Mark's Music School Diary.

So today I have a packet of work for Chromatic Harmony, a five horn (sax soli) and rhythm section chart to arrange for Wednesday, three melodies to be able to sing for a Chromatic Musicianship test, Guitar to practice for both the concert on Tuesday and my Jury, a big piano test on Wednesday, Jazz piano piece to learn, Piano final accompaniment piece to learn for the final which is FUCKING HARD and Music History test next week that I need to get started studying for now. I'm not working on my term paper until she returns the rough draft.

HAPPY SUNDAY!

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For anyone wondering what my musicianship tests consist of here is my midterm.

The professor plays everything at the piano and we have to write down what she plays without having an instrument or singing what she is playing.

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The top line is a melody that she plays all at once and then each measure by itself 2-3 times.

The second line is just a rhythm that she plays on one note on the piano.

Section three is interval recognition. She plays two notes and we have to tell her the distance between them.

The next three sections are the same idea, but with triads and their inversions, seventh chords and scales and modes.

The second part of the testing is sightsinging. We get three exercises to learn ahead of time. She will pick one at random for us to sing. For the midterm there was one more melody written on the board we didn’t get to see ahead of time and we have to sightsing that one. She just gives us the key to start in.

The prepared exercises are from a 100 year old book called “Melodia”. This Tuesday we just have a singing test and I️ have to sing 235, 138 or 240:

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The prepared exercises are from a 100 year old book called “Melodia”. This Tuesday we just have a singing test and I️ have to sing 235, 138 or 240:

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Too many notes, as the blind old bluesman quipped to Mr Mozart (as reported monthly in the letter pages of Guitar Player magazine in the 80s), and besides it don't got no soul.
 
You always get a starting pitch. We work on developing better relative pitch. Very few people have actual perfect pitch.
Except this guy. Apparently perfect pitch comes with perfect teeth.

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Seriously though, that's very impressive to be able to do that (your musicianship test). I'll play parts of a song over and over again, at half speed, trying to figure it out and it's still a struggle.
 
Except this guy. Apparently perfect pitch comes with perfect teeth.

pitchguy.jpg


Seriously though, that's very impressive to be able to do that (your musicianship test). I'll play parts of a song over and over again, at half speed, trying to figure it out and it's still a struggle.
This is the third semester and we’ve trained up to it but it’s still pretty hard for me.
 
This is the holiday break for Thanksgiving this week. A short list of things I need to do before school gets back in session next week:

  1. Finish Music History 351a term paper on Palestrina's secular madrigals.
  2. learn two exercises from Melodia to sing for a Chromatic Musicianship test a week from Tuesday
  3. learn my Jazz/Commercial Piano piece (comping for "Girl from Ipanema")
  4. rewrite the shitty arrangement of my accompanying piece for piano 282b's accompaniment final. In my coaching session yesterday my professor agreed that it was not only too hard to play but really poorly written since even she couldn't sight read it. Thanks Musicnotes.com for nothing. Now I need make it playable myself and resubmit the piece.
  5. learn the rest of the pieces for my 282b piano final. It's a ton of music.
  6. prepare for guitar jury. This includes transcribing and memorizing a Jim Hall solo. I also am asking for recital clearance for my Junior recital next semester so I need to have that planned out to present to the panel.
  7. practice guitar ensemble music for concert December 3
  8. rewrite and print parts for my 5 horn sax soli project with rhythm section parts for my arranging class. I also have 16 bars of 8 horn writing to prepare as well.
  9. analyze a reduction "Barber of Seville" overture for Chromatic Harmony by next Monday.

I'm pretty sure that's it. I kinda wrote this all up to organize how I'm spending my holiday too. Good times.
 
