Music: The build up and the aftermath

mikeglee

I love music, I had an OK practical but unfortunately havn't even looked at a music book in the past 3 months. Should be an OK exam, expect of course the composing within which I did dire in the mocks. Has anyone got any thoughts on study methods, predictions (particularly for the essays) or anything else affiliated with this subject?

haha you looked

Fluorescence

Hmmm well I reckon Deane'll come up as the long question in the listening... no thoughts as to what section though.

As for Irish music, something post 1950's usually turns up. Fusions, Impact on American folk music, that sort of thing.

mikeglee

and also does anyone know what mozart and berlioz movements are overdue to come up?

CaoimH_in

Word on the street says
Main question likely to be:
Mozart Mvmt 1 or 3
Or
Deane. Doubting that'll start from the Introduction tbh.

Ok, need help with one thing, that could benefit us all.

The Do's and Don'ts of Harmony questions and Melody questions

Melody:
Major key Do's:
- Mark Instrument, I advise Violin
- Start bar five on the same notes of bar one
- Avoid copying entire bars of rhythms (except in bar 5)
- Add phraze markings at the end of bars
- If anacrusis, adjust phrazing.
- Key change on bar 8
- If anacrusis, on the end of bar four (really bar 5) start the phraze with the same beats of the notes before the first bar
- 9-10 bars are a sequence.
- Make sure intervals between the end of bar 9 and start of bar 10 arn't too great as can be the case with sequences
- Make sure you have appropriate amounts of beats per bar
- no Syncopation (don't use notes on the half beats) i.e Crotchet Quaver
- Keep the development under the idea of A A1 B A2
- Keep an eye out for accidentals, not all are key changes.
- Each phraze should end on a long note
- Last phraze will ALWAYS!! be a perfect cadence. Plagal if it pleases you, but I was told to play it safe.
- Increase range
- Place Dynamic Markings keep them Medium, like f mf p and have cresendos and decresendos, write them in lower case.

Anything I missed please make it your business to remind me or correct me.

Melody
Minor Keys
- Ok, first I advise preliminary work. So firstly i.d the key, lets do a little bit an example.

Key of C Major, but You see a G#. It has modulated.
Now in the key of A Minor. to I.d a key change simply take the key the stave states your in, and count back three semi tones, so C B A# A.

Ok, your in A minor, what I do now is, find the 6th and 7th.
count up ABCDEFG# (i'd write that out tbh).

the 6th is F and the 7th is G#
When the melody goes from 6th to 7th, the 6th and 7th are sharpened, but due to the fact the 7th is already sharpened, its left.

as I'd write it on the sheet just on the top to save confusion,

Up: F# to G#

when they travel downwards i.e 7th to 6th. They are both flattened

so then i'd write

Down: G(Natural) F(Natural)

- Ok, the same things apply from above, Phraze markings, at the end of every phraze
- Every phraze ends on a long note
- Last Bar ends on the tonic in a perfect or Plagal cadence.
- There is no modulation needed in the 8th bar
- sequence in the 9th and 10th
- A A1 B A2
- Develop the idea
all the stuff thats above minus the Key change at the 8th bar.

Harmony.
Could someone do out the Do's and don't of Major keys and Minor Keys harmony? I would be very very thankful.

mikeglee

thank you very much:D

CaoimH_in

Oh, and keep an eye out for 2/4 rhythms, not come up yet.

mikeglee

you really know your stuff! Are you a teacher or something?

sofa kingcool

can anyone please give me a sample answer on the fusion essay?

ive lost mine!!!:(

so unorganised..

Fluorescence

CaoimH_in wrote: »

Harmony.
Could someone do out the Do's and don't of Major keys and Minor Keys harmony? I would be very very thankful.

Sure thing. Assuming you're doing Q5:

DON'T (major and minor): Use rising thirds or falling seconds in your chord progressions (ie no going from V-IV or ii-I, or ii-IV or vi-I).
DON'T: use the same chord two boxes in a row!
DON'T: forget to indicate chord postitions (root, 1st inversion or 2nd inversion)
DON'T: forget to sharpen the leading note in the base for minor keys
DON'T: Get too ambitious with your bass line! Getting too complicated will only make you confused and take away from the melody. You're not Bach - the examiner isn't looking for amazing counterpoint!

DO: mark out all possibilities above each box before making your choices
DO: copy the general idea of the bass line. It's supposed to fit in with the style, and the easiest way to do this is follow the pattern set out in the 1st 4 bars or so (as you would with the melody question)
DO: mark out the cadence points (usually 4) before filling in the rest of the boxes. Remember finished (perfect or plagal) is usually the best for the middle and last ones, and unfinished (imperfect or interrupted) are better for the 1st and 3rd ones.
DO: use nice chord progressions like I-vi-IV-(ii is optional)-V-I
DO: take your time. Seriously - we've so much time to do this question it's hilarious! Prepare your rough work diligently, and keep checking that your chords fit the melody.

