If brevity be the soul of wit then what better place than Ten Word Wiki (10WW) to flex the necessary muscles. Concepts feature large in SQA Music exams and this site could serve as an compliment to the excellent LTS concepts pages.
I feel that pupils would learn as much (and probably more) from coining definitions as opposed simply to consulting them.
To get the ball rolling, here is my first contribution: sequence
On today’s edition of Radio 4’s Great Lives, the guitarist, John Williams chose, as his biographical subject, the Paraguyan guitarist/composer, Agustín Barrios Mangoré. He cited as specific qualities, impeccable technique, inventive use of harmony & romanticism.
Here is a recording of Barrios from 1928:
The programme always features, in addition to the guest, an expert on the life of the chosen hero. This week’s expert was Paraguyan guitarist, Berta Rojas (whom I once saw play in the Dundee Guitar Festival). Here she is playing the final section of La Catedral:
You can Listen Again to the programme here until next Tuesday.
Guitarist and former Knox pupil, Simon Thacker, has posted three videos on YouTube featuring his recent East-West project with the Nava Rasa Ensemble. This film features: Simon explaining the origin of and ideas behind the project; rehearsal footage; interviews with members of the ensemble. Look out for waterphone at 0:16; the fantastic Brazilian/Scots accent of Maria Lima Caribé da Rocha at 0:47
This film features extracts from Shirish Korde’s piece Nada Ananda, concerto for guitar and chamber ensemble:
This film features the final movement of Nigel Osborne’s The Birth of Naciteka for guitar concertante:
All three films feature explanatory notes to the right of the screen.
It’s interesting to note that Simon, who left school before the digital revolution, as we currently understand the term, was underway, has effortlessly harnessed technology in the service of communicating his art to as wide an audience as possible.
My friend Martyn McQuade, whom I met in P1 at St. Mary’s Primary School in 1965, runs a studio near Longniddry. He recently offered me some free recording time. I thought it would be nice to capture a few of the songs in which I’d recently accompanied Zoe, of NBHS, in various public appearances.
She Moved Through The Fair she-moved-through-the-fair-2010-01-0
Ca’ The Yowes ca-the-yowes-2010-01-04
Ae Fond Kiss ae-fond-kiss-2010-01-04
John Anderson My Jo john-anderson-2010-01-04
Zoe will be appearing, along with seven guitar pupils, in two further Burns’ Songs at the NBHS PTA Burns Supper this coming Friday (29 Jan). Featuring the Robert Black Ceilidh Band, speeches from senior pupils, piping and highland dancing, this is always a great night.
Thanks to Martyn for his recording and mixing savoir faire. Having a pair of trustworthy ears at the desk is priceless.
While searching Youtube for a dynamic piece I’d heard on the radio the other day, I stumbled upon an excellent audio-visual history of music in 20 chapters. Each video features key works from the specified historical period, the composer’s dates and photograph (or portrait). Simple idea, excellently done - and ideal for SQA Listening revision. You can access all 20 videos below:
Yesterday I took part in an interesting CfE exercise at MGS where class each class teacher teamed up with another from a different department to investigate common ground and curricular connections. As an instructor, I was not really programmed into this but was very pleased to be included, having put out some gate-crashing feelers. The power of Maths decreed that many would be paired up with teachers of the subject and I was pleased to see that one member of the Music Department was Maths-bound.
As all expected, there were many overlaps. However, there were also a few false friends – words, the interpretation of which in either subject, is so different that we ought now to be on the lookout for understandable confusion. Examples?
Scale: referring in Maths to order of magnitude but in Music to the various spellings of stepwise movement in a melodic line
Time: time is relative in Music and absolute in Maths
Happily, the connections outweigh the differences by miles – is that a mixed metaphor? I’ll ask the English Department when we pair up with them 
New play-along midi files have been added to the Guitar Group Midis page for:
Always a source of fascination, Radio 4 is launching Vox Project – researching the oldest instrument on Earth - the human voice. Listeners/readers are invited to send recordings of their voice, engaged in one of various comparative tasks, to the researchers at UCL. The one which particularly interested me (and possibly many of you) is the difference in one’s voice when teaching as opposed, say, to chatting to friends. Schools are full of digital recorders now so why not get involved.
You can send recordings via Audioboo (if you have a iPhone or Android Phone) – otherwise you can upload to Youtube and email a link to info@whistledown.net
The site also features:
an interesting article entitled Why do human voices sound the way they do?
an audio slideshow featuring Clare Balding in an MRI scanner employing various registers and accents
I’ve said it before but I’m often struck by how important our voices are in teaching and how little we really know about them. Or is it just me?
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