Poster's Perspective: Music According to Anu Pattabiraman

Dear Music,

I know I don’t do this enough, so I want to take the time to thank you for all the ways in which you enrich my life. To those who don’t know you as well as I do, you may seem like little more than a cryptic pattern of black lines, circles, and squiggles on a page – but I know you are so much more. Here are some of the gifts you have given me over the years:

Persistence: You seemed so hard to tackle, sometimes, but through all the nights you kept me from mastering you unless I slowed down, picked you apart, and practiced you over and over till I spoke the strokes on your pages, you taught me persistence. Whenever I face a challenge, I know now to slow down, pick apart the pieces, and put them back together, with the faith that what I produce will be more beautiful than the ugly challenge it originally was.

Expression: On all those days I was feeling down, the ones on which I felt elated, and the ones where I was melancholy, nostalgic, or pensive, you provided me with a way to express what I couldn’t find the words to say. Regardless of whether there was someone to speak to, I knew there was someone through which my feelings could speak.

Mentors: I needed people to help me explore your depths and innumerable nuances – people who knew you better than I did. The teachers you provided gave me the courage to challenge myself to understand your intricacies, when I would not have had the bravery, energy, or wherewithal to do so on my own. To this day, they remain my closest advisors, whom I can always reach out to for wisdom, courage, or inspiration.

Friends: My closest friends are ones I’ve made through translating your miniscule black strokes into great symphonies and choruses on grand stages. You showed me the bonds that could be forged between people when they listen and respond to each other, when they emote together, and when they each contribute their own small piece to a masterful work of art.

Contribution: You have enabled me to bring joy to countless lives through communicating your beauty to others: to my family, to the sick, to the elderly, to children, and to any who pause their lives to come to a concert and hear something they have not heard before. The gift you have given me to bring meaning into other people’s lives is the one I most cherish.

Growth: Somehow, you continue to surprise me with the infinite forms you can take. From piano, to cello, to voice; from classical, to jazz, to musicals; from world-renowned stages, to weddings, to coffee shops; from my neighbors’ houses, to the local church, to the streets, there seems to be no end to the places where you pop up, and the places where you take me.

I’ve enjoyed our journey so far, Music; so take my hand, and lead me to wherever you choose to take me next. I will gladly follow.

Yours,

Anu Pattabiraman

Alto and Co-Author, Hit Me With Music

Boston, MA

Poster's Perspective: Music According to Elizabeth Davis

Hello. It's an honor and a pleasure to be asked to submit to this special anniversary week at the blog. For those of you who haven't met me yet, I'm Beth, a cellist and composer living in Columbia, MD, playing in a few of the community orchestras between Baltimore and Washington, DC. When Adam asked if I'd like to write an a article on the theme, celebrating the blog's anniversary and sharing my music experiences, I jumped at the chance.

In a word, music to me means collaboration - from joining a community orchestra when moving to a new town to composition projects that literally span the globe. More about that in a minute.

From my earliest school days in the choir to the orchestra concert I played in last weekend, I have always thrilled to be part of a greater whole. Nothing quite compares to slipping into the gestalt of seventy-odd people converging under the maestro's baton into that perfect moment when it all comes together. Whether it's the ethereal shimmering of a solo woodwind whispering above the muted strings or the enthusiastic, almost tribal rhythm pounding out in the low brass and percussion, being up in the middle of it, playing as a part of the whole, is an experience that you just wont get listening from the audience. And it doesn't just happen overnight. Every practice we have adds to the cohesive connectivity and reinforces musical and friendly bonds.

Music is also a way I can plug in to a new community. I've had to move many times following my spouse to new jobs in new states. And every time we resettle, one of the first things I do is find a local group I can join. I've yet to wind up somewhere that DIDN'T have a community orchestra nearby. Joining gives me an instant community of fellows who also love playing and I'll often end up playing in other chamber groups with members as well. My current string quartet for instance includes the orchestra's 2nd chair first violin and the principal violist who also conducts the ballet where I am now principal cellist. I even work as program assistant for a non-profit that will be playing a concert in Alexandria, VA this summer and Argentina next fall.

I'm currently in the middle of a project that has grown into quite a collaborative effort. It first started when I told one of the dancers where I was playing in the pit that I'd write a ballet for him. It has now grown to not only be slated to be performed by that ballet school and orchestra, but also be recorded by a youth orchestra on the other side of the country with a conductor who works predominantly with Czech ensembles (the conductor was a fellow student at college, he put me in touch with the youth orchestra director). My video editor is a high schooler I met through a fan base for The Piano Guys; my text editor is someone I used to play Dungeons & Dragons with when she was a teenager who now teaches creative writing in Michigan and wrote a poem I am currently setting to music for a tenor who works in Munich, Germany. You can find out more about this project HERE (http://kck.st/OuRmsh)

Finally, as Faith noted Sunday, music is family. These days I get to collaborate with music family members I would have never met without having music so much in my life.