If you take care with this question it's not difficult to get about 55/60. Pretty handy eh?

Dr Gradus

The essay part is worth next to nothing so dont worry about that. A little bit of preperation and you should be fine.

thats my gameplan anyway.

mikeglee

oh crap....I've just looked at fluoroescents post and I've just realised that I know nothing about composing...HELP!!??

Fluorescence

CaoimH_in wrote: »

Word on the street says
- Key change on bar 8
- 9-10 bars are a sequence.
- Make sure intervals between the end of bar 9 and start of bar 10 arn't too great as can be the case with sequences

I just have 2 points to add to your melody advice if that's ok!

For key changes I always stick my accidental in bar 7, and just have the note of the new key in bar 8 (so-fe-so in tonic key/do-ti-do in dom key works perfectly)

When you're doing your sequences in bars 9-10, start bar nine on fah and repeat it in bar 10 1 note higher (soh). Starting bar 11 then with lah and doing something different usually works pretty well

Sorry if that seemed nit-picky!

EDIT: Mikeglee I'm sure you know most of what I said, just phrased differently :P Relax, we've LOADS of time before music comes round

mikeglee

AAAAAAAAHHHHHHHHH..........AH no ....only messing....thanks for your tips and keep sharing the calmness. And can anyone tell me a good example of how to use composition in composing and how to notive syncopation in the listening?

mikeglee

^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^I just wanna bring this to the surface again as I really need help

Saffy

euh! I haven't even looked at music yet!!
I'm fine with the composing paper but I got a D on the listening paper in my pre:(

I think did a good enough practical (hoping for an A).

After tomorrow I'll be studying music and ag science 24/7!!(well, not really)

Fluorescence

I don't understand what you mean by "can anyone tell me a good example of how to use composition in composing"??

How to notice syncopation in the listening... well if you are tapping along, but the beat seems to be emphasized more on the weaker beats than the stronger beats, it's synco. Eg: If you stress the 2nd and 4th syllables in syncopation: syn-co-pa-tion you might understand it better.

Sorry it's hard to explain that in writing! Does that make any sense lol?

Dante

havn't even looked at a music book in the past 3 months

Theres a music book!? oh **** :o

mikeglee

fluorescence wrote: »

I don't understand what you mean by "can anyone tell me a good example of how to use composition in composing"??

How to notice syncopation in the listening... well if you are tapping along, but the beat seems to be emphasized more on the weaker beats than the stronger beats, it's synco. Eg: If you stress the 2nd and 4th syllables in syncopation: syn-co-pa-tion you might understand it better.

Sorry it's hard to explain that in writing! Does that make any sense lol?

Sorry that was meant to say "how to use syncopation in compostion" and I fully understand what you mean. Thanks very much:cool::D

xOxSinéadxOx

wait a minute. there's a music book???

mikeglee

xOxSinéadxOx wrote: »

wait a minute. there's a music book???

I don't think there is. However, there is Rapid Revision whic is very helpful

Fluorescence

There's a new music book that will be brought in this september... too late for us lol :P but that rapid revision book is great - especially for the irish essays

I wouldn't use syncopation in the composing paper unless it fits with what's already there.... If it does though the easiest thing to do is use the rhythm: quaver -> dotted crotchet. ta-dah! Syncopation :P

happyhappyhappy

Ehm someone mentioned picking the violin for melody composition

I wouldn't!
Cos then you've to add bow marks!!

evolving_doors

happyhappyhappy wrote: »

Ehm someone mentioned picking the violin for melody composition

I wouldn't!
Cos then you've to add bow marks!!

Sorry Happyx3 "phrasing and dynamics" are required... bow marks are not a requirement....check the checklist at the top of Q1

The only reason for not picking the Violin as the instrument is because nearly everyone else is...

A good instrument to pick is the flute but remember you can only go as low as middle C..lower pitch: notes long/slow and quiet..higher pitch notes: fast/short and loud..

Piste

What I do for my modulation is I sometimes repeat the opening phrase in the dominant, especially if it ends on the tonic. It sounds quite good, but would it look really lazy?

evolving_doors

Piste wrote: »

What I do for my modulation is I sometimes repeat the opening phrase in the dominant, especially if it ends on the tonic. It sounds quite good, but would it look really lazy?

Hmm ..depends what you mean by the "opening phrase" as you call it ..The opening phrase would be the 4 bars that are given ..no!!

