help me with my class?

spent a few minutes grimacing at j.'s post

well i have no idea if this will be any use but here's a half-finished series of amateur thoughts on classical music:

https://rateyourmusic.com/list/rushomancy/the-classical/

i’m also interested how music curriculum now deals with the “classical music” versus “classical period” dichotomy. I had a few teachers who would grimace if anything other than the period (1750-1820ish) was referred to as “classical” and insist we use the right terms, but I think generally things are looser?

Generally, in an academic context, "Western art music" is the preferred term for the entire tradition. "Classical music" may sometimes be used in more general lower-level courses, especially if WAM is not the primary focus of the course.

That said, no one says e.g. "I play guitar in the Western art music tradition" as opposed "I play classical guitar".

Also WAM also commonly stands for Mozart which makes things extra confusing

i might adopt the western art music terminology to distinguish between "classical" traditions in other parts of the world.
the syllabus that i was given spends a week each on the baroque period. the classical period, the romantic period, 20th c/modern classical music and...buckle your seatbelt..."music of the oklahomans"
i am going to see what my students are like before i commit to 4-5 weeks of western art music + whatever the oklahomans are up to in the second half of the semester.

i need to emphasize that this is 1) an elective 2) students are not only not studying music, they are barely studying the arts. this class might be the best opportunity they have/have had to explore different types of music in an academic context.

i also need to get them to a live performance, which shouldn't be too hard since our class is at night. we also have a performance space we could potentially use with a fully functioning piano in it!

Leonard Bernstein explains intervals and the development of the circle of fifths with brevity and giddy enthusiasm

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Gt2zubHcER4

I've spent a couple of years reading about and listening to pre-WWI recorded music, minstrel shows, ragtime, cakewalk, Sousa, etc, would by no means call myself an expert but can recommend the best books and recordings I've encountered if you feel like going in that direction.

Yeah, I was answering mh's question, to be clear, not suggesting that you should be fussy about terminology in a gen ed music appreciation class. 2xp

(Very curious about this Oklahomans business, though.)

that bernstein video is perfect, thank you

pre-WWI recorded music, minstrel shows, ragtime, cakewalk, Sousa, etc, would by no means call myself an expert i may need your help, thank you. for some reason* i am really excited about telling them about the gigantic shift that occurred once music started to be recorded and played at home (not family singalongs, but records!) and the resulting explosion of music. i remember learning that and finding it so compelling to contemplate. also my gpa worked for RCA so i was familiar with the gramophone and the doggie. i'm trying to stay away from forcing them to learn the pet things i am interested in but i'm sure a little of that is inevitable.

i thought maybe the oklahomans was like grapes of wrath/okies/oh susanna/i've been workin' on the railroad?! if that's not it, i have no idea tbh.

* the reason is obvious, this is the kind of music dork i am

LL if you want to have some retro fun i recommend showing the classic "Mr. B Natural" short. MST3K famously riffs it but i was actually shown this film in class.

If you're looking for the broadest possible overview of Western art music, I very much enjoyed A Concise History of Western Music by Paul Griffiths.

i have a textbook -- World of Music by David Willoughby

there are so many movies i want to show them. one of my priorities is to give them a solid background for talking about music and then encouraging them to research, describe, and present their findings to the class. there are three projects where they can choose their topic. i haven't settled on the general themes for each one yet.

they also will write 2 short papers 1) describing a performance they saw 2) interview a musician

in between all that, i need to present information to them. that's the basic structure of the class. it is 3 hours every tuesday night.

music of the oklahomans

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=-YGhPXE0FRw

from a history of the musical Oklahoma!

With most of the writing in place, a creative team for the show was assembled: director Reuben Mamulian(ph) and choreographer Agnes de Mille, who had recently created the western ballet "Rodeo" with Aaron Copland.

I knew he'd sneak in there somehow

https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Tulsa_Sound

you could outline Oklahomans' contributions to making "Lay Down Sally" a hit.

idk, i think the Oklahomans are going to get scrapped for something else. Sorry folks.

I could swap for Ohioans and have a lot more fun

it reeks of "we need something not-quite-contemporary to introduce"

Akronians even

xpost

I was thinking this morning that it might be cool if you showed them the basics of synthesis on some basic synth at some point in the course, like

1. Demonstrate how the raw unfiltered sine, triangle, square and saw waves sound (play some three note riff on each)
2. Show how they sound with a filter applied, in a few diff positions (lowpass set low, lowpass set medium, same with resonance turned up)
3. Show how the filtered waveforms sound with an amp envelope applied (wah shaped envelope, twang shaped envelope, percussion hit envelope, long pad shaped envelope)

Synths are in everything they listen to probably and the elements of how they make sound are simple and cool and also relevant to how everything makes sound!

hah, I was having some of the same thoughts about music theory -- talking about arpeggios and then showing an arpeggiator would be an easy building block

This guy's YT channel is kinda great, it may be a little advanced in places but among a lot of the music theory explanations he dissects some modern tunes or bands and it's executed in a very visual and appealing way.

