Some of the trails have a gradual slope and others get there in a practically straight up route. I’ve walked them all, the gradual and the straight up.

When I first tackled the steep route, I had to stop a few times and rest. Subsequent efforts produced less huffing and puffing and fewer pauses. Now I’m walking that route without stopping.

Did the hill change? ‘Cuz it sure feels like it has leveled off. Of course not! The hill hasn’t changed! It just feels that way. I’m the one who’s changed. I’ve gained endurance. My stronger thigh muscles have put a spring in my step; most noted when I bound up the stairs at home.

Yo, Adrienne!

Do you know that scene in Rocky where Sylvester Stallone’s character goes through his morning jogging routine? He cracks a couple of eggs into a glass and some juice and drinks it down. Then he goes for his 5-10 mile run, shadow boxing on the streets of South Philly. At his brother-in-law’s meat market, Rocky “tenderizes” a side of beef with his taped fists. Finally his workout ends with a run up the steps of the Philadelphia Museum of Art.

The time-lapse scene shows the progress he makes over numerous days and how his strength increases. Early runs up those stairs are slow, but his persistence and practice pays off in the end when he races up those steps, jumping over some, and pumps his arms overhead in celebration. “Yo, Adrienne! I did it!”

Exercise, Schmexercise

What’s with all the exercise talk? Well, it’s an analogy for our music practice. The first time you play the G harmonic minor scale, for example, you might be huffing and puffing like I was on Mt. Tabor. But repeating the drill will have you racing up the steps of the museum like 32nd notes in no time!

Bill Conti’s Rocky music, Gonna Fly Now, is invigorating and exciting. It makes you wonder how The Italian Stallion could have done so well without his iPod!

So why not have a theme song for your musical goals? An inspirational song that is totally linked to your musical exercise. Yeh! Choose a song that exhilarates you. When you listen to it, visualize yourself meeting and surpassing your musical goals. See yourself playing your instrument. Hear yourself successfully executing your goal passage.  Then get to it and run up those steps!!

Where no one has gone before

My goal music is Star Trek The Next Generation theme song. When I hear it, I get all energized and am ready to explore strange new worlds! Which, when you think about it, learning a musical instrument can be like exploring a strange new world…

Got a theme song? An inspirational piece of music? Let’s hear about your endeavors and exercising.

If you liked this, you will also enjoy reading:

• Improvisation – It’s Not Just For Jazzers Anymore
• What Do You Do When…
• Embrace The Great Outdoors For Summer Practice
• Got Motivation?

Thanks for reading. The next edition of Musician’s Motivator will be out September 8, 2010.

As I’ve mentioned before in Musician’s Motivator, vacations provide a chance to change up your practice routine. For me, playing my tenor sax in outdoor settings while out of town, was fun. And, I met other musicians and music appreciators in these small towns.

A Swimmers’ Serenade

On the first day out, I walked down to the local beach in Home Valley. In Home Valley Park, there is a campground, a swimmers beach, and a windsurfers beach. At the swimmers beach, on the lone picnic table, I set my sax case and put together my horn.

I began my practice with a free-form improvisation, inspired by the mighty Columbia River. The Columbia Gorge is a scenic area that stretches 80 miles and serves as part of the border between Oregon and Washington. There is plenty of inspiration here!

Up rode a man on his bicycle. Rolf is a local musician whose band, Jive Turkey, plays county fairs and other civic events in the area. After our friendly chat, I went back to my playing. A little later a group of teens arrived to swim in the roped-off area of the river. I greeted them and continued playing.

After my improv warmup, I worked on a few songs; Misirlou, Jeanine, and Bewitched. Two men and one woman paddled in on their outrigger canoes , expressing their enjoyment of the tenor sax serenade. “That was beautiful! I wish you were here every time we went canoeing.”

Birthday Song For Sophie

As I packed up my horn, a little girl strolled up to me. “Can you play some more music?” she asked. “Well,” I replied, “I’m all done for the day, but I can come back tomorrow.” “Oh! I can’t come tomorrow,” she said, “It’s my birthday!” Holding up four fingers, she said, “I’m going to be this many.”

