octave, make sure you think about where Middle C is. If you do that, it should be very straightforward.

For the exercises where you have to transpose by a Major 2nd or a Minor 3rd, look at my list of instructions on how to transpose.

Please note: where you are given the Clarinet (or trumpet) in B flat part, you need to transpose down a major 2nd. Where they want you to write the Clarinet in B flat part, you need to transpose up a major 2nd. Similarly, go down a Minor 3rd to transpose from the Clarinet in A part and up a Minor 3rd to transpose to a Clarinet in A part.(You won't have to work this out in the exam - they tell you the transposition you have to do).

Friday, 12 May 2017

Term 3 - Lesson 6 - Friday 12th May

What happens if you don't want to start this on C?



Transposition



By now, you should be able to figure out key signatures. Here is the circle of fifths for you to use to check.

Here is my list of instructions on how to transpose.



You need to be clear on intervals. Revise this if necessary.




Transposing Instruments:

Basically, some instruments are not written at the pitch they actually sound!

For example, the Clarinet in B flat (which is the most common type of clarinet). If you play a C on a Clarinet in B flat, you will hear a B flat. In other words, it will sound a tone lower than it is written at.



Here are some of the common transposing instruments.

Here's an excellent wikipedia entry on transposing instruments.



This "Music Teacher" with, like, "Three Degrees" doesn't understand why we have transposing instruments:



Fortunately, "Mr Audio" does.