Aural tests – just sing!

I have discovered the most wonderful resource for musicianship training – canons! So much can be covered with the simplest of four bar canons, and perhaps the greatest beauty of all is that you need nothing more than two voices.

Take the following example:

 

The first objective should be to sight-sing the melody using solfa. I insist that my pupils do this, for two reasons. Firstly, it gives each note its place value in the key. And secondly, it is extremely focusing to be thinking about both pitch and syllable  - there is no room for passive participation here! Initially even a simple melody may prove quite testing, but this active engagement of the brain, this constant thinking ahead, is an excellent skill to be developing right alongside the aural skills.

Alternatively, or perhaps after an initial attempt at sight-singing, you can learn to sing it from memory, perhaps in two halves at first, but still using solfa.

With a more able pupil, you might dive in straight away and ask them to sing after you, in canon. This allows them either to read the notes as they sing, or else to memorize what you sung and follow that way – or ideally a combination of both. Still in solfa. They might get the notes right but a few syllables wrong – don’t allow them to get off lightly! Even if they get the melody perfectly correct, insist that the solfa is correct too, even if it takes a few more attempts.

And then there are the hand signs! These can be introduced whilst you are just singing in unison, and your pupil should sign too. The ultimate test, of course, is to sing the canon whilst signing the second part a bar later. But be warned, make sure you have practised this before you demonstrate in front of your pupil – it’s not easy!

A quick glance down the aural test requirements for the early ABRSM grades will show you just how much a little of the above covers:

• Pulse. Singing together and in canon enhances an awareness of both rhythm and pulse.
• Echo responses. Memorizing short phrases.
• Recognising changes. Singing in canon requires careful listening to both rhythm and pitch, and students will soon be identifing their own errors.
• Sight-singing notes in free time (Grades 4 & 5). The key here is solfa, and learning a few tuneful canons in this way will soon make the ABRSM tests seem insultingly easy.
• Sing back a phrase. No problem – your student can now sing back a phrase at the same time as listening to how it continues!
• Tonality. The place value which solfa brings (you just can’t sing mi without having worked out that it is the 3rd of the chord) is excellent for developing a sense of key, and singing in canon also encourages the student to listen carefully to the harmonies produced between the voices.
• Singing back the lower/upper part. Once you have practised a few example, see whether your pupil can sing in canon without sight of the music; this really does develop their ability to hear one part and sing another.

I find teaching the ABRSM tests in order to pass the exam to be a pretty painful experience – but just learning and singing together a simple canon, even for a few minutes each lesson, is quite the opposite. Delightfully pure and simple, but incredibly focusing for both pupil and teacher alike. Let’s put the instrument down, or step away from the piano for a few moments, and sing!

This canon is the very first in a book of 109 canons selected by David Vinden in ‘Two-part hearing development” which is available here.

Plus …. a fab solfa video here!

As easy as do re mi? A “beginner’s” guide to solfa

For as long as I can remember I have been able to sight-sing with confidence, doubtless due to my early training as a chorister and subsequent involvement with choirs for many years since. It still remains, for me, the most important thing for any musician – to be able to sing.

Three years ago I signed up for a British Kodàly Academy Spring Course. I can’t quite remember why, but one of the things which did interest me was the knowledge that the Kodàly approach uses solfège, the naming of each note of the scale as do, re, mi, fa, so, la, ti, do. I was interested to see whether there was anything in it, since I had my doubts – after all, I could sight-sing perfectly adequately without, so what possible use could giving all the notes funny names be to me? As I soon discovered, I was missing the point.

The first event of Day One was choir. We learned a song from memory by repeating back phrases sung by our director, which was challenging for one reason only – we were expected to sing in solfa! For me pitching the notes was easy, but remembering which solfa name to sing them to was not, and immediately I found my brain racing to keep up. And it was relentless! Just as I thought I had the hang of it, we cut to something different – learning another melody, or clapping and/or stamping a complex syncopated rhythm. And then (I should have seen it coming!) we put all of them together; melody, rhythm, others singing the countermelody, and the solfa! By the time the hour was up I felt like I’d done a day’s mental workout. They say that music uses both sides of the brain – definitely!