“Happy Birthday!” I exclaimed and began singing the birthday song. When I got to the third line, “Happy birthday dear …”, I paused and she sang her name; “So-phie.” We finished the song together. What a sweet moment.

Panther Creek

The next day, I ended up not going back to the river beach. Traveling between my motel in Home Valley and the conference in Carson, I would drive up Bear Creek Lane and cross Panther Creek at a secluded bend in the road.

I noticed a pull-off area at the West end of the bridge. This was where I did my practice for the next couple of days. It was a private setting in a wooded area beside a burbling creek. I enjoyed great playing sessions in this spot and some friendly interactions with the few passing motorists.

Say Goodbye to Self-Doubt

Some of you may be thinking, “I can’t play outdoors. I’m not good enough. I don’t know any songs. People will stare at me.” Whatever you may be thinking, let it go. No matter what you play, be it known songs or your own improvisations, the listeners out there will enjoy it. People love live music. Whether just getting a kick out of the novelty of live music outdoors, or listening and recognizing the song you are playing, the typical passerby will give you a thumbs up.

True enough, some people will not say anything or pretend to not see you. And that is just fine. You’ll get more practicing in.

Practical Considerations

You may want to prepare yourself for outdoor playing with mosquito spray and clothes pins (hold down music in the wind). While you’re at it, take along a can of Doubt-Be-Gone. Spray on and repeat as needed.

If You Enjoyed This…

You may get a kick out of these recent Musician’s Motivator articles:

• Inspiration On A Nature Hike
• What Makes A Memory
• What Do You Do When…
• Silly daGilly

The next edition of Musician’s Motivator is due out on August 25, 2010. See you then!

I Negotiate

I start out by talking to myself.

“If you get your horn out, you can play anything you want. You don’t have to do longtones or scales. You can play (insert favorite song of the moment) instead.”

“Just play for eight minutes. Set the timer and play until the timer goes off. Then stop!”

“Listen to that new CD you just bought. That will be inspirational. Listen to it with your horn in your lap all put together and ready to play. Simply listen to the beautiful, awesome music.” (The inspiration works and with my horn all ready to play, I only have to put it to my lips to get going.)

Sometimes I Guilt-Trip

More self-talk. This time with the voices of the nuns in my head.

“You’ve got that gig on Thursday. You want to keep your chops in shape, not to mention play well and not embarrass yourself. So practice!”

Impose A Deadline

This one has some guilt flavoring to the self-talk, but mostly it’s remembering why you are playing in the first place.

“OK. You’ve got the concert on the 22nd and eight tunes to learn. There are 25 days until the concert and I can – I will practice that music for 30 minutes on 17 of those days.”

Then I lay out a schedule of what to practice and when. When I see the plan all written out with clear steps how I will accomplish my goals, I get excited to enact the goals (read: practice) and relieved that I don’t have to do it all at once. I know that by following my plan of piecemeal learning, I will be prepared come concert time.

Here’s an example of three of those practice sessions.

• Hindemith March. Letter I to the end. Fast repeated tonguing. practice with m.m. start half-note = 63 and work up to half-note = 80.
• Hindemith March. Listen to recording. mark letter I with time-stamp. Play Letter I to the end with recording.
• Hindemith March. Letter F. Triplet runs. (unison with clarinets) work out fingerings. Practice 2 beats at a time, gradually put together all eight measures. work up to tempo half-note = 80.

Sing, Hum, Whistle

When you don’t feel like practicing, another way to ease into actual practice is to come at it sideways. I may start whistling or humming as I do some other task, like housework.

Whistling and humming are hands-free activities and require no special equipment. They get me in the mood. Now that the studio and waiting room are vacuumed, I am raring to get practicing. Whistling while I work has stimulated my music muscle. Singing or simple hand-on-lap drumming could serve the same function, too.

I Get Moving

I take a walk. I am fortunate that I live close to one of the best city parks in Portland, Mt. Tabor. Within eight minutes of walking out my front door, I can be on the park grounds and on a trail to the top of this extinct volcano.

