#we did an icebreaker for the new term and they asked what our favourite songs are | Explore Tumblr Posts and Blogs

musicacademic · 4 years

Text

Year 1 - Semester A - Week 7

November 4th - November 10th 2019

Music Industries

Teaching Music

In Music Industries on Monday morning, we were taught about teaching or we taught ourselves about teaching? Either way, it was probably one of my favourite sessions of Music Industries so far. Most of the session was up to us to see how Music should be taught. My professor started by welcoming us into the room with sweets and asked us how our holiday (as an Icebreaker) which was really nice as we’d been on a weeks holiday before that session and that’s where the lesson began. Right at the door.

One of the most crucial parts of teaching is to make sure that the students respect that the classroom belongs to you as a space to educate them but also to them as a space to be educated and to not be afraid to ask questions.

After being welcomed in my professor already had the classroom in a layout that he wanted it to be in to teach the lesson which made the transition between standing outside and beginning the lesson much easier as the classroom was equipped for learning.

A line that he made sure to emphasise was “A teacher’s job before anything else is to make sure a student is learning” and the way to do this is usually through assessments. There are 3 kinds of assessment:

- Self: This consists of letting a student look back on their own work and decide where they were successful and how they think they could learn better.

- Peer: This form of assessment can be shown. An example of this would be swapping work with another student to add their own input on how they feel the other’s work could be improved which allows insight on certain things you may not have noticed yourself when learning.

- Teacher: This is where you as the teacher really learn about how your student learns and you pick up on their strong suits and places in which they may require help. This is how a teacher will make sure that their student is learning.

To make sure we understood the lesson he provided to us an assessment of his own which was to plan our own lesson and present it for the class within 1 minute. When giving us this task he made sure to emphasise that as a teacher you must always remain professional even if giving a more relaxed lesson and that teaching always requires a plan.

See my lesson plan below:

Being a teacher, especially a music teacher within the teaching industry is an extremely hard task due to a number of things my professor listed as:

Noise! - Especially when working with younger years, noise can be a big problem with teaching music as in Primary and the early ages of High School, Music is usually a mandatory subject which means many students that you take may not always be interested in learning how to play music and sadly that means listening to the DJ button on a keyboard going off during your well-planned lessons.

Poor accommodation & funding - With budget cut after budget cut coming from the Government, the Arts are slowly dying as a subject and with less money for Music, schools are less likely to want to put time and effort into making sure that the subject has adequate equipment and workspaces. Which links into the next point:

Lack of administrative support

Competition with other creative arts subjects

Numbers of classes you will have, names, paperwork, parents evenings…

Small dept teams, including peripatetics (peri-pat-etic: a person who travels from place to place, especially a teacher who works in more than one school or college.)

Stress/workload

Even after hearing about the struggles of being a Music teacher, this lesson really influenced me into thinking about it due to the positive reinforcements from my professor that I would make a good teacher even though it was something that I’d always brush aside and say that I wasn’t ready for. I’m very thankful that I had this lesson as even though I knew about most of the parts of being a music teacher I’d never equated it to myself as much as this lesson allowed me to.

Approaching Notation and Analysis

Introduction to Transcription

(Worked on Notating Rhythms - Nothing to Show)

A Performer Prepares

The Cult of Virtuoso: Concertos

A concerto consists of an Orchestra playing with Soloist. It is usually used to:- Add Texture to a piece- Give an important Musician a chance to show off- Showcase a brand new instrument- Create a dramatic dialogue between the Orchestra and Soloist

Throughout the different stages of music (Baroque - Romantic), there were many different definitions for what a Concerto was which meant that Concertos varied a lot during this time but once music progressed to the Romantic era, it finally seemed to become one definition. A Classical Concerto (Cadenza) was the first seen improvised solo given to musicians within music whereas concertos within the Romantic Era were based more on the virtuosity of the main soloist rather than musical depth. Most Concertos in this time were written to show off and gloat about virtuosity.

An Example of a Concerto: (Vivaldi’s 4 Seasons - Winter)

[Vivaldi, Concerto No.4 in F minor, Op.8, RV297, “L’inverno” mut.3 Allegro - 1725]

Recording Music

Recording Studios

In this session, we went into the recording studios and were walked through how the equipment worked which I had learned from my time in College. Not much else was learned other than shaking an egg to be recorded which was quite funny.

A History of Popular Music

Mediation, Semiotic Analysis and Musical Dramaturgy

The definition of Mediation in the Oxford English Dictionary states that Mediation is an “Intermediate Agent” and a “Medium of Transition” which when written in simpler terms basically boils down to Mediation is making music marketable. It is usually seen as opposing to Authenticity as it takes away from the original meaning of the song but can also be complementary to the Authenticity of a piece of music.

