Other School Work

I just realized that I haven't posted about my other classes lately. You'll remember that, in addition to Music Theory, I am also taking Beginning Swimming, Piano, and Marine Biology.

Marine Biology has been SO MUCH FUN! We have gone on several field trips, most recently to the Fitzgerald Marine Reserve to explore the tidepools.

Click on this picture to go see the set of pictures at Flickr:



In addition to field trips, we have to do a couple of presentations. My individual presentation, which I have to give this coming Monday (Dec 1), is on the tubeworms that live at the deep sea hydrothermal vents. We have to use PowerPoint & the presentation can't be any longer than 5 minutes. I've still got a few days to practice the presentation itself, but the PowerPoint is finished. I'll see about posting it here after Monday's class.

On Dec 8th, we have to give our group presentations on "Do You Know the Fish You're Eating?" Each lab group (3-4 people) has to go to at least 5 restaurants and 5 markets, find out what kind of fish & shellfish they sell, are the fish farm-raised or wild-caught, where do they come from, are they over-fished, etc., etc., then present their findings to the class.

In Piano, I've been getting A's on my scales and pieces. We've got one more week of regular assignments, then our final exam will have 2 scales and a longer piece.

In Swimming, I have learned out to crawl and am learning the butterfly stroke. It's a little difficult to coordinate the hands & feet, but I think I'm getting there.

Next quarter, I plan to take the next class in the Theory sequence, Piano, and Swimming again. I will also take American History (1900 to the present) and am thinking of joining the College Chorale.

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Addendum to: An Intro to Figured Bass

In my previous post An Intro to Figured Bass, I said that I'd send the post to my Theory professor to see if he had any feedback. Well, I did & he did! Here's what he said:

I think it works really well and I like very much the little charts, they make a lot of sense. There's only one problem spot:

Once you have figured out which of your 3 notes is the root, etc., you then look to see which one is in the bass. In our example above, we'll say that D is in the bass. Since Chart One told us that D is the third of our chord, we know that the figure we will need to use is "6".

Inevitably, someone will ask, "Why '6'?" Or why any of the numbers indicating inversions, for that matter. Of course, explaining where "6" came from is difficult: over the years I've had to go over and over the reasons for those numbers, because it takes a while to sink in for students. They're so used to root position chords that inversions is another universe for them. I'll try and see if I can think of something simple by way of explanation that you might be able to use.

Of course he's right. My "intro" assumed that the student already understands inversions.

But let's take a look at where those numbers come from anyway, shall we?

I have three different Theory books here at home. I have the Benward/Saker; I have the Kostka/Payne. But I think the best explanation of inversions appears in the Introduction to Music Theory Through Literature, Volume I by John Baur of the University of Memphis. The book has this to say about triads:

If two intervals are sounded together, the result is a triad. Although any three pitches results in a triad, there are four standard triads constructed from major and minor thirds: Major, minor, augmented, and diminished.

A major triad contains two intervals, a major third and a perfect fifth.



A minor triad contains a minor third and a perfect fifth.



A diminished triad contains a minor third and a diminished fifth.



An augmented triad contains a major third and an augmented fifth.



Any of these four triads can be constructed above any given pitch. The lowest note is called the root, the second note is the third, and the top note is the fifth.

If the root is on the bottom, the triad is said to be in root position.



If the third is on the bottom, the triad is in first inversion.



If the fifth is on the bottom, it is in second inversion.



The intervals above the lowest note are different in each case.



Even though the quality of the interval may change because of the quality of triad, the basic intervals for each inversion remain the same - 53 for root position, 63 for first inversion, and 64 for second inversion.

When doing figured bass or inversions, we just need to remember that the 53 is not written (since it's the "default" - root position) and that the 63 leaves the 3 off (again, because it's just "understood").

The same logic holds true for the figures used in 7th chord inversions.

NEXT TIME: a discussion of solfege! Specifically: the pros & cons of Moveable Do vs Fixed Do and Do-based minor vs La-based minor. Fun stuff!

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An Intro to Figured Bass

In Theory class the other day, we were working on figured bass. We were given a 4-part chorale (SATB) and had to put the appropriate figures underneath it. We were not doing Roman Numeral analysis or putting in Pop Chord symbols (which I like to call "popcorn symbols" 'cause I'm weird like that); all we had to do was put in the figures.

As the class worked, several of the people who sit around me started asking me for help. I wrote out a couple of charts & explained it as best I could.

Let me stop here & say that I went into this class knowing that I already knew all the "paper stuff" - that is, I know my scales, chords, Roman numerals, non-harmonic tones, etc. And while yes, I am taking this class to brush up on these things, I am mostly in this class for the ear training. So, while 95% of the class is hearing this material (the "paper stuff") for the first time, I am busily thinking of ways to explain it to those who ask me for help.

Here's what I came up with for figured bass. I'm going to send this post to my professor & see what feedback he has on it.

We start by writing out a few charts:

CHART ONE:
TRIAD LETTER NAMESThis chart is one that the professor wrote on the board on Tuesday. I like it, so I plan to keep using it! :-) This chart shows the letter names involved in triads. The top line tells you which note is the Root (1), which note is the third (3), and which note is the fifth (5).

If you are presented with a chord, the first thing you do is look at the notes (duh!).

NOTE: At this point, we are ignoring things like flats, naturals, and sharps; we only care about letter names right now.

Say your chord has notes D, B, and F. You look at the chart & find that combination of notes. You then look at the top line & see that B is the root, D is the third, and F is the fifth.