The exercise is good for me physically and, surprise! It is also good for me mentally and emotionally, too. I return from my outing feeling better – more alive, happier and ready to make music.

Well, how about that! I just wrote my ezine.

Thanks, Anita, for your creative response to my whining this morning. “What do I do if I don’t feel like writing my ezine?” You said, “Write about what you do when you don’t feel like practicing.”

Invitation

We all have those times when we don’t feel like doing something.

• What do you do in those moments?
• How do you inspire yourself?
• Where do you find your motivation?

Comment on this post at Grace Notes Music Studio blog.

Thanks for reading! The next edition of Musician’s Motivator will be out on Wednesday, May 12, 2010.

If you liked this, you may also want to read:

• How To Develop A Curious Practice
• Dive Into The Unknown
• Head And Heart Of Music

A musical game of jacks enhances learning through play.

Have you ever played jacks? It’s that game of agility and speed played with a small rubber ball and a set of 10 six-pointed jacks.

The rules are simple enough, but the achievement of “threes-ies” can take many hours. Scatter the jacks on a flat, hard surface. Toss the ball into the air, pick up one jack and catch the ball after only one bounce. A game of Ones-ies is completed by picking up all 10 jacks, one at a time in the process described above.

Twos-ies, as you might guess, is played by tossing the ball into the air, picking up two jacks and catching the ball after only one bounce. Continue tossing the ball and picking up two more jacks until all are picked up.

Oh, and use the same hand to toss the ball, pick up the jacks, and catch the ball.

Using Multiple Senses

I was mulling over how we musicians use our senses – in particular, sight, sound, and touch – in learning and playing music. When a student is struggling with reading music and recognizing notes, I instruct them to do a multi-sensory exercise that goes like this:

• Look at and point at each individual note.
• Say aloud the name of the note as you point to it.
• Notate the music on a separate piece of staff paper, and say the name of each note as you notate it.
• Finger the note on your instrument while saying aloud the note name and looking at the note in the music.
• Play each note while looking at it on the staff and say the note name in your head.
• Sing each note while pointing to it or fingering it.
•    

This method of learning is very effective. Students often see results right away as their confidence in note-naming and note-reproduction increases. Because they are using multiple senses in the exercise, the learning attaches in a number of places in the brain. Recalling the material later is quicker and easier.

Sing, Say, Play

Suppose that each learning variation above might be a different jack from the game of jacks. Saying the name of the note as you point to it could be your Ones-ies. Threes-ies might be something like saying the name of the note as you point to it and then singing the pitch. I’ve prepared some suggested guidelines, and created some audio files and written music for you to use to get going. Read through my suggestions below, download the files, and play some Musical Jacks!

Gather your gaming materials

1. Download and print the music (PDF) for your particular instrument.    
   • Musical Jacks Treble Clef C Instruments
   • Musical Jacks Bb Instruments
   • Musical Jacks Eb Instruments
   • Musical Jacks F Instruments
   • Musical Jacks G Instruments
   • Musical Jacks Bass Clef C Instruments
2. Download the audio file (MP3). The files are provided in both bass and treble range. Choose whichever range is more comfortable for your voice. I also created slow and medium tempo files; 60 BPM and 100 BPM.        
   • Treble 60 BPM (7.7 MB)
   • Bass 60 BPM (7.7 MB)
   • Treble 100 BPM (4.6 MB)
   • Bass 100 BPM (4.6 MB)

Ones-ies, Twos-ies, Threes-ies…

I came up with eight different ‘jacks to pick up.’

1. Sing La: sing the pitch sounded on a syllable of “la” or “ma.”   
2. Speak: speak the pitch name.   
3. Point: point to the note on the music.       
4. Sing Pitch: sing the note name on pitch, i.e. “cee-sharp.”   
5. Notate Treble: on a treble clef staff, draw an empty oval (whole note) on the appropriate space or line.           
6. Notate Bass: on a bass clef staff, draw an empty oval (whole note) on the appropriate space or line.          
7. Finger: position your fingers as you would to play the pitch on your instrument. Pianists should touch the appropriate key with alternating left and right index finger. String players should position left hand on the fingerboard and right hand or bow on appropriate string.        
8. Play: play the tone on your instrument. Pianists, play the indicated key with all five digits of alternating left and right hands, in rapid succession.

