Teaching music

What kind of music class is she taking? I played in band for 3 yrs in high school, sang in chorus in jr and high school and I never had to write all that out.

I could write some of that for you but my computer doesn’t lend itself to making the pictures. Also the only part I haven’t heard of is the circle of fifths

I would suggest talking to the teacher and getting her notes so you can help your daughter study. At the least, a fellow student.

Perhaps look up music theory or something like that in your browser?
I’ll take a look and see what I can come up with.

Best wishes.
Amy

I don’t know of any websites, but any public library should have reference books and/or a good encyclopedia which explains all this.

Here is what I have learned, and some anecdotes to follow:

For the sharps and flats and circle of fifths, there’s a mnemonic:

Father Charles Goes Down And Ends Battle.

Read it in order and it gives you the order of sharps, F, C, D, etc.

Start at the second/third letter and it gives you the key (Major):
Key of C - no sharps; key of G - one sharp, on F; key of D - two sharps, on F and C;key of A - three sharps, on F, C, and G, and so forth.

Read it in reverse and it gives you the order of flats, B, E, etc.
(All majors) Key of F - one flat, on B; key of B flat, two flats on B and E; key of E flat, three flats on B, A, and E, etc.

Another way to build scales is to count tones and semitones. In a major scale, there is a full tone difference between all the notes except between third and fourth and seventh and eighth. (Think of the tone difference as mounting a set of steps — two of the steps are much smaller than the others)
Taking our basic key of C, where there are no sharps and flats, the differences are

C full D full E *half* F full G full A full B *half* C (Draw this as a set of steps)

Now to do the key of G, you discover that the half-tohe step is in the wrong place, E to F between notes number 6 and 7 instead of where you want it between 7 and 8.
G full A full B half C full D full E half (oops!) F full (oops!) G
So, you bounce F up half a tone to F# and that sets the pattern right again.

I won’t go into detailed examples unless you want them, but a minor scale is built the same way with the halftones between the second and third and fifth and sixth notes.

Now for the circle of fifths:

First the system, and then the shortcut

system

Once you have the scale, the major chord is made up of notes 1, 3, and 5 of the scale

Key of C: scale is C D E F G A B C
Key of G: scale is G A B C D E F# C

Major chord of key of C is the notes CEG
Major chord of key of G is the notes GBD

The second chord used with each key is the dominant; this is the third, fifth, and seventh notes

Dominant chord of key of C is the notes EGB — this is the E minor chord
Dominant chord of key of G is the notes BDF# — this is the B minor chord

The third chord used with each key is the sub-dominant; this is the fifth, seventh, and ninth (which is back to second, as you go around the repeating list of notes)

Sub-dominant chord of key of C is the notes GBD — this is the G chord
Sub-dominant chord of key of G is the notes DF#A — this is the D chord

shortcut

OK, so take our mnemonic, Father Charles Goes Down And Ends Battle.
Write the letters FCGDAEB in a circle. Now, starting at C as number one, count to the fifth — that takes you to E, Starting over at E as number one, count to the fifth — that takes you to G. So without counting out the scales you know immediately that the chords for the key of C are major C, dominant E minor, and sub-dominant G

The same works for all major keys and there are additional details for sharp and flat keys but one thing at a time.

Reading music: Two more mnemonics

FACE, Every Good Boy Deserves Favour
FACE are the notes in the spaces of the staff, and EGBDF are the notes on the lines of the staff (treble clef)

In the bass clef, the notes are dropped by one space, so the spaces are ACEG and the lines are GBDFA

I can’t draw them here, but you have to remember that a whole note (open circle) is four beats, a half note (filled circle) is two beats, a quarter note (filled circle with a flag) is one beat, and an eighth note (filled circle with double flag) is half a beat. Adding a dot to a note makes it one and a half times as long, so a dotted half note is 2 + 1 = 3 beats, and a dotted quarter note is 1 1/2 beats. Similar rules apply to rests — just check out what they look like.

OK, anecdotes:
(1) Despite all the above, I can’t play music (something I definitely regret and may be doing something about his summer). We’ve been mentioning different thinking styles and I mentioned that I am a pattern person — can’t remember the date or my appointments, but darnit, I can sure remember how to construct every musical scale and chord going — and music is such lovely, lovely patterns. I started learning the above in elementary school and found it fun to play with. Teach the *patterns* and you have learning that is *transferable*, which means the student can apply it to other places, other keys, other songs, other instruments.

(2) I have an exchange student for the summer who is not much on academics (and that is an understatement) but he is very gifted in music. We are going to look for a used guitar to play around with.
So, of course I am verifying all of the above with him to make sure I have it all right. Problem is, French uses totally different terms for music than English, and he is a practical rather than academic musician. So I am trying to ask him in French how the scales are constructed, but I don’t have the weird French music vocabulary (much more confusing than English) and he doesn’t have the academis training — so I’m scribbling out lists of notes on paper and we are discussing which chord is which. After twenty minutes, communication has been achieved.

My son had the same difficulty because everything was presented orally. I had to talk to the teacher and explain the difficulty with this type of presentation. Ask for the teacher’s notes or some sort of study guide. The burden should not be placed on you to teach your child music. I am sure that you are involved in all the other aspects of her education. Good Luck!

My son had the same problem with music because the lectures were presented orally. I had to go to the teacher and explain the difficulty with this type of lecture. You have a right to the teacher’s notes and a study guide. You shouldn’t have to teach your child music. I am sure that you are involved in every other subject and that is enough. If your child is classified you can ask that the class be made pass/fail. Good Luck.

I’d just go to the library, and check out a book on intro music theory. A beginning piano book designed for adults will have most of the stuff you’re looking for also. A web search on beginning music theory should help too.

Good Luck!

Kay

Did you try the local music store to see if they have a video or DVD? Our local music store has such videos. The nice thing about videos is you can watch over the parts you don’t get. My youngest son who falls on the autism spectrum has a video that instructs him how to play a trumpet. It goes over how to read and play notes, and goes into some of the things you talked about. Good luck to you and your son.

Thanks so much Victoria…while I was waiting for answers to be posted, I did do a search on the interent and finally found a good site. ( Here is the URL in case one of your students need it http://www.musictheory.halifax.ns.ca/1gs.html ) So no need to post further information. But the stuff you posted is helpful: it’s a wonderful summery! I will go it over with my daughter as well.

That is exactly why I am searching the internet for stuff, the teacher, presents information orally and expects the students to take notes (impossible task for my daughter) I have met with the teacher, etc. but he is uncorporative…so here I am picking up the slack. Thanks for your good wishes.

Good idea, thanks

Thakns Amy, in the meantime I found a good site… http://www.musictheory.halifax.ns.ca/1gs.html

She is taking grade 7 music, I am surprised (is a bit annoyed) that they have a final written exam. (The only instrument they play is the recorder.) It just adds to a heavy workload …poor kid now has 5 exams on 4 consecutive days!

How sad,that a teacher has to make something like music, feel so difficult and hard. What a way to turn kids off to ever wanting to play…