Elizabeth Skola Davis

Practice Tip #4: Don't Forget to Write in the Music

Hello everyone, Sulli here with a very late post! Wasn't trying to have it this late but I've been having more difficulties with technology and some personal issues, so let's cut the chit chat into one sentence: Subscribe and follow please!

Now, as the name of this article suggests there are musicians who think writing in music hinders more than it helps, and I'm here to say that it should be reconsidered. Writing stuff down helps keep thoughts in our memories. Writing something down on its own will help put it into your memory, but when it comes to writing in music you will also have something to help you practice with. You will have your notes in front of you while you practice, and shouldn't forget what you practice.

Of course, this isn't a requirement however is strongly encouraged. I use this a lot with my music as a way to help focus on what I'm learning, however everyone has their own way of learning. The reason I bring this up though, so some musicians haven't learned a way to practice and this would probably be my most recommended way to do that. However there are some rules to using this method, though they are simple.

First, ONLY write in PENCIL that can erase well. No pens, or erasable pen. Chances are if you use pen then you will make a mistake. When you make a mistake, especially on an original it will stick and replacing music is not cheap. The other is if you can write in a copy then do so. It will help extend the life of the original.

Composer's Vlog Ep. 3: Time to Take a Step Back for a Brief Moment

Welcome back to the 3rd installment of the Composer's Vlog. Sorry about the delay but this one was a bit of a tough one to edit this week because of a few bugs I had to deal with. Today's episode started out as a test for recording audio a new way, but wound up not working so sorry for the technical difficulties. However, I left the first full "rendering" of the song for you to enjoy at the end. Take a look at the video and let us know what you think. For those who actually read this, I'm starting season 2 soon without any more screw ups like I have in this season, so stay tuned for at least one more season of this show ;)

If you like what you've seen then leave a comment below and subscribe for more Composer's Vlog episodes.

Follow us at:

Facebook: www.facebook.com/sulliadm
Twitter: www.twitter.com/sulliadm
SoundCloud: www.soundcloud.com/asmusictheoryblog

How to Practice Episode 10: The Importance of Improvisation (Part 1)

Hey guys and welcome back to the next series of practicing episodes! Sorry about the delay on the episodes but I've been working on a surprise for the blog, so keep posted! Anyways, on to out next episode: The importance of improvisation. Now, to most classically trained musicians (those who are taught based off of classical literature or from classical methods such as learning through Suzuki or from a class) learn to read music and find their ways around it but don't look into improvisation or doing any kind of improvising. However, once the time comes to need that skill they don't know how.

Let's start off with what improvisation is. Improvisation; or improving as most people call it, is the art of playing music on the spot. So say someone gives you a chord (in case you need help remember or haven't learned anything about chords try looking at Episode 10 of the main series or click here), you play notes in that chord make a song. So say for example, someone plays a C and you want to write a "happy" sounding song revolving around a C major chord (C, E, G). Same thing applies for say writing a sad song and are given an A: write out a variation along a A minor chord.

Now let's take a step back and discuss the basics of a melody. Melody can be broken down into Rhythm, Timbre, and Contrast. Rhythm is the basic method of making a melody. Changing the rhythm of a series of notes can make a melody. So, for example taking any C and play it to a beat and (the most important part) vary the rhythm! Start out with two half notes for a few times, then move to quarters, eights, 16th and mix it up! Maybe play a 1 + a, 2 e + for a few bars then mix it up some. Make sure its how you feel because it makes a difference later down the road. Then add notes to the chord, in this case add an E to your C. Keep adding notes to the rhythm your constructing until you've built the chord out. The best way to learn how to improvise is with the use of 7th chords, which is my topic for next week's theory lesson.

Stay tuned for next week's episode as I finish explaining everything!

How to Practice Episode 9: Don't Forget the Pencil!!

How's it going guys? I hope my newest attempt at a meme was to your liking. If you want the link to it then click here. But as it says, we need to cover one of the biggest mistakes made by young musicians (including myself on numerous occasions), which is forgetting your pencil before you practice! It might seem like a waste of time to grab a pencil before you practice but in fact it is probably one of the best things to do when it comes to rehearsing.

The biggest mistake people take when it comes to practicing music is the lack of preparedness. It might come to a shock for some of you, but there is a large amount of thought that goes into preparing to practice. The first point one should realize is they won't remember every change they've made or the director has told us to make. We couldn't ever remember every change that's needed in music, unless someone's trained themselves to do that but that's not a very good idea to do. You can forget what changes you have made and wind up playing the piece wrong. Along with that, why would someone want to stress out more than you need to?