Suggested Game Play

Set the printed music on the stand, sit with your instrument on your lap or otherwise handy, and have your MP3 player within easy reach to start and stop the audio file.

Decide which ‘jack’ or how many ‘jacks’ you want to do for each pitch and start the audio file. I just played a few rounds of the game and completed fours-ies comfortably. My fours-ies were Sing La, Point, Speak, and Sing Pitch Name.

It will quickly become obvious to you once you start playing that not all jacks are created equal. For example, you can Point and Speak simultaneously and then Sing La and Finger simultaneously. But you wouldn’t necessarily be able to Notate and Play at the same time.

I can see the strategists among you are already planning how to do all eight jacks in 4 seconds. Go for it! And let the rest of us know about your Musical Jacks successes.

Comment now

Which jacks are easiest to do? Which are the most fun? How many jacks did you complete in one round? What other variations of the game have you come up with? I invite you to share your stories with me and the readers of Musician’s Motivator. Make a comment on my blog or drop me an email: meg@meggrace.com.

Thanks for reading! The next edition of Musician’s Motivator will be out on Wednesday, March 10, 2010.

If you liked this, you may also want to read:

• Brain Benefits from Noteworthy Music Practice
• Dive Into The Unknown
• 4 Ways To Get More Fun Out Of Practice

Knowing and understanding our past helps us in the present. Making sense of moments in world history, we learn from humanity’s past mistakes and strive to do better or, just differently, in the future. We can also learn from the successes and continue that which was beneficial.

Genealogy, the study of family history, is a more personal way to understand the past and thereby know ourselves more completely. This knowledge of the past helps us be more fully present in our daily lives.

Visiting in the parlor room

I enjoy a phone visit with my parents each week. We live 3,000 miles apart and the phone line has become our parlor room. Our weekly calls enable us to maintain a rich, loving relationship. Our conversations often lead to stories of the past, whether it is a story about mom’s grandmother or dad’s great uncle or some other ancestor.

Singing and playing musical instruments was quite common among my forebears. One hundred years ago, music was an integral part of family life. Children sang in educational and sacred settings, and took piano lessons. Adults played in community orchestras and bands or sang in casual groups. I suspect when you ask your parents and extended family about their musical experiences, you will hear some great stories. Today, I learned a little more about my musical genealogy.

On my mother’s side…

My great grandmother had five children and encouraged, well, made them each take up an instrument. That’s them in the photo above. The eldest, my grandfather, played violin and sang soprano in a boys choir. The youngest, my great uncle Hans, played the saxophone. Great uncle Tony played the trombone.

My grandfather then passed that love of music on to my mother and all her siblings. Uncles Bob, Fred, and Allen all sang in community variety shows and in college glee clubs. As a matter of fact, it was in college glee club where my uncle Allen became friends with a young tenor named Jim.

Allen and Jim became friends and went out on double dates together. On one of those double dates, Allen invited his sister, Loretta, to be Jim’s date. Loretta and Jim hit it off pretty well; well enough to continue dating and eventually marry.

And that’s how my parents met; brought together through music. Not only do I have many ancestors with musical backgrounds, you might say music gave me life! If not for glee club, … well, I don’t want to think about it.

And on my father’s side…

There is a fair amount of music experience on my dad’s side too. Not only did Dad sing tenor in glee club, he also played violin as a boy. His aunt Alice was a music teacher and a Catholic nun. When Sister Rose Madeline visited my family, she would pass out sheet music to us kids and conduct us in song. Since my sister, Mary Beth, and I both played instruments and had some musical experience, Sister Rose expected us to be able to sight-read the harmony part. But we couldn’t. At least not yet.

Let’s Have A Singalong!

Family gatherings of all the grandparents, aunts, uncles and cousins always had some singing. After a meal, song lyrics were handed out, sometimes some sheet music too, and we’d sing. As Mary Beth and I got older, we accompanied the singers on flute and saxophone.