http://www.youtube.com/channel/UCTUtqcDkzw7bisadh6AOx5w

Also WAM also commonly stands for Mozart which makes things extra confusing

― Winter. Dickens. Yes. (Jon not Jon)

WAM also commonly stands fro "wet and messy". don't google that.

oy

what else does LVB stand for?

per wikipedia: "In addition, a number of prominent jazz musicians came from Oklahoma; these include Charlie Christian, Oscar Pettiford, Don Byas, Cecil McBee, Barney Kessel, Sam Rivers, Don Cherry, Chet Baker, Jimmy Rushing, Sunny Murray, and Jay McShann."

i don't know, i could spend a week on that easy. also, oklahoma is basically the home of western swing - bob wills worked out of tulsa (don't be fooled by his band's name), and the fantastic steel guitarist bob dunn was from oklahoma. seriously listen to this shit:

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Zga4bjJxFwM

collective cadenza doesn't really make videos anymore, but they have a few fun videos about the evolution of pop music styles and instruments within genres. a little simplistic, a little corny, but fun and generally informative

history of jazz piano: https://youtu.be/IstFVThvo1A
intro to drums: https://youtu.be/_jntqBIjVNc
styles of western music: https://youtu.be/qOZb7KeJUQ8

my biggest road block was learning basic musical notation and that "note" and "beat" are one and the same. i remember my teacher tapping his feet and counting "1...2...3...4" and i was like, wait, how is this a note, you are doing percussion? maybe when you get to this part have a keyboard ready so you can demonstrate the note-beat interplay

time signature!

REQUEST: a recommended online glossary of musical terminology with audio examples ideally?
REQUEST: a quality (not for kids, clear, accurate) video explaining basic notation?

i have had a few good ideas thinking about this
i'm sure the oklahomans are worth my time and effort, maybe i will keep them in there just for the hell of it

i can demonstrate some of these concepts after introducing them
i have drums, a synth, an amp, a microphone, a self

this is a sweet pep talk for reluctant listeners https://www.naxos.com/education/enjoy_jobdesc.asp

That Naxos thing is right on. Contrast with Youtuber comment on the Bernstein thing: "It needs to be pointed out that when a musician listens to music as opposed to a layman the parts of the brain that engage (EEG) are the spatial reasoning area and the area associated with language then emotion." Which just makes me hate people.

so much misinformation and general assery about how to enjoy music out there!

it needs to be pointed out

Think you mentioned books? If so (or even if the students don't read these, might give you some more ideas), maybe try David Byrne's How Music Works and, re the relatively modern side of "classical", Alex Ross's The Rest Is Noise.

Yes, Alex Ross can tell you all about how America saved classical music after WW2, just like it saved Europe.

I have a textbook and I would like to provide supplemental readings, but they would need to be pdf or somehow reproducible because I can't have students buy anything else. If anyone has pdf copies of these books they want to share with me that would be cool! I have The Rest is Noise on kindle but I can't do anything with that :(

i can't stand "some people have musical/artistic brains, some people are dullards" esp backed by pseudo science. i find it bourgeois and alienating. a student could get frustrated and think "well, maybe im just hard wired to not get art" and give up.

love that Naxos link. no right way to listen. your personal experience is valid. also this is very useful to bring up wrt live performance, where what the audience hears is different from what the performer hears. even in those cases it breaks down further, what one performer hears on one side of the stage will be different than what another performer hears on the other side of the stage. or maybe a performer is so fixated on getting this one part right that the entire concert is defined by it, whereas the audience experiences it in a completely different way. all these subjective experiences co-mingling together, a meta description of "the concert was good/bad" can only ever be an attempt at approximation.

so much misinformation and general assery about how to enjoy music out there!

― weird woman in a bar (La Lechera)

it might be good for you to provide them a particular example to ridicule because they will run into it and learning to take anything anybody says about music with a grain of salt is pretty helpful. nicolas slonimsky's "lexicon of musical invective" is a fun collection. (you don't have to give them a copy of it but you might read from it? idk.)

"you belong here" is one of my north stars in terms of education in general
i'll be ok with this stuff -- i was intimidated out of participating in musical conversations for a good portion of my life, so being inclusive is a primary goal in teaching this class. they're going to be well taken care of in this regard! they are in the right place and belong there.

I'm trying to track down a Jlin interview where she talks about asking someone with formal music training if they could teach her more about music theory, and they opine that they could only mess up her creative flow. There's no one entry point to music, and no wrong one imo

here we go! I was somewhat off but I enjoyed this anecdote

You mentioned that you don’t play any traditional instrument proficiently. Do you find that your lack of music training liberates you while making music? Or would you like to know more about things like music theory?

