There isn't a winner for this months video submission yet so please, submit now while there is still time!
The contest is a video contest on musicians who want to show off their skills on camera. I will select a video and post it on here, Facebook, and Twitter with links back to your page. So if you want to be advertised, then come on a post a video of you playing your instrument!
Tuesday, May 29, 2012
Sunday, May 27, 2012
Episode 5: Dynamic Contrast
Welcome back to the blog, now with a new title and new series that you should take a look at in your free time. However, today's lesson is on dynamics and their importance. Dynamics is the volume of a note or series of a notes. Traditionally, volume is ranged from a Forte (f) to Piano (p). Forte means to play loudly, while piano means to play quietly. The range is controlled by either instantly changing music from being loud to soft and vice versa, or with a Crescendo (<) or a Decrescendo (>), which means going from one dynamic to the other Gradually. You can also write music as a crescendo from a piano to a forte or as a decrescendo from a forte to a piano. Just keep in mind that you need to keep the change within the style that you are playing, like a forte can't blast everyone's eardrums if you are playing a song that just needs to be under another part, but you need to play loud enough to be heard well.
Now, later on in music we move onto and see mf (Mezzo Forte) and mp (Mezzo Piano). Mezzo means to play moderately, or slightly less than (or more than) the dynamic. So for example, a mf would be read as a slightly less than forte, so you play under forte. For mp you should think it is moderately piano, so slightly louder than a piano. Finally, we get to extreme dynamics which are Fortissimo (and above) and Pianissimo (and below). Fortissimo, or ff, is the loudest you can get without making the tone sound bad.
Wednesday, May 23, 2012
How to Practice: Episode 2 - Using YouTube and Recordings
Welcome Bach everyone! Today's tip of the day is on how to use YouTube and other forms of recording to your advantage. Teachers will not normally agree with this tip because watching the video too many times may go against what he or she is trying to teach. For example, search "Bach Cello Suite No. 1 Prelude" and look at how many results you get. Think about how many variants there are in each performance, because no two people will play it the exact same. However if you use this the way I believe is the best way to do, you will increase efficiency in your practicing.
YouTube has now become a world wide business for almost anything you want to see. You can go on there and search for videos on the "Traxxas Rustler" and find several thousand videos (When searched on 5/23/12, I found 13,900!), and as stated above if you search for "Bach Cello Suite No. 1 Prelude" you will find a large number of people preforming it (On 5/23/12 there was 4,720). Keywords does make a difference, however that's a topic for the end of the lesson. Anyways, as I said, when you search for Bach's Prelude from Suite No. 1, you see there are almost 5,000 performances of that song alone, and rarely does the same video get re-posted, so the overall possibilities are varied greatly. One person could begin with the first phrase (the phrase almost everyone recognizes when someone starts playing) very well, but make a small mistake in the second phrase. Then take another video and that person might play it very well throughout, but not stick to the stylistics perfectly throughout. There are many possible differences, and that is the 1st reason why this is a good way to practice: Find a couple recordings that suit either how you imagine the piece to sound or how your teacher thinks it should sound and begin listening to them constantly.
The more you listen to a piece, the more familiar you feel when you see the sheet music. Just picking up the sheet music, you can see how "insane" it looks, or how much of a push in mental and physical level that the piece will push you but unless you already know the piece the sheet music will look a little foreign. It's like when you go to a new school: You can see from the outside of the building that there are few classes, or many classes in the building. You can also tell when you get inside the same thing, but you see more than you did before, but until you actually walk around the school and see for yourself where everything is and know where you should be, the place is pretty much foreign territory to you. The same applies to music. You hear Prelude and you hear that there is a lot going on, but the melody is pretty straight forward. When you get the sheet music however, you see that there is a whole lot more to the sheet music than you anticipated (most people don't know that the piece is almost entirely 16th notes). But just from hearing you know that it is fairly simple to learn.
Another advantage of this tip is when you see some people playing the music, it helps develop fingerings and articulations you may or may not have thought about using before. For example, watch someone preform the Haydn Cello Concerto No. 1, and see how many possible fingerings there are for some of the actual performance. Same rule applies to articulations, if someone wasn't aware that Haydn was from the Classical time period and thought he was from the Baroque era, the articulations of his music would be entirely different. However, by listening to the music you can tell that he wasn't from the Baroque era.
Remember that this is no substitute for practicing, this is simply a tool to make practicing easier, and more efficient.
