Alan Coady’s Musical Blog

I’m in the process or preparing a short CPD session for colleagues on the free, open-source sound- recording and editing program, Audacity. When pitching the idea, I suggested that we could each prepare a Desert Island Discs CD, featuring 1 minute each of eight tracks. In addition to learning such aspects of the program as fade-ins and fade-outs, it would encourage us to discuss music with one another – a thing which, somewhat ironically, rarely happens. The other irony is that, in seeking accommodation, I discovered that the room containing the most computers, loaded with Audacity is not in a Music department, but CDT.

To experiment with cross-fading, I’ve cut down my original Desert Island Disc extracts to a few seconds. This is the sort of mashup one could use to give an overall flavour of, say, a school concert. While I think you’ll agree that this selection desert-island-discs-mashup doesn’t represent the ideal dinner party mix, it probably doesn’t matter as, on a desert island, one tends to dine alone. “Just as well,” some of you may say upon hearing these extracts.

I spent Friday afternoon at NBHS in a very enjoyable, whole school CAT/CPD event on Literacy. One of the features I especially enjoyed was the cross-curricular nature. I often find myself questioning the wisdom of our discrete Instrumental Instructor In Service days, wondering if so much micro at the expense of macro is a good thing, given the direction in which Scottish Education is currently heading.

The event comprised two sections:

• all staff - randomly grouped - discussing and sharing what we considered literacy to mean at various age groups from 0 to 25 – led by Karen Haspolat (QIO) and Mary Howie (Literacy Adviser).

• a chosen workshop from a list of five – I chose How We Learn To Read presented by Hilery Williams

Within a few minutes of discussing our given age group (13-16) it became clear that the definition of literacy was becoming boundless and our post-its included the following literacies: traditional; digital/web; musical; physical; social; inter/intra personal; foreign language; political; sexual (meaning - sense of appropriate behaviour); moral; economic. Many of these quickly necessitated sub categories. Language, for example, distinguished between reading, writing, listening & talking, while Music featured playing, listening, composing/arranging/improvising. Both also contain higher order skills such as critical commentary/review; pastiche; a sense of appropriate register e.g. is this level of irony suitable for a wedding ceremony?; or is a pipe band the best medium for this lullaby? I was very impressed with the presentation of each group’s findings which, without exception, seemed comprehensive – even although the given age range may have fallen quite far outside the area of professional expertise.

How We Learn To Read was entirely hands-on and practical - and fun. Hilery guided us through them with a gentle hand, which sustained a sense of challenge, and an infectious joie de vivre which belied the time of the week and the previous day’s house move! The activities had been very well designed and selected to allow us to discover, often by stealth, how we may have accrued the various literacy skills which we now take for granted. A vital part of that discovery necessitated discussing the strategies that we had used to arrive at our answers. Having turned 49 that day it struck me that my formal introduction to reading had begun 44 years before and that I had very few memories of the process – although I can recall sounding out and seem to remember using a book mark to discourage the eye from wandering into the wrong line. Again, I felt that the cross curricular nature of the teams accelerated rather than impeded effective team-work. Our table featured Art; Modern Languages; Computing; Guidance & Instrumental Teaching.

Throughout the tasks, I tried to keep a corner of my mind free to consider the parallels (no matter how inchoate) between traditional and musical literacy. The first activity involved concentrating on syllabification by means of a jigsaw whose individual pieces contained only one syllable. Within seconds of the pieces being spilled out, I found myself gravitating towards syllables which could only be found at the end of words. Why this should be I remain unsure – particularly as the capitalised beginnings ought to have stood out more. Fortunately our mercurial Modern Languages teacher had already identified and lined up the beginnings and pretty soon we were all able to predict the syllables we needed to find to complete the four words. It was interesting to note how prediction played as much a part as identification in this task. This is certainly a feature of musical sight-reading. Perhaps my fascination with endings constitutes one of the parallels with musical literacy. I would contend that one of the first steps in playing a phrase musically is to make the ending sound like an ending. It is an easier notion to grasp than making the middle sound like a middle or the beginning like a beginning. This has implication for interpretation, performance, composing/arranging. One level of listening would be for pupils to consider what it is about the content of a particular passage that makes it sound like an ending. A slightly more tricky one could include the question, “what is it about the content here which makes it seem that the ending is just around the corner?”

I won’t divulge here the contents of every activity undertaken, lest there remain readers who have yet to undergo them. Suffice to say that there were many more than time allowed and I’d have enjoyed doing several more.