And then on to musicianship training. I was aware that there are different hand signs for each of the solfa syllables, but was not yet aware of their full potential. We learned some relatively simple pentatonic melodies from memory, and again the most difficult element was singing the solfa names. By now I realised that I was becoming much more actively aware of the relative position of each note in the scale, rather than just pitching each note from the previous one. The latter system still worked for the pitch, of course, just not for the name. Interesting. And then we were asked to perform a melody in canon. First at the piano; play first, and start singing a bar later (in solfa). Challenging, but manageable, and I have to say I felt very proud of myself for negotiating the task successfully, albeit with my brain running at full tilt. And then with hand signs. That’s right, sing first (in solfa) and then sign the canon a bar later with the solfa hand signs. “You’ve got to be joking” I said to Klara, the delightful Hungarian lady who was taking our class. Evidently she wasn’t. As encouragement, she performed the canon in three parts, using both hands, without even breaking a sweat! Respect.

Back in choir, I soon discovered that when the music changes key, do moves too – and so of course does everything else! Never before have I been so intensely aware of the place value of each note in a melody, and in observing every modulation as it occurs. I realised that much of the time I sight-sing on autopilot; yes, I am constantly listening, but perhaps not always thinking so hard. On the other hand, solfa actively forces you to listen and to analyse, and the intensity of this experience is actually very surprising. It is an amazingly powerful tool for teaching complete novices (as my Choir who can’t sing will testify) right through to analysing Schubert symphonies in detail, which I did on this year’s Spring Course which was hosted at Monkton.

This approach to musicianship is so refreshingly rigorous, and I love it! It certainly incorporates all of the 5Es which are at the centre of what I believe to be most important in teaching music  - Engage, Enthuse, develop an Enquiring Mind, Equip and Empower.

Ken Burton and the London Adventist Chorale

Thursday 4th April, 7.30pm in the Assembly Hall at Monkton SENIOR School.

The London Adventist Chorale is a group of young musicians and vocalists dedicated to art of Spirituals, Choral, Classical and Contemporary sacred music. The choir was formed in 1981, as a church-based choir with choral excellence, presenting its unique tradition to a broader audience.

Under the helm of Ken Burton, Principal Conductor, the choir was awarded the prestigious title Sainsbury’s Choir of the Year 1994 – 1995.

In 2012 they were invited to take part in Her Majesty Queen Elizabeth II’s Jubilee Concert. The internationally-known choir sang two gospel songs – one especially composed for the event – before an audience of more than 12,000 invited guests at Buckingham Palace, London, and 40,000 more that gathered outside, and syndicated to more than 50 countries worldwide. Under the direction of Principal Conductor Ken Burton their performances have seen them performing internationally.

Tickets are £10.00 (£7.50 for concessions). Group Booking: Purchase five tickets and get one free. To make a booking contact tickets@britishkodalyacademy.org or 07738 084 719.

See you there!!

 

Singing for pianists

The third of my five ‘E’s for outstanding instrumental teaching is developing an Enquiring mind. I think that it is vital that the teacher gets into the habit of asking questions rather than answering them, so that the student quickly learns that he is expected to work things out for himself. A simple example: “don’t forget the E flat in bar 5″ becomes “which note did you play wrong in bar 5?” It is so easy to fall into the trap of giving the answers, but telling is not teaching and we should not be in so much of a hurry to teach a piece of music that we forget to teach the student.

Assuming the student answered the question correctly, let’s make the next question a little more difficult: “Can you sing me the E flat please?” At this point, in 9 out of 10 cases, the student will reach for an E flat on the piano – if they get the chance that is, because I’m ready for them! “No, don’t play it, sing it.” For me, this really gets to the crux of the problem. Sitting at a piano is like having a calculator in an arithmetic exam, but easier; if you want to know an answer, just press the relevant key and the answer is immediate.

At the simplest level, this is going to test the student’s aural memory. Can they remember, in their inner ear, any of the notes which they have been playing in the last few moments? The questions which they need to ask themselves are going to be the equivalent of a mathematician showing how they reached the answer – if they think that you are just expecting them to pull an E flat out of the air then of course they have every reason to panic!

A few more leading questions might help; “The phrase started on a B flat, can you remember what that sounded like? Yes? Well, can you sing me a B flat then?” Once they have sung the B flat, a little theory might be required: “How far away is E flat from B flat? Ok, sing up a four note scale from the B flat and we should get there!”

