CGTB 5: Music Theory Checklist Classical Guitar Tool Box
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- Music
For me, having a process with a list I can check off is critical to getting things done in my personal and professional life. I guess part of this method stems from the fact that personally I am forgetful. It also stems from experiences I had in lessons and teaching students. I would come in and my teacher would ask me about something in the score. Often the question was something I could have and should have known already. There really isn’t a good reason not to have defined a French word in the score that indicated information about expression or dynamics in the piece. This is easy to do with google. By the time I as a grad student I really didn’t have an excuse for not knowing more advanced things like how many lines in a contrapuntal passage where there or which one was the subject.
Likely part of the reason I was showing up to lessons without having all my basses covered was an issue of maturity. But I also think it had to do with a lack of habit and not knowing what to look for or when to look for it. I hadn’t really trained myself to think about all the different pieces of information I could and should observe about a piece before or while physically practicing it. And I don’t think I am alone in this. Guitarists often discuss whether expression should be added before or after learning the notes. This suggests that there is some ambiguity within the community about when to think through this aspect of playing. It thus does not seem entirely unreasonable that a student may come to a lesson not having thought about expression or the different things in the score that provide information about expression.
If a musician subscribes to the notes first expression second mentality, its even less surprising that a student would come in without having expression words define. Its the argument of this method that the physical act of practicing is different when expression is added to the notes. Because expression changes the physical motions the body needs to make, its the argument of this method, and an argument presented earlier in this method, that one should think of expression as much as possible before physically practicing a piece and add it to practicing as soon as practically possible.
My experience is that teachers often think students should know better when they make mistakes like the one I made with the French word in my score. The French word is in the score! Why didn’t the student look it up? It seems like many teachers just resign themselves to the idea that some students get it and some students never will. That may be true, but I think there are many enthusiastic and potential musicians who don’t know what to look for, when to look for it, and what to do with it when they find it. Nobody ever explained two bar phrases, or walked them through analyzing a piece, or taught them how to phrase. I think part of the problem is there is a ton of things to think about and keep track of in a new piece and its easy to forget to think about any of those factors. Its also overwhelming for a teacher to remember them all and walk a student through them. This problem is especially true in advance music like Bach. So part of the goal of this method is to help the reader keep track of everything going on in the music.
The idea of this section is to have a checklist of things you should do or think about when you first look at a piece. This method is not a theory and analysis book, so I won’t always thoroughly explain all the vocabulary here. I don’t think this means I am leaving the reader of this method hanging. There are plenty of books on these subjects, one could google search any vocabulary in this list, and a good teacher can also provide an explanation and more context. Some of these concepts such as 2 and 4 bar phrases are probably easier to understand and hear with an explanation from a teacher with an instrument at hand.
This method is focused on where
For me, having a process with a list I can check off is critical to getting things done in my personal and professional life. I guess part of this method stems from the fact that personally I am forgetful. It also stems from experiences I had in lessons and teaching students. I would come in and my teacher would ask me about something in the score. Often the question was something I could have and should have known already. There really isn’t a good reason not to have defined a French word in the score that indicated information about expression or dynamics in the piece. This is easy to do with google. By the time I as a grad student I really didn’t have an excuse for not knowing more advanced things like how many lines in a contrapuntal passage where there or which one was the subject.
Likely part of the reason I was showing up to lessons without having all my basses covered was an issue of maturity. But I also think it had to do with a lack of habit and not knowing what to look for or when to look for it. I hadn’t really trained myself to think about all the different pieces of information I could and should observe about a piece before or while physically practicing it. And I don’t think I am alone in this. Guitarists often discuss whether expression should be added before or after learning the notes. This suggests that there is some ambiguity within the community about when to think through this aspect of playing. It thus does not seem entirely unreasonable that a student may come to a lesson not having thought about expression or the different things in the score that provide information about expression.
If a musician subscribes to the notes first expression second mentality, its even less surprising that a student would come in without having expression words define. Its the argument of this method that the physical act of practicing is different when expression is added to the notes. Because expression changes the physical motions the body needs to make, its the argument of this method, and an argument presented earlier in this method, that one should think of expression as much as possible before physically practicing a piece and add it to practicing as soon as practically possible.
My experience is that teachers often think students should know better when they make mistakes like the one I made with the French word in my score. The French word is in the score! Why didn’t the student look it up? It seems like many teachers just resign themselves to the idea that some students get it and some students never will. That may be true, but I think there are many enthusiastic and potential musicians who don’t know what to look for, when to look for it, and what to do with it when they find it. Nobody ever explained two bar phrases, or walked them through analyzing a piece, or taught them how to phrase. I think part of the problem is there is a ton of things to think about and keep track of in a new piece and its easy to forget to think about any of those factors. Its also overwhelming for a teacher to remember them all and walk a student through them. This problem is especially true in advance music like Bach. So part of the goal of this method is to help the reader keep track of everything going on in the music.
The idea of this section is to have a checklist of things you should do or think about when you first look at a piece. This method is not a theory and analysis book, so I won’t always thoroughly explain all the vocabulary here. I don’t think this means I am leaving the reader of this method hanging. There are plenty of books on these subjects, one could google search any vocabulary in this list, and a good teacher can also provide an explanation and more context. Some of these concepts such as 2 and 4 bar phrases are probably easier to understand and hear with an explanation from a teacher with an instrument at hand.
This method is focused on where