BAr 7-8 is where most of the students put their modulaton..
The way I see it..the best way of showing a modulation is a perfect cadence in the new key (hence the new accidental in bar 7..as it's one of the notes from V of the new key) ..
So bar 7= notes from chord V of new key
BAr 8 +the tonic of the new key ..

xOxSinéadxOx

mikeglee wrote: »

I don't think there is. However, there is Rapid Revision whic is very helpful

do you recommend I get this? was just thinking I need to get a revision book, haven't written notes or anything all year and I've lost all the handouts we got


I hate music

mikeglee

Well I really hate promoting books for school and especially at this stage in the year. In my opinion, if you feel that you have nothing in the way of notes then you probably should buy this book as it is very helpful. However, and this may sound odd, but a new book at this stage may need a bit of getting used to anf frankly I don't think that you have the time unless you have no more exams until music.

Twinkle-star15

Chord Progressions- Major Key

I

---

all
ii

---

V, V7 ONLY
IV---- all EXCEPT vi
V---- all EXCEPT ii
vi---- ii, IV ONLY


Minor Key:

i--- all
iib--- V, V7 ONLY
iv--- all EXCEPT VI
V--- all EXCEPT ii
VI--- iib, vi ONLY

Final Cadences (use whichever one fits best):

I-V-I
IV-V-I
ii-V-I

Hope this helps!

CaoimH_in

legend.
Any other advanced techniques, Im interested in using the Flute tbh, how would I go about that tho?

evolving_doors

CaoimH_in wrote: »

legend.
Any other advanced techniques, Im interested in using the Flute tbh, how would I go about that tho?

Forgot to say..flute doesn't always come up..Violin does (that could change too!)..
Flute: you can only go as low as middle C..lower pitch: notes long/slow and quiet..higher pitch notes: fast/short and loud..
Clarinet: lowest note is E below mid c so if you want to write around there you need to be comfortable with ledger lines.
Oboe:Bb below mid c

For dynamics....another 'general' rule..
melody going up=crescendo
Melody going down= decrescendo
Put a dynamic at the start of each new phrase to define them...if you write a crscendo/decrescendo..put a dynamic marking at the end of it..

'phrase marks...there should be 4 phrase marks:1 at the end of every phrase... minus 5 marks if you leave them out..

tootyflutty

Twinkle-star15 your list of progressions are really good, but there are extra marks for the best progressions.
So in some cases you can use iii and also vii.
So you could have ib - viib - i, to get those extras.

I ain't too worried about music, I was delighted with the practical and the examiner even stopped at the end and had a little chat with me about musical careers :P, aiming for an A, and did good enough in the mocks, so just going to listen to my pieces a couple of times, read my essays and think I'll be set!

If you get full marks in your practical (which 88% of people do) then you only need to get 80% in your written to get an A1

Fluorescence

tootyflutty: I was told by my teacher not to use iii or vii' even though I knew how? She told us they were forbidden in the leaving cert

tootyflutty

They're not forbidden, well not in the marking schemes anyway. And some of us used them in the mocks and got our extra marks for best progressions. I would always be a bit wary of iii, but vii is a nice chord to use, when used right.
I suppose it's up to the person and the melody of course

Fluorescence

Yeah vii'b usually works quite nicely in minor keys... Still, I think I'll check the marking scheme before I use iii or vii' just in case :P I'm so paranoid :pac:

mikeglee

I can't actually do the composing paper

tootyflutty

mikeglee, well you can still pass with your practical and listening paper :P

Gzus

Dont worry about it mike.

Twinkle-star15

mikeglee wrote: »

I can't actually do the composing paper

There's a formula for it.
First 4 bars= given
Bars 5-6= development of given phrase
Bars 7-8= modulation
Bars 9-10= sequence
Bars 11-12= imperfect cadence
Bars 13-14= development of given phrase
Bars 15-16= perfect cadence

Development means changing it round a little eg doh mi becomes doh re mi, doh mi soh, mi doh, re mi, doh so, etc, and 2 crotchets become 1 crotchet, 2 quavers, 4 quavers, dotted crotchet and quaver, etc.

Tootyflutty, you don't lose any marks for not using those chords though, right? We were just told to avoid them!

Crocodilius

What's the formula for a minor key? I think i know how to identify them (look for an accidental on the 7th note of the scale in the given melody, yes?)

Since you don't modulate, should you just use bar 7-8 as a further development of bars3-4?

P.S. i think it always says "include a modulation to the dominant at a suitable point" above the question if it's in a major key. Is this true or just me jumping the gun?

tootyflutty

Twinkle-star15 wrote: »

Tootyflutty, you don't lose any marks for not using those chords though, right? We were just told to avoid them!

