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Lit eracy Num eracy Games in instrumental lessons by Alan Coady. Lit eracy. (From - etymonline.com): literacy 1883, formed in English from literate + -cy ; illiteracy dates back to 1650s. literate
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(From - etymonline.com): literacy 1883, formed in English from literate + -cy; illiteracy dates back to 1650s. literate early 15c., from L. lit(t)eratus "educated, learned," lit. "one who knows the letters," formed in imitation of Gk. grammatikos from L. lit(t)era "letter." Literacy
note (v.) early 13c., "observe, mark carefully," from O.Fr. noter, from L. notare, from nota "letter, note," originally "a mark, sign," possibly an alteration of Old L. *gnata, infl. by gnoscere "to recognize." Meaning "to set in writing" is from c.1400. Related: Noted; noting. The noun is first attested c.1300, in the musical sense; meaning "brief writing" is from 1540s Notation
...is limited to: ABCDEFG And that's it! The rest is done with smoke & mirrors or repetition, grouping, recycling or sharpening and flattening Musical notation...
Sentences – or phrases which peak at the main word – we stress or accent this note/word – this often occurs at Fibonacci moment – of which more later... there may be more than one clause each with a key word, which will be stressed Commas shouldn't sound like full-stops Notes are grouped into...
Phrasing And getting the stresses wrong is an error of prosody mid-15c., from L. prosodia, from Gk. prosoidia "song sung to music," also "accent, modulation," from pros "to" + oide "song, poem" (see ode). Similar to someone who speaks a second language very well, but occasionally puts the stress in the wrong place – or to early speech synthesis – a field in which Edinburgh is a world leader! This is known as...
There will usually be inactivity of some sort - A rest (silence) or a long note – equivalent to breathing in normal conversation How can you tell when you are at the end of one phrase and, therefore, the start of another?
late 13c., "words, what is said, conversation, talk," from O.Fr. langage (12c.) from V.L. *linguaticum, from L. lingua "tongue," also "speech, language" (see lingual). Meaning "a language" is from c.1300 Languages
the international language of written music and musical terms (vocabulary tends to be in the language of the country of origin of an activity) e.g. Japanese for Karate, Judo French for Ballet, Fencing, Cuisine Italian
Some of which have made their way into everyday English usage... accelerando; adagio; ad libitum; affrettando; allegro; andante; andantino; appassionato; brio; cello; coda; crescendo; cuartetto; da capo; dal segno; diminuendo; duo; facile; forte; giocoso; largo; leggero; maestoso; moderato; niente; ossia; ostinato; piano; pesante; pizzicato; quintetto; ritardadno; scherzo; tempo; trio; troppo; tutti; vivace examples
The language of the techniques of the guitar e.g. fingers: indice; medio; anular; pulgar; Right-hand techniques: apoyando (rest stroke) tirando (free stroke) rasgueado (Flamenco-style strumming) golpe (striking body of guitar) Left-hand techniques: ligado – slur (a way of joining notes together) ligar also means to get off with Spanish
...through the text of the Mass and other liturgical sources: Kyrie;Gloria;Credo;Sanctus; Benedictus;Agnus Dei Latin...
In titles of pieces (often involving names of people, cities, countries), composers' names etc. French; German; Russian; Portuguese; Polish; Czech; Swedish; Finnish; Norwegian; And through Spain's colonial history titles/names/stories/legends from: Argentina; Bolivia; Chile; Cuba; Colombia; Mexico; Paraguay; Uruguay; Venezuela; others
Langsam (German for slow/long) Allargando (Italian - large/broadening out) Links are occasionally at some remove... eg. Forte (fort = strong = loud) Etymology and guesswork will get you a long way.
For this idea, I'm indebted to neuroscientist, and 2003 Reith Lecturer,V. S. Ramachandran - author ofPhantoms in the Brain. This idea has less to do with a word imitating the sound it describes than the vocal apparatus mimicking the idea (or feeling) of a word... ...possibly the way in which language evolved...perhaps we'll never know... If all else fails, try 'onomatopoeia'.