How to Practice Episode 8 : Don't freak out over a mistakes!

Hey guys! Sorry the page has been a little dry lately but final exams are just around the corner and I've been busy studying for them! I sense my older viewers are laughing right now but the younger ones don't get this at all but that's fine with me! Anyways today I am here to talk about one of the bigger hindrances to performing in front of a crowd or simply playing for your family around the holidays; the fear of making a mistake! This doesn't seem like that big a deal but it really does mess with your performance if you don't know the proper way to deal with this situation. Before I start talking about this topic, I wanted to announce a contest! I'll be giving away some Magic Rosin (3G and 3G Ultra) and some advertising space on here if you want to recommend your page to my viewers! I will post an official announcement after I talk out all the details and such. Also, for those who aren't aware, I do a vlogging series on Youtube and I am about to start a full video series on Finale! If you aren't aware of Finale, it's a program which you can write music in and I was thinking about doing a series on teaching the basics to it. If you are interested in the series or have ideas for me, then let me know by tweeting me on Twitter (@sulliadm), or join the Facebook Fan Page!

Now, have you ever felt very ill about playing to family or friends because you were afraid of messing up. Or have you ever been on stage to preform and felt stage freight from being afraid of messing up? I will admit that I had the exact same feel with my recital last Thursday and I got a good taste of what it's like to go through a mini panic attack from actually messing up... But there is a way around that. You have to learn how to continue playing after messing up. This might sound harder than it actually is because for the most part, it's all a mental state of thinking. You have to learn that messing up is just the way we are! We will make mistakes, but they shouldn't stop you in the middle of a performance. The big secret of music is, if you're playing to people who don't know the music as well as you do or are playing to people who aren't very "music savvy" then if you mess up then they probably won't notice. I'm not saying that you should mess up a song nor am I saying you shouldn't practice a piece and go on and mess it up! I'm saying if you mess up while playing a piece, then don't over react to it and either stop what you're doing or freak out on stage.

Here's an example from my personal life. For those who are new to the series, I am a freshman cellist @ Winthrop University. I've been studying with the cello professor there for a few years now  and she's been teaching me how to play the Saint Saens cello concerto #1 for around a year now. When one of the other cellist had to give a recital for the graduation requirements, she asked me if I would be interested in playing the first movement of the song for a "half recital" (a recital that doesn't count towards your graduation, but is more for fun and experience). Being the kind of person that I am (a little crazy but will take almost any opportunity to learn and grow), I decided it would be awesome to do it. I went through the usual feeling about the first time on stage "alone" would be good for my personality of being a little antisocial (which it did help). During the performance however, there was a disconnection in tempo in the middle of the song and we got off. When I noticed, I started to freeze up but I noticed I was near a break in my part so I kept going until the break and waited for my next entrance. After all was said and done, I talked to some friends outside who listened and said they only noticed my stopping because I was showing it.

It can be a difficult thing to learn, and there's not really a way to learn this skill besides experiencing it.

How to Practice Episode 7: Practice with a metronome

Hello guys and welcome back! I know that this is a fairly obvious thing but you would be surprised at how many people overlook this tip. Metronomes have been around before the times of Beethoven but they have gotten better over time. The reason why we use them is to make sure you're practicing at a constant tempo. One should learn a piece at a constant tempo even if it has stuff like accelerando or rubato and after learning it at the main tempo then add the accelerando, rubato or whatever changes the tempo. If you can't play it at the tempo given, then one should practice under the marking. The rule of thumb with myself when I'm practicing is if I'm having problems at the tempo listed I slow it down by 10 or the closest number to 10 below. Then so on until I have a tempo I can play it at well. Then I play it at that tempo until I have played it 5 times perfectly, which I then go to speed it up by the next marking on the metronome. I repeat that until I can get it back to the marked tempo and then a couple of clicks higher just in case the conductor starts the song off on the fast side.

I know this was a really short post but there isn't much I can say about this. If you liked it please follow the Facebook Fan Page (click here), the Twitter page (click here) or subscribe to the blog by email or RSS! I would like to get some people to start posting on the Facebook page about the music they use.

How to Practice Episode 6: The Pyramid of Music

Hello guys and welcome back! Today I have the next episode in the blog's how to practice series which is The Pyramid of Music. This is the basic idea of what to look for when sight reading music and what you should continuously have right when sight reading. This is most useful for students who are learning to sight read and to prevent students who tend to stop in the middle of songs in order to correct things. If you like this post then subscribe to the blog by following me on twitter, on the Facebook fan page or sharing the post by clicking the links at the bottom of this post!

Now, you may be wondering why is sight reading important and my answer for you is your musical life will be so much easier and practicing would be much more effective if you know how to. Say for example you were pressed to learn an etude of some sorts in a week. If you didn't know how to sight read then learning the study would be harder than you would want it to be. Now apply the same scenario from learning an etude in a week to learning your part in a symphony in about a month. The task is simpler knowing how to sight read than it is without knowing.

