How loud is a decibel? This interactive site will give you some idea. What noise levels are endured by members of orchestras? This site has some interesting and detailed information. New European Union industrial (sic) legislation stipulates that employers must provide protection where noise levels in the workplace exceed 85 dB . This has brought about the phenomenon of bespoke ear plugs (paragraph 21) and some interesting technology (paragraphs 22 & 23). The issue of problematic noise levels has led to pieces being dropped from concert programmes.
According to this article a pipe band, playing at full volume outdoors, peaks at 122 dB. Is it possible musically to arouse national pride at 85dB? In 2005 I attended the Pipefest in Holyrood Park, where 10,000 pipers and drummers broke the Guiness World Record for simultaneous playing. There were hundreds, if not thousands, of spectators seated on the grass. At the sound of so many pipes starting up many people leapt to their feet - fuelled by raw emotion.
You can hear a report on the topic of musicians’ noise-at-work on Radio 4’s Broadcasting House (fast forward to 48 minutes in). It features the bitter irony of the EU anthem consisting of a theme from the Symphony No. 9 of Beethoven – who, by the end of his career, was profoundly deaf.
I once played in a band at a 50th birthday party in The Johnny Cope, Prestonpans. The venue had in place a traffic light system of noise awareness:
- green = well within limits
- amber = getting near the upper limit – keep a lid on it
- red = you’ve overdone it – at which point the power would be cut for 30 seconds or so – it’s a situation you’d want to avoid.
The limit was breached only once. We were on a break, and a kissagram dressed as Tarzan had just entered the room.
New Pupil Performance mp3s have been posted on the Musselburgh Grammar School page
I don’t normally watch BBC’s Young Musician of the Year – not because I don’t enjoy watching talented young people perform, but more because I find the competitive element a little distasteful. While I acknowledge that many a great career has been launched this way, I’d rather just enjoy the performance. This is now possible thanks to the BBC providing video footage. The videos contain far more of each soloist’s programme than broadcast time could possibly allow. May I recommend this fine performance by Jadran Duncumb on guitar. Once there, you’ll be able to navigate your way around the other performances and interviews.
New pupil performance p3s have been posted on the Knox Academy page
What better way to start the day than to sail past your normal school, and enjoy the beautiful drive from Haddington to Gifford on a sunny morning? Senior moment? Wrong turning? In fact it was a Transition-based event featuring three S2 guitarists from Knox, returning to their old school to play for current Yester pupils.
They seemed delighted to be there, as was I – it’s a lovely, bright and welcoming school and it was clear from converstaions beforehand that Dorothy Hilsley, the Head Teacher, remembered not only these pupils well, but also their older siblings.
We played a selection of repertoire from lessons and finished with an ensemble piece - the three pupils involved were among the only five S2 pupils to take part in this year’s East Lothian Guitar Ensemble. The ensemble piece allowed us to demonstrate how pupils practise ensemble music at home using the Guitar Group Midis page. The class teacher, Mr Purves, was also very interested in this aspect as he is the technical brains behind Yester Primary’s very impressive blog.
In addition to having a fun hour out of school, we hoped that the audience will have a more vivid idea of what guitar instruction is all about when they arrive at Knox. The trio also racked up extra house points – a triple whammy as, by an amazing coincidence, all three are in Lammerlaw – as was I thirty-odd years ago.
Interested in language? Shouldn’t every teacher be? Got a spare 8 minutes? Ever wondered what Forensic Linguistics is all about? You can hear a very interesting interview from Radio 4’s Word of Mouth about how language (including texting style) can betray incongruities with the claimed age, gender, social class & native language of the user and how evidence for real life cases (much more serious than copying homework) was gathered. Dr. Tim Grant, Senior Lecturer in Forensic Linguistics at Aston University explains how here (until Tue 13th at 16:00).
Very similar skills and processes are used to determine the composer of an unidentified instrumental piece of music. Details of instrumentation, national style, harmonic & rhythmic language, division of octave etc. are often unconsciously processed, allowing the listener to pin down the historical period, country of origin and, in many cases, the individual musical signature(s).
Guess who got me into etymology. Perhaps surprisingly, it was Malcolm X, in his autobiography. Rather than looking up definitions, it soon seemed preferable to attempt to divine them through familiarity with the constituent parts of the word – making it nearly impossible to forget.
In a subject like music, the bulk of whose vocabulary consists in old and foreign words, an etymological outlook can offer a key to these baffling terms and associations. With this in mind, I’ve created a new Lesson Support Page entitled Music & Etymology. I must stress here that this is not really my own work but simply a series of links to a fantastic online etymological resource. At the moment the work is at the brain-storming stage and I feel that further developments (and perhaps suggestions from users) will help me decide which of the following options to choose:
- alphabetical – favouring those looking for a specific term
- thematic – grouping together related words e.g. interval; triad; chord – favouring browsing
I’ve also yet to decide what to do about words which do not appear on www.etymonline.com. Should I provide my own pointers? Leave them blank – encouraging reader research? Omit them from the list altogether?
Clearly, this will an ongoing project requiring constant updating. However, there’s no rush and it’s important to bear in mind the following proverb of Lao Tzu at the outset of a seemingly huge task:
“ A journey of a thousand miles begins with a single step.”
New Pupil Performance mp3s have been posted on the Musselburgh Grammar School page.
New Pupil Performance mp3 have been posted on the Knox Academy page
One of the advantages of Google Reader is that it can draw your attention to something you’d otherwise have missed – such as Tom Rudolph’s Berklee Music Blog entitled Making The Most of Music Notation. To date there are seven posts – all very informative and intelligently set out with many useful hyperlinks. I’d recommend this blog – especially to those starting out in the the field of music notation technology.
