Expanding Horizons

I mentioned in my last blog post that I am listening to 25 different pieces of music to be able to identify them on the Music History midterm.  I notice a difference in how I listen to music.  At first it was difficult for me to distinguish many of the various composers and pieces from each other.  I think that by practicing listening and learning about the evolution and history of music and by listening to the music of the great composers, I am better able to differentiate the composers and their works.

In my Harmony class we are learning the structure of music and how to arrange an accompaniment for a melody.  Right now we are writing chorale-style harmony, which is four parts:  soprano, alto, tenor, and bass.  This is already useful for me because I am learning to play hymns for church.  Since I am just learning to play hymns, I am writing some hymn accompaniments that are relatively easy for me to play.  Knowing the harmonic structure and the voice-leading rules help with this task.

In Jazz piano, our exam had three parts.  The first part was to play an arrangement of a jazz tune that was composed by our teacher, Dr. Karel Lidral.  The second part was to play an accompaniment to a jazz piece from a lead sheet; i.e., to play an accompaniment from reading the changes (jazz terminology for the chord progressions).  This was the hardest part for me, because I have to think about the root, third, fifth, and seventh of the chords all at once and decide how to play them.  I have made a lot of progress, but I have a long way to go before I could actually comp (jazz terminology for accompany) a jazz tune directly from a lead sheet.  The third part of the exam was to play an accompaniment that I had written previously as an assignment. 

The Sight Singing and Ear Training exam had four parts.  The first was a set of complex rhythms with different rhythms in each hand.  The second and third parts were singing from tenor clef (C is on the second line from the top of the staff) with a complimentary melody played on the piano by the teacher.  For the fourth part, I had to sing a piece of music written in tenor clef that I had never seen before.  In addition to knowing how to recognize and sing intervals, I am learning the structure of the primary chords in the key.

With midterm exams finished, I began the two-week spring break.  The adventure began in Cardington, Ohio with a visit to my son and his family, including my three grandchildren.  I enjoy getting more in touch with their lives since my last visit in early January. 

Preparing for Midterm Exams

This week has been busier than usual.  I have four midterm exams next week, so I have been studying for those.  For the music history exam, we have to be able to recognize any of 25 different pieces of music from the Baroque, Classical, and Romantic time periods (the 17^th through the 19^th centuries).  The teacher uses the “drop the needle” approach, where she can start the music anywhere in the piece.   These are symphonies, concertos, sonatas, string quartets, opera arias, oratorios, Lied and other forms of music.  I am listening right now as I write this blog.

In addition to my school work, I am learning to play the music for Catholic Mass, preparing for my future career as a music minister.  For a few weeks, I have been accompanying the sung acclamations on the organ.  The acclamations are the parts of the Mass which are the same every week, like the “Holy Holy” and the “Lamb of God.”  This coming Sunday evening, I will be playing the organ for all the accompanied music for the Mass.  I worked with the music Director, Dr. Kevin Birch, to choose appropriate hymns and I have been learning those.  I am excited about this!

I repeat the metaphor of music being like a sphere where music education and practice fill in more and more of the sphere.  Through school, church, and regular practice, I feel like I am making more and more of those musical connections in my brain.  I am enjoying learning so much!

Testing Progress

I had an ear training test and a music history quiz on Wednesday this week, so I have been busy studying.  I mentioned previously an online program called http://www.teoria.com/.  This program really helps me prepare for my ear training tests.  I can listen to random intervals over and over again and learn to recognize them.  I am finally getting more comfortable with almost all the intervals.  It is so nice to be able to learn this information in small steps, which, in the end all add up to larger leaps!

For the music history quiz, we had a list of music to listen to and then the teacher played a small excerpt from several of them and we had to identify the title and composer of the pieces.  This is a first for me and I am learning how to listen to the music differently, so that I can identify the differences.  Learning the history of music helps me put the music I hear in the context of the times in which it is written.

The program for the April 1 Chamber Jazz Ensemble is coming together.  Dr. Karel Lidral, the director, assigned solos for specific compositions we will play.  I need to get to work preparing for that.  Practice, practice, practice.

Saturday night I attended Cadenzato, a faculty concert.  I will highlight a few of the performances.  Dr. Noreen Silver expertly played J. S. Bach’s (1685-1750) fifth Cello Suite in C minor.  She and her husband, Dr. Phillip Silver, played two pieces for cello and piano, Die Zelle in Nonnenwerth  by Franz Liszt, (1813-1886) and Serenade by Robert Dauber (1922-1945).  These were very different from the Bach, and also very beautiful.  The concert closed with a Trio for Trumpet, Cello and Piano written by Carson Cooman (1982-) performed by Jack Burt, Marisa Solomon, and Laura Artesani.  This contemporary music is lyrical and reminiscent of an evening at the beach. 

For my piano lessons, I am learning to play Wolfgang Amadeus Mozart’s (1756-1791) Sonata in C major, K545.  This piece contains many scales and arpeggios, and I am working to get the tone even, especially in the scale passages.  I decided that I can listen better to the tone I am producing on the piano if I memorize the music, so I started memorizing this piece.  This is challenging and also has helped me learn the piece more thoroughly.  I am also studying a left hand exercise by Czerny (1791-1857).  This week my piano teacher, Dr. Phillip Silver, assigned me Fantasia in D minor by Georg Philipp Telemann (1681-1767).