This is the holiday break for Thanksgiving this week. A short list of things I need to do before school gets back in session next week:

  1. Finish Music History 351a term paper on Palestrina's secular madrigals.
  2. learn two exercises from Melodia to sing for a Chromatic Musicianship test a week from Tuesday
  3. learn my Jazz/Commercial Piano piece (comping for "Girl from Ipanema")
  4. rewrite the shitty arrangement of my accompanying piece for piano 282b's accompaniment final. In my coaching session yesterday my professor agreed that it was not only too hard to play but really poorly written since even she couldn't sight read it. Thanks Musicnotes.com for nothing. Now I need make it playable myself and resubmit the piece.
  5. learn the rest of the pieces for my 282b piano final. It's a ton of music.
  6. prepare for guitar jury. This includes transcribing and memorizing a Jim Hall solo. I also am asking for recital clearance for my Junior recital next semester so I need to have that planned out to present to the panel.
  7. practice guitar ensemble music for concert December 3
  8. rewrite and print parts for my 5 horn sax soli project with rhythm section parts for my arranging class. I also have 16 bars of 8 horn writing to prepare as well.
  9. analyze a reduction "Barber of Seville" overture for Chromatic Harmony by next Monday.

I'm pretty sure that's it. I kinda wrote this all up to organize how I'm spending my holiday too. Good times.
Chugging my way through this shit. Kinda unmotivated and exhausted even though I haven't been in school for a week:

  1. Finish Music History 351a term paper on Palestrina's secular madrigals. - written, needs some revision - due December 7th
  2. learn two exercises from Melodia to sing for a Chromatic Musicianship test a week from Tuesday -working my way through them. should be fine by tuesday
  3. learn my Jazz/Commercial Piano piece (comping for "Girl from Ipanema") - oops. need to look at this. The professor has been in Moscow at a New Music festival for the last two weeks and I've kinda forgotten about it.
  4. rewrite the shitty arrangement of my accompanying piece for piano 282b's accompaniment final. In my coaching session yesterday my professor agreed that it was not only too hard to play but really poorly written since even she couldn't sight read it. Thanks Musicnotes.com for nothing. Now I need make it playable myself and resubmit the piece. - rewrite is mostly finished. Needs to be performed on December 8th
  5. learn the rest of the pieces for my 282b piano final. It's a ton of music. - working on this. still don't know which part I'm playing for my duet. I need to have "Maple Leaf Rag" ready to perform on December 11th
  6. prepare for guitar jury. This includes transcribing and memorizing a Jim Hall solo. I also am asking for recital clearance for my Junior recital next semester so I need to have that planned out to present to the panel. - still working my way through the transcription for Jim Hall's solo "The Days of Wine and Roses" from the Art Farmer album Interaction
  7. practice guitar ensemble music for concert December 3 - I should look at that tonight
  8. rewrite and print parts for my 5 horn sax soli project with rhythm section parts for my arranging class. I also have 16 bars of 8 horn writing to prepare as well. I've got the five horn soli worked out, waiting on the professor to email back some input. need to start the 8 horn writing which is due on Wednesday
  9. analyze a reduction "Barber of Seville" overture for Chromatic Harmony by next Monday. - need to do this. shouldn't take too long.
I also have a couple of recitals to usher and a couple of concerts to attend to write reports on for my Mus 279 music production class.

:ewh:
 
my head hurts after reading that.
mojo
It would hurt more if you sat through the last two classes I had today. We analyzed Lizts’ use of the octatonic scale in harmony and piano was a ridiculous amount of work for our final.
 
Last week of school before finals. Last night was my final guitar combo concert:

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This week my piano requirement (282b) final testing is Monday, Wednesday, Friday and next Tuesday:

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I have tests for musicianship Tuesday, Thursday and next Tuesday. I have three pieces to turn in for arranging on Wednesday plus there is a final next week. Not sure what Jazz piano is doing since the professor is barely there. My Jury is a week from tomorrow and I'm still working out my transcription. I have a chromatic harmony test that shouldn't be hard during finals. My term paper for music history is due and I have a final next week for that class. I also have to see a concert tonight for a report, usher Wenesday night and Saturday afternoon and I also have an acoustic duo gig on Saturday night for a private part.

:ewh:
 
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