Mission Possible

Alright, readers, your assignment, should you choose to accept it, is to explore your musical genealogy. Ask your parents, grandparents, cousins – any living relatives:

1. What musical experiences did you have growing up?
2. Which instrument (or voice) did you play?
3. Tell me a story about music when you were in grade school.
4. What’s your most intense musical memory from your twenties?
5. What is your favorite song or piece of music?
6. What song did you dance to at your wedding?

For my parents, it was Wonderful One by Paul Whiteman. At their 50th anniversary party, Mary Beth and I performed a vocal and sax arrangement of this song for them.

Comment now

What’s your musical genealogy? I invite you to share your stories with me and the readers of Musician’s Motivator. Make a comment on my blog or drop me an email: meg@meggrace.com.

Thanks for reading! The next edition of Musician’s Motivator will be out on Wednesday, February 24, 2010.

If you liked this, you may also want to read:

• The Amateur Of Music And Beginner’s Mind
• Blueprint to Brilliance
• Who, Me? Creative?

This philosophy of learning is appropriate to learning the language of music as well. Today’s edition of Musician’s Motivator addresses how you can develop your musical speaking skills. For today, you can give your music reading skills a rest!

Benefits of Improvisation

It’s not just for jazz musicians. Bringing improvisation into your regular practice will enhance your ability to listen. And not just to music. I have found that as a result of practicing improvisation, I bring another level of awareness to conversations I have with people.

Regular musical improvisation naturally increases your attention in musical settings as well; whether you are in a musical group as one of the players or in the audience listening. In symphonic band rehearsals, I hear more of the other instruments playing. I have been pleasantly surprised by the sound of the tuba and bass clarinet playing softly in unison while I was counting measures to my next entrance; or noticing the oboe trilling above a clarinet choir. As an audience member, listening to the recent Washington Wind Symphony performance of Bach’s Toccata and Fugue in D Minor was a treat, enriched by my own regular improvisation practice.

But Wait, There’s More!

Another benefit to regular improvisation is enhanced creativity. You will find that a little bit of creativity, no matter how small, begets more creativity. It’s like smiling at strangers on your morning walk. They usually smile back!

After establishing a regular improv practice, you may find yourself drawing more, re-arranging items on your dresser aesthetically, wearing more colorful clothing, climbing a tree, writing a short story for your children, or planning the planting of your front garden area. All this as a result of improvisation!

A habit of improvisation practice also leads to composing and arranging music. After all, improvising is just that – composing music. It just needs to be written down.

How To Practice Improvisation

Here are two exercises that anyone can do to develop the improvisation muscle. They are from my forthcoming book, Truly FUNdamentals – The Most FUN Musical Warmups Ever!

1. Take Three
2. On The Air!

Take Three

Choose any three tones that you can play on your instrument. Play those tones using any rhythm and note values. Play only those three pitches. You may include the upper and lower octaves of those three tones. Remember to use rests in your rhythms! Long note values, short note values, various articulations – all are welcome. Give yourself plenty of time to explore these three notes.

On The Air!

Turn on your radio and play along. Many radio stations specialize in one genre of recorded music. You can chose from jazz, pop, oldies, classical, folk, rock, opera, and many others. I recommend that you start with a style of music you like and with which you are familiar.

1. Pick your channel.
2. Raise the volume sufficiently so you can hear the radio music over your own instrument.
3. Listen!
4. Match the predominant tones first. This will help you establish the key center.
5. Play the melody (if it’s a song you know) or play a blending melodic line.

If radio is too old-school for you, try these online music resources: Pandora, and Musicovery.

Speak Up

Share your improv fun on my blog or drop me an email: meg@meggrace.com.

If you liked this, you may also want to read: Fueling Up At The Inspiration Station. A few months back I wrote about this exercise designed to get you playing and making music on a regular basis. Fifteen minutes of blowing into your horn, an experiment to make practice happen.

• Other recommended articles: Who, Me? Creative?
• Is There Music in The City Skyline?
• Drawing Down The Music

Seeing Music In Color

Music has many mathematical elements contained therein. The idea to apply pitch to pixels is the concept behind the free software, RGB Music Lab, by Kenji Kojima.