No but you might not get full marks in a perfectly fine melody. There is a certain amount of marks allocated towards "best possible progressions" it's not much though so I wouldn't worry about. It's just like when you write and English essay or something, you get a couple extra marks thrown your way for good flow and coherence. :pac:

tazbars

im a seriously weak student but need to get some sort of C, did a good enough practical but DREADING the paper. Any advice on what to study for the set works? ive no idea what to study and had an extremely unhelpful teacher.

tootyflutty

Just know some basic stuff for each piece if you want a C, you shouldn't need too much detail.
Our teacher told us she has only ever had 2 students that got less than a B3, one was very weak in the practical and got a C1 over all, and the other took up music in 6th yr and didn't come to school, and still got a C3. If they can get C's, I think you should be ok!

For Mozart and Berlioz know how to recognise each of the sections. They are very different so shouldn't be too difficult.
Know things like the swirling triplets, alberti bass, and basic instrumentation for each. Be able to recognise the recurring theme also in all pieces.
And also the key signatures!
For Deane know the instruments, the totentanz theme, dies irae, three note cell and addition and subtraction principals. Just a couple or both instrumental and compositional techniques too.
As for Beatles, try not to sing along with the songs and answer the questions tehe. Eh you don't exactly need to know chords or anything, but you might need to know they are mixolydian (sp?). You should learn the genre and rough instrumntes of each. Compositional techniques for each song too eg. word painting.

It's sounds alot, but that should be enough to get you at least a high c I reckon :P

mikeglee

What do i need to know to get a c1?

tootyflutty

mikeglee wrote: »

What do i need to know to get a c1?

read what I wrote above :P

hellother

Whats the rules for modulation again!! like what chords do u use i completely forget!! ahh!!!:eek:

tootyflutty

the following modulate to the key below

c d e f g a b
l l l l l l l
g a b c d e f

with the 7th note in the new key is sharpened/flattened/naturalled.

always finish on the tonic of the new chord, and start the next line in the first bar with the chord of i again

hellother

thanks so much, is there any chance you could give me an example....yeah im stooopid!
like just say you were in the key of C major...lets make it simple here:p...and you wanted to do modulation as it usually is in bar 7-8.
what chords would you use? do you go to the dominant?

sorry!

evolving_doors

Hi Helloother..memorize tootyflutie's chart..

For sharp keys
C-Goes to-G
D-A
E-B
F-C
G-D
A-E

For flat keys (which came up 7 times in the last 8 years!!!!)
F-C
Bb-F
Eb-Bb
Ab-Eb
(For all the flat keys the accidental will be a natural...so in bar 7 you should have an accidental somewhere.)

For Minor keys you dont have to modulate (you'll know it's minor as there'll be acidentals in the given phrase and the question wont ask you to modulate)

Example

if you are in C then you modulate to it's dominant of G in bars 7-8

The best way of showing that your changing key is a perfect cadence in the new key..

So whats a perfect cadence in the new key of G?

V-I in the key of G

Bar 7=Notes from the chord V (D F# A)
Bar 8= New tonic

---

G

evolving_doors

tootyflutty wrote: »

Twinkle-star15 your list of progressions are really good, but there are extra marks for the best progressions.
So in some cases you can use iii and also vii.
So you could have ib - viib - i, to get those extras.

tootyflutty,
iii and vii are Not on the syllabus so therefore are not a requirement.
To be fair to students who don't use them or havn't studied them, the examiners can't give "extra" marks if you put them in.
So in all cases the harmony question has to be designed in such a way that the normal chords will fit.

I reckon you wouldn't be docked any marks though but defo not extra marks.

tootyflutty

Armelodie wrote: »

I reckon you wouldn't be docked any marks though but defo not extra marks.

You won't lose marks, but there are marks given for best progressions, and sometimes that includes viib or whatever the chord :P
Like using v7d sometimes instead of v. Not a necessity but it sometimes gives a nice counter melody in the bass.

tazbars

tootyflutty wrote: »

Just know some basic stuff for each piece if you want a C, you shouldn't need too much detail.
Our teacher told us she has only ever had 2 students that got less than a B3, one was very weak in the practical and got a C1 over all, and the other took up music in 6th yr and didn't come to school, and still got a C3. If they can get C's, I think you should be ok!

For Mozart and Berlioz know how to recognise each of the sections. They are very different so shouldn't be too difficult.
Know things like the swirling triplets, alberti bass, and basic instrumentation for each. Be able to recognise the recurring theme also in all pieces.
And also the key signatures!
For Deane know the instruments, the totentanz theme, dies irae, three note cell and addition and subtraction principals. Just a couple or both instrumental and compositional techniques too.
As for Beatles, try not to sing along with the songs and answer the questions tehe. Eh you don't exactly need to know chords or anything, but you might need to know they are mixolydian (sp?). You should learn the genre and rough instrumntes of each. Compositional techniques for each song too eg. word painting.

It's sounds alot, but that should be enough to get you at least a high c I reckon :P

thanks a million that is so helpful....but what are swirling triplets?!