Practica Musica Assignments Schedule
PM SETTINGS:
Settings are in the options menu. Some very useful ones are...
- In keyboard options: choose Labeled Keyboard if you are unsure of the names of the notes on the piano keyboard.
- In sound options, slow down the playback of the musical examples here, based on beats per minute.
- Notice in sound options, you can set the temperament. which will be helpful when trying to hear different intonations.
- Guitarists can also use the fretboard instead of the keyboard, which is a great way to improve your interval reading and playing on the guitar.
USING THE SOFTWARE
- Before anything else, under the file menu, choose "check for updates via the internet" to make sure you have the current version. This is important to make sure that your work posts accurately.
- TO REGISTER: Choose "Register this computer" under the file menu, while you are connected to the Internet. You will reach a dialogue box, and enter the following as the course number:
earlham-171s
You will then be able to enter a username, which in this case, please user your full name so I can easily find you. You will then enter your own password.
To test this, go under you name in the menu bar, go to Enter or Change Webstudents Account Name. Make sure you are registered with the proper account.
- When working with the program, first choose an activity under the "Activities" menu. Then, most often, there will be levels of increasing difficulty to choose from in the rightmost menu, whose name changes to match the activity you are currently engaged with.
- Like any game, this software keeps track of your score and will expect you to reach a certain level before completing it. Once you are registered with "webstudents," your score will instantly post to the web, thus enabling us to quickly and easily keep track of your progres.
Timetable and Evaluation
Revised September 12, 2012
By the end of the semester, you should have put in the requirements as listed on this page. You will be graded on your PM work according to the percentage of the minimum time required.
| By this Date | Try to finish or surpass | Minimum time spent | Total minutes accrued |
| Sept. 19 | Introduction | 2 hours, 120 minutes | 120 minutes |
| Sept. 30 | 3 hours, 180 minutes | 300 minutes | |
| Oct 19 (semester break) | |||
| Oct 31 | |||
| Nov 18 | |||
| End of classes |
Step One: Introduction
Complete by Sept. 12 -- 2 hours total time, or completed activities
Introductory
Introductory: For those who need more review of theoritcal activities, I reommend?
1.1 The keyboard
- If you are unfamiliar with the keyboard, this is your first step. Notice
that if you play to notes, the name of the interval will pop up, so this
is also a good way to begin to learn your intervals.
1.2 Whole step - half step and 1.3 Octaves
- These are two simple activity that make sure you can hear whole steps
and half steps, and also that you can hear when an interval is, and is
not, an octave. Just go through it/
1.4 Reading treble clef , 1.5 Reading bass clef and 1.6 Reading accidentals
- These will help you in your note recognition and you ability to read accidentals. Remember that you can use you computer keyboard, with ASDFGHJJKL:" representing the notes CDEFGABC ETC. The upper keys represent the accidentals.
- Again, this would be a great opportunity for guitarists to improve their note reading skills on the fretboard! Of course, you can always switch back and forth between keyboard and guitar (under the option menu/keyboard options).
RHYTHM EXERCISES (All under the "02 Exploring Music Course")
Try to finish as much of these as you can before the exam on September 6th.
2.1 Meter Examples -- I have already brought you to these examples. You must know them by name, they will be a part of the first exam.
2.2 Placing Barlines. Be sure to do these by the exam on September 6th, as you will have examples much like these to complete.
3.1 Reading Rhythm. If you are an experienced player, you should do these anyway just to make the score. If you are less experienced, this is an excellent practice for you in basic rhythm reading and you should do these for as much time as you have.
3.2 Writing rhythm. For experienced players, this is an excellent exercise, as it is a very different act to play back a rhythm by ear, rather than simply replicating what's on the page. If you are a less experienced player, it's OK if you don't get to this exercise, as long as you have put in your minimum of 2 hours up to this point.
It is not necessary to complete sections 4.1 and 4.2, unless you are an
experienced musician and have zoomed through all of this so far!
Step One, part two: Intervals
5.1 Identifying intervals 5.2 Speed intervals (less experienced students, feel free to pass over this, it's hard!) 5.3 Building Intervals
Then: Activity 03: # 6 and 7
- Make sure you do 5.1 before doing assignment No. 4, and make sure you do 5.3 before doing assignment no. 5.