I downloaded RGB Music Lab to try my hand at composing with a picture. During my travels in Turkey last April, one of my traveling companions took this photo of me. Hmmm… I wonder what music I look like, er uh…can I see how I sound?

In this image, I am boating on the Bosphorus Strait, the waterway separating Europe and Asia.

Pixelated Composing

To get started composing, open RGB Music Lab and drag an image onto the right panel, on top of the Mona Lisa image. The program reads the pixels row by row, from the top left to the bottom right pixel, and generates your music.

The settings can be fine-tuned on many levels. For my first piece, I kept most of the default settings and only changed instruments to 3 saxes (Sopr, Alto, Tenor) and increased tempo to 160 BPM. The result is a one minute and 24 second piece. It’s very twitchy, not at all what I imagined this image would sound like! Listen, if you are into twitchy music.

Reduce The Input

I wondered if I took just a snippet of the image; in this case the part of my face centered on my eyes; how would the song change? It turns out, I can’t just change one thing! In addition to changing the image, I adjusted the tempo, the intervals, the tonality, and the instrumentation. Now, this is getting interesting! The result is a 16-second piece, Eyes!

Now to really speed it up! Ooh, I like this two seconds of music.

A Monochromatic Soundscape

In much the same way that a composer works on her project by tweaking and massaging a beginning musical idea or phrase, I continued modifying the image source. After all, it’s the pixels and their RGB values that are providing the foundation for the sound of these compositions.

When listening to Eyes!, I found the last few rows of pixels were more interesting to me than the rest of the music. These rows were very monochromatic in their palette. For that reason, I cut a piece of the monochromatic water from the image and brought that into RGB Music Lab.

This time, I set the instrumentation to voices by choosing #54 Ooh Choir. There are 142 different instruments with everything from clarinet and trumpet and tuba to Rain and Gunshot and Dog. There are nine different types of drum kits, and about that many types of guitars, pianos, and basses.

I also changed the tonality to F harmonic minor. You can choose from major and minor scales, pentatonics, blues, and Gypsy scales. Or you can create your own scale! For a free program, Kenji Kojima has included many features.

In-Depth Free Program

You can have some serious fun exploring all the different settings. I wanted to continue playing with this application and enjoy the sound combinations produced. But if I did that, this edition of Musician’s Motivator wouldn’t get written!

Here is the final (for now) version of Bosphorus Strait by RBG Music and Meg Grace. Enjoy!

If you choose to download this program and compose with your own images, I’d enjoy hearing the music you create. Please send me a link to your composition or send the file itself. Also, let me know whether I can share it with my readers or keep it to myself.

Read the next edition of Musician’s Motivator January 27, 2010.

Once Upon A Time…

Once upon a time there lived an instrumental music teacher who had recently joined and sung in a choral group for the first time in her musical life. It was an exciting time for her! She enjoyed learning a new instrument (voice) and the experience of making music with one’s own body. Also new was the memorization of all the concert music. That part was not so exciting and caused some small distress.

Memorize, Too?

Oh, sure, I’ve sung before – just not in an organized group setting. I sing along with songs on the radio or my iPod. I’ve even memorized songs not realizing I was doing so. I memorize songs easily enough. Like many of you, I know all the lyrics to Don McLean’s American Pie and Queen’s Bohemian Rhapsody – without the karaoke screen prompts!

Singing with Aurora Chorus this term, I am required to memorize 16 songs that we will perform in the Dec. 20 concert. Yes, that is a lot of music, but some of the songs have simple repeated parts. Thank goodness!

On the other hand, this being a choral group, the songs all have words, something I’ve never had to contend with when playing band and orchestra music. What’s more, of these 16 songs, four of them are in a language other than English. I am also singing in Yorùbá, the language of Candomblé (Brazil); in Mbuti, from the rain forests of New Guinea; in Spanish; and in Georgian, (Republic of Georgia).

That’s What I’m Talking About!