My piano pupils are used to this type of questioning, resigned to it perhaps! They realise that I am serious, however, and although in the early days some will just dig their heels in and refuse to sing – I had a pupil once who took weeks and weeks even to pluck up the courage to proffer a single squeak – they all know that it is an expectation. The benefit, of course, is that they are using their ears, and they soon realise that it can be quite helpful to have their ears connected up with what their fingers are doing.

This style of teaching encourages the student to use their brain, their memory, their ears, their knowledge of theory, their voice …. and sometimes diversionary tactics! The alternative “don’t forget the E flat in bar 5″ seems unhelpful in comparison.

Effective practice – a must read!

I have recently discovered this amazing blog post, entitled How many hours a day should you practise? by ‘The Bulletproof Musician’ which encapsulates everything that I think it important to appreciate about how to practise effectively. Particularly good sections entitled Mindless and Deliberate practice. More eloquently put than I could ever manage, and a must read for any student, parent or teacher.

Musicianship

I think of myself more as a musician who plays the piano, rather than a pianist. I’m more interested in the music itself than the mechanics of it.   Martin Roscoe                                                            

I was delighted to hear Martin Roscoe say this in a recent interview, since it mirrors almost exactly my own sentiments when it comes to teaching. A quote from a blog post of mine from just a few months ago:

I find it very helpful to think of myself first and foremost as a music teacher, but one who just happens to teach that musicianship through the piano.

Sadly, unlike Martin I don’t think that I will ever reach the point where I will be able to let the ‘mechanics’ of playing the piano take care of themselves! But let’s get back down to earth and summarise:

It’s about the music.

A good proportion of my piano teaching is concerned with forming a solid technique. The purpose of the technique is to serve the music effectively, so that the pianist is able to express their intentions at whatever level they happen to be performing. I am also passionate about the mechanics of learning, and in particular in how to transfer the skills necessary for a pupil to become self-sufficient.

But what happens if the student just isn’t very musical? The answer is stunningly obvious  - we need to draw out their musicianship. I really can’t see the point of teaching the mechanics if the musicianship is neglected, since the student will have nothing to communicate if they have no musical understanding. And yet I find myself, on a daily basis, encountering young musicians who are ploughing through the ABRSM/Trinity grades with little understanding of the music which they are playing because the focus is too much on the mechanics, and not enough on the music itself. I am not talking about instructing pupils how to play musically. No, it is about drawing out an understanding so that they know for themselves how to play musically. The difference is vast.

Since coming to Monkton some three and a half years ago I have done a lot of work with ‘non-musicians’. The tone deaf project and The Choir who can’t sing are clear indications to me that to write off the ‘non-musician’ is a serious mistake. I am also convinced that the way forward is to train the musician first, because this the the bit which lasts. In order to do this, the focus needs to be on musical things – aural skills and inner hearing, understanding the implications of harmonic progressions etc. If that means going a little slower with repertoire in order to further the musicianship of the pupil, that shouldn’t be a problem!

Music Scholars’ Concert, 14 March

Last night saw our second annual Music Scholars’ concert, given in our wonderful Bowerman Hall. There is no doubting that this new facility has had an enormous impact of the quality of music making at Monkton over the past year; with its generous acoustic and quirky appearance, it fulfils the brief perfectly – quite simply, it inspires our pupils to give of their very best!

Throughout each year we put on numerous informal concerts, which are open for any pupil to perform in, from complete beginner to the experienced musician who wishes to run a piece ahead of their Grade 8 exam. Early on at my time here at Monkton someone told me that they thought these concerts were too insignificant – the audiences are small, and not all of the performances are completely brilliant.  What this person didn’t understand is that not all music department concerts need to be a showcase for the school. Children need to learn not just how to play, but also how to deal with the additional pressures which a public performance brings – and our informal concerts are the perfect training ground for this.

However, there is also no question that making the Scholars’ Concert a more formal occasion has raised the bar significantly in terms of the level of performance both demanded and delivered. Last year our scholars were (of course!) excellent, but the formal nature of the concert – smart dress, new hall, large invited audience – was quite a scary ordeal for some of them. This year they knew what to expect. This, coupled with some really top-notch teaching over the course of the last year, has seen a remarkable change in many of them. Each one of them is seriously motivated, and it is good to see them beginning to realise that they can take control of their own learning and find their own voice as musicians.  We are very proud of all of them!