Letter Names in Musical Notation
By janice | January 30, 2010
Have you ever wondered why we use letter names in musical notation before?
I have to confess that I had never really thought of it much until a friend asked me the other day how the music letter names were named and why the alphabet was used to name them. Here are a few ideas and links that I came up with, but please if anyone else has some other ideas, feel free to post them using the comment box below.
The first musical notation manuscripts or tablets have letters of the Greek alphabet with symbols written on the top called Neums which indicate the pitches of the notes. I found an interesting website about Byzantine Music which I found to be an interesting look at how to de- code some of the meanings of these symbols.
The first person who wrote on musical notation book was a Roman philosopher called Boethius back in the 6th Century. Boethius was the first person to record the use of letters for notes and he used 15 letters of the alphabet to represent the musical notes. This became known as Boethian notation. It is not really known if he made this method up or it was commonly used at the time, but it is thought that linking the note names to the alphabet letters originates from the earliest Greek music musical notation.
This method became very complicated over time , so changes were gradually made in order to make the whole system less complicated. The system of repeating letters A-G was introduced and gradually symbols were introduced for the chromatic notes and flats, sharps and naturals. At the end of the 12th Century, a Benedictine monk, Guido d’ Arezzo added the concept of the staff , placing the letters on lines to indicate their pitch. He also made an alternative to learning note names by inventing the solfege system which offered an alternative to learning musical letter names. This was originally first made up of the first six syllables of the first six musical phrases of a Gregorian Chant melody. This evolved over time into the syllables Do-Re-Mi-Fa-Sol-La-Si/Ti-Do.
Check out this simple, but effective Music History lesson fact sheet called “Who Invented Musical Notation?“.
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Topics: Classroom Music, Music History, lesson ideas, music teacher resources
The World’s Biggest Music Lesson
By janice | January 18, 2010
This was a campaign put together by the UK government last year to support all school students across England to learn music to to help get them inspired about learning music.
Here is a link to the first lesson in the campaign. It goes for 45 minutes and could be a good be a motivator to use for some of the first lessons this new year.
Just click hereto get straight to the video.
There’s also a free resource pack which you can download to find out more.
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Topics: Classroom Music, Uncategorized, Video, music teacher resources, music teaching inspiration
What are the Benefits Of Choosing A Quality Musical Instrument?
By janice | January 13, 2010
It’s so easy to think when buying student instruments that cheaper is better!
But is it?………
This is simply NOT true and here are some reasons why you should not always go for the cheapest model or price available to you rather than a better known model range.
Reason1: Tuning: some of the lesser priced brands can be just awful to tune! How annoying and demoralizing is it for a beginner to play in a band for the first time and always be out of tune. The truth is that often these students quit because they feel that they can’t do it, but often it can be instrument and nothing to do with the student at all.
Reason 2: Spare Parts: It is often not easy to get parts replaced for some cheaper instrument models. Stick to the big brand names who will be more likely to include a warranty for purchase of new instruments and most repairers will easily get parts for.
Reason 3: Easier to play: If an instrument is easier to play, it’s only natural that the will be more enjoyable. Newer, better brand instruments are always easier to play than second hand bargains!
Reason 4: Care: If you give your students very old looking, dirty instruments rather than good quality newer, clean instruments, they will treat them with less care. If you want your students to care for their instruments, then model to them what you expectations are by giving them a clean, tidy instrument with everything they need inside to get started.
My advice is to talk to musicians, music teachers and reputable music store specialists to give you advice on brands, models and stores to look out for. I suggest that you find a dealer you can personally trust to give you the flexibility you will need, the most up to date information and a good deal.
A dealer that I know personally is Hans Smits from Kurt Jacob & Co Pty Ltd. He has been working alongside teachers and musicians for over 30 years and delivers a wealth of information and deals specifically in quality musical instruments for schools.
Another great free resource I found is from the Music Industries Association. The website has a very useful handbook and is written in an unbiased way. Just go to the website and click on “Choosing a Quality Musical Instrument “ on the left hand yellow side to read and download it.
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Topics: Classroom Music, music lesson promotion, music teacher resources