You might expect that the songs in these foreign languages would be more challenging to memorize. Not true! One of my favorite songs and the one that has been the most fun to learn, is A jí kí ire ni Èsù, the song in Yorùbá. The melody is engaging. The 4-part voices weave among one another in an intricate rhythmic dance. The harmonies, too, are exciting with minor 7ths and 9ths over major triads, voiced in a such a way that the tonic of the chord sounds like a color tone! It’s a great song and our concert opener.

On the other hand, one of the hardest songs for me to memorize is in English, Song of Stars. It employs ever-changing time signatures, moving from 6/8 to 7/8 to 3/8 and back to 7/8. The tessitura, or vocal range of the song, for the second soprano part is a bit high for me. Yes, I can sing those notes when I am properly warmed up. It’s just not the most comfortable range for me – so far. The text is a prayer of the Algonquin people.

No Meaning

Perhaps the reason I had difficulty learning this song is that it had no meaning for me. In the beginning, I was just singing words, working on getting the rhythm correct and my entrances down. What if I read the words without the music and tried to understand what I was singing?

That helped a little bit. But the truth was, I just didn’t like the song very much. Do you remember what I reported in the previous edition of Musician’s Motivator? You retain new information better and remember it more strongly when you attach strong emotions to the subject matter, in essence, when you care about what you are studying. Well, I decided to find something to like about this song. And quickly, since the concert was just two weeks away!

I found it! I sat and listened to the song, as if for the first time, without any judgments about the lyric or the time signatures or tessitura.

I am an amateur astronomer, a devotee and enthusiastic pursuer of all things astronomical. I have relished the night sky since I was a young child. Then, I wanted to grow up to be an astronaut and explore outer space.

This song is about STARS! It even sounds like stars, with open voicings and an arpeggiated piano playing octaves and fifths. The opening piano arpeggios are tight clusters of root, fourth, fifth, and major seventh. Try that in any key on your piano. Doesn’t it sound like the stars twinkling overhead?

…And She Lived Happily Ever After.

The instrumental music teacher loved singing as much as playing her wind instruments. She sang in the concert, enjoying all the songs, and lived happily ever after.

Now the song has meaning for me and is easy to memorize. Lesson? Remember to bring Beginner’s Mind to my learning.

Are you learning something new? Struggling with a difficult subject in school? Finding something to like about the subject will make the learning more solid and you will retain more. And bringing your Beginner’s Mind to the table will help you be open to the learning along the way.

Share your learning discoveries on my blog or send me an email: meg@meggrace.com.

Some Quotes About Memory

What we learn with pleasure we never forget. – Alfred Mercier
The heart that truly loves never forgets. – Proverb
The true art of memory is the art of attention. – Samuel Johnson

Read the next edition of Musician’s Motivator Dec. 24, 2009.

We often describe music, an aural art form, using visual descriptors. We talk about the texture created by a particular instrument group. Or perhaps the colors the key generates in our mind’s eye. Have you ever noticed how major keys tend to prompt bright colors, compared to more subdued colors of the minor keys. And then there is the shape of the music. We describe the phrasing and the form in physical terms.

The natural extension of describing music in visual terms is to draw it out! That’s what today’s ezine will show you how to do.

Pictures At An Exhibition

Do you know the story of Mussorgsky’s composition, Pictures At An Exhibition? He wrote this suite in honor of his artist friend, Viktor Hartmann, who died suddenly at the age of 39. The stunned Russian art community organized an exhibit of over 400 pieces of Hartman’s work. After viewing the collection, Mussorgsky composed Pictures in six short weeks.

There are other examples of musical compositions inspired by art. Franz Liszt wrote Hunnenschlacht (The Battle of The Huns) based on art of the same name by von Kaulbach. Rachmaninoff and Stravinsky were no strangers to this practice. The more contemporary composer, Stephen Sondheim, wrote the musical, Sunday in The Park With George inspired by Seurat’s 19th century painting Sunday Afternoon on The Island of Grand Jatte.

Music-Inspired Art

And what about the reverse? That is, art that is inspired by music. There is plenty of that too. Searching for examples of music-inspired art (MIA), I found the RedBubble website. They have a whole section of the site devoted to MIA. That’s where I saw this painting by Susan Kimball, Dream Mambo that she drew while listening to a recording of Nica’s Dream by Horace Silver.