Preparing for my classes is like project management.  I can use the discipline and skills that I learned running large projects to plan my assignments and to schedule my regular organ and piano practice time.

I am noticing my increased tolerance for risk.  School is a safe environment to take risk in exploring the many different facets of music.  A year ago, I would not have imagined myself improvising in a jazz ensemble or writing accompaniments to jazz standards.  This is still way outside my “comfort zone.”  Yet, at school in my classes, it is safe for me to try these new experiences.

Time to get back to practicing!

Hitting the Groove

Today is the beginning of the fourth week of classes and I have a routine that enables me to get my schoolwork done in a way that takes time, but is not stressful.  I had my first test in Ear Training last week and it covered four-part dictation and identification of chord progressions.  I am glad that the Ear Training class is teaching us in small steps so that the work is not overwhelming.  I feel like I am making gradual progress, and I have to keep refreshing my knowledge of intervals.  I am learning to listen better to music in the bass clef.  Since I am a singer who sings in the treble clef, I hear the treble clef much clearer than the bass clef.  There are online computer programs that I can use to practice identifying intervals.  One of the best for me is http://www.teoria.com/ which was created in Puerto Rico.

In my piano lessons, I am “unlearning” some of my muscle memory, especially with my left hand and the smallest finger of my left hand.  My piano teacher, Dr. Phillip Silver, chooses music for me to learn that exercises the areas that I need to work on.  I am learning a Mozart Sonata and a Czerny Etude right now.

In my piano jazz class, I am composing piano jazz accompaniments, so I am learning a lot about the harmony of the chords that are used in jazz:  seventh chords, chords with flat or sharp ninths (the same note as the second degree of the scale), chords with sharp elevenths (the same note as a sharped fourth degree of the scale), and chords with flat thirteenths (the same note as a flatted sixth degree of the scale).  We are moving quickly.  We turned in one arrangement last week, and another one is due tomorrow.  We will be composing one a week for most of the course.  Through this application, I am learning more about the harmonic structure of chords and how to structure bass lines for jazz arrangements.

In the Chamber Jazz Ensemble, we are learning to compose melodies for improvisation.  This is based on the same harmonic structures we are learning in the piano jazz class, and applying that knowledge to a melody line, instead of an accompaniment.  I play the piano in this group.  I have never done anything like this before and it is both terrifying and exhilarating.  Our concert will be on April 1 at 7:30 pm in Minsky Hall at the University of Maine.

Since I don’t have any classes on Fridays, I have the luxury of spending most of the day practicing the organ and the piano.  In addition to the classics I am learning on organ and piano, I am learning to play some of the service music for Catholic Mass, and I played the organ for part of the service on Sunday, January 26, at St. Teresa’s Church in Brewer.  My organ teacher, Dr. Kevin Birch, is very supportive and played the parts of the service that I was not yet ready for.  I still get nervous when I play for other people, and I think the only way to get over that is to play in public more often.  On February 23, I will play all the music for the Mass on the organ.  We chose the Entrance and Communion hymns and I will choose a hymn for the Presentation of the Gifts.  All of this puts me one step closer to my goal of being a music minister at church.

The First Two Weeks of Full Time Classes

The first two weeks of full time classes were exciting and stimulating!  I am enjoying all that I am learning about the many facets of music.  One of my professors, Dr. Karel Lidral, talks about learning music being like a sphere, and as we learn more about theory, history and applied practice, we fill in the different parts of the sphere.  These facets are all connected and all support each other.

The first week was somewhat hectic, as I worked to determine the best way to meet all the requirements for my classes, including practice time and homework.   My stamina was tested.  Because I can concentrate best in the early morning, I use that time for my organ practice, so that it is most productive. 

At the end of the first week, I decided that I had been too ambitious when I registered for classes and so I dropped one of my music history courses. The pace for the second week of classes was more manageable. 

On Monday, January 20, I had the privilege of singing Ein Deutsches Requiem by Johannes Brahms with the Oratorio Society and the University of Maine Orchestra, conducted by Professor Ludlow Hallman.  The Oratorio Society is a large choir of University of Maine students, faculty, and community members.  This is one of the most sweeping and inspirational choral works I have ever sung.  Brahms’ work departed from the tradition by setting to music seven biblical texts that express a range of emotions from solemn sorrow to joyful rejoicing in moving beyond death.  This requiem begins with “Blessed are they that mourn, for they shall have comfort.  They that sow in tears shall reap in joy.”  Only in the last movement does Brahms turn to “Blessed are the dead.”  The performance was initially scheduled for December 15, 2013 and was postponed due to inclement weather.

One of the advantages of being a student is the access to student discounts, especially for music recitals.  On Friday evening, January 17, I attended “An Evening of Rodgers & Hammerstein Classics” performed by music students and faculty of the University of Maine School of Performing Arts.  This brought back many memories of the musical standards that I grew up with.  On Saturday, January 18, I attended a recital of Phillip Silver, piano, and Alexander Volpov, cello.  They mostly performed music by Russian composers and I was inspired by and in awe of both musicians. 

I am attending two evening yoga classes each week.  This improves the flexibility of my body, especially by back.

My first test in Ear Training and Sight Singing is on Monday, so I will be practicing!