Music through the Ages Exploration Engages Students

This year, my students are exploring a different genre of music every month. Sometimes, it's a quick study. Sometimes it's just a case of listening to a CD or watching youtube and then discussing the music afterward. My student Namitha calls our exploration, "Music through the Ages". Last month, we explored the Classical period. Their comments on the music were colourful, ranging from "it sounds like someone's being chased" during Beethoven's 5th Symphony to "it sounds happy yet sad" for Mozart's Rondo alla Turk. The intermediate students have started to notice patterns that are similar to their pieces (sonata allegro form, anyone?).

This month, I've fast forwarded the timeline to the present for them to explore pop, rock and country. One student classified Carrie Underwood as "country", while the next day, one classified her as "pop". We listened to a couple of her songs and I asked them to tell me what madeJust a Dream more country than Cowboy Cassanova. A similar scenario happened with Taylor Swift.

(FYI: my students said it was the instrumentation and drum groove used that differentiated the styles).

After listening to The Beatles, I asked my student Tess what she thought of song and the style. "What am I supposed to say?" she asked me.

"The truth," I replied. "Did you like it? Love it? Hate it? Doesn't make you feel anything?"

She discovered that it doesn't make her feel anything and that it's a style she'll probably stay away from.

A few days later, I learned that young Gabe loves the 80s band Journey ("They're just cool!").

That's what it's all about for me, showing them what's out there. I hope by the end of the year, they will have a better idea of just how wide and diverse music is and along the way, find out what they would like to explore further (or avoid like the plague). If their active listening skills improve along the way as we discuss melody, timbre, rhythm, form and texture - all the better!

(c) 2009 by Musespeak(tm), Calgary, AB, Canada. All rights reserved.

Music - medicine for the heart, mind and soul

Thank you to my friend and colleague Sharon Omura for sharing this with me. This is the Welcome Address that Karl Paulnack, Director of Music Division at the Boston Conservatory delivered to students and their parents in 2004.It's a moving speech on why art matters and more specifically, why music matters. There are many quotes I like in his speech. This is just one of them:

"If we were a medical school, and you were here as a med student practicing appendectomies, you'd take your work very seriously because you would imagine that some night at two AM someone is going to waltz into your emergency room and you're going to have to save their life. Well, my friends, someday at 8 PM someone is going to walk into your concert hall and bring you a mind that is confused, a heart that is overwhelmed, a soul that is weary. Whether they go out whole again will depend partly on how well you do your craft. "

He shared a touching story about the most important concert of his life, which took place in a nursing home in a small Midwestern town a few years ago. A war veteran came to him after hearing Aaron Copland's Sonata and said, "How does the music do that? How did it find those feelings and those memories in me?" The piece brought back one particular memory regarding a fellow pilot. Only afterwards did the war vet learn that the piece was dedicated to a fallen pilot who fought in WWII.

Click here to go to Karl Paulnak's speech.

Here's the videos of the piece that moved the war veteran:

The second movement especially makes the heart weep.

If you'd like to add Copland's Sonata for Violin and Piano to your music collection, click on the image below:

Now if you'd like to learn this piece, check it out here:

look inside

The Copland Violin Collection 13 Pieces for Violin and Piano. Composed by Aaron Copland (1900-1990). Boosey & Hawkes Chamber Music. Classical. Softcover. 126 pages. Boosey & Hawkes #M051105786. Published by Boosey & Hawkes (HL.48019947).

Piano Fight

Although not quite as violent as the Violin Death Fight posted on The Collaborative Piano Blog, this is still pretty funny.

(c) 2009 by Musespeak(tm), Calgary, AB, Canada. All rights reserved.

May 2008 Music Celebrity of the Month

May's Music Celebrity of the Month is Max Steiner. Steiner was an Austrian-American film composer who scored the soundtracks to Gone With the Wind and King Kong:

He was an Academy Award winner who lived from May 10, 1888 - December 28, 1971.

(c) 2008 by Musespeak(tm), Calgary, AB, Canada. All rights reserved.

If you'd like to learn more about Max Steiner, check out this book:

April 2008 Music Celebrity of the Month

It's been such a crazy month, filled with music festival preparations that the April Music Celebrity blog almost fell by the wayside. This month's music celebrity is American jazz composer, pianist and band leader Duke Ellington. He lived from April 29, 1899 - May 24, 1974. A few of my students are studying some of his works. "It Don't Mean a Thing" is the popular choice among the group.

If you'd like to add the Duke to your music collection, check out these albums by clicking on the image below:

If you'd like to learn "It Don't Mean a Thing" or any of the Duke's other songs, head to Sheetmusicplus.com and choose which version you want.

(c) 2008 by Musespeak(tm), Calgary, AB, Canada. All rights reserved.