Making Music Art

This morning, I listened to Branford Marsalis’ Creation cd. This 2001 release is a beguiling collection of music by French composers. Marsalis performs on soprano and alto saxophones with the Orpheus Chamber Orchestra. I got out my sketch pad, colored pencils and ink pens; and began to draw while listening to Darius Milhaud’s La Création du Monde as performed by Marsalis and Orpheus.

As I listened to the opening sounds by Marsalis’ alto saxophone, I let my pen glide across the page. As the music crescendoes and jumps in greater intervals, my pen reacts. The trumpets and percussion enter and the jazzy theme is developed. Some of my pen markings are abstract, other marks resemble objects in the world.

I listened and drew through two hearings of the seventeen and a half minute piece. On the first listen, I used pens of various point sizes. Second time through, only colored pencils were in my hands.

Surprise Learning

What a fantastic way to listen to a piece of music! What started out as an exercise linking art and music became an enjoyable way to learn. While focusing solely on the act of drawing, the music seeped deep into my soul. The various themes of the music came to life before my eyes.

The flowing “birth” music at the start shows up as curving parallel lines. The music intensifies and a colorful volcano-like structure appears in my drawing. Then feathery phrases from the alto and lower strings manifest feathers on my drawing. A musical uproar produces what could be seen as a cityscape, complete with a sax player under a streetlamp!

Go Deep

Is there a song or piece of music that is on your mind? Do you wake up with phrases from a song on your lips or a melody in your ear? That song is a good candidate for this drawing exercise.

• Draw out your song using different media; crayons, acrylic paints, or a lump of clay.
• Divide your paper into equal-sized grids and draw each 30 seconds (or other appropriate time period) in each grid square.
• Create a drawing in the morning and compare it to a drawing made in the evening of the same song.

What other ways can you think of to experience music more deeply? I’d love to hear from you and see any art you create. Contact me via email or share your comments on my blog.

It all started on Sunday afternoon when I received a link to a story about a short song written by birds. You’re intrigued, aren’t you? I was, too.

Are you familiar with the cellular phone commercial in which all sorts of scenery, buildings, and people are positioned from shortest to tallest to represent the symbol of good phone reception? It’s a clever way of ‘seeing’ phone reception everywhere. In a similar vein, today’s exercise will have you ‘hearing’ music everywhere you go.

I’ll start with the bird story. Visualize your everyday power lines running overhead. There are 5 of them running parallel to one another. And birds like to perch on them. You’ve seen this countless times. Now, imagine the 5 parallel power lines are the lines of a musical staff and the birds are notes on the staff. Voilá! It’s music.

Birds on the Wires

Here is what Jarbas Agnelli did with his image of birds sitting on power lines.

What a great idea! As I was taking my daily walk on Mt. Tabor the next day, I looked for birds sitting on power lines. Didn’t see ‘em. But I did see a great view of downtown Portland, with its tall skyscrapers, short department stores, and medium-sized buildings.

In a flash of insight, I imagined laying a musical staff over the city skyline and hearing the pitches represented by the tops of the buildings.

Composing Begins

At home, I googled “Portland skyline” and found this image. Thanks Colgate Alumni of Portland for use of the photo! Printing it out, I penciled a staff over the buildings, then I circled the tops of each building to notate the musical pitches. Check out the images of the skyline before and after it becomes music.

I played around with key and quality (major, minor) and settled on F minor. First listen to the melodic line as played by my midi flute.

Here is the finalized music in 4-part harmony as played by my midi marimba.

Try This At Home!

This was fun! I invite each of you to try this exercise at home. There is no right or wrong answer. Only your perfectly-personal fun result! If you don’t have a pitched musical instrument like a keyboard, guitar, or clarinet, use your voice and make your own best guess at the pitch.

You don’t need perfect pitch to hear the music all around you. Find the music everywhere you look. Here is one place I saw and heard music on my walk today. See all 15 shots on my Flickr photostream, tagged as ‘seeing-music’.

I’d love to hear any music you come up with. You can also send me an image in which you see the music. I bet we come up with different songs!