When thinking about Mediation the sections usually thought about consist of:

- Live Performance - Selling Merchandise / On stage lighting choices and art

- Package Recording - Recording CDs / Vinyls / Cassette Tape (Image/Artwork)

- Filmed Concert Documentaries

- Radio Broadcasts - Live Lounge

- Feature Film Soundtracks - Netflix / Films / TV Shows

- Adverts for Non-Musical Projects - John Lewis Adverts

- Instrument Choice - Dylan Goes Electric

An Example of Mediation could be the performances of Verdi’s “La Traviata” - ‘Brindisi’ (Lost Weekend (Wilder, 1945)) as it shows how the context within a performance is important to Mediation.

Semiotics is the creating of meaning from an action or symbol. For example, some things have multiple meanings such as the sign the 2 fingers up meaning Peace when it comes to Hippies and Victory when Winston Churchill did it after the war. Most Semiotics depend on the context and the subject’s cultural codes / what they grew up understanding.

Codes are signifiers that promote a certain thought or feeling within a spectator due to the individual’s familiarity with the code. E.g. Shrieking Cellos to a Western audience would be a code that connotes horror whereas someone who hasn’t been exposed to the sound within that context may not feel the same feeling of fear after listening to the same sound.

Within the book Unheard Melodies by Claudia Gorbman, the author proposes that when an audience attributes meaning to film music their reading is based upon their experience and understanding of 3 different semiotic factors (Although sometimes these factors blur and merge):

Pure Musical Codes

Cultural Musical Codes

Cinematic Musical Codes

Musical Dramaturgy: When broken down Dramaturgy refers to techniques and principles employed in the design and presentation of dramatic works which leads to the idea that ‘Musical Dramaturgy’ separates elements that complete dramaturgical functions from ones that do not.

The terminology used when thinking about Musical Dramaturgy includes:

Added Value - Adding music to a scene gives the visuals a value. An example of this would be having one scene with different music over the top and seeing how the scene is perceived with the change.

Non-diegetic Music - This is where the music within a source is absent from the story word aka music that the characters within the story cannot hear. Example: The Opening Scene from UP - The music that plays within these scenes is obviously non-diegetic as it plays throughout the story of their lives and the characters do not react or interact with this. This music is merely there to add depth to the scene for the audience.

Diegetic Music - Being the exact opposite of Non-Diegetic Music, this music exists within the world of the characters and is often something the characters will interact with either through turning on the radio, putting earphones in or walking into a party and having the music play. Example: A scene from The Amazing Spiderman 2 in which the music switches from Diegetic (Being played through earphones in the main character’s ears) to Non-diegetic (The character taking his earphones out and the music getting louder to connote the switch between the two)

Internal Diegetic - This is the 3rd form of music within the context as Internal Diegetic refers to music in which one of the characters is thinking about a piece and therefore the audience can hear this music but the other characters within the scene cannot hear or interact with the music.

Acousmatic - Is the creating of an audiovisual space which brings the audience beyond the borders of the screen into the spaces in which the camera cannot capture. Examples of this would be like behind a closed door or behind the character as they’re being filmed walking down a corridor.

Empathetic - This music is something that is matched with the mood of the scene or of a character/compliments what the audience would think is appropriate for the scene.

Anempathetic - This music is something that is matched against the mood of the scene or of a character. Example: In Kingsman where there is a massacre within a church and yet the music is happy and upbeat.

Dissonant Harmony - A form of Anempathetic Music which creates a sense of Irony which is reflected through the music and the film scene.

Intracontextual Reference (Leitmotif) - Referencing a song that has been playing throughout a film in reference to a character or a certain event within the film. Example: Top Gun where the song playing on the Juke Box in the cafe is one that is linked with the Protagonist’s relationship with his partner which is heard throughout the film.

Intertextual Reference - Music which creates meaning through its connection with another form of media. An example of this would be if the Jaws theme playing in a different film, the audience link this sound with the idea of something lurking and getting ready to strike and therefore get worried.

Mickey-Mousing - Actions that are syncronised with the music alike what is usually seen in Mickey Mouse cartoons.

Ostinatos and Stingers - An ostinato is a repeated melody or rhythmic pattern that illustrates sudden dramatic tension (A Stinger).

Sound Bridge - Music that starts at the end of a scene and guides the transition through to the next scene.

#studyblr #university #college #school #student #notes #lecture #lecture notes #study notes #musicblr #musician #music #academic #WeeklyAcademic

0 notes