I can still remember some of the gymnastics routines i learnt between the ages of 12 and 14. I can also still lplay (or could, the last time I checked) ~relatively~ well some of the pieces I learnt for my Grade 6 piano exam in Year 10, because I overlearned them so much. Other pieces that I learned less thoroughly, even if they're technically much less difficult, I can't do the same with.
*nodnodnod* When I really do have a kinaesthetic skill down, it's like that for me too. There are some recorder pieces I have in my my fingers more than in my brain.
is this what intonation means, or does it cover more than just the actual pitches you're singing?
Singing the right pitches, yeah. Covering both "singing the correct note, not some other note" and also "not being sharp or flat".
(but not actually sight-sing (ooh, i taught myself/learnt to do that a bit over the past five years, too!)
Yay sight-singing! I self-taught that too. It's such a satisfying skill.
Actually... hmm, hypothesis approaching. Have you found, in choirs etc, that you're more of an aural learner rather than learning by reading the music? (And since you're a pianist, is that different or the same for playing piano?)
I'm way more a "reading the music" learner myself, and can't always reliably memorise music and/or words just by hearing them, without seeing them written down. I think that's connected to my auditory processing issues. I'm curious now about whether 'stronger singers' are less likely to be strong aural learners.
I also pretty muchneed to be able to hear myself to be able to tell if i'm singing in tune or not.
Did you ever block one or both of your ears? I did that, but because of the technique thing rather than the pitch thing. Got in trouble for it, too.
I've always found it more difficult to sing the lower line of two-part harmonies, which is a shame, because i am not, and never will be, a soprano.
I was taught that was an acoustics thing, that the top part carries more and is therefore easier to hear, and that's why they put the less experienced singers on soprano/treble (that and because in the church tradition the trebles are young boys and therefore get the less complicated melodies.) (It's also why, all other things being equal, Turandot will beat Calaf at the high C contest in act 1 of Turandot. ("Gli enigmi SOOOOno tre, la morte/la vita é una." Which Puccini probably didn't mean to be a contest... but then, he did know opera singers, so.)
All that time learning arbitrary rules of SATB writing, and alto parts almost never used the bottom part of the range.
Fucking AMEB and their prescriptivist bullshit about choral writing. Not to mention their rules of harmony that are technically correct but never explain why, either in terms of how those 'rules' came about or what makes them work. (My favourite music teacher in high school, describing how not to write four-part harmony: "chord, chord, chord, chord, oh god, here's another chord...")
Do you like singing popular stuff? You'd have the right range for that.
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Date: 2015-09-27 01:12 am (UTC)*nodnodnod* When I really do have a kinaesthetic skill down, it's like that for me too. There are some recorder pieces I have in my my fingers more than in my brain.
is this what intonation means, or does it cover more than just the actual pitches you're singing?
Singing the right pitches, yeah. Covering both "singing the correct note, not some other note" and also "not being sharp or flat".
(but not actually sight-sing (ooh, i taught myself/learnt to do that a bit over the past five years, too!)
Yay sight-singing! I self-taught that too. It's such a satisfying skill.
Actually... hmm, hypothesis approaching. Have you found, in choirs etc, that you're more of an aural learner rather than learning by reading the music? (And since you're a pianist, is that different or the same for playing piano?)
I'm way more a "reading the music" learner myself, and can't always reliably memorise music and/or words just by hearing them, without seeing them written down. I think that's connected to my auditory processing issues. I'm curious now about whether 'stronger singers' are less likely to be strong aural learners.
I also pretty muchneed to be able to hear myself to be able to tell if i'm singing in tune or not.
Did you ever block one or both of your ears? I did that, but because of the technique thing rather than the pitch thing. Got in trouble for it, too.
I've always found it more difficult to sing the lower line of two-part harmonies, which is a shame, because i am not, and never will be, a soprano.
I was taught that was an acoustics thing, that the top part carries more and is therefore easier to hear, and that's why they put the less experienced singers on soprano/treble (that and because in the church tradition the trebles are young boys and therefore get the less complicated melodies.) (It's also why, all other things being equal, Turandot will beat Calaf at the high C contest in act 1 of Turandot. ("Gli enigmi SOOOOno tre, la morte/la vita é una." Which Puccini probably didn't mean to be a contest... but then, he did know opera singers, so.)
All that time learning arbitrary rules of SATB writing, and alto parts almost never used the bottom part of the range.
Fucking AMEB and their prescriptivist bullshit about choral writing. Not to mention their rules of harmony that are technically correct but never explain why, either in terms of how those 'rules' came about or what makes them work. (My favourite music teacher in high school, describing how not to write four-part harmony: "chord, chord, chord, chord, oh god, here's another chord...")
Do you like singing popular stuff? You'd have the right range for that.