Preparing for Listening Exams

Hello again, dear colleagues!

I’ve taken quite a few listening tests in my time here at Redlands, and I’ve been asked to supply some advice in preparation for those of you who haven’t experienced them before. I realize our test is two days away, so sorry for the timing, but hopefully you will find a few of these pointers helpful in your final preparations and for future studying. Here are some techniques that I use and that I find beneficial, in no particular order:

1) Listen, listen, listen. I can’t stress this enough. I try to start listening through the works as soon as they are posted, a few every couple of days until I’ve made it through all of them. Then I repeat, many times. You can listen at your desk, while you’re walking between classes, in your car, wherever—I tend to use the pieces as “background music” when I can, perhaps so that they work their way into my subconscious more, but I make absolutely sure that I have spent time just listening as well. Your most attentive and comprehensive listening will not be accomplished while multi-tasking.

2) Make a list of all the compositions and their respective composers, and organize them into categories based on their instrumentation. Don’t be afraid to research the pieces if you are unsure! This helps me identify the likely “problem” pieces—the ones that share the same instrumentation, and therefore cannot be identified by instrumentation alone, and that will most likely require more attention so that you can confidently distinguish them. Can you hum one of the main motives of Varese’s Density 21.5, and then the melody from Debussy’s Syrinx, without comparing them first? And what makes Takemitsu’s Voice clearly stand out from the previous two? Those are the kinds of questions I try to ask myself.

3) Identify parts of the music that are really striking to you, for better or for worse, and in any way possible. This can range from extramusical associations (such as Daugherty’s Desi, which immediately makes me think of Ricky Ricardo from I Love Lucy ever since I read its program notes) to musical references (Tower’s Tres Lent [in memoriam Olivier Messiaen] reminds me of a movement from Messiaen’s Quatuor pour la fin du temps). It can be as simple as the constant presence of nature sounds in Schafer’s Wolf Music: Aubade for Solo Clarinet, or more specific: the monophonic unison line toward the end of the first movement of Bartok’s String Quartet No. 2 really stands out to me personally, for example.

4) Check out the music score for study and listen along. A library of our size obviously isn’t going to have all or even most of them, but it’s worth a try. I actually have the three string quartets checked out—sorry, I definitely didn’t mean to hog them. Please let me know if you want to borrow them!

5) Familiarize yourself with the prominent motives of each piece. I was having some difficulty distinguishing parts of the Debussy and Ravel string quartets—the melodies tended to mush together in my mind, despite having listened to the works several times back to back. I finally tried to sing the melodies, along with the recording and then by myself, and I was surprised at how helpful that approach was. I had never tried that before, but now I can play through each in my head much more successfully. Some people find that writing out the motives is helpful, too; that was a popular method when our class had a test once on all the Beethoven symphonies.

6) Did I mention… listen? I personally would not be able to cram for a listening test, and I don’t think that many of us can. Listen well in advance, and listen often! And make sure to devote a fairly equal amount of time to each work. By this I mean that it’s all too easy to group them into the ones that you really like and the ones that you don’t like as much, and then “forget” about the latter group as you focus on the former. I’ve been there (…Beethoven symphonies…) and it can be pretty detrimental, so give them all a fair chance!

I’m sure I’m forgetting things, but that’s a basic overview of my process. Please feel free to contribute any study and preparation techniques that you find helpful!

Good luck, and happy listening!

Words of the wise...

I'm burning the midnight oil working on program notes for the next RSO concert, and I came across this quote from Ravel while researching his Piano Concerto in G.

"The G-major Concerto took two years of work, you know. The opening theme came to me on a train between Oxford and London. But the initial idea is nothing. The work of chiseling then began. We’ve gone past the days when the composer was thought of as being struck by inspiration, feverishly scribbling down his thoughts on a scrap of paper. Writing music is seventy-five percent an intellectual activity."

As the kids say these days, "true that".

Blog Assignment: 6 Weeks

I have now been here at the University of Redlands six weeks. Coming from a big school like UC Riverside, it was strange at first. On such a large campus, you blend in much easier. Some of my classes had hundreds of students. With a class that size, it doesn't really matter if you miss a class here and there because the professor doesn't know the difference, and if you fall asleep, nobody is going to notice or care. So the change to such a small campus was a big one. It's a very different experience here. And so far, I think I'm much more comfortable now. It's easier to connect with other students and I can actually get to know my professors a bit. Overall, it's a friendlier campus. I'm not saying UCR is unfriendly, but with so many students, I shared classes with people and still rarely ran into them.
Also new to me this year is studying music exclusively. I didn't switch my major to music until late last year and I only took one Fundamentals class before arriving here. I started out as a Physics major and then realized I hated Physics. Although my current work load can get a little overwhelming, it's much easier to get things done because now I'm more interested in what I'm studying. I've never been very good at balancing everything, but I think I'm improving lately. Being a commuter, I don't have a room to go back to during my breaks so I like to just sit down at a piano and either write, play around with what we're learning in theory, or just see what happens. It's a great way to pass the time and often one of my favorite times of the day.

