Teachers' Corner

[Quijote]

Well, I thought I'd launch this for the teachers on this BRS forum (and you don't have to be a reader of The Guardian, pace Headmaster!).
Anyway, today was my first lesson of the term for the Second Year undergraduates in écriture (which translates as "Harmony & Counterpoint").
First impressions : seem a likeable enough group, quite dynamic (engagé), but unwilling to sing as an ensemble when I asked them to sing a short harmony exercise to highlight the forbidden "overlap" rule that on the piano strikes one as inoffensive (the piano often "falsifies" or "mitigates" a true harmonic flaw, as opposed to actually singing the 4-part harmony). The point about overlap of course, is that it creates confusion in the part writing.
Apart from that, it should be an enjoyable term as we put in practice their knowledge in the service of harmonizing Bach chorale melodies.
On Friday I have the Masters' degree harmony course starting up for the would-be teachers, which normally is great fun as they have survived 3-4 years of the French university system and are quite committed to music.

[Quijote]

Some further thoughts (and perhaps Headmaster and others can confirm this) : all too often with undergraduates, despite their respective levels as instrumental players, I find that some, when tackling a harmonization exercise, have no idea of what they are writing, in the sense that they have no idea of the "sound" of the notes they put to paper. It is, regrettably, far too high a minority, a bit like "painting by numbers", if I may put it that way.
It is a particular "beef" (= issue, complaint) I have with the University of Strasbourg. Most of the students I have are following a degree in Musicology. This is fine by me. But even for musicoloigists one would expect a level of musical "literacy" (or competence), and this aspect of "inner ear" is seriously lacking. In my group I also have students following a dual musicology and conservatoire degree, and there are no points for guessing which out of the two categories have the greater facility for inner ear imagination.
Hence a good part of my course today was spent in insisting on ways of developing one's inner ears. Some have this ability quite naturally, but it must not be forgotten that it can be developed.

[Chris]

My piano student never practices anymore. She likes volleyball too much Fortunately, my violin student's motivation is at an all-time high after being the best player at music camp

[Quijote]

My piano student never practices anymore. She likes volleyball too much Fortunately, my violin student's motivation is at an all-time high after being the best player at music camp

One can make a lot of allowances for motivation. I can imagine nothing worse (yes I can, it is just a figure of speech) than having an unmotivated (even a demotivated) student.
What do you do for the ear training side, Chris?

[Sorrano]

As a student, ear training was my bane. Whenever this was done on a piano I could pretty much easily recognize the pitches and it was simple to recreate, but as a result I never progressed much beyond that. I think it's useful to employ different instruments (and voice) whenever possible to teach intervals.

[Chris]

One can make a lot of allowances for motivation. I can imagine nothing worse (yes I can, it is just a figure of speech) than having an unmotivated (even a demotivated) student.
What do you do for the ear training side, Chris?

That is proving to be quite a challenge with my young violin student. In the beginning, I would play him two notes and have him tell me which was higher; he got pretty good at that. I of course want to get him singing so I tried having him sing me some scales, which went...not that well. When I just play him a single note and ask him to sing it, he usually cannot match the pitch. I've asked him to just sing me a song, any song he knows, and this never comes out well - sometimes everything winds up at the same pitch. He seems to have an extreme aversion to singing. Sometimes I will play him some chords and ask him to tell me whether it is a major or a minor chord. He can usually do that pretty well. But when I do the same exercise with 7th chords, it all falls apart, and he usually can't even properly identify major and minor chords then either. So at the moment, getting him to identify any given interval seems a ways off...

[Quijote]

But is his overall intonation good? That is a key point. I would imagine that he can very probably hear correctly the note you play him, but has not yet "clicked" into producing it via his voice (which is a vocal muscular issue, rather than having a problem with pitch identification per se). Many young people (5 to six-year olds, shall we say?) have problems with this. If the student is older, I would perhaps have some doubts.
It's funny, I did this exercise with my neighbour the other day (she is a Philosophy teacher, and a music lover, especially Beethoven. Gasp!). I played her a few intervals, and she couldn't reproduce them, and was way off the mark. Tone deaf? Not sure : I then played her a well-known melody, and she sang it (reproduced it) perfectly. Go figure !

