Check out my new blog about analyzing metal and classical music. Short but possibly informative!
http://aboutmusiclessons.blogspot.com/2010/04/metal-analysis.html
Posts Tagged music lessons
Glossary of Musical Terms
Mar 26
Check out my new Glossary of Musical Terms!
It is an expanding list of musical and music-business related terms. It has brief, yet concise definitions of important words. Not everything will be here as we already have dictionaries for those terms.
There are often many definitions for a word and I will mainly list a musically-oriented, simple definition or two for each one. Sometimes simple is good! (As time goes on I will be adding more involved and more in-depth definitions that you can access by clicking on words that are hyper-linked.)
The main focus is musical terms that are commonly mis-understood, or should be known by anyone playing or studying music.
I just started this project in March or 2010 and it will be expanding over the next few months. If there is anything you need a definition for let me know.
Balancing a Music Lesson
Nov 5
My last student of the night was Mike on guitar. It ended up being a perfect example of aligning his lesson to his goals, and I wanted to share that with you.
He came to his lesson feeling good about what he had practiced that week. He looked happy, but not REAL happy, so I dug into his “head” to see where he was at.
He was tracking with what he was learning, but really needed the scales and chords and technical stuff to directly relate to a particular song and we hadn’t done that yet. Fine. So I had him pull out his iPhone and play me a few songs he liked, picked one that was in the same “key” as something that was on his lesson and said, “Let’s apply everything tho this song.”
He said, “Great!”
Well… I related everything on his lesson to some part of the song: the theory, chords, rhythm and ear training. Then I taught him the opening guitar lick… and he blew out.
Super happy.
That’s how I like to end a lesson!
MB
The purpose of practicing is to gain control over some element of music, whether ear training, technique or an isolated passage or riff. Part of gaining control is eliminating hesitations, jerkiness and uncertainty. The goal is having complete “ownership” over what you are doing: you want to “know” that thing in and out.
For ear training, chose the speed that allows you to listen, duplicate and understand what you are hearing. Repetition and focus are key. You might need to play and listen to something hundreds of times before really getting it, and you will improve to the degree you are focused. When you are focused you are “there.” Only when you are there can you duplicate or learn something.
I believe that people are natively creative and original: taking lessons should increase your originality rather then blunt it. (After all, there is only one you!)
Quality music instruction promotes understanding, practical skill, creativity, thinking on your own and fully expressing yourself. The more freely you express your ideas, concepts and feelings the more original you will be. Anything that inhibits your personal expression can blunt your creativity, therefore ruin your originality.
In my twenty-eight years of teaching I have found that students who had little success with music lessons probably experienced one or more of the following:
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This post is an answer to a question a friend asked me the other day.
“A music copyist prepares written music for performance. A copyist gets the music written down on paper in a fashion that the musicians can easily read.”
Here are some of the jobs a copyist has:
Preparing music for singers: Singers need correct charts of their songs to hand out to musicians. A music copyist works with the singer to make sure their music is written out the way they need. There are many ways to write charts, and a copyist can determine what the singer needs. i.e., piano? full band? style? With good charts, the singer hands the musicians the music, and it’s played the way they want with no guess work! (One of my main gigs as a copyist is helping singers get their books together.)
Working from a score: A composer creates a score (music with all the instruments on it) and the copyist “extracts” each part of the score and prepares it for each instrument. E.g., he’ll take each individual part and make it look great for each player, such as the violin, viola, flute, etc.
Proofreading: A copyist has both the score and the individual parts, compares them and makes sure that everything is correct.
Transcribing: Someone has a recording and wants the music written down. The copyist listens to the music and writes it down in whatever form the client needs. (See my post on “The Seven Different Types of Written Music” and you’ll get the full picture.)
Copyrighting: The copyist listens to the song and writes down the melody, lyrics, chords and form. This “chart” is registered with the Library of Congress for copyright protection.
There are Music Preparation Houses in major cities. In Los Angeles there are mainly two or three large facilities that handle all the chart writing for the movie and TV networks. Freelance copyists are abundant and it’s largely a word-of-mouth business. I mainly get my copywork from people that I know, though occasionally I’ll advertise somewhere, like “Craigslist.com“, and get some new clients. I have some occasional overflow work from the main offices, but my clients mainly consist of original artists wanting their music transcribed and charted well, and singers wanting their songs put in their key and arranged the way they want.
The main two computer programs used in the business are “Finale” and “Sibelius.” Finale has been the standard for years, though Sibelius has become a tough competitor. (I’m a Sibelius guy.)
The main ways to start working as a copyist are:
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The most fascinating thing about teaching, is how different everyone is. Different levels of alertness, interest, ability and aesthetic levels.
There are two main categories of teaching that I apply: pure enhancement and correction.
Pure Enhancement
I guess you can call this straight-ahead teaching. I know what the student want’s to do and I show him the skills needed to accomplish that.
Correction
Though there are various levels of correction possible, this mainly entails fixing up any bad habits or incomplete knowledge or skills a person could have. For example: I had a guitar student once who had developed some really bad picking technique and wanted to fix it. Another student didn’t understand what she was playing on the piano and kept on getting confused in the middle of songs. I just needed to fill in her theory holes.
I could go on and on.
In following through with this post topic, people respond in all different ways. Some are resistive, some gladly accept whatever I give them to do, while others learn so fast they end up teaching me something!
And people have asked me If I ever get bored teaching? I don’t think so.
Student’s have cried when they didn’t like some music they wrote, or rejoiced from playing something perfectly.
I could on and on, but it’s time for dinner.
What kind of student have you been?
Marty B.
Personalized Music Lessons
Singer Success!
Aug 9
