The Choir Member's Companion - Softcover

Wyrick, Ginger G

Softcover

ISBN 10: 0687256402 ISBN 13: 9780687256402

Verlag: Abingdon Press, 1998

Inhaltsangabe

The Choir Member'sCompanion is designed for use by individual choir members in a local church adult choir. The book is intended for purchase by the choir director to be given to choir members as gifts or as a way for choir members to better understand musical symbols, terminology, and symbols used in choral music.

Über diesen Titel

Über die Autorin bzw. den Autor

Ginger G. Wyrick is Director of Choral Activities and is on the faculty of Queens College in Charlotte, North Carolina. She is the author, composer and editor of several products from Abingdon Press: Church Music for Children; Church Choir 101; The Choir Member's Companion; Joseph: What a Life (session plan writer); and 52 Arrival Activities for Children's Choir. Ginger is active in several music organizations including Chorister's Guild, American Choral Directors Association, American Guild of Organists, Fellowship of United Methodists in Music and Worship Arts, and others.

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The Choir Member's Companion

By Ginger G. Wyrick

Abingdon Press

Copyright © 1997 Abingdon Press
All rights reserved.

ISBN: 978-0-687-25640-2

Contents

Introduction, 
1. Basic Music Reading Skills, 
2. Musical Road Maps, 
3. Basic Vocal Techniques, 
4. Sight-Reading a New Anthem, 
5.. How to Mark Your Music, 
6. Preparation for Worship, 
7. Preparation for a Major Performance, 
8. The Performance, 
Glossary of Musical Terms and Symbols, 

CHAPTER 1

Basic Music Reading Skills

Music is a language consisting of symbols much like the alphabet. As a language student must learn the sounds of each letter (symbols), how to spell and speak words, and how to organize words into sentences in order to communicate, so too the musician must learn symbols and what each represents, and practice the "language" as written music to achieve musical communication. This basic "musical language" remains the same regardless of the final product.

The following symbols are fundamental to reading music. You should develop proficiency with these terms, symbols, and meanings. You will enjoy singing even more when you have a mastery of the components of music. (Additional terms are located in the "Glossary of Musical Terms and Symbols.")

The Staff

The staff may be extended up or down by using ledger lines.

Treble Clef (G clef): Indicates pitch by identifying the G line (line 2). This clef is used by treble singers (soprano, alto, and children with unchanged voices), the upper register of the piano, and all high instruments (such as flute, oboe, and violin).

Bass Clef (F clef): Indicates pitches by identifying the F line (line 4). This clef is used by bass singers (tenor, baritone, bass), the lower register of the piano, and all low instruments (such as the tuba, trombone, and double bass).

Treble Clef with subscript 8: Indicates pitch similar to the regular treble clef but sounding one octave lower. This clef is used by tenors.

Grand Staff: Combines two staves, one treble and one bass, for musical notation. (Middle C lies between the two staves and can be attached to either.)

Bar Line: Organizes the beats (counts) of music. Located throughout the entire piece to indicate measures.

Measure: The contents between two bar lines.

Double Bar One: Identifies the end of the music.

Pitch Notation

Note Anatomy: Each note has a head. Most notes have a stem; some have a flag (or flags), which may appear as a beam to make reading easier.

Musical Alphabet: Music uses only seven letter names for pitch. The letter names repeat as you move up (sounding higher) and down (sounding lower) the scale/staff.

Pitch Notation: Each tone is indicated by placing a note on the musical staff. Notes may appear with a line dissecting the note head (line note) or between two lines (space note). The clef determines the pitch order on the staff. Notice that when you combine the line and space notes of one clef the pitches are in musical alphabet order.

Closed Score Notation: Music written on the grand staff with each voice part identified by the direction of the note stem (e.g., bass clef stem up = tenor).

Open Score Notation: Music written on many staves. Each voice part has its own staff (e.g., top staff = soprano, and so on).

Note: To conserve space and printing costs, a composer/publisher may alternate between open and closed scoring in one piece. This often occurs when the accompaniment is alone or when a soloist is singing. It is easy to overlook these changes in an anthem, so look ahead!

Half Step: The smallest distance between two pitches.

Whole Step: The distance of two half steps combined.

Accidentals: Symbols that alter the tone of a note by moving it by half steps.

Sharp: Raises the pitch a half step.

Flat: Lowers the pitch a half step.

Natural: Returns the pitch to its original tone.

Pitch Movement:

When a pitch moves up on the staff the tone is raised:

[ILLUSTRATION OMITTED]

When a pitch moves down on the staff the tone is lowered:

[ILLUSTRATION OMITTED]

The pitch remains the same when notes are repeated:

[ILLUSTRATION OMITTED]

Intervals: The distance between two pitches. An interval may be measured on the musical staff or by its tone. To identify the interval, count the given pitches and all lines and spaces between them. Note: notes may sound together (stacked on top = harmonic interval) or individually (one note after the other = melodic interval):

[ILLUSTRATION OMITTED]

Triad: A chord made of three ("tri-") tones. It is built on a root note (which names the chord), a 3rd above the root, and a 5th above the root.

Chord: Three or more notes that sound together. Chords may be consonant:

[ILLUSTRATION OMITTED]

or dissonant:

[ILLUSTRATION OMITTED]

Scales: Almost every piece of music (or section of music) is based on a scale. Musicians learn to sing/play scales as a basis for all music. Two types of scales dominate Western music: major and minor. Each scale is based on a pattern of whole (W) and half (H) steps. Note: the minor scale has several forms; the illustration is one example called "natural" minor.

Basic Music Reading Skills

Key Signature: Appears on the grand staff after the clef symbol. It may contain sharps, flats, or nothing at all. The key signature tells the musician on which scale the piece is based.

The Circle of Fifths is a quick-reference chart to determine a key signature. To find a minor key, locate the major key signature and lower it by three half steps. (For example, if the key signature contains one flat, the related major key is F, and the actual minor key is D.)

Major Keys

Rhythmic Notation: Indicates the duration of either sound (notes) or silence (rests). The following diagram illustrates the relationship of each value.

Dotted Notes and Rests: A dot may be added to a note to increase its value by one half.

Examples of dotted notes and their corresponding rests:

dotted whole note dotted whole rest
dotted half note dotted half rest
dotted quarter note dotted quarter rest
dotted eighth note dotted eighth rest

Special Notations

Tie: Two identical pitches connected by an arched line. Sing the first pitch and hold it for the combined duration of both note values.

Duplet: Two notes sounding in place of three notes of equal value.

Triplet: Three notes sounding in place of two notes of equal value.

Meter: Indicates the organization of beats/pulses in a given piece of music. Meter may be grouped as sets of two (duple), sets of three (triple), sets of four (quadruple), or as a combination of these.

Time Signature: Appears on the grand staff following the key signature. Indicates the organization of beats/ pulses within a measure.

The time signature contains two numbers, each having a unique role. The top number determines how many beats occur in one measure; the bottom number indicates which note receives one beat. For example:

4 -4 beats per measure 2 -2 beats per measure 6-6 beats per measure
4 -quarter note gets 1 beat 2- half note gets 1 beat 8-eighth note gets 1...

Details zur Ausgabe

• Verlag: Abingdon Press
• Erscheinungsdatum: 1998
• Sprache: Englisch
• ISBN 10: 0687256402
• ISBN 13: 9780687256402
• Einband: Taschenbuch
• Anzahl der Seiten: 48
• Kontakt zum Hersteller: preigu GmbH & Co. KG; mail@preigu.de; ; Lengericher Landstr. 19; Osnabrück; Niedersachsen; 49078; Deutschland