Reading Music - Pitches and Scales

 





A semitone is the distance from one note to the next on the keyboard.

A tone is two semitones

Accidentals: Sharps, flats, naturals. The sharp raises the note by a semitone, the flat lowers it and the natural cancels a flat or sharp. Notice how it goes before the note!

THE CIRCLE OF FIFTHS:

this helps us to identify key signatures

Reading Music - Rhythm

This link explains note values.

Reading Music - some more stuff...

Make sure you have read and understood it all. Ask me if you have any questions.



TIME SIGNATURES:
This is a very important aspect of how to read music as it tells you how many beats there are in the bar (the "metre" of the music, ie. whether you should be counting 2 beats in the bar or 3 or 4 or whatever).
This link explains it very well.


DYNAMICS
Very simple. The loudness of the music.

A dynamic may change very suddenly, when this happens we use the word “subito” which is Italian for suddenly. Eg. subito f (or sub. f) means suddenly loud.

ITALIAN TEMPO/STYLE MARKINGS:

Sometimes you will see marking of tempo given in English (eg. fast or slow). Sometimes you will see a metronome marking (ie. giving the bpm of the music).

Sometimes you will see the tempo of a song given in Italian. Here are some of the more common ones:

 

And here are some more...

ACCENTS:
These are used to add emphasis to particular notes.
This link gives a fairly good explanation but suggests they are used rather more precisely than they actually are...


TIES/SLURS/PHRASE MARKS
These are the curly lines you will normally see printed/written over two or more notes to join them up. They all look the same; it is the context that will tell you which is which.

A slur / phrase mark is used to connect two or more notes together to indicate that they are to be played or sung smoothly together (perhaps in one bow on a string instrument or in one breath on a wind instrument). It can also be used to indicate that several notes are to be sung to one syllable. Generally, slurs are used to join together two or three notes whereas a phrase mark joins a longer group of notes together.

A tie is used to join two or more notes together so that they sound as one note. eg. a crochet c tied to a crochet c would sound like a minim c. Please note: It is only a tie if it is between two notes at the same pitch. It is used when the two notes are either side of the bar line or when it would be ugly, confusing or impossible to render the combined notes as one note.

Lesson 4 - 8th October 2015

I will be seeing each of you 1-on-1 next week.

Please bring a song to sing. I will also be asking you some questions about how you warm up your voice.

3.15  Blessing

3.20  Caleyah

3.25  Ellie-Jean

3.30  Esther

3.35  Grace

3.40  Jahmai

3.45  Lauren

3.50  Madeline

3.55  Panashe

4.00  Rhiann

4.05  Ronni

4.10  Sarah

4.15  Tashan

4.20  Teigan

Lessons 1-3 - 17th September - 1st October 2015

These are the first songs we will be looking at. Please make sure you have listened to them before next week.

The lyrics can be found here and here .

Suggestions for other chorus songs (Musical Theatre songs, please) can be emailed to:
philip.collins@westking.ac.uk

Solo singing:

Musical Theatre students will need to be working on solo songs. For Dance students, it is optional.

Starting next week, each week part of the lesson will be spent working on solo songs. Those of you confident doing so will work with me on your songs in front of the class; those of you who are less confident will work with just me (with one or two friends in the room if you would like).

All songs should be from the Musical Theatre repertoire - ie. songs from shows. Songs from films are acceptable.

It is important that you get used to working with an accompanist. Therefore, you will have to provide sheet music for each song you sing. There is a selection of scores in the library at college (including the Musical Theatre Anthologies which have selections of songs published by voice type.)

Other good places for scores:
Westminster Music Library
Barbican Library

Foyles on Charing Cross Road
Chappells
Argents / Music Room

All MT students need to bring sheet music for at least one song to every lesson. If you are using a score too heavy to carry comfortably, bring it once, let me know and I will photocopy it.

Musicals - you ought to see...

Here are some things you perhaps ought to see, grouped by composer. I have tried to avoid just picking my favourites and also to give a good balance of styles and eras.

It's worth noting that this is something I have just cobbled together (I will asked Shelley and Tracy to have a look and add anything that they think I have missed) and you should be investigating other things as well.

There are film versions of many of these - very often these will differ significantly from the stage version and it may be worth watching both!

Leonard Bernstein
West Side Story
Candide

Cole Porter
Kiss me, Kate
Anything goes
High Society

Rodgers and Hammerstein:
The Sound of Music
Oklahoma
South Pacific
Carousel

Stephen Sondheim
Company
A little night music
Into the woods
Sweeney Todd

Andrew Lloyd Webber
Evita
Cats
The Phantom of the Opera

Kander and Ebb
Chicago
Cabaret

Lerner and Loewe
My Fair Lady

Jerry Bock
Fiddler on the Roof

Marvin Hamlisch
A Chorus Line

Jason Robert Brown
Parade
The last five years