Category: Theory

Solving Scary Music with Theory

Ever turn the page in your lesson book and go, “AACK!”? This happens to my students once in awhile. They look at it and their eyes don’t know what to do with it.

Sometimes I direct them to the backwards practice technique, and other times I help them analyze the piece.

What does it mean to analyze a piece?

It can mean a couple of things. Back in college theory class, it meant to figure out the chord structure of the piece. There are more things you can do:

  1. Find the form of the piece (ABA or sonata form, for example) to see how the melody repeats.
  2. Find all the common finger patterns – scales, chords, arpeggios, grupettos, roller coaster scales, finger wiggles, repeated notes.
  3. Find how the phrases might be the same, only slightly ornamented.

How do we analyze the piece together?

Usually, I start at the beginning. We look for the common finger patterns. I point out the patterns and have the student name them.

After the first phrase, I start looking at whether the melody repeats. At the beginning of a new phrase, I check to see if we’ve already done it. Then I point out to the student that it’s the same as before.

Results

After we talk through the piece, the students feel better. It’s not so scary. They say, “I play my scales and chords every day! This piece is so easy!”

Conclusion

Theory is the math of music, and it helps us make sense of it when it’s confusing. I know that theory lessons can be boring or frustrating, but they help make the music easier.

Different Theory Definitions in Flute vs Piano

Being a doubler, I see the differences in piano and flute theory definitions. I’d like to share them with you.

I’m a little bit of a music theory nerd. I love the math inside of the music and seeing how it all fits together. Once you know your music theory, a piece of music looks like a beautiful puzzle.

Because of the way that different instruments make different sounds, the definition of some of the terms are different. Being a doubler, I see the differences in piano and flute definitions. I’d like to share them with you.

The Slur vs Legato

In flute, legato means to lightly tongue the passage, using a “la” syllable in your mouth. It sometimes says legato in the music and sometimes the composer uses a tenuto.

In flute, a slur means to not tongue at all in the passage indicated.

In piano, legato and slur are the same thing – smooth and connected – because every note is a strike of the string(s). There’s no way for the piano to not articulate every note.

The Accent

In piano, an accent simply means to play that particular note louder.

In flute, an accent means to play that particular note with a hard, somewhat explosive attack. The accent is all about the attack.

Piano as a whole is all about the attack. That’s why some consider us percussionists. We don’t have very much control over how the entire note is played, we only have control over the attack.

In the flute, we have control over the attack and the duration of the entire note, so if we were to play an accent the same way we were instructed on the piano, we would just play that note forte, which would sound funny.

Tone Color

In piano, people talk about tone color as purely the emotion that you want to portray.

In flute, tone color is involved with the emotion, but not the whole thing. We can have both purple noble and blue noble sounds. I talk more about tone color on flute here.

Let’s Work Together.

These are the differences that I see the most often, I’m sure there are more. I feel that when we know the differences, it helps us to come together more as musicians. We play together. If we know how our vocabulary differs, we can understand each other better.

Implied Accents

This week, the subject of implied accents has come up 5 different times in 5 different ways with 5 different students. I felt that if I was being asked about it this much, it needs to be told on a broader scale. By the way, if you have a question you would like me to answer about music, feel free to contact me. I can feature your question in an article.

So, let’s learn some music theory!

If you can’t tell, I love music theory, which is a good way to put people to sleep at parties. If you like talk about music theory, we should totally hang out. 🙂

What Is an Implied Accent?

An implied accent is an accent that the composer assumes you already know because of music theory and common performance rules. Sometimes they’re also called imaginary accents. Here are the two major implied accents:

  1. Time Signature Accents
  2. Slur Accents

Time Signature Accents

There are accents in each measure based on the time signature. I will list the most common time signatures below. I didn’t officially learn about these until I took percussion pedagogy class in college, but I subconsciously knew about them before that. Implied accents aren’t always taught by the teacher. Most teachers expect you to pick up on this information naturally.

  1. 2/2 or 2/4 – The accent is on beat one. This is one reason why 2/2 is usually used for marches – the right foot is dominant when you’re marching along.
  2. 3/4 – The accent is on beat one.
  3. 4/4 – The accents are on beats one and three, with the accent on three being weaker. This is very evident in rock music, where the bass drum is on 1 and 3 and the snare is on 2 and 4. A higher sound is weaker in our subconscious minds. This is also why we clap on 2 and 4.
  4. “Fast” 6/8 – Fast 6/8 is compound time, so there are two beats per measure. This would fall under the same rules as 2/2 or 2/4, where beat one gets the accent.
  5. “Slow” 6/8 – Slow 6/8 is simple time, and you’re counting all 6 beats. The accent depends on the situation. Where are the slurs? What format are the arpeggios? Sometimes the accent is on 1 with sub-accents on 3 and 5. Sometimes the accent is on beat 1 with a sub-accent on 4. The accent pattern will be the same for the entire piece.

The Slur Accent

Whenever there’s a two-note slur, the first note should be louder than the second note (Trevor Wye explains this in his omnibus book.) This has been common practice since the Baroque period, and is still considered common practice today. The first note of the two-note slur is part of the melody and the second note is part of the harmony.

Going Off-Topic into Slurs in the Baroque Period

Original Baroque music generally didn’t have slurs marked. The slurs were up to the performer. The beginning note of any slur, whether it was two notes or larger, was considered the melody and the rest of the slur was considered harmony. This is also information I read in Trevor Wye’s Omnibus.

If you have an edited piece of music from which you’re working, the slurs are already marked. These can be changed if you wish, but you may decide that the editor is a very smart person who did their research and what they chose is the best for the piece.

If you’re working from unedited music, you get to decide if and when you want to add slurs to change up the melody. It calls for extra analyzation, but it can be fun. Baroque music was all about the improv.

Conclusion

Thank you for following me off-the-path into the land of Baroque slurs. They’re not technically part of this subject but they’re related enough that I thought it would be worthwhile to mention them.

I hope this information helps you interpret your repertoire better in the future. I also hope this article clears up any mysteries that have cropped up around this subject. So much of learning music is one-on-one, teacher to student, and sometimes things are taught in a way that doesn’t make you realize there’s a rule about certain subjects. I’m all about clarity.