I hope to engage in further consideration with Hilery of the parallels between our respective literacies as I have an intuition that the similarities may well outweigh the differences. More immediately, I’d say I have been inspired to devise more games for lessons as the animation they bring to learning is undeniable.

Games already in use can be seen here:

1    2    3    4    5

I understand that employees of ELC can access cut-price podiatry. Is there similar access to voice care? Why is this on my mind? Am I suffering from problems at either end? Not as far as I know, but I’ve just been listening to a review of Voice Work: Art and Science in Changing Voices by speech and language therapist Christina Shewell.

Some interesting statistics emerged:

• 1/3 of us use the voice at work
• 14.9 million people in the UK are unhappy with their voice
• open voices appear to be universally pleasing and nasal voices off-putting
• the average female voice frequency is 220 Hz i.e. vocal cords opening and closing 220 times per second – so 5 hours of talking over a day result in the vocal cords opening and closing more than 4 million times
• it was stated that men average half of this – I’m not sure if this meant 110 Hz or half the inclination to chat for 5 hours
• as an example of the contrast between singing and speech it was pointed out that a top C requires the vocal chords to open and close 1046 times per second
• the average pitch of the female voice is dropping in America but not in, say, Sweden
• when it comes to control, effective vocal vibrato requires that the modulations in pitch fall between 5.5 and 7.5 times per second – lower than 5.5 results in a creaky sound – higher than 7.5 results in a tremor

The author pointed out that while a literacy hour exists in school, there is no equivalent for oral skills – and that these skills can affect employability. She also referred to the bilaterally psychosomatic nature of the voice. A person’s voice gives away more about them than they might intend to convey. It also affects the body and mind of the listener – at the most basic level in their disposition to continue listening. Moreover, singers who develop vocal problems are loathe to seek help as they intuitively feel the ensuing investigations to intrude upon their sense of self.

Having listened to the interview and book review, I was left with the feeling that we know very little about the major tool for delivery of our practice. One always feels guilty suggesting further spending in an economic crisis. However, I feel that one centrally held copy of this book (or one per cluster) might be a case of prevention being better – and cheaper – than cure. And there’s always In Service….

I decided to spend the last day of this week off attending a CPD event laid on by ELC. Delivered by Park Sims Associates, the course was entitled Read Faster, Read Smarter and its stated aim was to help “all who want to get through their reading at work faster and smarter.”

I was hoping that there would be some straightforward ocular content as this would surely be transferable (to some degree) to the reading of music. I was not disappointed in this respect and hope to share that (and this) with colleagues at Monday’s In Service.

I’ve no wish here merely to post online the content of a course honed over years by fellow professionals, so let it suffice to say that it was as good an example of active learning as I’ve seen. Many of the tasks had been cleverly designed to highlight a particular point by stealth, so that the habits of a lifetime, which often conspire to impede us, might be circumvented.

Well presented handouts were abundant, allowing us to concentrate on the task at hand which, I think the 16 delegates would agree, was at times very challenging. However, no-one in their right mind, would expect a physical skill to fall into place in a matter of hours. Like most skills, speed reading consists of a variety of strategies and an intuitive application of the appropriate one comes only with experience.

I look forward to developing what I learned today and, hopefully, to exploring further the parallels with written music. Having had some intensive concentration on visual intake, I feel now may be the time to seek out a book written by one of the presenters of Tune-In: Music with the Brain in Mind - “The Eye: A Natural History” by Simon Ings.

Inspired by another Sibelius “how to” video on ScreenToaster by J. Simon van der Walt I decided to re-do my own one, on the subject of converting Sibelius files into PDF files using Open Office. Simon’s contains audio (as opposed to subtitles) and, although I’ve experimented with this, I’ve yet to overcome some technical glitches. The reason for replacing the video was more to do with size and visibility. Choosing “full desktop” resulted in drop-down menus being nearly illegible. It turned out to be better to opt for “rectangular area” and to drag that around the top-left of the screen, where most menu activity takes place. I would recommend rehearsing to check that all dialogue boxes (when saving) will also fall within the rectangular area.

Firstly, thanks to Ewan McIntosh for flagging up ScreenToaster – a free screencasting application. I decided to experiment by creating a short “how to” video, showing how to convert Sibelius files into PDF files using Open Office – a free, open source program. You can see the video here.

I can see some potential here for distance CDP/In Service. Moreover, there are videos in a variety of languages in the ScreenToaster archive, so you can kill two birds with one stone.