So how are the rest of the newbies adjusting?

ASCAP Cuts ASCAPlus Payments To Members Despite “Stunning Revenue and Distribution Growth”

Hello fellow composers!

Shortly after we discussed ASCAPlus in class, I received a link to this article in my e-mail and I figured that it would be of interest to you all. The article is from Royalty Week Magazine.

ASCAP Cuts ASCAPlus Payments To Members Despite “Stunning Revenue and Distribution Growth”

Sakari

Blog Assignment: Singing

Because my primary instrument is guitar, my only option to fulfill the ensemble requirement was to take choir. This is the first time I have sung in a choir, and really, the first time I've ever tried to sing seriously. Though its not my favorite time of the day, choir has had some influence on me as a musician. It has given me a better understanding of vocal technique, the nuances of a good vocal performance, and how choral music is different than instrumental music. To be completely honest, the most challenging aspect of choir is memorizing the lyrics to this french song that we have to learn! But other challenging aspects for me include isolating and focusing on my individual line, projecting, and remembering how to sing the more chromatic lines. This experience has been rewarding because it has helped me control my voice, which is very useful for sight-singing and ear training. I have definitely improved my sight-singing after a month of choir. I have also learned how to properly support my lungs when I sing. And if I wasn't sure of it before, I have certainly learned that I am not a good singer.

Excellent video

I just stumbled upon this online, which is a great example of what you can create with just a little creativity, a go-getter attitude, and some looping software (plus recording.) My favorite part creating your own instruments, is you have the opportunity to create a sound that may have never existed until you made it. I hope you enjoy it!

Balancing the Professional and the Academic

Hey Everyone,
Like most of us, my schedule is very hectic. I am a full time Graduate student who also teaches and plays professionally. Aside from being a student I teach privately at Yucaipa and run the music programs for Grove Junior and high school. I play with the Inland Valley Symphony and play in pit orchestras for multiple theater companies in the Temecula valley. With most of my days being filled with various responsibilities, I found myself doing most of my composing at night. Having a busy schedule like mine is not the ideal situation for composing but i still need to have a means to live my life and stay connected to professional networks that get me gigs. One of the ways i stay focused on my new compositions is to internalize the work through out the process of creation to completion. I am constantly thinking about musical intent, how i can make the work unique and how to maintain my individuality. whenever i have ideas i like i jot them down, either in notation of in a written description. I come back to these ideas and incorporate the one i like into the work. I feel this approach is valuable because it allows me to be unrestricted and explore many directions. As an undergraduate i used to be locked into my initially writings. I used to think that because it was written down it was finished and would just keep moving forward. This type of mentality made my compositions banal and, in many cases, less cohesive. As my studies progressed i realized that good compositions have many revisions, just like any well written paper. I found that making sure to have time for composing is a must. Pick a time every day that you can dedicate to writing and stick to it. having a busy life makes it all to easy to push it to side.
By far, the most important tool you can have to manage your professional and academic life is a planner. Knowing in advanced when you have time to write shows you every opportunity have time to compose. Always take advantage of any free time you have. Many of the ideas you have may never be used but at least you have materials to draw from. Balancing a professional and academic life is not any easy task but it can be done. mainly you need to find a system that works for you the best or cut out activities to have more time to compose.

Blog Assignment: Composing on Piano

Since I've only written music for guitar before, I've never used a piano to compose. However, recently, I have begun using the piano as a compositional tool. I found that when writing music for a monophonic instrument, like flute, that it is much easier on piano compared to the guitar. I have more range and I feel like I have a easier time visualizing what I hear. However, since I have virtually no piano skills to speak of, piano is only useful to me when composing single line melodies and things of that nature. When putting chord progressions together, I still turn to the guitar as I actually know how to construct chords other than root position major and minor triads. As I get more comfortable with the piano, I think that as I continue to write for instruments other than guitar, that it'll be my main instrument to compose with.

Less is more

As I work on my newest piano piece I am constantly discovering how much more less can be. Now that may sound confusing at first, but I can do so much more with a small, two note motive than I can with a rhythmically complex 10 notes within a beat.
The main melodic motive I'm using is simply a dotted half note on tonic and a half note a fourth up in a 5/4 measure. This leaves so much space for whichever hand is carrying the melody to "embellish" or just do extra things to add color to the piece.
Had I used a denser series of notes there would not be time or space for the hand to jump around the keyboard playing little fillers.

Music Resume?

Happy Friday everyone, I'm applying for the Aspen Summer Music Festival to study classical guitar and as part of the application process, I need to submit my current resume. Can someone help me construct a good music resume? I have absolutely no idea what to include or how it should be formatted.

Thanks homies,

Ian Jennings Rowe