Teeny-weeny - mouth tightens up Large - mouth opens more widely Huge – syllable often elongated Compare, for example lament with jig Examples in English..
Largo – slow, wide spaces between notes Pizzicato – plucked e.g. violin – short notes hinted at by short plosives (p zz c t) Arco – bowed – longer notes hinted at by longer vowel Stretto – narrowing (in fugue) – hinted at by restricted vocal movements. Consider similar English words strict; strife; struggle; strain All hinting at a voluntary, temporary and useful form of synaesthesia Examples in Italian musical terminology
Degree: early 13c., from O.Fr. degré (12c.) "a step (of a stair), […] gradus "step" (see grade). Scale: "to climb," late 14c., from L. scala, from scandere "to climb" Degrees of the Scale
Fixedletter names A-B-C-D-E-F-G/A etc. Moveabletonic sol-fa (1540s, from It., from M.L. sol + fa) do-re-mi-fa-so-la-ti/do etc. think Sound of Music Moveable numbers 1-2-3-4-5-6-7/8 etc. and....... There are choices here:
Tonic – the main note (tone) and centre of gravity of the scale/key/tune Supertonic – super = above tonic Mediant – in the middle of 1 & 5 (tonic chord) Subdominant – below dominant Dominant – strongest note in scale (with obvious exception of tonic) Submediant – in the middle of chord built on subdominant Leading note – does what it says on the tin - leads to tonic Functional names
"manner," late 14c., "kind of musical scale," from L. modus "measure, rhythm, song, manner" (in L.L. also "mood" in grammar and logic) Modality
Often thought of as happy/sad Actually describing distance between notes (intervals - c.1300, from O.Fr. intervalle (14c.) Parallel with MAJOR DISASTER/minor disaster MAJOR in the army/minor (can't yet vote, marry or watch scary films - yet, curiously can star in them e.g. TaxiDriver - 1907, shortening of taximeter - "one who drives" - c.1400 MAJOR / minor
Numeracy And now ...
from numerus “number” (see number) on model of literacy, etc. Number - c.1300, "sum, aggregate of a collection," from Anglo-Fr. noumbre, from O.Fr. nombre, from L. numerus "a number, quantity," Numeracy
...that the samefewnumbers are used for everything: 1234567 for scales (notes in chords) 12345 for fingering (unless you go to Torness Primary) beats per bar bars per phrase phrases per section sections per movement... Section numbers (rehearsal marks!!!) The trouble with numbers in music is...
B,C,D,E,G,P,T,V - allrhyme ("agreement in terminal sounds," 1560s) This can be a nightmare in a reverberant rehearsal space You have a 1:8 chance of everyone starting in the right section Why do I use rehearsal numbers when letters are more common?
e.g. 4/4 Numerator – how many you get per bar - in this case, 4 Denominator – name of what you get - in this case ¼ notes (American terminology) or – crotchets (European terminology) Time Signature
2/4, 4/8, 8/16 3/4, 6,8. 12/16 There are also indivisibles e.g. 9/8 There are also irregular time signatures e.g. 7/8, 11/16 Most irregularities can be dealt with by subdividing for 7/8 - count 12, 12, 123 or 12, 123, 12 for 11/16 – count 123,123,123,12 Time signature and proportion
4 beats – Semibreve – Whole note 2 beats – Minim – 1/2 note 1 beat – crotchet – 1/4 note ½ beat – quaver - 1/8th note ¼ beat – semiquaver – 1/16th note 1/8th beat – demisemiquaver - 1/32nd note 1/16th beat – hemidemisemiquaver - 1/64th note – and we're back to literacy hemisphere; demigod; semicircle European vs. American names for note durations and implications for understanding time signatures
from O.Fr. sequence "answering verses" (13c.), from M.L. sequentia "a following, a succession," from L. sequentem (nom. sequens), prp. of sequi "to follow" (see sequel). Sequence
2, 4, 6, 8, ? 1, 3, 5, 7, ? 1, 4, 7, 10, ? 1, 5, 9, 13, ? 0, 1, 1, 2, 3, 5, 8, 13, ? abc, bcd, cde, ? ace, bdf, ? Complete the following...
