This week we have an exciting variety of articles to share with you. If you are interested in improving your rhythm, wanting to recognise intervals on guitar, or you’re curious about Classical music we have something for you. Also join us for a classical musician’s account of her songwriting evolution and a personal discussion of music and addiction.
Before we dive in to all our content from the week though, a couple of great links from around the web.
- Over at SightReadingMastery.com Sandy Lundberg laid out five solid reasons to become a fluent sight reader in “Fluent Sight Readers Reap Rewards”. We particularly liked number two, “Better ears = greater accuracy”, naturally!
- If you have been thinking of becoming a member of our all-inclusive training site Musical U but were not quite sure, check out this great new review of Musical U by leading music education writer Thomas J West and see if it helps you decide.
Now, let’s dig into this week’s new music resources…
Rhythm Remarkable
Continuing our previews of Musical U’s roadmaps, this week’s is all about rhythm. Developing rhythm skills is important for all musicians, whether you’re part of the rhythm section or not. At Musical U we have a Roadmap made up of 4 phases for musicians of all levels to “get” rhythm. It includes learning to read and write rhythm notation and increasing your rhythmic accuracy. If you’re in need of some guidance in this area look no further than A Roadmap to Rhythm.
While we’re on the topic of rhythm, why not have fun exploring some fascinating rhythms from around the world? Starting with Latin and African rhythms, passing through the East and ending with some classic rock, you are sure to find something that will get your toes tapping.
A Songwriting Evolution
To those who have formally studied music, writing a pop song may seem like an easy task compared to classical composition. However, writing a hit song is more challenging than it seems!
This week Jenny Green shared her story as a classical musician undergoing a songwriting journey. From being classically trained to writing for a metal band, and now writing her own rock ballads. Follow how she discovered the “natural” way of songwriting in her songwriter’s evolution.
Play Guitar? Learn intervals
If you are a guitar player and would like to learn to play by ear, where do you start? One solid answer is that you should learn to recognise intervals! In music, an “interval” is the distance in pitch between two notes, and the intervals all have different names and different characteristics.
As a guitarist once you learn to recognise these intervals, you can hear them in music you listen to and with a bit of practice be able to play songs on guitar by ear. To find out more check out 5 reasons every guitarist should learn intervals, and start training your own ear to recognise intervals today.
Classical Confusion?
When we refer casually to “classical” music, everyone knows what you are talking about – but we often have difficulty actually defining it or explaining how it differs from other old genres of music. It is a genre with countless famous pieces which are still enjoyed hundreds of years after they were written, so whether or not you currently listen to classical music it’s worth learning more about. Find out the essential characteristics of classical music to listen for, in Introduction to the Classical Era.
Music and Addiction: A personal reflection
Sadly many musicians battle with addiction at some point during their career. But why is addiction disproportionately prevalent in the music industry? For an interesting discussion of this topic check out this week’s post by Musical U’s Community Conductor Stewart: Music and Addiction, A personal reflection.
I hope you’ve found something new here to teach, inspire or amuse you. And now that you have some new ways to keep your musical brain busy for the week ahead I will leave you with my favourite quote from the Easy Ear Training Facebook page this week.
Posted by Easy Ear Training on Monday, February 15, 2016