[Chris]

But is his overall intonation good? That is a key point.

Not really. His playing is often out of tune and he obviously can't hear it. But then again we are still at the point of learning new notes, so he is still getting used to the different places he needs to put his fingers. But it's a problem that he can't seem to hear when it is wrong so he knows to fix it. It's fine during the lesson, because I can correct him, but when he's home practicing all week, I think he is playing out of tune and not realizing it. I have given him some ways to check it, but either he doesn't do it or he just can't hear it. He's about 10 years old and has been taking lessons for a couple of years.

[Quijote]

As a student, ear training was my bane. Whenever this was done on a piano I could pretty much easily recognize the pitches and it was simple to recreate, but as a result I never progressed much beyond that. I think it's useful to employ different instruments (and voice) whenever possible to teach intervals.

Exactly. The piano being so rich in overtones means that it is not always the ideal instrument for ear training. For example, I can hammer out a major third (let's say C-E) but lead you into hearing a minor 6th (because you hear the octave C harmonic coming out).

[Sorrano]

Exactly. The piano is so rich in overtones it is not always the ideal instrument for ear training. For example, I can hammer out a major third (let's say C-E) but lead you into hearing a minor 6th (because you hear the octave C harmonic coming out).

You also have issues where students who are familiar with certain instruments, whether piano or cello or whatever that recognize the timbres and are able to "cheat" the interval with pitch recognition as opposed to actually hearing the interval. However, those with perfect pitch are a lost cause, anyway (grin).

[Quijote]

Not really. His playing is often out of tune and he obviously can't hear it. But then again we are still at the point of learning new notes, so he is still getting used to the different places he needs to put his fingers. But it's a problem that he can't seem to hear when it is wrong so he knows to fix it. It's fine during the lesson, because I can correct him, but when he's home practicing all week, I think he is playing out of tune and not realizing it. I have given him some ways to check it, but either he doesn't do it or he just can't hear it. He's about 10 years old and has been taking lessons for a couple of years.

Hmm. OK, try this : you play him a simple melody on your violin (with a few intentional dodgy intonations, nothing overly exaggerated) and ask him if it's OK.

[Quijote]

It's interesting too that your student can pretty well identify if the chord is major or minor, but is thrown when you play seventh chords. The sevenths obviously throw him, as they fundamentally alter the "character" of the chord, which is to say - assuming you play CM7 - a major C triad (C-E-G) with a superimposed minor triad (E-G-B).

[Quijote]

Which makes me think (as Charles Rosen has pointed out, or was it Tovey?) how Beethoven manages to make a G major chord (or was it a C major chord, I can't remember, dammit!) sound dissonant (in the 4th Piano Concerto)? Hello !!!

[Quijote]

I also find the "home key" dislocations in the 1st movement of Beethoven's 9th equally dissonant (which, as strict consonant harmony, they are not). I think I need some more ear training. Hah !!

[Chris]

Hmm. OK, try this : you play him a simple melody on your violin (with a few intentional dodgy intonations, nothing overly exaggerated) and ask him if it's OK.

I've done this, and the results are usually not great. But better than recognizing his own mistakes, so my hope is that it's just the mechanics of playing that is distracting him, and as he gets more comfortable with that, he'll have more attention to spare for intonation.

It's interesting too that your student can pretty well identify if the chord is major or minor, but is thrown when you play seventh chords. The sevenths obviously throw him, as they fundamentally alter the "character" of the chord, which is to say - assuming you play CM7 - a major C triad (C-E-G) with a superimposed minor triad (E-G-B).

I only used dominant seventh chords so as to avoid that ambiguity. I think he falls for multiple choice trap during this exercise - "Oh, the last one was a major chord, so this next one can't be a major chord too..."