YouTube has now become a world wide business for almost anything you want to see. You can go on there and search for videos on the "Traxxas Rustler" and find several thousand videos (When searched on 5/23/12, I found 13,900!), and as stated above if you search for "Bach Cello Suite No. 1 Prelude" you will find a large number of people preforming it (On 5/23/12 there was 4,720). Keywords does make a difference, however that's a topic for the end of the lesson. Anyways, as I said, when you search for Bach's Prelude from Suite No. 1, you see there are almost 5,000 performances of that song alone, and rarely does the same video get re-posted, so the overall possibilities are varied greatly. One person could begin with the first phrase (the phrase almost everyone recognizes when someone starts playing) very well, but make a small mistake in the second phrase. Then take another video and that person might play it very well throughout, but not stick to the stylistics perfectly throughout. There are many possible differences, and that is the 1st reason why this is a good way to practice: Find a couple recordings that suit either how you imagine the piece to sound or how your teacher thinks it should sound and begin listening to them constantly.
The more you listen to a piece, the more familiar you feel when you see the sheet music. Just picking up the sheet music, you can see how "insane" it looks, or how much of a push in mental and physical level that the piece will push you but unless you already know the piece the sheet music will look a little foreign. It's like when you go to a new school: You can see from the outside of the building that there are few classes, or many classes in the building. You can also tell when you get inside the same thing, but you see more than you did before, but until you actually walk around the school and see for yourself where everything is and know where you should be, the place is pretty much foreign territory to you. The same applies to music. You hear Prelude and you hear that there is a lot going on, but the melody is pretty straight forward. When you get the sheet music however, you see that there is a whole lot more to the sheet music than you anticipated (most people don't know that the piece is almost entirely 16th notes). But just from hearing you know that it is fairly simple to learn.
Another advantage of this tip is when you see some people playing the music, it helps develop fingerings and articulations you may or may not have thought about using before. For example, watch someone preform the Haydn Cello Concerto No. 1, and see how many possible fingerings there are for some of the actual performance. Same rule applies to articulations, if someone wasn't aware that Haydn was from the Classical time period and thought he was from the Baroque era, the articulations of his music would be entirely different. However, by listening to the music you can tell that he wasn't from the Baroque era.
Remember that this is no substitute for practicing, this is simply a tool to make practicing easier, and more efficient.
Thursday, May 17, 2012
Comments:
Leave me some comments about what you guys think! Suggestions, tips, opinions! All is valid, as long as it's kept PG-13!
Wednesday, May 16, 2012
How to Practice: Episode 1 - Start Slow
Hello everyone, and welcome to my new series on how to practice. There are many students who are wonderful musicians but don't know what it is like to practice a piece in a way that is easy, and effective, and that is why they don't practice as much as they should. So, in order to fight that urge (and yes, being a high school student heading off to college soon, I know how boring it is to practice at times!) I am starting a series to help people fight that urge and hopefully make you or your student(s) better musicians.
The most common problem I see as a cellist is people don't want to take music under tempo. If the piece is written at a presto, we as students want to preform the piece at that tempo or faster. So my advice to you is to slow it down! You don't need to have the tempo mastered when you are sight reading the for the first time (unless your in a competition and you must). Reducing the tempo will save you not only you stress, but will make you a better musician. By slowing it down when your learning the piece, you get to see the notes that normally might miss, or miss the stylistics that you need for a piece.
Music is about more than just going through a piece and hitting every note and hitting every dynamic. You need to respect the style of the piece (you can't play something Baroque in the same style you would play something like Metallica!), and should respect articulations (you shouldn't play something legato that should be spiccato or vice versa!). Practicing slowly helps improve those qualities of the music and makes more effect on less time.
The best way to tell what tempo you should take a piece is slow it down to the point that it doesn't sound like what you've heard or what the tempo is written as. Run through the piece multiple times at that tempo and do the following: 1st focus on the note accuracy; make sure you can play every note at that tempo and the pitch is correct. 2nd focus on the articulations and bowing/breath markings and enforce those because they are there to make the piece easier or to sound a certain way that the composer likes. Finally focus on the stylistics if there is a style listed.
After you have completed that several times and feel comfortable speeding up, then do so slowly. Only make tempo jumps in increments of no more than 5 BPM (beats per minute). This insures you are sure you know what you are playing. This process is a long way, however the payoff is you are creating beautiful music. There will be times this will be cumbersome, annoying, and possibly time consuming but I promise this is the way professional musicians like to practice.
If you have any questions about the material in any of my other series, anything music or what to see something else, send me a message on Twitter (@sulliadm), over Facebook (sulliadm) Google+ (sulliadm) or send me an email. If you liked what you are reading, or want me to continue with the series share my articles. It would be greatly appreciated!
The most common problem I see as a cellist is people don't want to take music under tempo. If the piece is written at a presto, we as students want to preform the piece at that tempo or faster. So my advice to you is to slow it down! You don't need to have the tempo mastered when you are sight reading the for the first time (unless your in a competition and you must). Reducing the tempo will save you not only you stress, but will make you a better musician. By slowing it down when your learning the piece, you get to see the notes that normally might miss, or miss the stylistics that you need for a piece.
