Caitlin's AP/Theory Weblog

Major/Minor

2008-02-12T13:52:00.001-08:00

Yesterday I practiced playing and singing major and all forms of minor on the piano and with solfege. I have a little trouble with natural minor--finding where te is from le, and from do to te. Working on it.

Harry Potter, Harry Potter, that's me!

2007-12-06T20:58:00.000-08:00

So, yesterday I analyzed the rhythm for the Potter Puppet Pals video. Hermione and Harry were the tricky ones, I have to say.

I enjoyed the YMCA game, and the cadence game in class today. I feel like I have definitely honed my cadence recognition. However, the melodic dictation was somewhat of a disaster for me. I was completely wrong on the entire thing. Great. So, that is something I need to work on.

Species Counterpoint Duets

2007-11-27T12:17:00.001-08:00

Today, before our Species Counterpoint duets, Brooke, Courtney and I practiced the Aeolian example from species 4. We tried singing the Cantus Firmus a few times, then the counterpoint line. Then two of us would sing one part and one sing the other, till we had all taken a turn singing alone and holding the part. We then practiced in pairs. All in all a productive practice session, which proved very helpful for the duet exam today.

mm....counterpoint

2007-10-31T14:44:00.001-07:00

I sang through the examples on the counterpoint sight-singing handout, and then played them on the piano. Not too hard. Fixed do is something I need to get more comfortable with(and the C clefs) but I'm working on it. I'm really liking species 4. . .suspension is fun. See everyone in class.

Assignment 3.8

2007-10-08T13:17:00.000-07:00

So today I worked on Assignment 3.8 for the Keyboard. I played all major, minor and perfect intervals above Middle C. I then went through and named each interval inverted and played those. This is being reinforced by piano class, but it is also really helpful to visualize the interval on the piano, and not just see it on the staff.

Gotta run, packing calls!

Scales! Yes!

2007-09-26T20:14:00.000-07:00

So I just spent about 15 minutes working with the scale trainer on musictheory.net and I think the minor scales are finally clicking in my ear. At first the only one I could definitely identify was the harmonic minor, but once I slowed down and listened for the descending scale, I was easily able to distinguish between natural minor and melodic minor. I know, the 6th and 7th scale degrees will tell me, but something was not clicking before tonight. Happy sight-singing!

Solfege and the Pentatonic Scale

2007-09-23T18:22:00.000-07:00

So continuing the work we did in class on Thursday, I have been working on my solfege (page 137 in the Krueger) with the pentatonic scale. Do-re-do do -re-mi-re-do, etc. all the way up to fa. I've also been working on the arpeggios(do-mi-so-mi-do-so-do) I've practiced for about 20 minutes today. I'm not having much trouble at all with it. Next I'll practice the exercises in thirds(do-mi, re-fa, mi-so, so-mi, fa-re, mi-do). See everyone in class!

Music Theory [dot] net

2007-09-19T20:15:00.000-07:00

So, tonight I went on to musictheory.net and played around with the interval trainer. . . for 45 minutes. It is seriously a lot of fun, especially if you have someone else guessing with you. I find I am really good at recognizing unisons and octaves(of course) and surprisingly at Minor 2nds, Perfect 4ths and Major 7ths. However, as hard as I tried, I never got a 6th correct. I always think it's minor when it's major, or vice versa. It is kind of discouraging when your score is like 41%(darn Tritones. . .)

See everyone in class. Happy sight-singing!

Blog is up and running!

2007-09-11T21:44:00.000-07:00

Hey guys. I don't have much time to blog tonight, but I'm happy to report my blog is up and running.