For me, music theory is more of a hindrance. At one point I was trying to learn how to finger drum, so I decided to take piano lessons to strengthen my fingers. I actually had a professional piano player who studied at Juilliard, a prestigious music school in New York, tell me that she could not teach me. I wanted her to show me some basic things on the piano and played her some of my music. After hearing some tracks, she said there was no point in teaching me because I already had everything I need. Then she recommended another teacher to me who had mentored under her. I went to his house, played him some of my music once again, and after some sessions he said the same thing: he couldn’t teach me because he would be undoing what I already know. He said my innovation might be undone by learning this instrument. So I got turned down twice and realized that I’m never going to learn how to finger drum.

http://www.electronicbeats.net/native-instruments-komplete-sketches-jlin/

gershwin famously had the same issue. he tried to get european composers to teach him how to compose, but ravel said something to the effect of "Why become a second-rate Ravel when you're already a first-rate Gershwin?"

personally i disagree with ravel's judgment on this issue but i understand why he was concerned

related to the "training" discussion:

How to Play Guitar, by David Fair

i love the instructions for Rhys Chatham's guitar trio http://www.rhyschatham.net/g3english/GuitarTrioScore.pdf

esp the special note for drummers

For the first set on the high hat, you can start out with a basic quarter note beat, and gradually, over the 20-
minutes, get more complex and frilly, evolving into a kind of Max Roach kind of high hat solo kinda thing,
maybe. Anyway, may the force be with you, it always works out fine. Don’t worry too much about this
section, you’ll know what to do by instinct, I promise.
For the second set, hit the drums real hard, yet somehow poetically. The snare drum sound has gotta be
AWESOME… I like LOTS of fills, so pull out every over-the-top fill lick you know and use it in this piece.
Lots of ride and crash cymbals. Don’t be afraid, out of politeness, to be a rock n roll hero, i.e., don’t hold
back.
What I’m saying here is that this piece is essentially a 20-minute solo for you, first on high hat, then on the
full kit. Listen to the record to get an idea of what I’m after. The recorded version (David Linton), though
the definitive one and completely inspired, was a bit tamer in terms of fills than the one Jonathan Kane (of
Swans fame, who joined the band later) used.
Anyway, you get the idea, I’m sure you’ll do great

simon frith is a good resource, also contains this classic of music appreciation

https://books.google.com/books?id=BPdIfT6scIoC&pg=PA3&lpg=PA3&dq=frith+performing+rites+poison&source=bl&ots=Z6K6ddb2ib&sig=Tq1Ze_L3F6_yxffVATA3wcQujHY&hl=en&sa=X&ved=0ahUKEwiJqL_1wuLYAhVSjK0KHezDDWAQ6AEIQzAD#v=onepage&q=frith%20performing%20rites%20poison&f=false

There is no way possible that Poison can EVER be on top. Them little underdeveloped chromosomes don't got cock big enough to fuck an ant. So all you fucking whores out there who praise the ground Poison walks on are in shit. METALLICA RULES and that will never change.

Letter from LaDonna to Metal Mania, May 1990

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=aSbUJ4yi-vI

^ played that a bunch for my kids when they were little

As an Autour de Lucie stan, would say pretty much anything of theirs, though _Immobile_ is the album I'd take to the desert island. "Sur Tes Pas" has a bunch of hooks.

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=UeI1I2eidHk

leaving out songs that talk about sex and/or death (that's a lot of them!) and/or too grown up (i.e. boring), first things I thought of:

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=7ohX4ii4iow

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=W268gjCZHrs

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=6aIgGbO8rQ0

("Banana Split" even catchier but inevitably is about sex)

If sex and death are off limits, how about drugs?
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=e_mOdSuKjcE

Seems like it would be a fun one to translate

If you wanna freak your pupils out a little?

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=MOfdJ8ZcLJc

Ha, I was thinking about suggesting Evariste's integral calculus track but thought I probably shouldn't.

"laisse tomber les filles" is not too adult, and is also the greatest pop song ever, so...

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=FWRCJhsz5t4

<3 <3 Evariste

not so hip but also not from 30 years ago

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=vjLuTtUv0Ns

I guess this one is kind of about death

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=oiKj0Z_Xnjc

Magic System have lots of fun songs:

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=FsVJ8ie2sfs

This is all great, thank you all so much and please keep them coming!

Even if I don't teach my music class anymore, I can still include musical topics as sample research topics for us to use for in-class practice. Today, among two other nonmusical topics, I presented my first year (""traditional"") college students with the question of (basically, not in these exact words) "what was going on in 2012 to produce a Billboard Hot 100 that looks like this[displays list of songs]??"

They loved it! They kept going down the list and being shocked over and over like "and this one?" etc until I saw them looking up other lists of music from 2012 and continuing to be shocked that 1) it was 10 years ago and 2) they still liked a large proportion of the songs. Wednesday they will present me with their theories. Fun topic I've been thinking about and finally implemented today.

My observations:
they love CRJ, knew she had a new album out, a couple were legit fans
"Someone That I Used to Know" was so beloved by one of them that she had it downloaded to her phone for anytime listening
it was enjoyable to see the passage of time sink in as they realized how different the world seems than it did in 2012
overall good topic, would float again maybe with tweaks as time passes (as it does)