Music is about more than just going through a piece and hitting every note and hitting every dynamic. You need to respect the style of the piece (you can't play something Baroque in the same style you would play something like Metallica!), and should respect articulations (you shouldn't play something legato that should be spiccato or vice versa!). Practicing slowly helps improve those qualities of the music and makes more effect on less time.
The best way to tell what tempo you should take a piece is slow it down to the point that it doesn't sound like what you've heard or what the tempo is written as. Run through the piece multiple times at that tempo and do the following: 1st focus on the note accuracy; make sure you can play every note at that tempo and the pitch is correct. 2nd focus on the articulations and bowing/breath markings and enforce those because they are there to make the piece easier or to sound a certain way that the composer likes. Finally focus on the stylistics if there is a style listed.
After you have completed that several times and feel comfortable speeding up, then do so slowly. Only make tempo jumps in increments of no more than 5 BPM (beats per minute). This insures you are sure you know what you are playing. This process is a long way, however the payoff is you are creating beautiful music. There will be times this will be cumbersome, annoying, and possibly time consuming but I promise this is the way professional musicians like to practice.
If you have any questions about the material in any of my other series, anything music or what to see something else, send me a message on Twitter (@sulliadm), over Facebook (sulliadm) Google+ (sulliadm) or send me an email. If you liked what you are reading, or want me to continue with the series share my articles. It would be greatly appreciated!
Saturday, May 12, 2012
DrawSomething account and new contest
As of today, I have created a DrawSomething Account (sulliadm) and I wanting to take on some people at the game. I am considering a contest where if you can beat me 3 times in a row at the game I will advertise whatever blog, or youtube channel you want for a month until the next month's contest. So, shoot me a challenge on there and let's get drawing!
Wednesday, May 9, 2012
Video of the Month - Contest Results Preface!
This is the new series I will start up by picking a viewer submitted video of them playing an instrument and post it to here! Contest will be updated every 1st Friday of the month (after today) and the winner will get to have his or her video shared on my Facebook, Twitter, Youtube, and on here! This month I picked the video from other cellist, and as those you are on my twitter know I am a big fan of Star Wars! So this month's video is ThePianoGuys "Cello Wars (Star Wars Parody) Lightsaber Duel". Hope everyone enjoys, and don't forget to find me on Twitter and Facebook!
Tuesday, May 8, 2012
Episode 4: Defining the Signatures
Hello, and welcome back to this week's episode on Sulliadm's Music Theory Blog! This week's lesson is explaining the two signatures: Time and Key signatures.
First, we will start with the key signature. The Key Signature of music is what we use to tell what sharps or flats should be used in the piece. For example, we can have 2 sharps in the key of D, or the key of F has 1 flat. The way to know what key we are in is by learning The Order of Sharps and The Order of Flats. The Order of Sharps are F#, C#, G#, D#, A#, E#, B#, and the easiest way to remember the keys is to go up a half step from the sharp. Using my example above, the key of D uses 2 sharps: F# and C#. Another common key to use is G, and it has one sharp: F#. In order to find the Order of flats, it is simply reversing that order. They are Bb, Eb, Ab, Db, Gb, Cb, and Fb. The way to remember the keys here is to go back one letter in the line. So, using the example above, the key of F has only one flat, Bb. The key of Eb major has 3 flats: Bb, Eb and Ab.
Now, we will discuss time signatures. The Time Signature is the division of music that divides the number of beats by what note value gets the beat. As previously stated, every note can be subdivided. A quarter note can be split into 2 eighth notes, and similarly two quarter notes can be combined into a half note. Now the time signature tells you how many of what note can go within a measure. Commonly used time signatures are 4/4, 3/4. and 6/8. To simplify that, 4/4 time means there are four notes in a measure and the quarter note gets the beat. 6/8 means there are 6 notes in each measure while the eighth note gets the beat. There are unusual time signatures as well, such as 5/8, 7/4, and 2.5/4. Those are very rare to come by however it is just as simple to understand how to count.
Friday, May 4, 2012
How to Better My Site?
I was wanting people to let me know how can I make my blog better. If you think you have an idea, comment it below, or follow the links I've posted around the page to Facebook, Twitter, Google+ or more classically shoot me an email! However for every comment you make, I would like for you to forward my homepage URL to at least 15 people. Make it into a chain message, or a chain text message... It doesn't matter but just get the word about my page to as many people as you can! I want to continue doing this blog, and expand into a music critique sight as well but I need more views in order for me to take away from my busy schedule (heading off to college in a few months!) and make these post every week or so. So don't be afraid to make a comment on my page, just spread the word! Please!
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