Quote:
Originally Posted by Stumbo  IMO, mnemonic devices are the way to go. It's easy for you and if you make up a fun mnemonic, they'll remember it.
Or maybe make up some big flash cards and make some kind of game out of it.
Good luck. |
This is so true and such a great piece of advice because you need to be able to gauge the progress of students.
I was classically trained when younger and some of my tutors were quite stale in what the taught. Yes the information was correct and in order but it was un-inspiring to learn. Then i got a new teacher she was different in that she explained to us that reading music was like reading a book. People only read books that they have an interest in....why would you waste your time and money in buying a book you have no interest in?
At that time i loved boogie woogie piano and the Rock 'n' Roll music of Jerry Lee Lewis, Little Richard, Fats Domino etc. So she let me study their left hand playing and transcribe it to bass clef.
Because of its uniformaty i found that i learned bass clef easy and with fun, the 1-4-5 was always visible. This ment that seeing and learning intervals was easy to recognise and remember. The transposing of such lines around the stave, again by writting and later by sight proved the worth of her techings. We always went back to being a class together to apply what we had learned to the Classical side of music and trade or experiences, after all it is what we were there for to learn to be in an Orchestra.
She also taught us other clefs, in this way it sort of demistified the whole clef thing, after all it is just the same seven notes of the alphabet laid end to end to represent the pitches of notes and a clef is just a starting point. On the staff a note will alternate between the lines and spaces with each new octave, so she taught see the interval as well as the note.
In the end it she was about inspiring you to read, then harness it for her own ends....Orchestral Music, and turning you into a well rounded player to cope with the task of playing.