In case anyone wonders why someone who already owns Sibelius would want to do this, here are a few reasons:

• scores/parts can be shared with people who are not Sibelius users

• they can be printed out even in a location where Sibelius is not installed

• parts for pupils can be emailed to class teachers in primary schools – the majority of which do not have Sibelius

• scores/parts can be saved in a format which prohibits further editing - by unauthorised parties

• files can be uploaded to blogs - allowing pupils with sufficient curiosity to see what others in their ensemble are playing

Today has had an international feel about it. I arrived in school early this morning to find an email from David Gilmour alerting me to the flattering fact that this blog is cited in a U.S-based distance learning resource. Later, catching up with Ollie Bray’s blog, I came across the Microsoft Innovative Teachers Network. Casting modesty aside, I decided to join.

I arrived home just in time to catch Obama’s impressive and moving speech. I wish him luck in what is surely going to be a tough gig!

Then exploring the Microsoft ITN a little further, I noticed that one could set up communities and decided, in the spirit of international bonhomie, to set up an Instrumental Teachers Community*. You may notice, once there, that I have been compelled to live in an apostrophe-free world. Perhaps this is a small price to pay for a hands across the seaexperience. As a gift to the community, I have uploaded an arrangement for 5-part guitar ensemble of Jacob Gade’s tango, “Jealousy.” To check that the link to this score worked, I clicked on it and was delighted to see that it opened up Sibelius Scorch which allows people who do not have Sibelius software to hear the score**. Right-clicking allows saving in the normal way.

* I have used the term Teacher as opposed to Instructor as the latter is more of a UK than an international term

** Scorch does not recognise Da Capo and Coda signs so, if you listen, the score may seem to make an odd jump at one point

p.s. since writing this it has become clear that trying to link to the Instrumental Teachers Community*. results in being asked for a  user name and password. So the only way in is to be a member of the Microsoft Innovative Teachers Network. 

I received notification from a friend of an interesting sounding one-day event in Edinburgh University entitled Communicative Musicality. The description of the course was as follows:

This one-day meeting invites international specialists in the fields of music and music therapy, evolution, brain science, psychology, linguistics, education and clinical psychology to debate the intrinsic ‘musical’ nature of human life in relationships and community. Speakers will include authors in the book Communicative Musicality: Exploring the Basis of Human Companionship, edited by Stephen Malloch and Colwyn Trevarthen, published by OUP in October 2008. Copies of the book will be available for purchase during this event.

The theory of communicative musicality specifies that gestures of voice and body express the controlled energy of moving and thinking, which is intrinsically expressive and rhythmic. ‘Musical narratives’ of gestures constitute the essential foundation for all human communication, even the most arbitrary and technically elaborated, as for parenting, celebrations of community, teaching, the creative arts, and for therapy to help disabled or emotionally distressed persons.

Held with the collaboration of The Institute for Music in Human and Social Development (IMHSD), The Perception, Movement and Action Research Centre (PMARC), and The Institute for Advanced Studies in the Humanities (IASH) at the University of Edinburgh

Suffice to say I’m looking forward to it and will report any interesting revelations here.

Peter Lovatt’s improvisation workshop, which followed hot on the heels of The Science of Improvisation, concentrated on verbal as opposed to musical improvisation. I imagine the reasons for this included:

• not all present would have brought instruments

• not all present were musicians

• breaking into groups, working verbally would produce less racket than would its musical equivalent

However, being an guitar teacher, I’ve since thought about how to make use of parallels. I should perhaps point out here as a prelude to outlining my memory and analysis of events that, unlike the two longer seminars, I did not make an audio recording – the nature of the workshop simply wasn’t going to lend itself to that, as we were frequently to break into changing groups to try out the various ideas. I know how unreliable memory can be, but I feel I can remember most of what happened.

At the heart of the workshop was (more…)

Spontaneity and inspections rarely appear in the same sentence but yesterday afternoon proved the exception. Upon arrival an mid-inspection NBHS, I overheard mention of voluntary meetings with members of the inspection team and NBHS staff with the intention of discussing ACfE and AIFL. I took the liberty of inviting myself along and was welcomed with open arms.

For obvious reasons I cannot divulge names and details but suffice to say it was the first time I’ve sat round a table with colleagues from such diverse disciplines – and that the debate was very lively. The magnitude of current curricular reform and seems to encourage – in fact, requires – thinking out of the box and I found myself questioning aloud the automatic faculty grouping of Music with its traditional bedfellows. I would describe music as a language with an unmistakable numerical component, yet we rarely pursue these associations.