CHART TWO:
TRIAD FIGURESOnce you have figured out which of your 3 notes is the root, etc., you then look to see which one is in the bass. In our example above, we'll say that D is in the bass. Since Chart One told us that D is the third of our chord, we know that the figure we will need to use is "6".

NOTE: we do not care in what order the other notes appear. That is, we don't care if the root is in the tenor, the alto, or the soprano voice; WE ONLY CARE WHAT'S IN THE BASS.

I point this out because it seems as if the other students were having trouble understanding this.

(I think it's because they're trying to apply ALL their thus-far-accumulated knowledge, not realising that it's not all relevant to the "problem" at hand.)

OK, that's great for triads, but what about seventh chords? That is, what about when you don't have THREE notes in a chord, but you have FOUR??

CHART THREE:
SEVENTH CHORD LETTER NAMESThis is just like Chart One above, except that it includes the seventh of the chord. We again ignore things like flats, naturals, and sharps; we only care about letter names. Let's use the same example as above - say your chord has notes A, D, B, and F. Look at the chord chart & find that combination of notes. You then look at the top line & see that B is the root, D is the third, F is the fifth, and A is the seventh.

CHART FOUR:
SEVENTH CHORD FIGURESThis is similar to Chart Two above. It's actually easier to remember because the top line (representing the bass note) is just your odd numbers - 1, 3, 5, 7. To get the figures, you count down from 7 - 765432.

NOTE: it is more common to see "42" rather than just "2" in figured bass (although the "2" by itself is also acceptable); that's just something you need to remember when making your chart.

Now, again look at which note of your chord is in the bass. In our example, A is in the bass. Since Chart Three told us that A is the seventh of our chord, we know that the figure we will need to use is "2" or "42". Again, we do not care in what order the other notes appear; WE ONLY CARE WHAT'S IN THE BASS.

OK, now that we have our charts & know how to use them, let's look at our musical example, a 4-part chorale:This is Bach's Von Gott will ich nicht lassen (I Will Not Leave God), BWV 418, mm. 5-6.

Let's take this one chord at a time & look at them from the bass up. (That is, I will put the note names in order of bass, tenor, alto, soprano.)

Chord One = B G D F

That's four different letters, so we have to use Charts Three & Four. Chart Three tells us that G is the root of this chord and that our bass note B is the third. Chart Four then tells us that the appropriate figure is "65".

Chord Two = C G C E

This chord has only three different letters, so we use Charts One & Two. Chart One tells us that C is the root. C is also in the bass, so we know this chord is in root position. Chart Two tells us that if the root is in the bass, we do not have to write a figure at all.

Chord Three = F A D A

Again, three different letters. Chart One tells us that D is the root and our bass note, F, is the third of the chord. Chart Two tells us that the appropriate figure is "6".

Chord Four = E C E A

Three letters. Chart One says A is the root & our bass note, E, is the fifth. Chart Two tells us that our figure is "64".

Chord Five = E B E G#

Three letters. Chart One says that E is the root. It's also our bass note.

NOTE: Because this chord contains a note with an accidental, we need to do something slightly different.

The G# does not appear in the key signature. So even though Chart Two tells us that we have no figure to write, we do need to indicate that the third of the chord is sharp. We do this by putting a # sign by itself under the chord.

Chord Six = A C# E A

Three letters. Chart One says that A is the root. It's also our bass note. C is the third of the chord & it is sharped, so even though Chart Two tells us that no figure is needed, we still need to put a # under the chord.

We end up with:There are other rules for when accidentals appear in the chord and the chord is not in root position, but that's beyond the scope of this assignment. I'll probably write up an explanation for that, too, since it's important to know how to do that, too.

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UPDATE: I've posted an Addendum to this post!

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Addendum to Composition Assignment

By popular demand, here is an MP3 of my Composition Assignment.

I used Finale to generate the file in the first place, then saved it as a .wav. I used Audacity to export it to .mp3. The dynamics are a bit weird, but otherwise it's ok.

I'm also going to update the original post with this info.

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Composition Assignment

My Theory class was given a composition assignment. We've been studying triads - major, minor, diminished, and augmented.

This assignment is worth 150 points. Here are the guidelines:

• 8 measures long
• use any triads: major, minor, augmented, or diminished
• all triads must be in root position
• triads can be from any key, but you must stay within one key (that is, you can use borrowed chords, but can't modulate)
• Double the triad at the octave below - keep the hands together (no octave separation)
• use only quarter notes, half notes, dotted half notes, or whole notes

We lose points if we don't follow the guidelines.

I actually wrote 14 measures, modulated to another key & came back, but that didn't fit the guidelines, so I took those measures out.

Here's my composition (click on the picture to see it full size):


Obviously it's not going to be some Major Masterpiece for All Time, but it was an interesting assignment. The hardest part for me at first was to keep everything in root position, but once I wrapped my brain around that, the rest progressed pretty nicely.

It's also obvious that I wasn't thinking in terms of "chord progressions" - and that wasn't one of the requirements of the assignment (so there!). The guidelines also said nothing about staying in a single meter. I did try to make it work in 6/4, but it just didn't feel right that way, so I went with what the music wanted to do & mixed the meter up a bit. The dynamics weren't required either, but there they are.

I enjoyed this assignment - and to be honest, this is the first bit of original composition I've done in YEARS! Oh sure, I've done *lots* of arranging and adapting over the years, but haven't written anything new in longer than I care to remember. So this felt really really GOOD! :-)

Hopefully I'll find some round tuits and start composing again....

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Addendum

By popular demand, here is an MP3 of my Composition Assignment.

I used Finale to generate the file in the first place, then saved it as a .wav. I used Audacity to export it to .mp3. The dynamics are a bit weird, but otherwise it's ok.

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