- Activities 03: No 6 and No. 7 will give you more practice in writing intervals, with the added bonus of being able to play them on the fretboard or keyboard.
For the Test on Sept. 27, you should focus on exercises above.
Step Two: Interval Ear Training
Complete by September 30. Do 30 minutes workout between each class, for 4 hours total time.
This section focuses on training your ear to hear intervals. It is focused
around:
No. 8, Interval ear training in 03 "the original 17 activities" menu.
This is a core activity. You should try to work through levels one and two, which are called filling in the triad and filling in the octave. I think of these as the "Diatonic Intevals." Then, you move on to the remaining activites, which are the chromatic intervals.
ADVANCED STEP TWO
If you've completed all the interval work in less than 4 hours, I suggest the following activities to complete before September 30th. They are excellent training for melodic and rhythmic dictation.
These are all found in Activity menu 04: "Actvitives by Topic: 02 Pitch Reading, Dictation"
- Choose 02, the intermediate level
- Diatonic pitch patterns is a good warm-up
- Pitch errors is an excellent way to improve your eye-ear coordination
- Progressive pitch dictation is an excellent first step in dictation practice.
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Step Three:
Melodic Dictation 1
<<THIS SECTION WILL BE EDITED befor the end of September>>
Complete by October ??
During this sequence, we are working on modal counterpoint. To help with your writing, it is time for all of you to work on taking melodic dictation.
You have a total of 3 hours to put into all of step three. Depending on your background, you can work through any other following dictation examples. It is up to you. I list them in progessive order of difficulty, but I focus on those that are diatonic, as we have not yet formally covered major and minor scales.
These are all found in Activity menu 04: "Actvitives by Topic: 02 Pitch Reading, Dictation"
- Choose 02, the intermediate level
- Diatonic pitch patterns is a good warm-up
- Pitch errors is an excellent way to improve your eye-ear coordination
- Progressive pitch dictation is an excellent first step in dictation practice. For many of you, this is all you will need to do.
If you have already gone through Progressive pitch dictation, then proceed to:
- Generated Pitch Dictation
- Library Pitch Dictation
The difference in these is that the first one produces melodies according to a computer algorithm, and so are a bit random, but still good for the ear! The Library dictation are from actual classical melodies, and thus are more musical.
TOTAL PM TIME BY OCTOBER 29th: 840 minutes.
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Step Four: Scales, Triads and Seventh Chords
Step four in Practica Musica corresponds with Chapter Five in the Feeling for Harmony website. Regardless of where you have reached in Step three, level two above, you should begin these four activities, which correspond to written assignments given out for the same day.
Spend an hour with Practica Musica and an hour on the written
assignment, at a minimum.
Level one
Complete for November 3
This is to help with haring the blues. It has you identify I, IV and V triads.
- Activity 03 ("Original"): 13 Chord Progression Ear Training
- Only Level one, Primary Triads (I, IV and V)
Level two
Complete for November 5
- Activity 03 ("Original"): 9 Scales
- Do some from levels one, two and three. You aren't expected to get all the points in any activity, simply to get some experience in writing scales.
- TIP: First choose the proper key signature in the "key" box, then write the scale. Once you choose the note cursor, you can play the scale on the piano as well as put it into the staff. Playing the piano will input the notes. (Of course, you can use the fretboard too).
Level three
Complete for November 8
This activity is good practice for knowing how to spell and recognize triads. Spend equal time on all three activities. YOU ARE ONLY EXPECTED TO WORK ON LEVEL ONE FOR EACH ACTIVITY, the ones about triads.
- Activity 03 ("Original"): 10, 11 and 12 on Chords
- Activity 10 asks you to play triads.
- Activity 11 asks you to spell triads.
- Activity 12 asks you to recognize major and minor triads by ear.
Level four
Complete for November 10
Engage in the same activity as in level three, only now go to the next activity levels and try spelling and recognizing seventh chords. We have not yet discussed inversion (that's in the next chapter), so limit yourself to the second level of activities 10 through 12.
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Step Five