A sequence must have a pattern which you can see/hear easily You must be able to predict what should be coming next You should be able to see/hear whether what you were expecting to come next actually did happen When what we are expecting doesn't happen this is called..... My preferred definition of sequence:
Why is it important to know where these are? Expectation is as much in the ear of the audience as the player If the expected doesn't happen it can sound like an error has occurred... Unless the moment is handled with sufficient confidence! A break
For example: “Now, Primary 5, when you've finished, put your rulers in the green tray and your protractors in .… the yellow tray.” The space makes people listen more. We do this naturally in language (prosody again)
Maths Art – motifs, patterns Dance Science - DNA... History – sequence of events (prediction is less certain here as the recent lack of Rapture confirms) Any other suggestions? Where else do we get sequences?
Finbonacci series again 0,1, 1,2,3,5,8,13,21... Fibonacci and growth
is the sum of the previous two Each number..
in nature e.g. fir cones The series is found
...into the following number comes out at approx 1.6 Dividing any number...
...into the preceding number comes out at approx 0.6 Dividing any number...
1 : 1.6 or 1 : 0.6 *ratio 1636, "reason, rationale," from L. ratio "reckoning, calculation, business affair, procedure," also "reason," from rat-, pp. stem of reri "to reckon, calculate," also "think" (see reason). Mathematical sense is attested from 1660. Resulting in either of the following ratios* .....
...known as the golden section, matches the proportions of the rectangle thought to be most pleasing to the eye This ratio...
Imagine a phrase of music e.g. Twinkle, twinkle, littlestar- Including the rest, at the end, there are 8 beats (2 bars of 4 beats – time signature 4/4) 0.6 of the way along this journey is 4.8 In other words beat 5 Where the natural peak occurs At the 1st syllable of little Ironically, the biggest point of the phrase is on the word, “little” Don't blame me, I didnae write it Fibonacci point in a musical phrase
To get a natural feel for growth and decay in musical phrasing which like the length of lines of poetry is based on breathing. (Accidental alliteration – honest, guv I don't even like alliteration - a device for dullards) What's the point of the whole Fibonacci thing?
Mary Oliver in A Poetry Handbook says the iambic*pentameter** represents the lung capacity of the average human lung. *(1570s, from L. iambicus, from Gk. iambikos, from iambos "metrical foot of one unaccented followed by one accented syllable,") **1540s, from M.Fr. pentametre, from L. pentameter, from Gk. pentametros (adj.) "having five measures," from pente "five" + metron "meter" Where does this come from?
In riff*-based pop music where vocal phrases are draped over a pre-existing rhythmic framework this is much less obvious – and less still on X Factor. *riff "melodic phrase in jazz," 1935 (but said to have been used by musicians since c.1917), of uncertain origin, perhaps a shortened form of riffle, or altered from refrain. The verb is attested from 1955. Related: Riffed; riffing. Why is this not more obvious?
No, not things to chop down trees... but... Axes
axis 1540s, "imaginary straight line around which a body (such as the Earth) rotates," from L. axis "axle, pivot, axis of the earth or sky," from PIE *aks- "axis" (cf. O.E. eax, O.H.G. ahsa "axle;" Gk. axon "axis, axle, wagon;" Skt. aksah "an axle, axis, beam of a balance;" Lith. aszis "axle"). The plural of...
x = along the string i.e. changing fret y = along the fret i.e. changing string z = distance from the strings – which should always be as small as possible x, y and z