The more commonly used method in teaching sight reading is the term S.T.A.R.S which stands for Sharps and Flats in the key Signature, Time signature and tempo, Accidentals, Rhythm and Signs. If you would like to review this method more than here is a link to a view of using it. Learning this method will help with sight reading because it is focusing your attention on details that most people would have missed without looking for something. Now let's say you did this but the piece is too hard for you to simply sightread the piece. Here is where the Pyramid comes into play. This is a method I've been developing for a few years and it is a way to for you to know what can I drop if I need to. NEVER USE THIS IN A "JUST BECAUSE" MANNER.

Ok, now the first important thing that comes to music is you need to have the rhythm right and be able to count the time signature. The basis of all music throughout history is rhythm. Think about an indigenous culture from any place on the world, and how they used music to communicate using beats to create chants. This is the fundamental level of music and when sight reading this should be the first focus on what you're reading. If you can get this much right, you are on your way up the pyramid! Following this step the next level of importance is knowing what key your in and knowing how they fit into place with your music. Most music has some kind of central key that it fits around, which is identified by the key signature. You should be able to identify what key you're in and play according to that key. immediately following this is noticing the accidentals. If you spot accidentals when sight reading music then note them in your mind and make sure you play them when you go back over them. Finally you need to note anything else that you missed before hand which are articulations, bowings/breath marks, dynamics and anything else that wasn't mentioned. Finally the top of the pyramid is putting emotion into the piece.

So, as you have seen this is my pyramid idea for sight reading. As I've stated a few times before one shouldn't use it in everyday circumstances, only if your sight reading a piece that the director or  your instructor wants you to look through. I hope this helps you guys and I'm working on my next contest so stay tuned! And don't forget to follow me on twitter, facebook or by email and if you liked this post or any post then share it!

Episode 8: Understanding Intervals Part 1

Hello and welcome back to those who are returning, and welcome aboard for those of you who are new to the series! Sorry this took me so long to post but I've been loaded down with stuff and I sort of forgot about this episode. So after I made the episode for last week I read over it and found out you were suppose to read this a few months ago... So, here we are! We need to start getting down towards the heart of music, and start learning about intervals and why they are important to music. If you like this post is great then please share this by clicking the Facebook, Twitter or Google+ buttons at the bottom!

First off you need to know what an interval is. An interval is the distance between two notes. There are 8 basic intervals: A Unison (same note or C to C), a 2nd (C to D),  3rd (C to E), 4th (C to F), 5th (C to G) 6th (C to A), 7th (C to B) and an octave or 8th (C to higher C). This distance will work between any series of notes but I was using those as an example. A to F is still a 6th just like a G to an A is a 2nd.

There are three main qualities of intervals: Major, Minor, and Perfect. The best way to see this is to separate the different qualities into their own section and learn them individually. First is the Perfects, which are only used to describe a perfect unison, perfect fourth, perfect 5th or perfect octave. As the perfect unison is the same note being repeated, and a perfect octave is the same note being played back to back but one is higher than the other. The perfect fourth and fifth are special because as it says, they are an important part of music. A perfect 4th is 5 half steps from the tonic note. The tonic is the note that starts the comparison or chords as we will get to later. If you need to review half steps and whole steps, please refer to episode 2 (click here). A perfect 5th is 7 half steps from the tonic note. Think about it from the layout of a keyboard. If we start on C, a perfect forth above would be an F (C#-D-D#-E-F) and C to G would be a G (C#-D-D#-E-F-F#-G). A forth above G would be a D (G#-A-A#-B-C-C#-D) and a forth above F would be a Bb (F#-G-G#-A-Bb).

Now major and minor intervals work in the same way. They include 2nd, 3rd, 6th, and 7th. A major 2nd is 2 half steps, which is a whole step, or another way to say it is from C to D. A minor 2nd is only a half step or from C to C#. A minor 3rd is 3 half steps or from C to Eb. A major 3rd is 4 half step or C to E. A minor 6th is a 8 half steps or a C to Ab and a major 6th is one half step higher, C to A. Finally A minor 7th is 10 half steps or C to Bb and a major 7th is one higher C to B.


For those who this is just too much information then, I have a chart to help you comprehend this a little better. The numbers is the number of half steps from tonic to the note.

       Minor         Major        Perfect
1                                                    0
2        1                 2
3        3                 4
4                                                    5
5                                                    7
6        8                 9
7        10              11
8                            12

If this interests you, then please share it by hitting the icons below! I am interested in seeing how many people read the blog regularly. If you want to stay up to date with the blog series or hopefully soon to come the Youtube series, follow me on Facebook, Twitter!